Texas Happenings 2008, No. 4
Week of February 11, 2008TEXAS HapPENINGS is a biweekly advisory to AP member editors on upcoming stories or projects of special interest and a source of news about other AP developments.
TEXAS PRIMARY COVERAGE PLANS
All eyes are on Texas as the March 4 primary looms. The Associated Press staff in the state is hard at work on stories that look not only at the presidential primaries but also races for the U.S. Senate, House, the state Legislature and other statewide offices.
Here’s a look at some of what we have planned between now and March 4.
Spot news:
Feb. 19 -- beginning of early voting.
Feb. 21 -- tentative date of Democratic presidential debate in Austin.
Election previews:
All enterprise stories listed below will move before Feb. 22 for publication up to Feb. 25. If you have any questions, please contact Texas AP News Editor Wendy Benjaminson at 281-872-8900, or at wbenjaminson@ap.org.
PRE-PRIMARY COVERAGE:
TEXAS DELEGATES - Acknowledging that it's one of the most arcane delegate-awarding systems in the country, Texas Democratic officials are trying to re-educate themselves on a system that hasn't mattered in the presidential primary contests since 1988. But with Obama and Clinton neck-and-neck in the delegate race, the complex system of a primary and caucuses could be a major factor in 2008. The Republican delegate count is far simpler. By Kelley Shannon.
TEXAS REPUBLICANS - Social conservatives who have controlled the state Republican Party for more than a decade haven't been too happy with Gov. Rick Perry, once their poster child. And now he's moved from Rudy Giuliani to John McCain as his presidential candidate. Their hearts and minds are probably more in line with Mike Huckabee. A look at where the driving force in Texas Republican power will go in the March primary. By Kelley Shannon.
CANTU-CLINTON - Profile of Alonso Cantu, a Rio Grande Valley businessman and active fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton. By Christopher Sherman.
GOP REVENGE - A look at the races in the 22nd and 23rd Congressional Districts where Republicans hope to regain the seats once held by Henry Bonilla and Tom DeLay and were lost to Democrats in 2006. An extended glance will summarize other congressional primaries around the state. By Elizabeth White.
LEGISLATIVE RDP - A look at the legislative races around the state and how the attempted coup against House Speaker Tom Craddick's leadership will affect those races. By April Castro.
COURTS - A look at competitive primaries for the Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals. By Juan A. Lozano.
SBOE - A look at competitive primaries for seats on the State Board of Education. By April Castro.
RAILROAD COMMISSION - A look at the three Democrats vying to challenge incumbent Republican Michael Williams. By John Porretto.
MAKE THOSE RESERVATIONS FOR TEXAS APME
The deadline is fast approaching for making your hotel reservations for the the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors convention in Galveston in March.
The convention will be held March 28-30 at the Hotel Galvez, a Wyndham historic hotel in Galveston. The hotel is located on Seawall Boulevard. The deadline for hotel reservations is Feb. 23.
The single/double room convention rates are $129 per night. Please specify “Texas APME” when making your reservation. That helps you qualify for the convention rate and the Texas APME to meet the guarantees.
Please make your reservations directly with the hotel by calling 409-765-7721.
TEXAS AP COVERS SPRING TRAINING
Texas AP members can expect plenty of coverage of the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros from their spring training camps.
AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins will spend 10 days at spring training in Arizona with the Rangers in early March. AP Sports Writer Chris Duncan is in Kissimmee, Fla., with the Astros for the start of their spring training and AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken will take over later in March.
As manager Ron Washington prepares for his second season, after some tough adjustments to the new role in year one, the Rangers have plenty of questions to answer in trying to escape the AL West basement. Will Kevin Millwood be the ace starter Texas has always expected? Will three pitching newcomers coming off injuries be able to pitch effectively and contribute? Is All-Star third baseman Hank Blalock healthy? And can Josh Hamilton, the new center fielder whose career was almost derailed by alcohol and drug addictions, continue his progress on and off the field after an incredible breakthrough rookie season in Cincinnati last year?
LOOKING AHEAD
Axel Bachman had never set foot in the United States before he arrived at the University of Texas campus in Brownsville last year on full scholarship to play chess.
Since his arrival, Bachman, an 18-year-old native of Paraguay, has earned the grand master title and was named Sportsman of the Year in his homeland. UTB and the city around it have become a chess incubator. Associated Press Writer Christopher Sherman writes about Bachman in a story slugged BC-TX—Chess Master moving in advance for weekend editions.
AP Photos.
LIVING WITH AUTISM
McALLEN, Texas - Patrick and Silvia Hamilton have helped their autistic son grasp and understand information for 23 years. But they have no regrets. "Special children are born into special families," Silvia said. "We're highly blessed." And special families, like the Hamiltons, do a lot to help their children with disabilities long into their adult years. The constant need for care changes the course of all of their lives. By Paige Lauren Deiner, The Monitor.
AP Photos.
MONDAY
LEGISLATIVE RDP
MISSION - Kino Flores is one of four Craddick Ds, Democrats who supported the Republican speaker Tom Craddick, who now find themselves facing challenges from within their own party on the March 4 primary ballot. On the other side of the aisle, a handful of Republicans who opposed the increasingly unpopular speaker also are engaged in fierce primary races by opponents who are favored by the GOP establishment. By April Castro.
AP Photos.
MARFA MOVIES
MARFA - The man stepped out of a tan late-70s Ford Granada on a deserted two-lane highway carved through the crest of a hill covered with volcanic rock and tall thick-trunked yuccas. A thousand feet above the wind-swept, drought-browned valley, a second man climbed out of a police car, raised a pressurized cattle prod and opened fire, blasting him with a fatal shot to the forehead. Chip Love, the "Man in Ford" as he would become known, collapsed to his knees on the blacktop of Texas Ranch Road 2810. He got up. He was shot again. And again. And again. Eight times altogether he rose and fell. It pretty much took all day. Until he got it right. The stark gorgeous landscape outside Marfa shows up in both "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood," which each have eight Academy Award nominations. By Michael Graczyk. AP Photos.
MEMBERS OFFER STORIES ON-CYCLE
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal quickly provided quotes to The Associated Press from Bob Knight about the Texas Tech coach’s decision to resign earlier this month. The newspaper was the first to report Knight’s resignation.
The Odessa American shared its story with the AP about the rescue of a 7-year-old boy who had run away from home after getting in trouble at school.
The Facts shared its story on child endangerment charges being filed against the mother of a 3-month-old infant whose body was found on the side of a road near Galveston. The infant’s father is charged in his death.
Please send your on-cycle contributions to the AP at dalcarbon@ap.org or APTexas@ap.org. If you’re not sure if we’re interested, please call the AP in Dallas and ask for the supervisor. The number is 1-800-442-7189.
TEXAS APME LOOKING FOR SPOTS FOR INTERNS
The Texas Associated Press Managing Editors board has authorized up to five Buster Haas summer internships for minority student journalists. The interns will work 10 weeks.
The next step is to identify where the interns will work. The program is open to Texas newspapers with a circulation of no more than 30,000. The newspaper must provide a solid internship experience for the students selected for the program.
There is no out-of-pocket to the newspaper. TAPME furnishes a $1,000 living expense grant to the intern along with a $3,000 stipend paid through the newspaper over the period of the internship.
Editors interested in participating in the internship program should contact Nick Jimenez, Haas committee chairman and Corpus Christi Caller-Times editorial page editor, at jimenezn@caller.com or 361-886-3787.
SPECIAL EDITIONS
The special edition package on pets will move March 4.
Editors can access Special Features content in AP Exchange by typing “SPE” into the search field.
ON THE MOVE
DAWN COBB has been named managing editor of the Denton Record-Chronicle. Cobb has been with Denton Publishing Co. since 1986. She most recently was editor of the Denton Business Chronicle and business editor of the Record-Chronicle. She succeeds Annette Fuller, who has joined Journalism Development Group.
ALEX SANCHEZ has been named publisher of Al Dia, the Spanish-language sister publication of The Dallas Morning News. Sanchez joined Al Dia in August and had been president and general manager before his promotion to publisher. He succeeds Gilbert Bailon, who left to become editorial page editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
INDUSTRY NEWS
The AP Industry News summary is now available on the new AP Exchange system, a free system offering you Web-based access to the AP report. On AP Exchange, media industry news items will be available immediately, rather than transmitted once a week. For more on AP Exchange you can visit www.ap.org/apexchange.
If you do not have AP Exchange access yet, please contact AP Texas Chief of Bureau Dale Leach.
An AP Exchange account will permit you to access and search industry news, along with all your AP text, photo and graphics services. Until an AP Exchange account is created for you, we can add you to an e-mail list for distribution of media industry news items as soon as they arrive. If you would like to be added to the distribution list, please send your request by e-mail to talkback@ap.org.
If you’ve got news to share for TEXAS HapPENINGS, please send the material to Linda Franklin at lfranklin@ap.org.
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