TPA Roundup, Week of 11/9/08

Once again, we feature the best of Texas blogs from the last week, as selected by the blogs themselves.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston says Stephanie Simmons was a candidate for State Senator in Texas Senate District 17 running as a so-called "Democrat", but her campaign donations say otherwise. See Raising Campaign Cash 2008: Stephanie Simmons.

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the race for Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and provides answers to two important questions: is a secret ballot legal, and will it doom Tom Craddick?

Phillip at BOR counts heads for Speaker votes, and finds that Craddick's ceiling of support is much lower than most realize.

TxSharon at Texas Kaos warns of what should be unthinkable, but in too many Texas towns and cities is a real danger: Imagine If This Pipeline Explosion Happened In Your Front Yard.

Dembones at Eye On Williamson maps the Democratic resurgence in Williamson County in The color purple.

jobsanger looks at a change coming to the Democratic Party in Dean To Resign as DNC Head.

Off the Kuff analyzes where and when the vote was in Harris County.

BossKitty at TruthHugger recognizes that Disasters Increase BioHazards - Global Health Is Personal and sees the media flashing more stories about "green living," "low carbon footprints," and "fuel economy", but underlying all that is the unspoken reality that floods, fires, earthquakes, etc, unearth buried hazards from past and present irresponsible behavior that are seeping back into our lives.

The week-long drama of Paul Bettencourt's continuing attempts to suppress the last of the Harris County votes, the Texas Democratic Party's legal action against him, and the anticlimactic outcome was dutifully chronicled by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Also make sure to check out McBlogger, South Texas Chisme, Texas Liberal, Texas Education, The Texas Cloverleaf, and North Texas Liberal.