Texas Round Up

by: Sam Jones

Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 05:00 PM CST

• Invoking Abraham Lincoln before an old Illinois Capitol building, Senator Barack Obama formally announced his candidacy for for a 2008 Presidential bid.

• The Dallas Morning News believes support for casino gaming in Texas has stalled, and predicts a decline in legislative support.

• The Washington Post paints an eerie picture of Cactus, Texas, a small town that was left nearly deserted after heavy immigration raids in December.

• Howard Wolf, a member of the Sunset Advisory Committee, wrote a scathing letter about the state's regulation of alcoholic beverage distribution.  He claims there is a link of corruption between lawmakers, the TABC, and wholesale distributors.

• In Ore City, a High School student was arrested and held on a $250,000 bond for allegedly plotting to blow up his school.  The odd thing is, the student has apparently been threatening to do so for over a year - why was he arrested only now?

• For what it's worth, the DMN confirmed that former Senator Phil Gramm, a long-time friend of the Governor, is Vice President of the consulting firm with which Perry discussed selling the Texas Lottery.

• My West Texas reports that $913m in TX CHIP funding has been redistributed to other states since 1997, due to a mandate that requires all unused funds to be allocated elsewhere in the nation.