Texas Capitol Tidbits:
- Speaker Joe Straus has unveiled House Committee assignments for the 84th Legislature. Among the assignments are many new committee chairs, as legislators step-in to fill the seats of vacated positions, including:
- House Appropriations (John Otto succeeds Jim Pitts, who retired)
- House Ways and Means (Dennis Bonnen succeeds Harvey Hilderbran, who stepped down to run for comptroller)
- House Higher Education (John Zerwas succeeds Dan Branch, who ran for attorney general)
- House Public Health (Myra Crownover succeeds Lois Kolkhorst, who is now in the Texas Senate)
- Yesterday, Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced his appointment of Lisa Craven, his chief of staff, to the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) advisory committee. The advisory committee oversees the spending for the state’s water plan.
- Grab your textbooks, your backpack, and your gun? Thursday, the Senate State Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “Campus Carry” legislation. The bill would allow concealed weapons to be carried on college and university campuses. After a similar bill failed last session, lawmakers are arming themselves for a legislative shoot-out over gun rights.
- Sunday’s 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards, highlighted some Texas talent featuring 11 recording artists, born or based in Texas. Texans received 13 awards and a shout-out from Gov. Greg Abbott. In addition to receiving awards, Texans Beyoncé and Miranda Lambert were among the 23 live performers on the show.
Only in Austin:
The HOPE Outdoor Graffiti Gallery (locally known as ‘the Foundation’) is a community art project located at 11th & Baylor Street. The area is the site of an abandoned condominiums project. Bare walls and foundation slabs that make up most of the park have since been remade into a far more imaginative project. It has since become a street art wonderland where graffiti artists from all over the city come to paint on cement canvases. The park is open to the public 7am – 9pm.
