June 3, 2010

Dave Montgomery


AUSTIN -- In the 2008 film thriller Taken, two American girls on a pleasure trip to France are kidnapped from their apartment and thrown into a brutal world of modern-day slavery and forced prostitution.

On Thursday, Texas lawmakers heard grim real-life episodes of human trafficking as law enforcement officials described a burgeoning criminal enterprise that has spread across Texas and other states.

Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed told of one case in which a homeless teenage girl was abducted from a parking lot and spirited away to a strip club in Corpus Christi.

June 4, 2010

Alan Peppard

News flash: Highland Park is filled with rich Republicans . With election season upon us, the 75205 township is guaranteed to see office-seekers in search of the three essentials: money, money and money.

Last week, Gov. Rick Perry made up with many Kay Bailey Hutchison  supporters who attended a fundraiser for his general election campaign at the HP estate of developer Harlan Crow . Hutchison stalwart Louis Beecherl and state Rep. Dan Branch, thought to be a future gubernatorial contender, were among the GOP thoroughbreds on hand when the governor was introduced by Dick Collins.


The Pawlenty watch

Wednesday night, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was at the home of GOP rainmaker Ray Washburne and his wife, Heather. A possible 2012

June 7, 2010

Reeve Hamilton and Grant Derigo

In the not-too-distant future, the classroom could be replaced by a series of tubes. With rising enrollments and tightening budgets — Texas colleges and universities, along with the Higher Education Coordinating Board, justslashed a combined total of half a billion dollars from their budgets for the current biennium — institutions of higher education are looking for innovative ways to provide access to more students without investing in bricks and mortar.

Is the solution virtual? Increasing numbers of students are going to school and even completing some degree programs online, taking courses that typically involve no face-to-face interaction with a professor (unless you count the occasional video conference). Rather,

June 11, 2010

Gromer Jeffers, Jr.

The 12,000 Republican activists in Dallas for their state convention will face a political scene that bears few reminders of a once-dominant local party.

Previously counted on to amplify votes and clout for Texas Republicans, the Dallas County GOP has been swept out of power since 2006. The party holds no major countywide offices and has lost several state legislative races and most district judicial contests.

But local Republican leaders hope that 2010 will bring about a shift in their favor. The statewide convention here is a chance to energize the local base, a springboard to success at the ballot box.

"It's a good way for our local delegates, grass-roots activists and candidates to kick off the campaign season," said Dallas County Party Chairman Jonathan Neerman, who called his home a battleground county. "Even though we've gone through some losses, we're at the tip of

June 11, 2010

Staff Reports

A look at the effects conference realignment may have beyond the college football programs directly involved:

• The NCAA: Some are starting to wonder if the football-driven conference changes may mean the end of the NCAA as we know it.

Dick Weiss, columnist for the New York Daily News writes, "The NCAA most likely will operate at the behest of these entitled 64 universities that can regulate and share their revenue at their own discretion. The NCAA essentially will soon realize it is only a service provider to the power players in college athletics, taking a page fromNotre Dame football, which has maintained its independent status because it has

June 11, 2010

By Louis Ojeda, Jr.


AUSTIN - The House Committee will reportedly meet next week in Austin to discuss the possible breakup of the Big 12 Conference.

State Representative Charles "Doc" Anderson, who represents Waco and McLennan County, says he spoke with House Speaker Joe Straus and Higher Education Committee Chairman Dan Branch and confirmed a meeting will take place.

"This gives the people of Texas an opportunity to be represented on this very important issue," said Rep. Anderson. "Intercollegiate alliances in Texas have a significant impact on thousands of college students, parents, and alumni in Texas, as well as tourism, jobs and the economy of the entire state."

June 12, 210

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor


DALLAS - More than a dozen state lawmakers with degrees from Baylor University won a critical reprieve late Friday when a Texas House committee set a hearing for next week in a move that could put the brakes temporarily on plans by the University of Texas to defect from the Big 12 to the PAC-10.

The House Higher Education Committee - with the blessings of Republican Speaker Joe Straus - scheduled a meeting for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the state Capitol in Austin for the purpose of discussing "matters pertaining to higher education, including collegiate athletics."

June 12, 2010

Sam Merten


As Representative Dan Branch told us yesterday afternoon shortly after addressing the delegation from John Carona's senate district, what a difference two years has made for state Republicans, whose attitude has changed since 2008's Republican Party of Texas convention in Houston.

"There seems to be a lot more positive feeling and momentum, and the wind seems to be at our backs as opposed to headwinds," he told Unfair Park.

So is it anti-Obama sentiment that has all the delegates and politicos gathered this weekend at the Dallas Convention Center for this year's shindig so jazzed up?

June 12, 2010

Chris Brown


Multiple sources tell Orangebloods.com that Texas A&M has enough votes on its nine-member Board of Regents to join the Southeastern Conference and could announce that move as early as next week.

The sources said the A&M regents who favor the move to the SEC outnumber those who favor staying with longtime rival Texas in a move to the Pac-10.

Those in favor of the move, led by regents Gene Stallings and influential former Exxon Mobil executive Morris E. Foster, prefer the SEC from a regional, financial and athletic standpoint and feel like there are bonds between the SEC and A&M that work.

June 13, 2010

Andy Staples


Like any Texas politician worth his smoked brisket, State Rep. Dan Branch (R-Dallas) knows the hot-button issues.

"When you combine education and football," Branch said Sunday night by telephone, "it gets a lot of attention in Texas."

College football -- and college athletics in general -- will get the full attention of the higher education committee of the state's House of Representatives on Wednesday morning. That meeting, thanks to a five-day public-notice law, will come a day after the Texas and Texas Tech boards of regents meet to discuss whether their respective