Texas

This story as it aired on KUT

  The private foundation that’s given financial support to the state’s troubled cancer-fighting agency says it’s shutting down.

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas – known as CPRIT – has its own problems. The agency is being investigated for its handling of some taxpayer-funded grants.

On Tuesday, though, it was the private foundation formed to supplement the salaries of CPRIT’s top executives that brought the wrath of state lawmakers.

Update, Tuesday, 8:05 p.m.: Citing security concerns, a federal prosecutor in Houston has decided to remove himself from a large racketeering case involving the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas prison gang.

It’ll be another busy week for the Texas Legislature. With a take on what to watch for this week, here's Texas Tribune executive editor, Ross Ramsey.

Is CSCOPE an education resource designed to help struggling school districts? Or is it a vast anti-American conspiracy that uses Texas classrooms to convert children to Islam and communism?

CSCOPE is an online curriculum management resource developed by the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC), a group made up of the 20 education service centers in the state. The group develops their curriculum framework through several sources.

Simmering tensions between University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers and the UT Board of Regents keep rising: An article in the Houston Chronicle claims Gov. Rick Perry – who appoints the regents – “has communicated through emissaries that Powers should resign to avoid an embarrassing regents vote to fire him.”

Chronicle reporter Patricia Kilday Hart spoke with Texas Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo. Sen. Zaffirini argues that recent several actions by the Board of Regents – a special-called meeting to discuss a sexual encounter between assistant football coach Major Applewhite and an adult student, a sweeping open records request, and the controversial decision to re-investigate financial arrangements at the UT Law School foundation – are designed to “make life miserable” for Powers and lead to his resignation.