Joan Huffman has defeated Chris Bell in the SD 17 State Senate special election!

From the Houston Chronicle:

HOUSTON — A former Harris County felony court judge won a runoff with former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell on Tuesday to fill a state Senate seat left open by a retiring Republican.

Joan Huffman, 52, a Republican, had 24,431 votes, or 56 percent, in complete, unofficial returns. Bell, a Democrat, had 19,104, or 44 percent.

KBTX has the story:

Dr. Emily Sparvero, a sports finance professor in the Department of Health & Kinesiology, will serve as faculty adviser. Sparvero volunteered for the position after the group’s adviser John Fike resigned.

From a news release I received today:

Today 710 KURV joins the massive effort to petition President George W. Bush to commute the sentences of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean before he leaves office.

710 KURV believes that these decorated agents have been punished enough for the shooting of an admitted and now convicted drug smuggling illegal alien.

We’ve got concealed carry.

One group wants concealed carry on campus.

But what about the idea of OPEN CARRY IN TEXAS?  Personally, I’m all for it.  I never felt safer during my internship in the DC area than the time I went to dinner with a dear friend in Alexandria, Virginia and strapped right on his side was his most prized posession…a handgun!

WOAI has the story:

State Rep. Joe Straus (R-Alamo Heights) has filed a measure that would ban straight ticket voting in the state of Texas.  In the status quo it’s common for voters to pay little to no attention to down ballot races like judges, county commissioners, city commissioners, mayoral races and even state representatives!

Voters should be encouraged to learn about CANDIDATES not to vote straight ticket.