By KERA News Room
Dallas, TX – Dallas Mayor Reveals Wife Used Knife and Nightly Roundup
A tape that Dallas Mayor Dwaine Caraway fought to keep secret shows he told police that his wife, who's a legislator, had a knife during a January altercation at home. "She just went too far tonight," Caraway told police on the tape, which was released today by the city. A judge last night refused to block the disclosure. The conversation occurred in an unmarked police vehicle. Caraway, who was mayor pro tem at the time, said that he and Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway were arguing over whether to throw out some aprons. He says after he barricaded himself in the family's game room, she slid a knife through a crack in the door. No charges were filed. Mallory Caraway was doing Texas House business and not immediately available for comment.
Texas House Committee Passes Budget
A Texas House committee approved a bare-bones budget Wednesday that would make deep cuts to public education and health and human services over the next two years. With no discussion or debate, the House Appropriations Committee adopted the 2012-2013 spending plan in an 18-7 vote that fell along party lines, with all Democrats present rejecting the measure. The proposed budget calls for the state to spend $77.6 billion of its own funds over the two years. Even after an agreement to make a limited withdrawal from Texas' flush reserve fund, the Rainy Day Fund, the plan still would underfund public schools by almost $8 billion and Medicaid by $4 billion. The figures are contingent on passage of the plan to tap the reserve fund. Republican Rep. Jim Pitts, who leads the committee, said the budget writers did their best given the combination of a fiscally conservative House and available revenue, which was short by more than $14 billion. Gov. Rick Perry and lawmakers agreed last week to use $3.2 billion of the state's Rainy Day Fund to help close a shortfall in this year's budget. Perry has vowed to reject any 2012-13 budget that would further tap the reserve fund. The fund, which relies on oil and gas tax revenues, is expected to have a balance of more than $9.4 billion at the end of the budget period if left untouched. The committee vote sends the budget to the House scheduling committee, which will slot it for consideration by the full House. Pitts has said he plans to have the budget before the full House next week. The Senate must still approve its own budget.
Hispanic Student Population Soars
For the first time in state history, Hispanic students make up the majority of students enrolled in Texas public schools. The Texas Education Agency reports Hispanic students account for 50.2 percent of the state's 4.9 million children enrolled in public schools this school year. That figure excludes students in pre-kindergarten and early childhood education. The TEA says the Hispanic student population is the state's fastest-growing