By TRISTAN HALLMAN

Staff Writer

Pitching himself as the presidential candidate who best knows how to create jobs, Rick Perry has some new ammo: Some online political merchandise vendors credit the governor for boosting their business. Mark Merthe, owner of American Method, a website in California, said its sales of Perry gear have more than….Continue Reading on The Dallas Morning News

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

Texas regulators may soon face a Seminole moment in a debate over specialty license plates that fall flat in the land of Longhorns and Aggies.

My Plates, the state’s license plate vendor, got mixed online reviews on two of its latest college-themed designs — Florida State University and the University…Continue reading at The Dallas Morning News

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

WASHINGTON — Horse rancher M.C. Baker says he opposes inhumane treatment of horses — that’s why he believes the federal government was wrong to halt horse slaughter.

Baker, a self-described “grouchy old veterinarian” who the runs horse breeding center Alpha Equine in Granbury, said by removing funding for inspections of…Continue Reading at The Dallas Morning News.

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

WASHINGTON — Dallas Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling will co-chair a bipartisan supercommittee charged with proposing at least $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, House Speaker John Boehner announced Wednesday.

Hensarling’s position on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction will put him front and center in the next phase of the…Continue Reading at The Dallas Morning News…

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess clarified Tuesday that he would not advocate for impeaching President Barack Obama, after he suggested at a meeting that charging the president was a possibility.

An attendee at a tea party event Monday in Keller said that the House should consider impeachment as a…Continue Reading.

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Gov. Rick Perry’s college transcripts from Texas A&M are now available on the Internet — brought to you by the letter C.

The transcript wasn’t published voluntarily by Perry, who is considering a presidential run. An anonymous source leaked a copy to the Huffington Post website, which scanned…Continue Reading…

The price of vanity has shot up in Texas.

My Plates, the state’s private vendor for specialty license plates, has significantly increased the cost of two types of its one-year tags for new buyers and renewals — upsetting some drivers who say the increases were unexpected and out of line…Continue Reading…

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Following concessions from party leadership, Texas Republicans cast aside their reservations to support Speaker John Boehner’s debt-reduction bill, which narrowly passed the House on Friday night.

Texas Republicans accounted for many of the holdouts who forced Boehner to delay and ultimately tweak his debt bill, which would immediately increase the federal debt ceiling by $900 billion, and cut spending by $917 billion over 10 years…Continue Reading…

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The women of the U.S. House now have a restroom of their own, a development that female lawmakers from Texas hailed as a long-overdue victory for equality.

The new lavatory opened just off the House floor this week. Before Monday, a quick jaunt to a restroom near the House floor had been a privilege enjoyed only by men. Women had to walk much farther — often in heels — for a restroom break while business was conducted on the House floor…Continue Reading…

By TRISTAN HALLMAN

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — In the early 1970s, Martin Frost was a hungry young law clerk whose boss, a well-known federal judge, didn’t like some of the pictures her hometown newspaper was using of her.

So Frost, later a congressman sworn to uphold the law, stole them…Continue Reading…