Schools Program. The Initiative drew from the Secret Service's experience in studying and preventing assassination and other types of targeted violence and the. We encourage all of you in your efforts to keep our nation's children safe in school and hope this report helps you in those efforts. Republicans, Closing In on Final Tax Bill, Aim for a Vote Next Week. Republican lawmakers, scrambling to reach agreement on a final tax bill that they hope to pass.

• Purchase an entrance pass for $14.00 annually instead of the regular vehicle cost of $70. • Transfer the pass between vehicles, allowing the Columbine Pass holder and other vehicle occupants park entrance. The pass holder must be present for the pass to be valid. • Visit Colorado's 41 State Parks for a 12 month period from the date of purchase. (Please note: An additional $3 annual fee will be collected at Cherry Creek State Park for the Water Basin Authority.) Who is eligible for a Columbine Pass? To qualify for a Columbine Pass, the applicant must be a Colorado resident and provide acceptable documentation of a total and permanent disability from one of the following. • ​Colorado Parks & Wildlife Broadway Office, 6060 Broadway, Denver, CO, 80216 • Colorado Parks & Wildlife Denver Office, 1313 Sherman St.

# 618, Denver, CO, 80203 • Littleton Complex, 13787 South Hwy. 85, Littleton, CO 80125. (303) 791-1920. ​ • Southeast Region Office, 4255 Sinton Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80907.

(719) 227-5250. • Northwest Region Office, 711 Independent Ave., Grand Junction CO 81505. ​​970-​255-6100​​ • ​​James M.

Robb Colorado River State Park, Corn Lake Section, 361 32 Road, Clifton, CO 81520. 970-434-3388​ Upon completion of the Columbine Pass application – including: • A copy of your current Colorado Driver's License or Colorado I.D.

• Recent documentation of 'total and permanent disability' from the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration, the Colorado Division of Workers' Compensation or a Physician's Letter. • A check or money order in the amount of $14.00 payable to: Colorado Parks and Wildlife. When the proper ap​plication materials are received, the Columbine Pass will then be mailed to the approved applicant within 30 days. ​ Candidates whose application has been denied will receive written notification within 20 working days of application receipt by the ​​Division. Any fees paid will be refunded. Check out ​ for more information.​.

Washington Post - December 17, 2017 GOP faces 5-day scramble to pass tax bill, avoid government shutdown Republicans return to Congress on Monday facing a packed agenda with little time to enact it, as party leaders aim to quickly pass their massive tax plan and then cut a budget deal with Democrats before the end of Friday to avert a government shutdown. Republicans’ tight timing on taxes is self-imposed. GOP lawmakers have for months been racing to meet President Trump’s demand that they send him tax legislation before Christmas — a timeline that gained new urgency when Alabama Democrat Doug Jones won the Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Luther Strange (R). Politico - December 17, 2017 Paranoia grips Capitol Hill as harassment scandal spreads The details change almost daily, but the rumor won’t die: A credible news organization is preparing to unmask at least 20 lawmakers in both parties for sexual misconduct.

Speculation about this theoretical megastory is spreading like wildfire across Congress and beyond, a lurking bad-press boogeyman that’s always described as on the verge of going public. And it’s far from the only worry that’s seeped into the collective psyche of Capitol Hill, where members and aides are now perpetually bracing for the next allegation to drop. Associated Press - December 17, 2017 Lack of transparency clouds spending decisions after Harvey Texas has been awarded billions of dollars in federal aid to help recover from Hurricane Harvey and the devastating flooding that followed, but it’s unclear how the state is spending its share of the money. State records don’t indicate which contracts are storm-related, making fund tracking — and spending accountability — nearly impossible. Disaster recovery experts say a lack of transparency in Texas could hinder coordination, encourage fraud and squander an opportunity not only to rebuild after one of the country’s costliest natural disasters, but also to mitigate the risks of the next monster storm.

This article appeared in the Austin American-Statesman. Dallas Morning News - December 16, 2017 Jeffers: Dallas Rep. Sessions confident he'll hold seat despite hard-charging Democrats Rep. Pete Sessions says he'll keep his seat in Congress by highlighting the successes of the Republican Party, including the GOP tax plan that could be approved next week. The Dallas Republican is being targeted by state and national Democrats who see his district, won in 2016 by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as primed for change.

'All across the country, there will be challengers and there will be people who will have to defend their seats,' Sessions said during a recording of Lone Star Politics, which airs at 8:40 a.m. Sunday on KXAS-TV (NBC5).

'I'm going to have to defend not only what I stand for, but by the accomplishments we have.' State Stories. Austin American-Statesman - December 16, 2017 PolitiFact: College credit promise becomes a compromise When he was running for Texas governor, Greg Abbott spelled out a pile of proposals including his vow to make it easier for students starting in a community college to transfer course credits toward a degree at a four-year college.

Specifically, Abbott called for requiring Texas public colleges and universities to give transfer students credit for taking freshman- and sophomore-level core courses at community and junior colleges. He said he’d exempt from the mandate four-year institutions designated as research or emerging research universities by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Given the degree put in motion by the 2015 Legislature, we rate this Abbott promise a Compromise. Austin American-Statesman - December 16, 2017 Saenz: How housing costs are changing Central Texas’ demographics The demographic trends in Texas are clear: The combination of a youthful Latino population and an aging white population has led to Latino dominance in the state’s population growth. Between 2006 and 2016, the Latino population grew six times more rapidly than the white population. Of the nearly 4.4 million persons added to the Texas population during this period, 57 percent are Latino, while 12 percent are white.

This is pretty much the trend that we find throughout the state. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Fenves, Anderson: Why congressional tax plans would crush scholarship funds We are the presidents of two universities in Texas — one public, one private. Many students from both the University of Texas and Trinity University rely upon financial aid that is drawn from endowments.

Both the House and Senate bills that are now being resolved by a conference committee propose a 1.4-percent excise tax on certain private nonprofit university endowments. This puts the college educations of many current and prospective students at risk — and it jeopardizes the financial stability of many private universities. The recent Senate vote on the tax bill brought Congress one step closer to enacting this and other policy changes that will have dire impacts on affordability at all American universities. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Bush: End Texas’ long history of abusing juveniles in detention Ten years ago, I published a commentary in this newspaper on the physical and sexual abuse of youth in Texas’ juvenile correctional facilities.

Noting that adult officials had participated in or sanctioned the abuse of youth placed in their care, I warned that the state had traveled this path several times before. Today’s reports sadly echo the lurid inventory of abuses that has characterized juvenile correctional facilities in Texas over the past century. Indeed, the Gainesville State School has a checkered history. Founded in 1915 to serve delinquent girls, Gainesville has been investigated by state authorities repeatedly since its inception. Austin American-Statesman - December 16, 2017 Herman: A Texas town weirder than Austin? Yes, we all know that Austin is the righteous and rightful center of the universe and there’s not much reason to care about what goes on in the lesser world around us. But I think it’s healthy to periodically glance outward beyond the Superiorplex and see what’s going on elsewhere in Texas, especially when the goings-on going on in other towns rival our town’s weirdness.

So let’s peer today behind the Pine Curtain, the mythical yet powerful barrier between the Deep East Texas Pineywoods and The Rest of The Known World. Texas Tribune - December 15, 2017 Brand: Bail reform should not be derailed The cash bail system is outdated, discriminates against people without financial resources and fails to improve public safety. Momentum to eliminate cash bail in Harris County has been building for several years, and the campaign received a huge boost when District Attorney Kim Ogg supported a lawsuit calling the practice unconstitutional last year. But recent local attempts to undermine reform efforts and misrepresent reality threaten to derail one of the most important changes to Houston’s criminal justice system in decades.

I feel the need to set the record straight. San Antonio Express-News - December 17, 2017 Democrat Valdez Video Interview: Proud of dog-training program — and yes, she’ll pack heat on campaign trail For the first time in years, Texas Democrats will fight it out over the nomination for governor.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez was first to declare. She is up against a number of candidates including Andrew White, the son of former Gov. Sheriff Valdez discussed her path to victory with host Jason Whitely and Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy.

San Antonio Express-News - December 17, 2017 Was Harvey an ‘equal-opportunity storm?’ Hardly, says new report The lengthy barrage by Hurricane Harvey spared few residents along the Texas coast. But it was far from an equal-opportunity storm, according to a new analysis. Three months after Harvey, poor and minority communities are still struggling to rebuild from a storm that disproportionately affected them, and which worsened chronic issues related to inequality, according to a report released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation.

San Antonio Express-News - December 17, 2017 Fikac: Democrats, heartened by Alabama, liken their team to the Spurs Gov. Greg Abbott had a flip response when a reporter asked him about the Democrats vying to challenge him next year. “Patrick, I think you intimidate me more,” the Republican governor told Texas Tribune reporter Patrick Svitek on Tuesday. Just hours later, deep-red Alabama voted against a deeply damaged Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, giving heart to Texas Democrats who predict that an anti-Trump wave also will help lift their lagging fortunes. Dallas Morning News - December 17, 2017 Unresponsive -- More women are going to jail in need of drug and alcohol treatment. Help often comes too late Alicia Skeats was a tall blond Texan who believed in second chances: for stray cats, unreliable boyfriends and her own battle with addiction.

She took methadone to fight an old heroin habit; her scanty legal troubles involved traffic violations. The 33-year-old climbed into a cab in Mesquite on April 15, 2014; five days later she was found “unresponsive,” dead on the floor of the Dallas County jail.

Law enforcement officials labeled her death as “natural causes”; her autopsy said drug withdrawal killed her. Snowtape 2 Keygen Idm. As a record number of women go to jail in Texas, sheriffs are increasingly coping with a special class of inmates: women with minor criminal records but major mental-health and addiction problems.

A recent federal survey found that almost a third of women in jails showed symptoms of serious psychological distress, even higher than the rate for men. Phys Org - December 11, 2017 New statistical method links vast records, shows negative effect of Texas voter ID law 'Our evidence suggests a smaller number of people lack ID than recent survey evidence suggests, and it also suggests a discriminatory effect of the law, in line with concerns of those who believe these laws disproportionately affect minorities,' noted Eitan Hersh, associate professor of political science at Tufts University and co-author of the paper. 'Specifically, we found that white registered voters are significantly more likely to possess a voter ID than African-American or Hispanic voters.' KUT - December 11, 2017 Texas Landowners Take The Wind Out Of Their Sales Trey Murphy is a grad student in North Carolina, but he has dreams of owning land in West Texas. A few months ago, he was looking at real estate online and came across something strange. “I saw that there was this particular listing that was selling the surface estate, but not willing to sell the wind estate,” he says.

Most people would have no idea what that means. But Murphy is originally from Texas, and, as luck would have it, he studies “energy geography.” He knows that in Texas, one tract of land can be owned in different ways by different people. Texas Observer - December 14, 2017 Barajas: What Does Discrimination Look Like to Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones? Before any of the attorneys even uttered a word, Judge Edith Jones already sounded irritated. She called the case before her and the two other Fifth Circuit judges “twice-chewed food.” She even seemed to caution the lawyers: “Given that, maybe you can stimulate us.” The occasion was a hearing last week on Texas’ strict voter ID rules, which the state is pushing to implement despite multiple rulings that lawmakers first passed them in 2011 with discriminatory intent. Jones sounded unenthused that the case’s circuitous route through the courts had brought the issue back to her bench. Texas Observer - December 14, 2017 Hooks: Four Things to Watch as Election 2018 Gets Underway in Texas We have extremely bad news for you: It’s election season again.

It has been a year filled with too much Politics, but more is coming, and will keep coming, ad infinitum, until the sun swallows the earth. Monday was the official candidate filing deadline for the state’s March 6 primary, which will likely be followed by run-offs in May. That means the next five months will be a period of frenzied political activity that will have as much to say about how the state is run as the subsequent general election. County Stories. Dallas Morning News - December 14, 2017 DMN: Dallas County's next sheriff needs to be more than a jailer On paper, the Dallas County sheriff has a pretty basic set of duties: serve warrants; provide bailiffs for the courts and run a safe jail. The job could — and should — be much more. Now that Sheriff Lupe Valdez has resigned to run for governor, it's important to think carefully about what skills and priorities are most important for the next sheriff to embody.

A proven track record in law enforcement and the management skills to run the day-to-day operations of the nation's seventh-largest jail seem to be obvious requirements. Worth Star-Telegram - December 14, 2017 2018 Election: ‘As Tarrant County goes, so goes the state,’ says Beto O’Rourke U.S.

Beto O’Rourke said Tarrant County is the real battleground in the 2018 race for the U.S. He knows the stats: No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994 and that Tarrant County is one of the reddest communities around. But O’Rourke, a Democrat challenging U.S. Ted Cruz for his Senate seat next year, said he will keep coming back here, reaching out to locals and listening to their concerns. City Stories.

D Magazine - December 17, 2017 Could Dallas’ Innovation Economy Compete With Silicon Valley? Innovation drives economic progress. It’s easy to see that looking backward in time. Today’s Americans live so well because of a string of inventions over the past 100 years or so—from electricity, automobiles, airplanes, and air-conditioning to television, computers, the internet, and smartphones. The benefits of future innovations aren’t yet clear. We hear about the next big thing all the time, but we don’t really know what wonders they’ll bring to our lives. We don’t know what disruptions they’ll cause, including job losses.

San Antonio Express-News - December 17, 2017 Pasadena PD to carry narcotic antidote in fight against opioid epidemic Harris County's three largest law enforcement agencies are now arming patrol officers with an anti-overdose medication to combat a growing opioid epidemic that killed 311 people in the county last year. The Pasadena Police Department is the latest to join the ranks - agreeing to provide in January half of its patrol officers with Narcan, an emergency nasal spray for treating people who overdose on fentanyl, morphine or heroin. The Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff's Office already equip some officers with Narcan. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Even in progressive Austin, women still lag behind In Central Texas, gender disparities remain even as the region’s economy grows. Austin women continue to lag behind men in income, safety and financial security, and women and children are disproportionately living in poverty. But there have been some improvements, too, and a number of nonprofits are taking on these disparities directly. The latest data comes from a report by the Women’s Fund of Central Texas, a grant-making nonprofit that focuses on specific outcomes from area women and children.

National Stories. Dallas Morning News - December 16, 2017 New JFK files show FBI misplaced Oswald's fingerprints, and CIA opened his mail -- and John Steinbeck's The National Archives unsealed thousands of pages from the Kennedy files on Friday. And while assassinations buffs weren't likely to find any major revelations - no proof of a second gunman, a Cuban plot, or evidence the killer could have been stopped - they'll have plenty to chew on. The 3,539 records include FBI and CIA reports on Soviet spies, the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Lee Harvey Oswald's trip to Mexico City a few weeks before he murdered President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 DMN: Cornyn, Cruz shine as 8 GOP members back bipartisan reform of how Congress handles harassment claims Twenty senators have taken an important, and delightfully bipartisan, step toward ending the awful mismanagement by Congress of sexual harassment claims by women, and sometimes men, who work in the Capitol.

Eleven Democrats and eight Republicans in the Senate signed onto a bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York that will mandate annual sexual harassment prevention training for everyone who works for Congress, including the lawmakers themselves. It would also change the way alleged harassment is reported and how it is investigated.

Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 May: Cyprus is at the center of a circle of corruption surrounding Trump The country of Cyprus has a long history as a laundromat for dirty money, particularly from Russia. Cyprus is referenced 530,937 times in the Panama Papers, and the Bank of Cyprus, the country's largest bank, is referenced 4,657 times. And the cast of characters linked to the bank and President Donald Trump is troubling. -When Oleg Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminum company Rusal, began paying Paul Manafort $10 million a year in 2006 to act as a secret emissary for Russian President Vladimir Putin with Western governments, he paid Manafort through the Bank of Cyprus.

Austin American-Statesman - December 16, 2017 Mark Hamill takes a lightsaber to Ted Cruz on Twitter Mark Hamill used a bit of force with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Sunday when he rebutted a tweet sent by Cruz attempting to school Hamill on net neutrality. Hamill tweeted about Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai Saturday morning, calling him “profoundly unworthy (to) wield a lightsaber” and accusing him of lying to “enrich giant corporations.”Hamill was tweeting in response to a video featuring Pai titled “7 things you can still do on the internet after net neutrality” in which Pai swings a lightsaber through the air to Star Wars music. New York Times - December 16, 2017 Uproar Over Purported Ban at C.D.C. Of Words Like ‘Fetus’ The Department of Health and Human Services tried to play down on Saturday a report that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been barred from using seven words or phrases, including “science-based,” “fetus,” “transgender” and “vulnerable,” in agency budget documents. “The assertion that H.H.S.

Has ‘banned words’ is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,” an agency spokesman, Matt Lloyd, said in an email. Will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans. Also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions.”. Politico - December 16, 2017 GOP lawmaker: Top FBI officials will be subpoenaed A Republican on the House judiciary committee said Saturday he's gotten a commitment from committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to subpoena top officials at the FBI and Justice Department in their ongoing inquiry into claims of bias against President Donald Trump. Republicans have zeroed in on deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, top counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, FBI attorney Lisa Page, former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie, who reportedly worked for Fusion GPS, the firm that compiled opposition research on Trump in 2016. Washington Post - December 16, 2017 After Alabama loss, Trump has ambitious plans to campaign in 2018 midterms President Trump is not on the ballot in 2018, but the White House is planning a full-throttle campaign to plunge the president into the midterm elections, according to senior officials and advisers familiar with the planning.

Trump’s political aides have met with 116 candidates for office in recent months, according to senior White House officials, seeking to become involved in Senate, House and gubernatorial races — and possibly contested Republican primaries as well. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Navarrette: Dreamers: Don’t let Democrats fool you So Democrats are now the saviors of the Dreamers? How in the world did that happen? For those of us who have paid close attention to the immigration debate over the last couple decades, it’s surreal watching Democrats in Congress threaten to go to the mattresses for a legislative fix that protects undocumented young people. After all, when Democrats had the chance to get Dreamers out of harm’s way by legalizing them, they were asleep at the switch. It’s not politics.

Most Democrats don’t have anything against Dreamers, many of whom they see as future Democratic voters. Blame Republicans for that, since their approach to immigration is often belligerent, boorish and boneheaded.

Houston Chronicle - December 15, 2017 Tomlinson: Doctors just want to get paid, but how much is fair? Doctors just want to get paid. That's been the refrain since I wrote a column blasting physician groups that operate emergency rooms and then choose to remain out of the hospital's insurance networks. Some groups do this to charge higher rates, and when insurers don't pay them, they demand payment directly from patients, a process called balance billing. This business strategy begs the question, what is a fair payment? And whenever you dig deep into the problems with America's health care system, it all comes down to this question.

Washington Post - December 17, 2017 Trump says he won’t fire Mueller, as campaign to discredit Russia probe heats up President Trump on Sunday sought to douse speculation that he may fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III amid an intensifying campaign by Trump allies to attack the wide-ranging Russia investigation as improper and politically motivated. Returning to the White House from Camp David, Trump was asked Sunday whether he intended to fire Mueller. “No, I’m not,” he told journalists, insisting that there was “no collusion whatsoever” between his campaign and Russia. Journal - December 17, 2017 GOP Tax Bill Would Set Up Years of Challenges Republicans are on the cusp this week of passing a historic overhaul of the U.S.

Tax system but might also be ushering in a new period of instability in the tax code, because the plan is advancing without bipartisan support and with expiration dates that guarantee it will be revisited for years. A $1.5 trillion reduction in the overall tax burden over a decade accompanies the most sweeping rewrite of U.S. Business and income taxes since the Reagan era, achieving goals long sought by many conservative economists and politicians. But to get the bill through a closely divided Congress, Republicans made many of its pieces time-limited. Politico - December 17, 2017 The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation. The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Politico - December 16, 2017 Jeff Sessions Isn’t Giving up on Weed. He’s Doubling Down. Thanks to Congress’ fumbling over the spending bill, the AG’s yearning to battle legal marijuana may get a major boost without him having to lift a finger.

That’s because Rohrabacher-Farr, a little-known and even less discussed amendment that protects state-legal medical marijuana programs from federal interference, is close to expiring. If the government shuts down at the expiration of the current continuous resolution on December 22, or if negotiations in an upcoming appropriations conference committee fail to insert it in the final draft of the spending bill—entirely possible given House Republicans’ hostility to marijuana—Sessions would be free to unleash federal drug agents on a drug, which according to federal drug law, is considered the equal of heroin and LSD.

All - December 17, 2017 Lead Stories. New York Times - December 16, 2017 Homeowners Have Had It Good. Too Good, Says the Tax Bill. For decades, the tax code has been filled with rewards for homeownership.

Tax breaks encourage people to get into first homes and to trade up as they get older, building a national mind-set that you’re never quite middle class until you’ve qualified for a mortgage. It amounts to a vast social engineering project that assumes society is better off with owners instead of renters. But the tax bill making its way toward final passage is upending that premise.

Politico - December 15, 2017 Why Democrats failed to tank tax reform The tax fight has all the ingredients that helped Democrats kill Obamacare repeal: party unity on Capitol Hill, energized liberal activists and legislation that polls in the toilet. But this time it doesn’t appear to be enough. Democrats haven’t given up hope of stopping the Republican tax plan on the 1-yard line — relentlessly flogging the substance and process of the bill — but the reasons for their likely failure are becoming clear. While stripping people of health insurance strikes at a visceral human need, a debate over taxes tends to bog voters down in wonky details. Texas Tribune - December 15, 2017 State Sens. West and Burton call for “due process” in colleagues’ harassment allegations Two Dallas lawmakers — state Sens. Royce West, D-Dallas, and Konni Burton, R-Colleyville — joined The Texas Tribune Friday morning to discuss their Dallas-area districts.

Though both senators are up for re-election next year, neither has an immediate worry in the March primary. West, who has served in the Senate since 1993, has neither a primary nor a general election challenger; his only opponent, he joked, is “apathy.” And Burton won’t face a challenger until the November general election. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Texas cancels no-bid contract for special education analysis The Texas Education Agency has canceled its contract with a technology company charged with analyzing special education programs. The TEA had contracted with SPEDx, a Georgia-based company, to look for trends and patterns in special education records.

But the $4.4 million project incurred the ire of advocacy groups and parents, who said they worried about privacy and the fact that it was a no-bid contract. “Significant concerns have been raised regarding our agency’s processes and the scope of the project,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement Friday evening. State Stories. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Texas GOP files suit to remove Blake Farenthold from ballot The Republican Party of Texas is suing the Texas secretary of state over an election filing deadline that prevents it from removing embattled U.S.

Blake Farenthold from the ballot. The move is in response to Farenthold’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election in the spring. Farenthold, whose district includes parts of Bastrop and Caldwell counties, made the decision after a House committee launched an investigation into sexual harassment claims made by a former aide against him. Allegations of lewd comments to another former aide have also emerged. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven to step down, citing health concerns Bill McRaven, chancellor of the University of Texas System, is planning to step down at the end of the academic year in May because of health issues he has been facing, he told the UT System Board of Regents on Friday afternoon.

McRaven’s decision was not completely unexpected, given that he was briefly hospitalized in November for what he described at the time as “a perfect storm of bad health” that included severe anemia, likely a result of a chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010 while fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Texas CHIP money good through February; Cornyn promises long-term fix The Children’s Health Insurance Program in Texas will be funded one month longer than expected, according to a recalculation by the federal government. The program, which insures more than 400,000 low-income children and pregnant women in the state, will be funded through February.

Originally, the Texas Health and Human Services had reported that funding was good only through January after Congress failed to renew spending for the program after it expired Sept. Austin American-Statesman - December 17, 2017 PolitiFact: Promise to change immigrant tuition law goes broken Posted: 12:00 a.m. Sunday, December 17, 2017 Greg Abbott ran for Texas governor signaling he’d go along with disconnecting a political tripwire for Republicans that benefits college students from Texas living in the United States without legal permission. We decided to put Abbott’s statements about in-state tuition for such Texans to the PolitiFact Texas Abbott-O-Meter, which tracks action on his campaign vows.

With no action of the sort that Abbott discussed during his campaign for governor, we rate this as a Promise Broken. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Carrillo: For the sake of Dreamers, don’t fall for the ‘Cornyn con’ Over the next two weeks, immigrant youth from across the country will double down on their efforts to call on Congress to pass the DREAM Act before the end of the year. In Texas, young immigrants have been marching and making calls, demanding that our state’s delegation do the right thing and support the more than 120,000 so-called Dreamers who claim the Lone Star State as their home.

The fight for the DREAM Act began in 2001, when the legislation was first introduced. That same year, Texas became the first state to allow undocumented youth to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and to be eligible to receive state aid. This bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican.

Texas Tribune - December 15, 2017 A Texas House candidate mocked a sheriff on social media. Did he violate the law? Bo French, a Fort Worth businessman and Texas House hopeful, argues that “Thief Bill Waybourn,” a Facebook page he launched in March 2016 to criticize former Dalworthington Gardens Police Chief Bill Waybourn, was a harmless joke. Three North Texas law enforcement groups have taken a different view. 'It wasn’t merely a political prank, it potentially was a crime,' the presidents of the Tarrant County Law Enforcement Association, Arlington Police Association and Dallas Police Association wrote in a joint statement Friday.

'We are also calling on the Texas Rangers to investigate this scandalous crime.' San Antonio Express-News - December 16, 2017 How do you get noticed in a field of 10 candidates? How do you get noticed in a field of 10 mostly unknown candidates for governor with just two months before voting begins? That’s a question the record-sized Democratic Party field was asking last week as the longshot race to unseat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott officially launched. The Democrats may have little name recognition and campaign cash, but they have big aspirations to turn the Texas Governor’s Mansion blue next year for the first time since 1995.

San Antonio Express-News - December 16, 2017 Campaign ad accuses Sid Miller of waging war on BBQ The race for the next state agriculture commissioner is heating up with some barbecue restaurant owners roasting current Commissioner Sid Miller for going after their meat scales with regulations. New campaign ads funded by Republican primary challenger Trey Blocker feature three BBQ restaurant owners complaining about Miller's use of a decades-old law requiring they weigh meat on expensive certified scales in a location where customers can see the measurement.

Houston Chronicle - December 16, 2017 Harvey expenses continue to rise for Texas prison system The cost of Hurricane Harvey's wrath to the Texas prison system has crossed the $8 million mark, with damage more widespread than initially reported. Five units evacuated, at least 25 more lost power and some suffered roof damage, including the facility in Rosharon, where the Ramsey Unit alone needed more than $600,000 in repairs. The rising waters of the Brazos River forced the relocation of nearly 7,000 prisoners and parolees, requiring the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to shell out close to $2.7 million in overtime pay to move prisoners. Houston Chronicle - December 16, 2017 Grieder: Could Texas turn blue in 2018? Stranger things have happened The other day, while walking my dog, I had an awkward realization: I think Texas will turn blue in 2018.

That's not a prediction, exactly; the primaries will be held in March, so as it stands, we don't even know who all the Democratic candidates for statewide office will be. MOST POPULAR Houston-Dallas bullet train clears hurdle with environmental.

Houston woman who made anti-Nazi coat has her store's Facebook. Officials patched and prayed while pressure built on. Chris Paul helps Rockets dominate Spurs for 12th straight win Bitcoins offer virtual wealth but very real risk UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven to step down in 2018 Where football fits at Rice between expectations, academics.

Furthermore, I could easily be wrong, and there's plenty of reason to think I will be. We all know the drill: Texas is a red state. Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 DMN: Thank you, Gov.

Abbott, for investigating state’s youth lockups After reporting by The Dallas Morning News revealed that the Texas Juvenile Justice Department is failing the youth assigned to its care, Gov. Greg Abbott is wisely responding to the chilling accounts of sexual misconduct, violence and drug use in the state's lockups. On Wednesday he called on the Texas Rangers to investigate and determine how to protect the safety all involved, both staff and youthful offenders. We'll hold the department's new boss, Camille Cain, to her agency's promise to 'provide support in every way' for an investigation that seeks to correct what TJJD ombudsman Debbie Unruth characterizes as a bad and dangerous culture. Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 Feds pick preferred route for Dallas-to-Houston bullet train The Dallas-to-Houston bullet train rolled a few inches closer to the starting line Friday with the release of a long-awaited federal study that narrows down several possible routes to a single path through powerline easements. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement, released by the U.S. Department of Transportation, doesn't necessarily endorse the so-called Utility Corridor.

The feds still have 60 days to hear from the public before a final decision is made at a date undetermined. Ten public hearings will be scheduled in the next two months in the 10 counties affected by the 240-mile, $15 billion project privately funded by Texas Central Partners.

Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 Schnurman: Mark Cuban gives Texas lawmakers a bathroom bill business take: ‘What the hell are you guys doing?’ What drives the Texas economy and how can we keep it going? That’s the focus of a select committee in the Texas House, which has heard from over 40 executives, entrepreneurs and others. They cited the importance of education, immigration, tax policy and corporate incentives, but the bathroom bill was the headliner again. Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor and Shark Tank star, was asked about the reaction he heard from investors and company leaders after the bathroom bill dominated the Texas Legislature this year.

Dallas Morning News - December 16, 2017 No bah humbug? Texas won't mail notices canceling poor kids' health coverage before Christmas Federal officials have given a health insurance program for low-income Texas children a short-term funding boost to extend the kids’ coverage through February, the Texas Health and Human Services commission said Friday. The Children’s Health Insurance Program will receive nearly $136 million from the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, executive commissioner Charles Smith said in a letter to Gov. The infusion of federal money would allow the state commission, which runs CHIP, to delay sending cancellation letters to parents and guardians of about 400,000 children until after Christmas, commission spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 Ragland: Why ex-TV standouts Brett Shipp and Mike Snyder are crossing over to The Dark Side There is an understandable fascination when those of us who cover the news jump in and become a part of it.

This isn't a new phenomenon, mind you, journalists trading their celebrity and curiosity into new careers as flacks or college professors. But it takes a little courage and a bigger ego to thrust oneself into the arena of politics — especially in this bitter age of partisan polemics and 'fake news' allegations leveled from on high. Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 Two more undocumented teens denied access to abortion, ACLU says President Donald Trump's administration is blocking two pregnant teens in the country illegally and being held in federal custody from obtaining abortions, the American Civil Liberties Union said Friday, a repeat of the situation that led to a high-profile court fight earlier this year. Both girls arrived in the country as unaccompanied minors and are being held in federal shelters, the ACLU said, though it didn't say where. The ACLU earlier this year represented a pregnant teen in the same circumstances in Texas, helping her obtain an abortion following a lawsuit.

Midland Reporter-Telegram - December 11, 2017 24-year-old to vie for Craddick’s District 82 seat A 24-year-old veteran of Democratic politics is taking the very large step to challenge former House Speaker Tom Craddick for the District 82 seat in the state House of Representatives. Inspired by a wave of Democratic challengers across the region and across the state, Spencer Bounds of Midland told the Reporter-Telegram on Monday he is ready to run for the Democratic Party nomination and, if successful, take on the daunting task of facing the longest-serving representative in state House history. County Stories. Dallas Morning News - December 13, 2017 Dallas is still on the list of overheated home markets Continued home price gains in North Texas are keeping the area on a list of the nation's problem housing markets.

The Dallas area was one of just a handful of U.S. Metro markets that got negative ratings in a third-quarter housing study by Nationwide Mutual Insurance. The big insurer has red-flagged the Dallas area for more than a year because of rapid increases in housing costs — even though the rate of local home price gains is slowing. Worth Star-Telegram - December 16, 2017 Kennedy: Fake Facebook profile behind newest Tea Party tangle in Tarrant County politics Tarrant County Republican politics has just become very complicated. Law officers say one local Tea Party hopeful secretly used Facebook to smear another, and now it’s a public mess two months before voting begins in the all-important party primaries.

A county constable says deputies’ 2016 investigation into an accusatory fake online profile of now-Sheriff Bill Waybourn led to an unexpected suspect: defeated Texas House candidate Bo French. “I was very surprised,” said Constable David Woodruff, an Arlington Republican: “I sure wasn’t expecting that.”. Houston Chronicle - December 15, 2017 Are you a Harvey 'floodie'? The name matters.

Try to sum up what you've experienced during and after Hurricane Harvey in just one word. No matter the word you choose, it probably captures little of the trauma, damage, physical pain, depression, exhaustion, determination and resiliency you've felt in the last few months. Banques De Sons Pour Gp6d.

But labels matter. Consider this post on the semi-private Facebook 'Houston Flood 2015 & Beyond: Support & Resource Group.' (Answer three simple questions to get into the group — some of the discussions are fascinating and enlightening.) 'Am I the only one offended by the term 'floodies'?' Asked group member Nancy Ehrlich. City Stories.

Houston Chronicle - December 16, 2017 Local law enforcement authorities support DACA in federal court Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and other law enforcement officers filed a brief in federal court Friday in support of a lawsuit that aims to keep Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals intact despite President Donald Trump's intent to dismantle the program that protects young immigrants. Law enforcement agencies argue in the brief that some undocumented immigrants fear interacting with police and by keeping the DACA program it will help police 'better fight crime' and 'serve all those whom they are charged with protecting.' Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 Smoking pot while owning guns kept Austin man in jail for eight months When prosecutors could not prove allegations that an Austin man planned to use his stockpile of guns for an attack on the city’s police in April, they pivoted to an obscure federal charge that kept the defendant behind bars because of two habits he has. Steven Boehle shoots guns.

He also smokes pot. The combination of the two is prohibited, according to a federal statute from 1993 that says it’s illegal for users of a controlled substance to own a firearm.

The frequency with which a person must use a drug to be in violation is not clearly defined, and it has been the subject of litigation in the rare times the government has invoked the charge. Austin American-Statesman - December 15, 2017 East Austin plaque unveiled to remember lynching victims The details of the Travis County lynching in 1894, based on news accounts from the time, are discouragingly sparse. Even the victims’ names are lost to history. An African-American woman working as a nurse for a white family was jailed after one of the children in her care died. Two African-American men, for reasons no longer known, were arrested as well. A white mob formed on Aug.

14, 1894, and abducted the woman and the two men from a jail about 30 miles from Austin, taking them a field. There, they were tied to stakes and riddled with bullets. National Stories.

New York Times - December 16, 2017 What’s in the Tax Bill, and How It Will Affect You Republican lawmakers released the details of their tax code rewrite on Friday, which reconciles differences between the House and Senate bills. Several of the most anticipated changes — such as a significant increase in the standard deduction and the curtailing of state and local income tax breaks — made the final cut.

Some of the most controversial proposals, like eliminating the medical deduction, were wiped away. Many of these provisions are temporary, however, and are set to expire after seven years.

They all take effect in 2018, unless noted otherwise. New York Times - December 16, 2017 NYT: The Tax Bill That Inequality Created As things stand now, the top 1 percent of the population by wealth — the group that would primarily benefit from the tax bill — controls nearly 40 percent of the country’s wealth. The bottom 90 percent has just 27 percent, according to the economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. Just three decades ago these numbers were almost exactly the reverse: The bottom 90 percent owned nearly 40 percent of all wealth.

To find a time when such a tiny minority was so dominant, you have to go back to the Great Depression. As kingmakers, rich families have supported candidates who share their hostility to progressive taxation, welfare programs and government regulation of any kind. These big-money donors have pushed the Republican Party in particular further to the right by threatening well-funded primary challenges against anybody who doesn’t toe the line on tax cuts for the rich and other pro-aristocracy policies. Dallas Morning News - December 15, 2017 6 changes to the GOP's tax plan before the final overhaul push The city of Arlington has been spared a multimillion-dollar hit that an earlier version of the GOP’s far-reaching tax overhaul would've put on its voter-approved financing for the Texas Rangers' new stadium. Republican negotiators revealed Friday that they had removed from the legislation a House provision that would've prevented local governments from using tax-exempt municipal bonds to pay for the construction or renovation of professional sports stadiums. Associated Press - December 16, 2017 Special counsel obtains thousands of Trump transition emails Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian contacts with President Donald Trump's campaign has gained access to thousands of emails sent and received by Trump officials before the start of his administration, according to several people familiar with Trump's transition organization. But the investigators did not directly request the records from Trump's still-existing transition group, Trump for America, and instead obtained them from the General Services Administration, a separate federal agency that stored the material, according to those familiar with the Trump transition organization.

This article appeared in the San Antonio Express-News. Politico - December 16, 2017 Trump transition lawyer accuses Mueller of unlawfully obtaining emails A lawyer for President Donald Trump’s transition team is accusing special counsel Robert Mueller of unlawfully obtaining tens of thousands of private emails during its investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election. Kory Langhofer, an Arizona-based attorney representing Trump for America, spelled out the complaint in a seven-page letter sent Saturday to the main House and Senate oversight committees where he raises potential violations of attorney-client privilege and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unlawful search and seizure.

Dallas Morning News - December 13, 2017 Caruso: Steve Bannon is cancer to the Republican Party The last time Alabama elected a Democrat before Doug Jones was Richard Shelby in 1986. Less than a decade later he switched to the Republican Party after the GOP captured control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Doug Jones' defeat of Roy Moore in Alabama doesn't mean much for the national GOP in the 2018 elections. It was not a bellwether election.

That said, Republicans have to offer better candidates, or they'll continue to lose elections they should win. USA Today - December 14, 2017 Major Democratic donors launch a center to help donors get smart about political spending Two major Democratic donors, the husband-and-wife team of Steve Phillips and Susan Sandler, this week will unveil a new data and political analysis clearinghouse to help other wealthy Democrats figure out how to get the most bang for the millions of dollars they will plow into next year’s midterm elections. The Sandler Phillips Center is akin to a “financial advisory' firm for politics, Phillips said, that will dig into voting patterns and demographic data and vet on-the-ground activists to help guide investments of liberal political money to federal and state races where it can make a difference. Politico - December 16, 2017 Female House candidate withdraws over sexual harassment claim Democrat Andrea Ramsey has dropped out of the race to take on GOP Rep.

Kevin Yoder in Kansas after The Kansas City Star began questioning Ramsey about accusations made against her in a 2005 sexual harassment lawsuit. Ramsey was accused of making sexual advances towards a former employee of LabOne, a company where she worked in human resources. The complaint filed against LabOne claimed that Ramsey made “unwelcome sexual advances as well as unwelcome, unwanted and offensive sexual comments and innuendos during his employment” and that Ramsey moved the employee’s desk, criticized him and eventually fired him after he declined the advances. Politico - December 16, 2017 Progressives hunt down one of the last conservative Democrats CHICAGO — Powerful interests are lined up against him.

Outside spending groups are forming to advocate for his defeat. National political figures have endorsed his opponent. And that’s just within Democratic Congressman Dan Lipinski’s own party. Lipinski, one of the few remaining conservative Democrats in Congress, is under siege from the left, battling for his political life against progressives who are teaming up to replace him with a candidate far more in line with liberal orthodoxy. Dallas Morning News - December 16, 2017 May: How Putin's proxies helped funnel millions into GOP campaigns As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team probes deeper into potential collusion between Trump officials and representatives of the Russian government, investigators are taking a closer look at political contributions made by U.S. Citizens with close ties to Russia. Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders.

And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. We have allowed our campaign finance laws to become a strategic threat to our country. Houston Chronicle - December 15, 2017 Pentagon already takes climate change seriously, but GAO wants more action Within the Trump administration, the Pentagon is arguably and, perhaps to some, surprisingly one of the most progressive departments when it comes to contemplating the effects of a changing climate.

Well before President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a Chinese hoax, took office, military leaders talked about global warming as a 'threat multiplier' worsening drought, famine and other factors leading to war. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress he believes 'a changing climate - such as increased maritime access to the Arctic, rising sea levels, desertification, among others - impact our security situation.' Washington Post - December 16, 2017 How the oldest Senate ever is taking a toll on the business of Washington In November, Sen. Hatch, who is 83, was at the helm when the Senate’s massive tax bill came through the Finance Committee. But Hatch also deputized four younger Republicans on the panel to serve as de facto co-chairmen over various parts of the legislation.

This week, with a compromise bill marching toward final passage in both chambers, the House has to vote first — because a pair of senators, Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), are recuperating from, respectively, non-melanoma skin surgery and the side effects of cancer treatments. Politico - December 16, 2017 The Pentagon’s Secret Search for UFOs The Pentagon, at the direction of Congress, a decade ago quietly set up a multi-million dollar program to investigate what are popularly known as unidentified flying objects—UFOs. The “unidentified aerial phenomena” claimed to have been seen by pilots and other military personnel appeared vastly more advanced than those in American or foreign arsenals. In some cases they maneuvered so unusually and so fast that they seemed to defy the laws of physics, according to multiple sources directly involved in or briefed on the effort and a review of unclassified Defense Department and congressional documents. Houston Chronicle - December 16, 2017 Religious broadcasters take aim at tech giants for 'stifling' Christians National Religious Broadcasters, a group of Christian media outlets, has unveiled a new initiative to counter what it sees as the suppression of Christian and conservative views online.

The internet freedom initiative aims to call attention to Google, Facebook, Apple and other tech companies' 'stifling' of free speech, NRB President & CEO Jerry A. Johnson said at a recent news conference and panel discussion on the topic. 'It is unacceptable for these titans to discriminate against users just because their viewpoints are not congruent with ideas popular in Silicon Valley,' Johnson said.