A report released this week by the Economic Policy Institute shows that Texas has lost more than 200,000 jobs to China since 2001 as a result of the United State’s growing trade deficit to that country.
According to the report, Texas has experienced a net job loss of 202,900 due to growing trade deficits with China since 2001–with more 34,100 of those jobs lost last year alone.
In terms of net job loss by state, Texas ranks second out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia only to California, and is actually far ahead of many “Rust Belt” states in terms of job loss directly attributable to the China trade deficit.
As rumored earlier this month, Julie Caruthers Parsley, the longest-serving member on the Public Utility Commission of Texas, will resign effective September 2.
Rumors began about Parsley’s impending departure last week, shortly after she was the lone dissenter on a PUC decision to build $5 billion in new transmission lines to bring wind power from West Texas and the Panhandle to urban areas.
[I'm promoting this back to the top of the blog in hopes we'll get a few more comments. We've received several emails, but no comments. Let us know what you think in the comments.]
We’ll start with the Ten Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Perry Governorship, and move on to the Ten Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Craddick Speakership, and end with the Ten Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Cornyn Senatorship.
But, we want your input. Drop us a comment and tell us what you believe are some of the worst moments of Perry’s, Craddick’s, and Cornyn’s time in office. We’ll put the posts up later this week.
I’m not sure how, but most blogs I regularly read missed the fact that Rick Perry has removed Frederick “Shad” Rowe, the chair of the Texas Pension Review Board. The Board oversees nearly 400 public pension systems in Texas that contain an astonishing $200 billion in assets.
Why did Perry fire Rowe? Perry’s answer, via a spokesperson, is that the chair of the board should pursue the best interests of Texans and not their own “personal agendas.” No elaboration from Team Perry, of course.
Rowe, however, offers a different story for why he was removed:
If you’ve ever wondered about the real Bob Perry, the Texas home-builder who funds projects like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and a coven of right-wing candidates, now, thanks to the Fort Bend Star, we find–more, in fact, than we bargained for–that he is accused of being an alcoholic and that his son is evidently quite the sex addict:
The folks at the Texas Lottery Commission today asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for an opinion on whether or not it is legal to use the electronic “strips” on the back of Texas driver’s licenses to verify the age of individuals purchasing lottery tickets at instant ticket vending machines (ITVMs).
This is a very important request for opinion, because it is basically asking the AG to give a state agency the right to use the electronic strip when state statute specifically states that it may only be used for specific purposes:
Although their website remains up and they appear to be open for business, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a longtime thorn in the side of progressives, has been “involuntarily dissolved” by the Texas Secretary of State’s office for failure to file periodic reports with the office pursuant to the Texas Non-Profit Corporations Act.
After being first notified on September 11 of last year that they had to file a legally mandated periodic report with the SOS office (and having been further warned about needing to file it on subsequent occasions), the SOS ordered TLR involuntarily dissolved on February 13, 2008.
It is starting to look more and more like the Christmas Mountains may not make it into the hands of the National Park Service anytime soon. Notes the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson’s continued insistence that the state get paid for the pristine Christmas Mountains could slow down any potential transfer to the National Park Service by at least a year, a federal park official said Friday.
The National Park Service has expressed an interest in acquiring the land, which was donated to the state for conservation purposes but which Patterson had attempted to sell to private interests.
William Wellman, superintendent of Big Bend National Park in West Texas, said that the park service will likely have a proposal ready for the state by February.
But he said that the insistence by the Texas General Land Office that it get paid for the 9,269-acre tract could seriously complicate any potential transfer.
“You’re looking at a year delay if you were to involve federal funds — it would definitely be a hurdle, and I don’t know if it would be insurmountable,” Wellman said.
Patterson’s office has said that it is its interpretation of state law that it cannot give the property to the park service — even though the property was donated to the state in 1991 for conservation purposes, and even though the General Land Office pledged when it accepted the donation that it would remain in state hands or go only to the National Park Service.
Let’s be honest: this is a weird, sticky situation, and while I don’t think Patterson is necessarily handling the situation to my linking, he believes he is trying to do his job.
Land under the custodial control of the General Land Office is for the sole purpose of making money for the Permanent School Fund. That’s what Patterson is trying to do and that’s his bottom line. I understand that and respect that he makes that a priority.
The San Antonio Express-News has an interesting story up on state agency spending on advertising and public relations–a topic that’s been in the news a good bit already:
Do you know that you can 
