By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX – Texas prosecutors are stepping up their probe of a Texas lawmaker who admits he pocketed thousands of dollars in state travel reimbursements.
Assistant Travis County District Attorney Gregg Cox, head of the public integrity unit that oversees official corruption cases, told The Associated Press Tuesday that prosecutors had begun reviewing the travel practices of Rep. Joe Driver before the November elections. Now that the elections are over, that probe has turned into an active criminal investigation, Cox said.
Driver, a Garland Republican who was re-elected to his tenth two-year term, has acknowledged that for years he collected reimbursements from taxpayers for travel he already had paid for using donated campaign money. Driver reimbursed his campaign $49,426 after The AP revealed the double-dipping. Driver did not immediately return phone calls left at his legislative offices Tuesday.
Perry asks tech fund adviser to consider resigning
An Austin businessman on the Texas Emerging Technology Fund's advisory committee is being asked to quit.
The Dallas Morning News reported, for Tuesday editions, that Gov. Rick Perry's office has asked William E. Morrow to resign in the wake of a Texas Rangers investigation of a stock deal that included Morrow. The review found no wrongdoing.
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger told the newspaper late Monday that Morrow "has been asked to evaluate whether his continued service on the TETF advisory committee is in the best interest of the program."
Morrow declined comment.
State Auditor John Keel last week announced his office will review the fund after questions arose over links between contributors to GOP Perry's campaign and companies that get grants.
Perry has said nothing improper occurred.
Interior may force drillers to disclose chemicals
The Interior Department may require natural gas drillers to disclose the chemicals being used in a controversial drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says officials are weighing a policy that includes disclosure requirements for fluids used in the technique.
Salazar hosted a forum Tuesday on the drilling practice, in which crews inject millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, underground to force open channels in sand and rock formations so natural gas will flow.
Salazar called the technique "a hot and very difficult issue," both on public and private lands.
The New York Assembly approved a temporary ban on hydraulic fracturing this week.