The 5-4 ruling comes in the case of Genovevo Salinas, who was convicted of a 1992 murder. During police questioning, and before he was arrested or read his Miranda rights, Salinas answered some questions but did not answer when asked if a shotgun he had access to would match up with the murder weapon.

Prosecutors in Texas used his silence on that question in convicting him of murder, saying it helped demonstrate his guilt. Salinas appealed, saying his Fifth Amendment rights to stay silent should have kept lawyers from using his silence against him in court. Texas courts disagreed, saying pre-Miranda silence is not protected by the Constitution.

The high court upheld that decision.

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Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon and an unnamed lobbyist rushed to help the Republican from Humble, but both individuals failed to dislodge the food. As the situation at the Republican Party‘s national headquarters building grew more serious, Salmon and the lobbyist called 9-1-1 and shouted around asking for a doctor.

Nick Muzin, the director of Coalitions for the House Republican Conference and a licensed physician, hurried to the scene and successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on the distressed Texan after several minutes of choking.

There has been an ongoing debate about the Heimlich maneuver and whether or not it is the most effective method. In 1985, Surgeon GeneralC. Everett Koop said, “Millions of Americans have been taught to treat persons who are choking with back blows, chest thrusts and abdominal thrusts. Now, they must be advised…and I ask for the participation of the Red Cross, the American Heart Association and public health authorities everywhere…that these methods are hazardous, even lethal.”

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El Paso also has some of the laxer gun control policies of any non-Texan big city in the country, mostly due to gun-friendly state law. And famously, El Paso sits just over the Rio Grande from one of the most violent cities in the western hemisphere, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, home to a staggering 2,500 homicides in the last 18 months alone. A city of illegal immigrants with easy access to guns, just across the river from a metropolis ripped apart by brutal drug war violence. Should be a bloodbath, right?

Here’s the surprise: There were just 18 murders in El Paso last year, in a city of 736,000 people. To compare, Baltimore, with 637,000 residents, had 234 killings. In fact, since the beginning of 2008, there were nearly as many El Pasoans murdered while visiting Juarez (20) than there were murdered in their home town (23).

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According to the station, police say the thieves are members of the Felony Lane Gang, based out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Surveillance cameras in Plano reportedly caught them in action, driving an SUV in and out of parking lots at the Prince of Peace Catholic Community church and school this April.

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But a tweet he sent out early Sunday morning has some wondering how long he’ll stay.

Starting the tweet with an expletive, Manziel’s said stuff “like tonight is why I can’t wait to leave college station… whenever it may be.” The comment went out to Manziel’s more than 350,000 followers from his verified account before it was deleted almost immediately.

He soon followed another tweet, saying: “Don’t ever forget that I love A&M with all of my heart, but please please walk a day in my shoes.”

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Perry met privately with gun manufacturers and other businesses at a downtown Hartford restaurant on Monday. He told reporters it’s part of his state’s drive to compete for jobs.

Gun manufacturers say they’re considering leaving Connecticut after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed new gun restrictions into law following the killings of 20 children and six educators at a Newtown school.

Malloy made an unscheduled stop to welcome Perry and offer what he called “Yankee hospitality.”

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Dorothy Baker, of Baytown, said she was driving with her 2-year-old and 5-year-old sons when a man popped up from behind the third row of her van, demanding $200 in cash, KHOU reports.

Baker said she only had $20 in her bank account, and the man, later identified by police as 53-year-old Ismael Martinez, threatened to hurt her kids if she didn’t get the full $200.

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He drew heavy fire from Democrats for killing bills to prevent wage discrimination against women, tighten ethics laws and overhaul truancy courts.

Perry said Friday that the measures either weren’t needed or conflicted with existing state statutes.

Here’s what he did on other measures that gained attention during the just-completed legislative session:

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“The program of being able to provide some short-term benefits to help people get back on their feet is a laudatory program,” Dewhurst said, “but it’s been abused.”

The bill, by state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, will subject Texans applying for unemployment benefits to a drug test if their responses to a screening questionnaire indicate possible drug use.

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An 11-year-old boy’s rendition of the national anthem at Game 3 of the NBA finals brought the usual appreciative applause Tuesday, but outside AT&T Center in San Antonio, his performance brought a darker reaction from some posters on social media — and eventually an online backlash against their racist comments.

Here’s a sampling of some of the unkind tweets that went flying around the Internet about Sebastien de la Cruz:

– “Why they got a Mexican kid singing the national anthem -___-”from Daniel Gilmore.

– “How you singing the national anthem looking like an illegal immigrant” from Andre Lacey, proud father and firefighter from Augusta, Georgia.

– “Why is a foreigner singing the national anthem. I realize that’s San Antonio but that still ain’t Mexico” from Lewie Groh.

– “Who let this illegal alien sing our national anthem?” from Matt Cyrus.

And the list went on and on.

As for Sebastien, he said the racist comments have not fazed hidm.

“For those that said something bad about me, I understand it’s your opinion,” said Sebastien to CNN. “I’m a proud American and live in a free country. It’s not hurting me. It’s just your opinion.”

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It was a serious tone for an otherwise fun bill-signing and should bolster the governor’s Christian conservative credentials before he travels to Washington for the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference with the likes of tea party darlings and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and fellow Texan Ted Cruz.

Dubbed the “Merry Christmas” bill, the bipartisan measure sailed through the state House and Senate to reach Perry’s desk.

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The Senate Health and Human Services committee took testimony on four bills that would do the following: require that those providing abortions have hospital admission privileges; ban abortions after 20 weeks except if the life of the mother was immediately in danger; require that abortion facilities meet the minimum standards of ambulatory surgical centers; and regulate how doctors can dispense medication like Mifeprex – not Plan B - that terminates early pregnancies requiring that they sign a contract with a physician who will handle any complications.

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Helicoptersniper.com calls the experience the ultimate video game — allowing a customer 15 minutes to shoot at targets from a helicopter. But neighbors are worried about the possibility of ricocheting bullets.

“You just know, someday, one of them is going to hit the house or do something,” says Michael Lauer, who lives near the helicopter gun range “It’s not like we’re endangering anybody’s life with our flight patterns, with our techniques. Everything is totally safe in that regard,” says Dan Claassen with helicoptersniper.com.

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“I told him, ‘I will release my son to you upon viewing those orders.’ Those were exactly my words,” The complainant said. “He said, ‘This is how you want to play?’ He took two steps back, turned around to the officer and said, ‘Take her.’ They turned me around, handcuffed me, and took me in.”

The complainant said she was aware police would be coming to apprehend her 11-year-old son based on a criminal complaint, and that she just wanted to see the warrant. As it turns out, that warrant didn’t exist. She spent the night in jail while her son was left at home.

“He told me it was their duty to come pick up my son,” She said. “Yet, I had someone stay the night at my house. They never came back that evening, they never came to pick up my son, or do what they told me they were there to do in the beginning.”

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According to a letter obtained by The Associated Press, FEMA said it reviewed the state’s appeal to help but decided that the explosion “is not of the severity and magnitude that warrants a major disaster declaration.”

FEMA already has provided millions of dollars in aid to the town of West and its residents, but the decision prevents them from getting some of the widespread assistance typically available to victims of tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

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The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a complaint with the Beaumont Independent School District over the May 13 ceremony, 12NewsNow.com reported.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Amber Barnhill, a parent who claims a teacher at Amelia Elementary opened the ceremony with a prayer and had the student leading it say, “in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Barnhill told the station she approached the teacher after the ceremony with her concerns over the prayer and was offended by her repose.

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After holding hearings across the state, Republican Sen. Kel Seliger, chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee, opposed four amendments offered by Democrats who said their maps would better protect minority voting rights. Democrats also tried to remove language that would declare the temporary maps drawn by federal judges in San Antonio constitutional.

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More than 1,000 of the statewide positions are newly created, a spokeswoman said.

“From 2010 through 2012, AT&T invested more than $7 billion in its Texas wireless and wireline networks, and the backbone of that service are our people …,” AT&T’s state president Dave Nichols said in a statement.

The positions include technicians to help with U-verse installation, call center representatives and hundreds of openings at AT&T retail stores, the company said.

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The complaint — from three public interest law centers against four Dallas area school districts and Dallas County’s truancy courts — alleges that students have been denied constitutional rights, handcuffed and fined in a court system that does not appoint legal representatives or provide the confidentiality protections of juvenile court.

Texas sends 113,000 students, ages 12 to 17, to courts for truancy violations each year, more than twice as many students as in the other 49 states combined, according to lawyers filing the complaint. The complaint said that last fiscal year, Dallas County truancy courts prosecuted more than 36,000 truancy cases.

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San Antonio blew out Miami in Game 3 of the NBA finals, winning 113-77 and taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Led by Danny Green and Gary Neal, the Spurs went on a tear — hitting a Finals record 16 shots from beyond the three-point arc. As NPR’s Tom Goldman said on Morning Edition, “Miami melted into the hardwood like the wicked witch of the west” as San Antonio hit shot after shot.

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Looking for a bargain getaway this summer? Steer clear of Honolulu! Tripadvisor says it’s the most expensive U.S. city to visit in the summer, based on factors including a roundtrip taxi ride and a night’s stay for two in a four-star hotel.

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Visitors to Bush’s presidential library in College Station are urged to wear “exuberant socks” Wednesday on his birthday. Bush in recent years has taken to wearing colorful socks in public.

Officials with the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation also want people with outlandish socks to post photos online. Select pictures will be sent to the 41st president.

A Bush spokesman said Tuesday that the former president will celebrate with his family in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush’s wife, Barbara, turned 88 years old on Saturday. Relatives are marking both birthdays.

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The 2009 fire in Bryan did bring about a measure of safety. The warehouse’s owner, El Dorado Chemical Co., decided against another combustible structure and rebuilt instead with concrete.

But the Oklahoma-based company did not replace its 14 other wooden warehouses in Texas, even though Bryan’s was one of three to catch fire in the last decade. El Dorado officials said that would have been prohibitively expensive. And no regulations required it.

The deadly explosion in West, however, has forced new scrutiny of whether people are safe from ammonium nitrate’s potential dangers.

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Police say Ana Lilia Trujillo, 44, killed Alf Stefan Andersson on Sunday “by intentionally and knowingly committing an act clearly dangerous to human life.”

Her bail was set at $100,000.

She had recently moved in with the victim, CNN affiliate KTRK reported, citing information the prosecution provided in court.

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The Austin American-Statesman reported Monday night that Perry would use a line-item veto to cut funding for the unit unless Lehmberg, who was convicted and served jail time for drunken driven this past spring, steps down.

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So when it was sweet, he asked his lady friend, also a cancer physician and researcher, for another cup. She urged him to drink up anyway.

The coffee tasted sweet because it was laced with a sweet-tasting toxic chemical used in antifreeze and medical research, ethylene glycol, according to a criminal complaint filed with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. The complaint referred to the chemical as “a deadly weapon.”

Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, a breast cancer oncologist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, was charged last week with aggravated assault against Dr. George Blumenschein, a specialist in lung and head and neck cancers at the institution.

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So far, all the states Perry has targeted are headed by Democratic governors.

His mission will be preceded by a $1 million TV ad buy touting the Lone Star State under a new campaign called “Texas is calling, your opportunity awaits.” The 30-second spot features business and tech leaders, along with former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith saying “Texas, land of opportunity,” and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, saying, “Home of creative renegades.”

The northeastern states mark the latest targets in Perry’s campaign. California and Illinois came earlier, where both governors took offense at the hard-hitting, job-poaching approach. In Illinois, the campaign included an ad with an emergency exit door and the headline, “Get out while you still can.”

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Joshua High School graduate Remington Reimer, who was accepted into the Naval Academy, had his microphone silenced during his speech right after he told fellow graduates that school officials apparently threatened him with the move the day before, MyFoxDFW.com reported.

Colin Radford, a fellow graduate told MyFoxDFW.com that Reimer was “talking about getting constitutional rights taken away from him, and then he said “just yesterday they threatened to turn my microphone off,” and then his microphone went off.”

“Student speakers were told that if their speeches deviated from the prior-reviewed material, the microphone would be turned off, regardless of content,” Joshua Independent School District said in a statement.

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And so far, they are all Republicans.

Next year’s elections could feature more open seats for statewide office than any ballot since 1990.

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Deadline.com reports that the two funny ladies will portray a cop and a prisoner on the run from the law. There’s no word yet on which actress will portray which character — will Vergara’s dominating presence lend itself to the cop role, or will Witherspoon play mother hen to Vergara’s presumably silly prisoner character?

The movie finds Witherspoon returning to her Southern roots, as the actress was born in New Orleans and led the charge in 2002′s popular “Sweet Home Alabama.” While Vergara has expanded her résumé with movie roles in recent years, this could become her most high-profile effort to date.

Universal Pictures acquired “Texas” in what Deadline calls a “spirited bidding battle.” With Vergara slated to co-produce, the film is reportedly on track to begin production in March 2014. Veteran sitcom producers John Quaintance and David Feeney, whotogether were behind the short-lived but well-liked Fox series “Ben & Kate,” wrote the spec script.

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A group of Texas fisherman caught what may be the largest swordfish ever caught in Texas.

The Booby Trap crew, based in Surfside, specializes in catching swordfish and blue marlin. Owner Brett Holden has received worldwide recognition for his ability to catch big fish.

They caught the fish earlier this week during a four-day fishing excursion. It took over four hours to reel in the monster.

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Shannon Rogers Guess Richardson of New Boston, Texas, originally called the Federal Bureau of Investigation claiming that her husband had sent the letters, officials said. The investigators found that she had sent the letters herself, they said.

Richardson is an actress with minor roles on television shows like The Walking Dead and the Vampire Diaries, and was arrested in Arkansas on charges that will be filed Friday afternoon, the authorities said.

Investigators have been probing who sent the three letters, all postmarked May 20 from Shreveport, La. and sent without a return address, authorities have said.

Gilbert, 30, embraced defense attorneys Bobby Barrera and Roy Barrera Sr. with tears in his eyes after the not guilty verdict was read aloud by state District Judge Mary Román.

Outside the courtroom, Gilbert thanked God, the Barrera family and the jury for being able to “see what wasn’t the truth” and for the “second chance.”

Had he been convicted, he could have faced up to life in prison for the slaying of Lenora Ivie Frago who died about seven months after she was shot in the neck and paralyzed on Christmas Eve 2009. Gilbert admitted shooting Frago.

“I sincerely regret the loss of the life of Ms. Frago,” Gilbert said Wednesday. “I’ve been in a mental prison the past four years of my life. I have nightmares. If I see guns on TV where people are getting killed, I change the channel.”

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Tim Duncan overcame a slow start to finish with 20 points and 14 rebounds,Tony Parker banked in a desperation jumper on a broken play with 5.2 seconds left and the Spurs withstood LeBron James’ triple-double to beat theMiami Heat 92-88 on Thursday night in a thrilling Game 1.

Parker ended up with 21 points after referees reviewed his shot to make sure it just beat the shot clock, giving San Antonio a four-point edge in the game that was close the whole way.

“We got a little bit lucky in Game 1,” Parker said. “Sometimes that’s what it takes to win games.”

It took more than that. San Antonio turned up its defense in the fourth quarter, limiting Miami to seven points in the first 8½ minutes, returning to the Finals just the way it left — with a victory against James.

James had 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in his second successive NBA Finals triple-double, but he shot only 7 for 16 against some good defense by Kawhi Leonard, and Miami’s offense stalled in the fourth quarter.

“The Spurs are the Spurs,” James said. “They’re going to put you in positions where you feel uncomfortable offensively and defensively, and every time you make a mistake, they’re going to capitalize on it.”

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Tesla has tangled with dealership associations in a number of states in its effort to sell its Model S electric sedan directly to consumers rather than using franchised car dealers. Musk testified before lawmakers in Texas on the issue earlier this year.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), Ford (F,Fortune 500), Toyota (TM) and others don’t sell cars to customers. They sell cars to independently owned and operated dealers or distributors who, in turn, sell them to the public, usually after some negotiation over the final price.

Tesla’s showrooms, by contrast, are owned and operated by the company. Most are in shopping malls, with only enough cars on hand for display and test drives. Every Tesla car sells at full sticker price, and service on the cars is performed at separate garages owned by Tesla.

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Texas ranked 51st in voter turnout in 2010 — behind the other states and Washington D.C. — and 49th in the number of citizens who contact public officials, according to the study released by the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life at the University of Texas at Austin and the National Conference on Citizenship.

The state’s slacking continues when it comes to civic participation rates, ranking 43rd in donating and 42nd in volunteering, according to the Texas Civic Health Index.

“Some of the numbers are really surprising — maybe even shocking,” said journalism Professor Regina Lawrence, director of the Annette Strauss Institute.

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Hundreds packed into the Marthoma Church in Mesquite Wednesday night to pay respects to Patrick Maruthmmotil.

The 26-year-old died in a traffic accident while on a mission trip in Oklahoma. Three others were injured in that head-on collision near Smithville, Oklahoma. Family and friends say the other victims are in stable condition.

“His job was important to him, but more [important] than anything else was the community he had around him,” said his long-time roommate, Ben Morrow.

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Judge Edith Jones of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in New Orleans addressed the University of Pennsylvania law school on Feb. 20. Her comments were not recorded, but five students and one attorney who were in attendance signed affidavits on what was said.

Those were used to generate a 12-page complaint filed in New Orleans stating that Jones “has engaged in conduct that is prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts, undermines public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, and creates a strong appearance of impropriety.”

Jones is accused of saying that certain “racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime,” and are “prone to commit acts of violence” and be involved in more violent and “heinous” crimes than people of other ethnicities.

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In a hearing in Dietz’s courtroom Wednesday, lawyers for both the districts and the state said that evidence should be updated following a legislative session in which Texas lawmakers made significant changes to public education policy. The judge asked all parties to return June 19 to present arguments over what the scope of those new hearings should be — including what issues they should cover and logistical questions, like limitations on discovery and other procedural rules.

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According to an ESPN report, the founder and operator of an anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., who allegedly supplied performance enhancing drugs to about 20 major leaguers, including Cruz, has agreed to cooperate with Major League Baseball’s investigation.

The agreement by BioGenesis of America founder Dr. Tony Bosch may start to bring the investigation, now entering its fifth month to some kind of resolution or at least start the legal process of assessing penalties and going through appeals. That process could take several more weeks.

And perhaps worst of all for Cruz and the Rangers is that, according to the ESPN report, MLB may seek to bypass the first offense penalty of 50 games and go right to a 100-game suspension. Such a penalty, if delivered any time after next week would shelve all players involved for the remainder of the regular season.

“I can’t say anything,” Cruz said. “I know people are just doing their jobs.”

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“That was a mistake,” he said in an email. “I hold no position of authority within the Republican Party and it wasn’t my place to opine on behalf of the desires of the Republican Party.”

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The firefighters were killed battling afive-alarm blaze at a Houston motel on June 1.

Those killed in the blaze include:

• Captain EMT Matthew Renaud, 35, of Station 51
• Firefighter EMT Robert Garner, 29, of Station 68
• Engineer Operator EMT Robert Bebee, 41, of Station 51
• Probationary Firefighter Anne Sullivan, 24, of Station 68

Up to 40,000 people, including more than 3,000 firefighters from around the country, are expected to pack Reliant Stadium.

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According to TxDOT and emails from people close to the situation, those employees were given a week to decide whether to move from TxDOT to the NTT Data, which recently opened an office in Plano. Those who go to NTT would be guaranteed employment for six months, according to a TxDOT press release.

It was not clear initially what would happen to employees who decline to take the NTT positions, or if those who do would be required to move to Plano. TxDOT will retain some technology workers in-house, but the number was not clear early Tuesday.

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In an audio recording that Democrats sent out to news outlets Tuesday, Tea Party leader Ken Emanuelson of Dallas can be heard saying that the state GOP doesn’t want to encourage blacks to participate in elections if they overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.

“I’m going to be real honest with you,” Emanuelson can be heard saying at a May 20 event organized by the Dallas County Republican Party. “The Republican Party doesn’t want black people to vote if they are going to vote nine-to-one for Democrats.”

Democrats have called the remarks disgusting.

Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, said he spoke at the same event but did not hear Emanuelson speak.

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The donation is considered the largest gift from a living alumnus, according to a Baylor news release.

The money will be used to help with a $100 million campaign to construct the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation, which will house Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business in a new 275,000-square foot facility.

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McKinney police Sgt. Chad Barker said Monday that nobody was hurt and the case initially was being investigated as criminal mischief.

Officials with the McKinney Islamic Association didn’t immediately return messages about the incident.

Leaders of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are calling for a hate crime investigation. A statement from the group says the paintball attack happened late Saturday night or early Sunday. A vehicle owned by a congregation member was also hit with paint.

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Country-rock musician Kevin Fowler donated his time to make a 30 second video that will begin airing across the state on Tuesday.

The campaign is called “Take Care of Texas” will promote outdoor recreation while asking all Texans to conserve water and other natural resources.

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The Austin American-Statesman reports (http://bit.ly/11gQAy5 ) that the raises will cost the state $100 million. Lawmakers included them in the budget after a state auditor found Department of Public Safety officers were being paid less than officers in major Texas cities.

A DPS trooper with at least 20 years’ experience could make a maximum of about $61,800. Now, that trooper could make up to almost $76,000, and up to $89,000 with overtime.

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Maj. Nidal Hasan’s attorneys will remain on the case but only if he asks for their help, the judge said. Hasan, 42, faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

After questioning Hasan for about an hour, the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, ruled that Hasan was mentally competent to represent himself and understands “the disadvantage of self-representation.” She repeatedly urged him to reconsider his request, noting that the lead prosecutor has more than 20 years of experience and that Hasan will be held to the same standards as all attorneys regarding courtroom rules and military law.

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Every inch of exposed skin was covered with stings on the body of Larry Goodwin, 62, of Moody, Texas, family members told NBC station KCEN of Waco.

Goodwin died Saturday when the Africanized honeybees swarmed him after his tractor struck a pile of wood that included an abandoned chicken coop where the bees had built their hive. The hive encompassed 22 honeycombs harboring an estimated 40,000 bees.

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“There was cereal everywhere, but it was sweet,” Ms. Winfrey said with her drawl and a giggle. “And I love Fruity Pebbles, so I ate it.” Ms. Winfrey, 25, had been behind bars since 2007, after she, her father, Richard Winfrey, and her brother, Richard Winfrey Jr., were charged in the 2004 stabbing and beating death of Murray Burr, a school janitor here.

In February, Texas’ highest criminal court acquitted Ms. Winfrey, ruling that the dog scent evidence prosecutors used against her was insufficient. Now, she faces the challenge of starting a life as a single parent. She has had no job training, and has a capital murder conviction on her record. And because she was acquitted, but not declared “actually innocent” or pardoned, she is ineligible for compensation for the years she spent in prison.

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Officials with the McKinney Islamic Association didn’t immediately return messages Monday about the defacing of the mosque.

Leaders of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations want the incident treated as a possible hate crime. A statement from the group says the paintball attack happened late Saturday night or early Sunday.

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And now at least one Republican business leader says Perry’s taking the Lone Star swagger a little too far.

Perry’s forceful recruitment campaigns, featuring radio and magazine ads as well as personal appearances, promise low-tax, pro-growth policies in Texas —and they also trash the business climate in places like California (“…I hear building a business in California is next to impossible”) and Illinois (“…an environment that, intentionally or not, is designed for you to fail.”

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Over the weekend, the upper chamber snuffed out the latest attempt to require the Texas Ethics Commission to post those documents online, along side campaign finance reports, ethics complaints and lobbying disclosures.

So the San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle rounded up the newest filings from the commission and slapped them into a searchable database — available below — which includes recently filed financial statements for top state shot callers such as Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Comptroller Susan Combs.

The latest effort to make personal financial statements available online died when a Senate conference committee stripped a bevy of transparency amendments the House stuffed into an Ethics Commission sunset billthat is now headed to Gov. Rick Perry. It didn’t sit well with some in the upper chamber.

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Did we mention that you spin in a 124-foot circle at speeds of up to 35 mph? In a seat held up with chains? Incidentally, we’re holding out until they build the ride we designed: the Active Volcano Terrorcinerator.

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It was a far-fetched notion at the time. Until Perry came along, no Texas governor had been on track to serve three consecutive four-year terms.

So when Perry answered yes, it was like a bomb went off inside the Texas political establishment — and inside Perry’s office, too, because his aides were about as surprised as the average Capitol insider.

With Perry approaching the end of another term, the idea that he would tempt re-election fate again strikes many observers as improbable. Not only would it put Perry within reach of serving for 18 years, but it also could set up a heavyweight showdown in the Republican primary for governor: Attorney General Greg Abbott appears to be setting up for a run for the office and has not said publicly whether he would step aside should Perry go for it.

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“The right to keep and bear arms is granted by God and protecting [sic] from government aggression by the Constitution,” Stockman said in a statement. “It is not subject to the whims of global totalitarians massed in New York City.”

Stockman, an avid supporter both of gun rights and colorful rhetoric, went on to say that it was “beyond time for the United States to withdraw from the UN.”

A total of 130 representatives expressed their opposition to the UN agreement on Thursday, sending a letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry urging them not to become a party to the treaty.

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The bicyclists are with a group called the Live Strong Texas 4000. The group will ride more than 4,000 miles from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska. Each student trained more than 18 months for the ride and raised at least $4,500 to participate. Many of the bicyclists have been touched by cancer in someway.

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FBI agents were reportedly tipped off by the New Boston man’s wife, who found a Tupperware container in their refrigerator filled with “what looks like ricin,” a source told the New York Post.

She also told police she found directions on how to make the deadly poison, as well as Google searches for President Barack and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

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Manssor Arbabsiar, 58, received the sentence at a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan. He had pleaded guilty in October 2012 to charges related to his seeking to hire Mexican drug traffickers to kill the ambassador in a plot that was vehemently denied by Tehran.

The supposed member of the international drug trafficking cartel who Arbabsiar offered to pay $1.5 million to carry out the plot was in reality a confidential informant of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

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Q: What are you most optimistic about coming out of this spring?

Brown: We’re getting more speed. We’re getting more depth back, which has been one of our biggest problems. When we were really good, we were two-deep so injuries just didn’t wipe us out. The last three years we’ve had so many injuries, it’s been unbelievable and it’s been hard to coach. We’re really trying to get it back to where we have two-deep that can play because, obviously, if don’t have two-deep that can play, you’re not going to play ‘em.

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Passing the Senate by a vote of 23-7 and the House 145-0, the Texas legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill meant to give preference to American-made goods for purchase by the State of Texas when they are of equal cost and quality to foreign-made products.

In other words, if an American-made product and foreign-made product are of equal quality and cost, when the state is purchasing a good or service, the state would always give preference to the American-made product or service.

96% of Texas legislators supported the “Buy American” bill…

And Rick Perry vetoed it.

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The company has already begun hiring for the Fort Worth plant. The site was most recently unoccupied but was once used by fellow phone manufacturer Nokia, meaning it was designed to produce mobile devices, said Will Moss, a spokesman for Motorola Mobility, which is owned by Google.

“It was a great facility in an ideal location,” said Moss, who said it will be an easy trip for Motorola engineering teams based in Chicago and Silicon Valley, and is also close to the company’s service and repair operations in Mexico.

The formal announcement came at AllThingsD’s D11 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., from Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.

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On Tuesday, the Texas bill (HB 2268) was sent to Gov. Perry’s desk, and he has until June 16, 2013 to sign it or veto it. If he does neither, it will pass automatically and take effect on September 1, 2013. The bill would give Texans more privacy over their inbox to shield against state-level snooping, but the bill would not protect against federal investigations. The bill passed both houses of the state legislature earlier this year without a single “nay” vote.

This new bill, if signed, will make Texas law more privacy-conscious than the much-maligned 1986-era Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). With the ECPA, federal law enforcement agencies are only required to get a warrant to access recent e-mails before they are opened by the recipient.

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Troop 1497 only wanted 500 individual boxes. However, the troop leader accidentally ordered 500 cases.

With 12 boxes in each case, the troop of five girls was stuck with a tall order of 6,000 boxes — that’s 1,200 boxes for each girl to sell.

According to a letter from the Girl Scouts organization, the troop has until June 3 to pay up. Otherwise, the debt will be handed over to a collection agency.

Keisha Hopper’s first-grader is in the troop. She said the troop was able to hand off 200 cases to other troops and has been selling boxes like crazy.

As of Wednesday, the girls had only 49 cases left to sell, which carries a debt of $2,147.79.

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Forty-three-year-old Willie Smith Ward was convicted and sentenced on robbery charges Wednesday. The Waco Tribune-Herald reports that Ward’s theft of the $35 rack of pork ribs turned into a robbery after he threatened a grocery store employee who tried to stop him in 2011.

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When a pregnant teacher in Texas collapsed, her coworkers rushed to help. The woman technically died, gave birth and then was brought back to life.

Erica Nigrelli, an English teacher at Elkins High School in Missouri City, Texas, collapsed in a co-worker’s classroom when she was 36 weeks pregnant.

“Apparently I told her, ‘I feel very faint,’ and I put my head down and I essentially just passed out,” Erica Nigrelli said.

Erica’s husband, Nathan, is also a teacher at Elkins.

“I opened the door and walked in and Erica was laying on the floor,” he said.

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Lance Cpl. Esteban J. Smith, 23, died Sunday in a shootout with Texas authorities after going on a two-hour rampage that left one person dead and five wounded, according to investigators.

Smith’s wife, Rubi Estenania Smith, 21, was discovered dead Sunday afternoon at a motel near Camp Lejeune, according to police in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

While it was not immediately clear when Rubi Smith died, investigators say her husband began his Texas shooting spree around 4:30 a.m. Sunday. They say he killed Alicia Torres, 41, in Eola, Texas, and also shot two people in Eden, Texas, two people in Brady, Texas, and Concho County Sheriff Richard Doane, just north of Eden.

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Announcements were immediately flying with state Rep. Harvey Hildebran, R-Kerrville, throwing his green eye-shades into the race.

Combs, 68, was the first female to serve as comptroller, first winning election to that office in 2007 after having served as Agriculture Commissioner and a state representative from Austin.

In her announcement, Combs said she wanted to return to ranching and continue her work on private property rights.

“In the summer of 1994, I marched up Congress Avenue with hundreds of Texans in support of private property rights—and I’m not done marching,” Combs said.

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Federal judges in San Antonio on Wednesday weighed what effect a special 30-day legislative session will have on an ongoing lawsuit over Texas voting maps. Perry has ordered the Legislature to ratify voting maps drawn by the federal court last year.

Perry’s instructions, however, said nothing about considering changes.

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Female calf Wasswa was born first May 10 followed by brother Nakato. Officials with the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch waited until Tuesday to announce the births to ensure the calves were certain to survive.

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Perry spoke to reporters at a bill signing ceremony for House Bill 4, designed to set up a water infrastructure bank that will provide money for reservoirs, conservation programs and other projects, assuming voters give their approval to the proposed $2 billion in funding.

“It is hard to overstate the importance of this legislation,” Perry said. He spoke about how a strong supply of potable water was critical to the state’s economic growth as well as the quality of life of Texans.

After signing the bill, Perry was asked about his timetable for deciding whether to run for re-election. He ratcheted up the coyness factor in his response.

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The move by the sports shoe and clothing company ends a nine-year relationship that helped the foundation raise more than $100 million and made the charity’s bracelet an international symbol for cancer survivors.

But the relationship soured with revelations of performance-enhancing drug use by Armstrong and members of his U.S. Postal Service team.

Nike dropped its personal sponsorship of Armstrong last October after U.S. Anti-Doping Agency exposed the team doping program and portrayed Armstrong as its ringleader. And after years of denials, Armstrong admitted earlier this year he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France seven times.

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The Texas Department of Public Safety said the suspect, Esteban J. Smith, 23, was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He was killed early Sunday when he exchanged gunfire with a state trooper and a game warden, police said.

Smith’s death ended a shooting spree that had covered more than 80 miles and lasted more than two hours.

Authorities say Smith killed Alicia Torres, 41, in the town of Eola in Concho County. She was found dead in her car about 6 a.m.

He also shot one person in Eden at 4:30 a.m., two people in Brady, then went back to Eden where he wounded one other victim.

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It dominated the recession, crushed the recovery, and in a new analysis of jobs recovered since the downturn, its largest city stands apart as the most powerful job engine in the country — by far.

The ten largest metros have recovered 98 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, on average. But Houston, the first major city to regain all the jobs lost in the downturn, has now added more than two jobs for every one it lost after the crash. That’s incredible.

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While some leading business groups worried about watering down high academic standards and said it might leave students ill-prepared for the demanding jobs of tomorrow, the sustained backlash against too much testing largely drowned them out — and lawmakers listened.

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The 18-year-old raced through a burning house Sunday morning, helping everyone escape while the house was being swallowed by flames.

A photograph shows the terrifying scene of a house that quickly became an inferno, with thick, black smoke and flames reaching to the sky.

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The provision was tacked onto a bill that initially had widespread legislative support. But House members balked when the bill’s authors quietly negotiated a deal to give certain elected officials a broad right not extended to other concealed handgun license holders.

“When I was sent here, I was sent to take care of my constituents, not to advance my own self-interests,” said Rep. Kenneth Sheets, R-Dallas.

Bill sponsor Rep. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, came under withering criticism for seemingly promising he would strip off the language that gave legislators the special right to carry guns anywhere.

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But it might not be big enough for Perry.

The biennial 140-day session, where bipartisanship surprisingly flourished and a muscular new state water plan prevailed, adjourns Monday. This may have been Perry’s last depending on his political plans, but either way, all signs indicate the nation’s longest-serving governor is not through having a say on shaping Texas.

Perry wanted $1.8 billion in tax cuts, and the GOP-controlled House and Senate fell hundreds of millions of dollars short. Tougher abortion restrictions and looser gun laws also faltered, but could roar back to life in a 30-day special summer session that many lawmakers expect Perry to order.

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Washington’s hope was to get Murphy involved in the game quicker, just as he did on Saturday night when Murphy hit second.

Murphy drove in three runs, Nelson Cruz hit his 12th homer of the season and the Rangers roughed up Seattle ace Felix Hernandez in a 5-2 victory, handing the Mariners their eighth straight loss.

“Tonight things were definitely clicking a little bit. They’ve definitely been clicking a little bit more the last week or two and hopefully that trend continues,” Murphy said. “I’ve had some success over the last week or two but I still can’t quite say I felt like myself. Tonight I did feel a little bit more like myself.”

Derek Holland continued to pitch well in Seattle, easily getting the better of the matchup against Hernandez. Holland (4-2) went 6 2-3 innings, striking out a season-high 10, allowing no earned runs and winning for the first time since May 8 after a pair of no-decisions.

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He was hot off a loss in the Republican primaries for U.S. Senate that broke a streak of four statewide victories starting in 1998. And it was evident that fellow Republican Ted Cruz’s success in painting the lieutenant governor as something less than a conservative had left an impression Dewhurst wanted to erase.

He touted proposals for school choice and stricter abortion legislation, among other things, but the 83rd Legislature has left many of his wishes unfulfilled even as potential Republican opponents muster their arguments that they will be the conservative choices in 2014’s primaries.

Early this week, Dewhurst’s campaign sent an email to supporters, urging them to urge legislators to pass several pieces of anti-abortion legislation that, as the week comes to an end, appears to have failed. And his push for school choice was swallowed into a diluted but still-pending bill that allows only a limited increase in publicly financed, privately run charter schools.

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As part of his release, Brent was ordered to wear a SCRAM ankle bracelet that monitors alcohol levels and ordered to maintain a curfew. The hearing included testimony from a bond supervisor, the CEO of Brent’s rehab center and a SCRAM device supervisor, who said Brent hasn’t logged his data 22 times, which makes monitoring difficult, but there were no signs of alcohol being detected or the device being tampered with.

As part of a new arrangement, the ankle monitor worn by Brent will randomly sample for alcohol and will also take a picture of his environment at the sampling time.

More details to come.

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Police in Boerne say Officer Lance Deleon was not on duty when the cat named Bobby was wounded. Police Chief Jim Kohler says the cat was shot using a crossbow.

Officials with South Texas Veterinary Specialists say the 2-year-old male cat has been treated for a punctured lung and broken front right leg. Vets say Bobby is expected to recover after being shot Tuesday.

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“The Boy Scouts of America has been built upon the values of faith and family for more than 100 years,” Perry said in a statement. ”And today’s decision contradicts generations of tradition in the name of political correctness. While I will always cherish my time as a scout and the life lessons I learned, I am greatly disappointed with this decision.”

This is not the first time the Texas governor expressed his contempt for the Boy Scouts’ consideration of lifting the gay ban.

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SAN SABA, Texas (AP) — A 300-yard wooden railroad bridge in Central Texas has fallen after catching fire in a dramatic collapse captured on cellphone video.

Lometa Volunteer Fire Department Capt. Jamie Smart said Thursday that nobody was hurt in the blaze in rural Lampasas County. Smart shot the video Sunday showing the bridge over some low ground burning and falling.

Smart says volunteer firefighters from San Saba also were hand. Smart says he heard someone say “there she goes” and he shot the video.

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Not that it would have mattered, Parish is opening the doors at True Lee Missionary Baptist Church to Miles this Sunday. He said that Miles will attend a community meeting at 10 a.m., before the church worships at 11 a.m. Miles will have up to 20 minutes to say what he wants before a Q&A session is held, Parish said.

Price has said that Miles is not the right person to lead the school district and should go back to Colorado Springs, where he last worked. He wrote his letter to the pastors after several told him that Miles wanted to visit their churches.

“To me, it just makes good sense for us to have face-to-face interaction with him so we can find out what’s going on,” Parish said. “I reached out to Mike Miles. We have a right to hold our superintendent accountable to this congregation.”

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Cruz helped craft the campaign’s immigration policy, which called for speeding up the application process, increasing the number of work visas, and allowing the relatives of permanent residents to visit the U.S. while their applicants were pending. “Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande,” Bush used to say.

Bush, a self-described “compassionate conservative,” went on to win the presidency and champion a law that would have allowed millions of illegal immigrants to earn citizenship. Cruz went on to win election to the Senate from Texas as a hero of the tea party movement and emerge as a sharp critic of a pathway to citizenship in the latest attempt at immigration reform on Capitol Hill.

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Eight of the 15 fastest-growing U.S. cities and towns for the year ending July 1, 2012, were in the Lone Star State, according to population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Texas also stood tall in total growth, with five of the 10 cities that added the most people over the year — No. 2 Houston, No. 4 San Antonio, No. 5 Austin, No. 7 Dallas and No. 10 Fort Worth.

“Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, the Austin-San Antonio corridor and Midland-Odessa continue to dominate growth in Texas and across the country. It’s phenomenal growth and it hasn’t slowed down,” said Steve Murdock, a Rice University professor, longtime Texas state demographer and former Census Bureau director.

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More than 1,400 delegates are expected to pass a resolution on Thursday to lift the ban, according to Boy Scouts officials. The vote comes about three months after members of the executive board delayed a decision on loosening the ban.

The Boy Scouts’ long-standing ban on gays has become a polarizing issue at the center of the debate on gay rights in the United States, which allows gay soldiers to serve openly in the military.

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In the latest rankings of such corporate policies by the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights group, many of Exxon’s Fortune 500 counterparts got scores of 80 or higher on a scale of 100. Exxon, the nation’s largest oil and gas company, became the first firm to get a score below zero.

On Wednesday, in the latest attempt to pressure the company into change, a gay-rights group called Freedom to Work teamed with a high-powered Washington law firm to file what they described as a groundbreaking discrimination complaint against Exxon in Illinois.

The complaint, filed with the state’s Department of Human Rights, says Exxon was sent two nearly identical resumes for a job opening at its office in Patoka, Ill. The only substantive differences were that one of the fictional applicants was clearly depicted as a gay-rights activist, and had higher college and high-school grades than the other applicant.

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For gays and lesbian living in Texas, the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriage does not simply limit whom they can and cannot marry. The ban also affects everything from medical power of attorney and estate planning, to parental custody.

According to a statement emailed to The Huffington Post by Barrett Stern, Compton and Price’s attorney, the state’s morality clause makes it illegal for Compton to have anyone she is dating or is intimate with — but is not related to by blood or marriage — be at her home with her two children after 9 p.m. Price currently lives with Compton but cannot marry her because the state of Texas forbids such a union.

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When disaster strikes, many in South Texas step up to provide relief for victims by making donations and volunteering through various organizations. Here’s how you can help.

As we have reported, the best way to send relief is through monetary donations. Below, you will find the latest headlines regarding disaster assistance, and links to organizations that provide support and guidance for those that want to help.

If you would like to make a donation to the American Red Cross, you can text the word “REDCROSS” to 90999.

You can make a $10 donation to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma by texting the word “FOOD” to 3233, or visit their website atwww.regionalfoodbank.org.

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Jurors in Austin on Tuesday sentenced Andria Stanley over the February 2012 early-morning attack. She was convicted of aggravated kidnapping, burglary of habitation and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Jason Witt and Stanley divorced in 2009. They have two children.

The Austin American-Statesman reports the defense referred to the Bible and redemption in seeking leniency for Stanley.

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That homer by Yoenis Cespedes was the only run Darvish and the Rangers allowed, but that was all the Oakland Athletics needed to win 1-0 behind seven scoreless innings by rookie pitcher Dan Straily.

“Initially, I didn’t think it was a home run,” Darvish said through his translator. “Being in this stadium, there was nothing you could do about it.”

Darvish had won his last seven regular-season starts at Rangers Ballpark, going back to last season. He had won all five of his previous starts this year when pitching after a Texas loss, and the right-hander from Japan was getting a league-high 9.1 runs per nine innings pitched.

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Over that period, House and Senate lawmakers will meet privately to work out their significant differences on House Bill 5and Senate Bill 2 in conference committee.

Conferees for HB 5, which would change high school standardized testing and curriculum requirements as well as the state’s public school accountability system, have already begun meeting. The Senate appointed conferees for SB 2, the bill expanding charter schools in the state, late Tuesday night. They have yet to be named in the House.

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Sodas had already been prohibited from public schools, but House Bill 217, sponsored by Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, goes a step further, he said. It does not apply to Texas high schools. Starting in September, elementary, middle and junior high school students must offer only water without sweetner, milk with 1 percent or less fat or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice.

“We need to get our arms around the issue of obesity, which we know causes many health problems like diabetes,” Uresti said. “Meanwhile, we’re dealing with the budget. If we’re ever going to get a handle on that, we need to start thinking ahead. We want to teach the kids at an early age, to get them to start thinking healthy.”

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A bill by Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, would permit a training program to be offered to all public schools, including charters, that don’t have their own police or school resource officers. It would supplement current law, which allows districts to allow some employees to carry guns – a law in use by some rural districts.

The bill passed the House 133-13. It will now go to the governor’s desk.

The Texas Department of Public Safety would help develop the training program, which would cost the state an estimated $1 million per two-year period, in the hopes that people contribute grants or donations to keep the program running. The $1 million would cover free training for two employees per school. The fee to train additional employees would be covered by the school or district.

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After various police departments approached him, Cook took on the task of convincing other lawmakers that it made sense to create a special permit.

First, it would allow illegal immigrants to obtain car and liability insurance. That alone would make drivers more responsible and provide help when there are accidents.

And the bill provides that the immigrants would need to be photographed and fingerprinted. That also helps law enforcement, he said.

But Cook has been beaten down in several votes before the House.

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Among those bills are Senate Bill 25, or the “fetal pain” bill, which would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy; SB 537, which would require abortions to be performed in ambulatory surgical centers; and SB 1198, which would require physicians performing the procedure to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic.

“After murderer Kermit Gosnell was brought to justice, there are gruesome allegations that Houston abortionist Douglas Karpen murdered babies and operated a ‘house of horrors’ clinics,” Dewhurst wrote in an email blast sent to supporters early Tuesday morning. “For too long, abortionists have run roughshod over the law. It’s time to hold them accountable for their actions.”

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