DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – With 155 delegates up for grabs during its primary, Texas is the nation’s second biggest prize. In any normal year Texas matters.
The Lone Star State is usually included in Super Tuesday.

This year, Super Tuesday is March 6, and Texas would have been the most important battleground. Not now.

The redistricting fight delayed the Lone Star State’s primary from Super Tuesday to April 3, and now again, to May 29 at the very earliest. That’s just a working date.
The primary could very well happen in June.

The question many are asking is will our state’s Republican primary become irrelevant?

In a normal year, the answer would be yes because by late May or June, the race would likely be decided and a nominee – Republican or Democrat would have already emerged.

But if we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that it’s far from normal.

Texas’ influence on the race will largely depend on what happens on Super Tuesday.

If Mitt Romney has a big night, and can win states like Ohio and even Oklahoma, he could be on his way to win the nomination, and Texas could be an after-thought.
But if Rick Santorum wins Ohio and other states, and has a really good Super Tuesday, then Texas could very well matter. And because Texas’ 155 delegates will be awarded proportionally, that will likely keep the contest here even more competitive.

If it’s a close race before Texas, then the candidates will need every delegate they can win. So that means the candidates would be campaigning in the Lone Star State a lot, and spending millions of dollars in TV and radio ads.

If the delegates were winner take all as they were in Florida, then candidates trailing in the polls may not want to compete, and decide to use their resources elsewhere.

Here’s something else to keep in mind: Another large state, California, with 172 delegates at stake, has its primary June 5. So for now, this year’s primary is still a work in progress.

The actual Texas primary date will be decided once there’s an agreement on redistricting.

A total of 10 minority groups sued the state claiming the Republican drawn Congressional and State House and Senate maps violated the Voting Rights Act by not giving minorities enough opportunities to elect their own candidates — especially when much of the population growth in Texas has been from Hispanics.

On Wednesday, the parties agreed to the State Senate maps. That gave Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis of Fort Worth a huge victory. Republicans had originally drawn a different District 10, and would have spread minorities into other districts. But now, Davis’ district will remain intact. She says this is a victory not only for her, but for her constituents. Davis predicted she would be re-elected.

The Tarrant County Republican Party chairwoman, Jennifer Hall told me that her party will still do well in Davis’ district, and that the Democrat will have her hands full.

The dispute over the State Senate and Congressional maps has yet to be settled.

So the longer that battle continues, the later the Texas primary.

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – On a pleasant October day at a Fort Worth gun show, the makings of a murder began.

“That breaks my heart,” said Jim Terrell, the dealer who sold a Romanian-made gun, similar to an AK-47, on Oct. 10, 2010 to a man he described as “friendly … Just kind of casual.”

“There was nothing suspicious about him, in his movements or eye contact with us,” added Terrell, who runs a gun shop in Burleson when he is not working as a North Texas firefighter.

Four months after that purchase in Fort Worth, an assassin would pull the trigger on that same gun in a highway ambush in Mexico, killing Jaime Zapata, an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The murder, on Feb. 15, 2011, was linked to a Mexican drug cartel. And Zapata would be the first U.S. officer to die in the line of duty in Mexico since 1985.

The killing has triggered a firestorm of controversy in Congress, with some powerful lawmakers questioning how the gun –– and many others like it –– were transported across the border, landing in the hands of dangerous drug cartel mobsters.

“This is very troubling,” said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who is one of the leading critics on how the federal government has handled gun-trafficking investigations recently.

Cornyn said he wonders whether the gun from Fort Worth that was used to kill Zapata was among the thousands of weapons lost during an ill-conceived investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The undercover project, known as “Fast and Furious” and primarily based out of Arizona, was meant to track down deadly drug cartels in Mexico by following U.S. shipments of government-supplied guns.

Cornyn, in an exclusive interview with CBS 11, said he feels certain guns bought in Houston are linked to the “Fast and Furious” operation. And that makes him suspicious of the weapon purchased at the Fort Worth gun show.

“All of this causes me to ask more questions. And the problem is we just don’t seem to be getting the cooperation that we need from Congress, the Attorney General (Eric Holder Jr.) or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms … to get to the bottom of this,” Cornyn said.

Federal records obtained by CBS 11 show that only a month after Otilio Osorio purchased the assault weapon in Fort Worth, he and his brother Ranferi delivered a load of 40 guns to a government informant in a store parking lot in Lancaster, east of Dallas.

ATF agents were watching and recording, but let the Osorio brothers drive off after the exchange was complete, the reports say.

Agent Tom Crowley, spokesman for the ATF in North Texas, told CBS 11 there was good reason for letting the gun traffickers drive away, at least initially.

“There was a stop, but it was also a part of another federal law enforcement operation … by taking them down and arresting them at that time would have possibly jeopardized that investigation,” Crowley said.

“None of the tactics used in this investigation were anything similar to what was used in Arizona’s Fast and Furious, including intentionally walking firearms across the border,” he added.

Otilio and Ranferi Osorio have since been arrested and have pleaded guilty to gun crimes in a federal court in Dallas.

Meanwhile, Jim Terrell, the gun dealer, said he feels bad but not responsible, for the path the Romanian assault weapon took after it left his hands.

“We always strive to go above and beyond in our screening process of people who buy firearms,” said Terrell. “We sell them to the good people. We don’t want the bad people to have them –– ever!”

It will be his second trip here this month.

Santorum needs money to keep up with his momentum, and he’ll be holding a fundraiser in Fort Worth.

The announcement comes as new polls continue to show a Santorum surge.
A new survey of Ohio by Quinnipiac gives Santorum the lead.

He has 36 percent compared to Mitt Romney’s 29 percent. Newt Gingrich has 20 and Ron Paul has just 9 percent.

In another important, Midwest swing state, Michigan, Santorum is holding onto his lead over Romney, who’s father was once Governor.

Romney is already running negative ads against Santorum to raise doubts.

The question is will Santorum be able to respond more effectively than Gingrich did in Florida?

Gingrich’s campaign appears to be running out of steam — for now.

Nationally, Santorum remains ahead of the polls as well. But those aren’t as important as the polls in the individual states.

One state that may lose its influence on the nomination process is Texas.

Republicans and Democrats and minority groups are getting close to a deal on congressional and state legislative maps, but the primary may be delayed until late May to give county elections commissioners time to prepare ballots.

The primary was already pushed back from Super Tuesday, March 6th to April 3rd.
Texas is a big prize – with 155 delegates.

But if the Presidential primary is at the end of May, the race may already be sewn up by then.

A lot will depend on what happens on Super Tuesday.

If Santorum wins Ohio and other states, the race could very well continue through late May to the Texas primary.

There’s already a lot of people who are talking about a brokered convention, in which no one has the 1,144 required delegates to win the nomination.

But if Romney dominates on Super Tuesday, he may very well be able to wrap up enough delegates and momentum, that Republicans would consolidate behind him.

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The two sides announced a deal on state Senate maps to a panel of federal judges during a hearing in San Antonio, but the Texas House and congressional districts remain in dispute for the 2012 elections.

The deal is short of a breakthrough, and doesn’t give Texas any renewed hope that an April primary might still be possible. Elections administrators testified this week that any primary date before May 22 is nearly impossible, and the judges seemed to acknowledge those logistics.

But any compromise between the Texas attorney general and minority rights groups is significant after months legal jousting that has reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yet the two sides didn’t exactly come back to the bargaining table on their own terms. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia on Tuesday night ordered them to return the next morning with a deal, sounding as though he was losing patience with weeks of stalled talks despite repeated court-ordered negotiations.

The Republican-controlled Legislature drew the disputed Senate map in a way to make sure one incumbent was not re-elected. It also divided up minority voters into districts dominated by whites, something forbidden under the Voting Rights Act.

The compromise restores the district largely to its previous boundaries with a similar racial make-up.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Owners of a northeast Texas farm have obtained a court order to block TransCanada from crossing the farm with a proposed pipeline planned to carry Canadian oil to refineries along the Texas Gulf coast.

Lamar County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Harris ordered TransCanada representatives and those of The Crawford Family Farm Partnership to appear before him Feb. 24 to show why Harris shouldn’t extend the order against TransCanada. However, family attorney John Pieratt of Austin says Harris has scheduled a rehearing at TransCanada’s request for Friday in Paris, Texas.

The order came in TransCanada’s condemnation lawsuit against the family partnership for right-of-way across the 600-acre farm along the Red River, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas.

Last month President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline.  This week Senate Republicans introduced legislation that would allow it to be built.

Copyright 2012 CBS Local.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

“I’m hoping that that’s what’s going to happen, because I realize there’s a tremendous amount of angst out there,” Sen. Florence Shapiro, a Plano Republican, said of a year’s delay in making the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, exam’s results impact grades.

Shapiro said a reprieve would give school officials more time to fully implement the exam and weigh its impact.

“There’s a special fear reserved for the unknown,” Shapiro said in an interview. “A year from now, this process won’t be unknown anymore.”

Her comments came a day after she and three other Senate Education Committee members sent a letter to Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott clarifying that the legislation that created STAAR gives him the authority to delay regulations that its results determine 15 percent of students’ grades.

Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokesman for the Texas Education Agency, said Scott had received the letter but was waiting for additional guidance from the Texas House before responding.

Scott said recently, however, that Texas schools’ over-emphasis on high-stakes standardized testing is a “perversion” of the exams’ intent. Shapiro said she believes he will agree to waive the 15 percent of grades rule until the 2012-2013 school year.

The requirement was designed to ensure students take the test seriously. But it has angered some young people, parents and school administrators, who say doing poorly on the STAAR exam could hurt grades and make Texas students less attractive to university admissions boards.

The new testing system replaces the much-maligned Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test beginning this school year.

It includes tests for grades three to eight. Then in high school, 12 tests will be given at the end of courses in Algebra I and II, geometry, biology, chemistry, physics, English I, II and III, world geography, world history, and U.S. history — with their results counting toward final grades.

Adding to critics’ concerns is the fact that some school districts have already decided that while high school STAAR tests will affect grades, they won’t change students’ existing grade point averages or class ranks. Those can instead be calculated without STAAR scores. Others have withheld GPAs, however, until the test results are in at the end of the year.

STAAR will also be used to help authorities evaluate the quality of instruction in schools, but Shapiro said districts have already been given a year’s delay from consequences of the test results as they implement the new testing system.

“If we’ve given it to school districts, we should give it to students,” she said.

Shapiro has been a staunch defender of the new test and said she is not backing away from that position.

“This is a fairness issue,” she said, “It’s not about retreating.”

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Although the chances of an April primary are not officially extinguished, even the judges acknowledged those prospects are fading because of logistics. Elections workers from some of Texas’ largest counties are pushing May 22 as the next earliest date if maps can be settled quickly.

One could be finished Wednesday after U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ordered the state and minority rights groups to return to court with an agreed-upon map for state Senate.

Despite court-ordered negotiations, the Texas attorney general and minority rights groups suing the state have been unable to compromise for weeks on temporary voting maps for the 2012 elections. On some proposals, only one disputed district stands in the way of a deal.

“The Senate — get it done,” Garcia said Tuesday, pointing his finger at the table of minority rights lawyers.

Delegate-rich Texas was originally scheduled to be a part of next month’s slate of Super Tuesday primaries, but the redistricting clash forced the state to reschedule its contest to April 3. With that date now all but dead too, a May primary could be long after Republicans settle on a nominee to face President Barack Obama.

Garcia and the other two judges on the panel have not yet officially canceled the scheduled April 3 primary, but that’s a mere formality.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez at one point suggested that June 26 may make the most sense for the primary elections. That would make Texas among the last states in the nation to hold a primary but would also ensure that maps would reflect any Voting Rights Act issues that a Washington court is still deciding.

But Democratic and Republican party officials said they would prefer a vote in late May.

“That’s asking me if I want to be shot in the stomach or the head,” said Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. “I’d rather be shot in the stomach, which would be May.”

Even if Texas is left out of choosing who will be at the top of the Republican ticket, plenty is still at stake whenever the state settles on new voting maps.

The ramifications are national because Texas was awarded four new congressional seats following the 2010 census. Whether they go Democrat or Republican could affect the balance of power in the U.S. House.

The updated count determined the population boom in Texas was driven by nearly 3 million new Hispanic residents over the last decade, but minority groups and Democrats say those numbers weren’t reflected in how the Republican-controlled Legislature redrew districts statewide.

One example of how far apart both sides remain came early in Tuesday’s hearing.

David Mattax, an attorney for the Texas attorney general’s office, said the state compromised on more than two dozen districts in its latest offer that was accepted by a handful of minority groups.

The groups that balked, meanwhile, submitted a counterproposal — which Mattax said featured changes to more than 60 districts.

“This map rewrites the entire state,” Mattax said.

Any flickering hopes of an April primary all but died after county officials took the stand. Bexar County Elections Administrator Jackie Callanen testified that because ballots to soldiers deployed overseas must be mailed 45 days prior to an election under federal law, the window for any April primary date had closed.

Callanen suggested May 22 as the earliest date now possible, and at least six other county elections workers raised their hands in agreement.

The judges still asked Callanen, who is responsible for nearly 1 million voters around San Antonio, what would happen if they rushed ahead with an April 17 primary.

“You will be setting counties up for failure. I don’t know a nicer way to say that,” she said.

Judges also refloated the idea of holding a split primary, in which Texas would hold a presidential primary in April and another primary for state and congressional races later. But the additional costs of holding two primaries would have to be picked up by the state, which has already been forced to make budget cuts.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The trial for former Dallas Justice of the Peace Carlos Medrano is underway.

The case centers on the allegation of illegal voting and influencing family members to break the law.

Medrano is a member of the politically driven family, which includes three generations of elected city council, school board and county government representatives.

Medrano, along with brother Frank Medrano III, is accused of voter fraud.

Prosecutors contend the duo conspired to get family members to vote in the 2010 Dallas Justice of the Peace Precinct 5 election, in which Medrano was a candidate, despite knowing the family members were ineligible to vote, based on residency.

Two young members of the Medrano clan, Raquel and Veronica Medrano, allegedly voted in the Dallas election, but actually lived in Mesquite.

Sgt. Jennifer Bloodworth, a state investigator, testified about her search for evidence, including Facebook admissions of voter fraud from one of the Medrano nieces.

At least six other members of the Medrano family face charges connected to the voter fraud investigation.

The case was moved to Rockwall County. Testimony is before a judge. There is no jury.

About 50 witnesses are expected to be called to testify in the case, including Medrano family members who may testify against the brothers.

The trial resumes Wednesday.

Updated, 6:46 pm

The judges closed out the day by telling the lawyers to wrap things up. Judge Orlando Garcia asked the lawyers for the state and for MALC how far apart they were; hearing that they were down to a one-seat difference in the number of minority districts in their maps, he urged them to come to agreement. He also told the attorneys in the room to work out their differences over the state Senate maps.

The judges also appeared at the end of today’s hearing to have ruled out split primaries — due to cost — and April primaries — due to logistics.

They’ll convene tomorrow at 8 a.m.

Updated, 4:17 p.m.: April primaries are all but impossible for the state’s election administrators, and if the state wants to hold primaries on May 29, they’ll need approved congressional and legislative maps by March 3, according to Bexar County Election Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen.

It would be possible to hold those state elections on May 22, but that would crowd local elections held on May 12. Speaking for a group of election officials from across the state, she told the judges that to hold elections on April 24, those officials would have needed final maps by today.

Nobody asked whether it would be possible to hold presidential-only elections in April. Callanen was also asked when the primary runoffs for a May 29 primary would be held. The answer? July 31.

Original story:

SAN ANTONIO — Still no maps, still no date.

The federal judges who asked attorneys to negotiate a deal on political maps for this year’s elections instead got a day of explanations and arguments about why no such agreement has been made.

Through mid-afternoon, the topic of specific primary dates hadn’t even come up in the hearing on congressional and legislative redistricting. The only reference to those elections came when Joe Nixon, an attorney for U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, told the judges they should wait for another court’s ruling before proceeding. That would kill chances for an April primary, and the judges reacted with some incredulity and surprise.

The judges called the attorneys into session to try to get congressional and legislative maps drawn in time to hold primaries in April. The state’s primaries were set for March 6 and got delayed because no legal maps were ready. And the new date — April 3 — slipped away for the same reason. If the judges can put maps in place by early next week, it would be at least theoretically possible to hold primaries in late April. If not, the legislative and congressional elections will probably slide to late May.

It was clear from the outset that the attorneys for the various factions — and there are factions within factions on both sides of the courtroom — had not agreed on maps. The state proposed maps last week and won an endorsement from a major plaintiff. But having the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force on board wasn’t enough.

The judges didn’t reject that proposed map — in fact, they went out of their way to say it hadn’t been rejected — but the remaining disagreements over maps prompted them to get the attorneys back into the John Wood Federal Courthouse to try to hammer out a deal.

The judges wanted to know where negotiations stood, and the state started out by saying that there are “insurmountable” differences over coalition districts. The state’s position is that the law doesn’t require creation of districts where minorities can combine to form majorities and without such a requirement, there’s no reason for the state to draw those.

Some of the plaintiffs argued that such districts should be added in Dallas-Fort Worth and other areas of the state. Other plaintiffs argued that the state’s proposal unfairly fractures Latino communities. David Mattax, the state’s lead attorney, called that a “too cute” way to try to get some new coalition districts into the maps.

He said the creation of new coalition districts is really an attempt to create and protect new Democratic seats. And he said that would mean the Voting Rights Act was being used to protect parties. “That would mean that every single Democratic district in the state of Texas is a protected district,” he said.

It didn’t take long for the attorneys to start talking about the specific districts that stymied the negotiators. “I’m a little uncomfortable with all of the details that have been exposed here in this discussion,” said Jose Garza, an attorney for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.

But the details kept coming, in a hearing on proposed districts and how they would and wouldn’t affect voters, whether because of race, party or geography.

Mattax said there was no evidence of racial motivations behind the mapping in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. But later in the hearing, he was asked how he was supposed to tell the difference, if the effect was the same.

Garza told the court that the state’s proposed settlement includes 50 minority opportunity districts — districts where minority voters have the opportunity, in election law parlance, to elect the candidates of their choice — while a map proposed by MALC has 51 such districts. He denied that the group is trying to maximize the number of Latino seats, saying that he could draw a map with 53 or 54 such seats if that were true.

Rick Gray, an attorney for the so-called Perez plaintiffs — told the court that the state never invited his group to the negotiations. He said the state is trying to settle only the claims raised under the Voting Rights Act, while ignoring constitutional claims raised by his group and others. He gave a long presentation of what the maps should look like; for instance, he said, Anglos make up 33 percent of the population in Dallas County, but the state’s maps make them dominant in eight of that county’s 14 seats.

Gray said he’s not arguing for coalition districts, but he said the number of minority opportunity districts on the maps would increase if fractured minority communities were restored. The judges asked if he wasn’t making wholesale changes to the map — the Supreme Court frowned on an earlier map that did just that. And the state pounced on that: Mattax said the state’s proposal changed 27 House districts on the maps approved by the Legislature, while Gray’s map changed 65. He also argued that for all its changes, Gray’s map didn’t add any minority districts. Instead, he said, it created new coalition districts that don’t have to be there.

Nina Perales, director of litigation for MALDEF — one of the groups that signed off on the state’s proposal — said the Legislature’s map followed racial lines in several districts. She showed a map of El Paso, saying the districts drawn there were cut on racial lines, ignoring the city’s geography and its precinct lines.

She defended a new congressional district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, saying Congressional District 33 isn’t a coalition district, in part because blacks and Latinos “almost always prefer different candidates.” She said the Anglos in that district “tend not to participate in very large numbers.”

The court circled back to Congressional District 25, which other plaintiffs have tried to protect as a coalition district. Perales said it’s not one and because of that, saw no need to try to protect it during the negotiations. “A lot of this is about partisanship,” she said. “The task force has striven to stay out of partisanism and incumbent protection.”

The judges said the hearing will continue on Wednesday but will end there. If they’re to get maps in time for April, election administrators have said they will have to finish by next week.

CBS 11 political analyst John Weekley has a better term for it:

The Trampoline Effect.

Michele Bachmann was up at the Iowa straw poll, then down when Rick Perry announced he was jumping into the race.

Rick Perry was up, then down after repeated stumbles during the debates, before the “Oops” moment finished him for good.

Newt Gingrich was down over the summer when his whole campaign team quit, then up when Republicans saw how well he did during debates and his big victory in South Carolina, only to fall  back down again in Florida.  He hasn’t been able to get back up.

Rick Santorum was down, then up after his close 2nd place finish in Iowa (he really came in first, but that wasn’t discovered until weeks later), then down after losing New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida.  But since his three victories in Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota, he’s now back up.  Way up.  He’s leading national polls, and in Michigan, a state Romney was expected to win on February 28th because his father was once that state’s Governor.

Ron Paul has had a very loyal following all along, and hasn’t been affected by the trampoline effect because most analysts agree he never had a real shot at the nomination anyway.

Mitt Romney always seemed to avoid getting onto the trampoline.  He’s had his steady core of voters.

But when he won Florida and Nevada, it was his turn on the trampoline.

The problem for him is, he learned the hard way that you don’t stay up for long on the trampoline that is the Republican nomination process this year.

As Weekley says, “the higher you jump up on the trampoline, the harder you can fall.”

Romney’s loss in Colorado, a state he won in 2008, raised a lot of questions about his support.  Losing in Missouri and Minnesota only made the problem worse.

Conservatives have always had their doubts about Romney.  While some have still voted for him, many did so believing he was the most likely Republican to defeat President Barack Obama this fall.

Some voters said they voted with their heads, not their hearts.  But after Santorum’s surprising wins last week, and with his surge in the polls, many Republicans may now believe they can vote with their hearts, not just their heads.

During Santorum’s visit to North Texas last week, I met a woman who said the debates turned her off, and that she was only starting to pay attention to the race.  She heard Santorum, and liked what he said.  Another couple I met said they favored Gingrich, but that they were open to the idea of supporting Santorum.

I didn’t meet anyone who favored Romney.  But he still has a lot of supporters here in Texas.

The big question now for Santorum is can he continue to stay up, without falling back down and off the trampoline?

The next test will be next week’s debate, and soon after the Michigan and Arizona primaries.  Victories there will add to his momentum, and raise more doubts about Romney.

But the real test comes during Super Tuesday, March 6th.  As I’ve previously written, if Santorum can win in Ohio, a big and diverse state, where none of the candidates has a built-in advantage, he will re-set the entire race.   Again.

- CBS 11 political reporter Jack Fink

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A Dallas County sheriff’s deputy has been indicted for allegedly trying to defraud the government.

Tuesday morning a grand jury indicted Sgt. Derce Kirby on six counts of tampering with a government document with the intent to defraud.

Kirby is accused of writing tickets while on duty as a deputy but claiming he wrote them while working for a grant program the sheriff received.

If convicted on the felony charges, Kirby could go to a state jail.

The grand jury could issue other indictments.

KRLD’s L.P Phillips talked to Sheriff Lupe Valdez:

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A federal court in San Antonio that has spent months refereeing a clash over bitterly disputed Texas voting maps reconvenes again Tuesday, and Republicans and Democrats are hoping to learn when the state’s primary elections will finally take place.

April 3 is the currently scheduled date, but that no longer seems realistic since not even temporary maps for the 2012 elections in Texas are settled. Another weekend of court-ordered negotiations between the state and minority rights groups, meanwhile, ended with little to show for it.

The stalemate doesn’t yet spell doom for the chances of Texas holding primary elections sometime in April. But the continued deadlock further dampens prospects of a deal, which a three-judge panel in San Antonio favors over drawing the maps themselves.

At stake is the political balance of power in both Texas and Congress. Texas was awarded four new congressional seats following the 2010 census, and whether they go Democrat or Republican could affect the balance of power in the U.S. House.

The 2010 census shows that the population boom in Texas was driven by nearly 3 million new Hispanic residents over the last decade, but minority groups and Democrats say those numbers weren’t reflected in how the Legislature redrew districts statewide.

Rather than inch closer to a resolution over the weekend, both sides might have dug in their heels further. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told the court that one deal-breaker is carving up the district currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, which would in turn help make Republicans more electable in heavily Democratic Travis County.

Abbott wrote in a filing Monday that his office was reviewing new proposals to other changes on the map. But he also acknowledged that Doggett’s district alone could prevent any chance of a breakthrough.

“The State cannot compromise on this district and that may prevent a global compromise on the Congressional map,” Abbott wrote.

The Texas NAACP, one of nine parties suing the state, urged the court Monday to wait until another federal court in Washington rules on the separate issue of whether the original maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature violate the Voting Rights Act.

Waiting, however, could push the Texas primary into May or June. When the San Antonio court ordered both sides Friday to continue negotiating over the weekend, the judges made clear that an April primary was the goal.

Texas NAACP president Gary Bledsoe said for a quick settlement to be reached, the state would have to do better than the 11 minority-opportunity congressional districts he said is being offered now.

Under a partial compromise reached last week, the state agreed to make two of the four new congressional seats Hispanic-opportunity districts. That, combined with other adjustments, was good enough to satisfy Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

But the majority of the plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit said the offer wasn’t good enough. One expert analysis filed by the Texas NAACP read that “while the revised map corrects some of the most egregious problems in the enacted plan, it still has major flaws.”

One of the major legal disputes is over so-called crossover or coalition districts, places where members of no single group dominate. The groups suing want current coalition districts maintained in the interim maps, while the attorney general’s office argues that a recent Supreme Court ruling forbids a court-drawn map from having coalition districts.

Two of these districts appear to be the major stumbling blocks in drafting compromise maps: Doggett’s district in Austin and Texas Senate District 10 in Fort Worth.

The staunch defense of the two districts reflects the political reality of the redistricting battle, groups on all sides draw these lines to increase or defend the political power of one party.

Doggett, who’s been targeted by Republican mapmakers in the past, currently represents a diverse population in central and eastern Austin as one of three representatives from Travis County. The map drawn by the Legislature divides heavily Democratic Travis County into five districts, with white Republicans dominating four seats and a San Antonio-based Hispanic most likely winning the fifth seat.

State Sen. Wendy Davis represents Senate District 10, and as one of the most vocal and liberal voices in the Texas Senate, Republicans hope to force her out by redrawing her district. But since both Davis and Doggett are white, protecting their seats before the court could be difficult.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - It’s been talked about for a generation, bridging the economic divide between northern and Southern Dallas.

Today there are not one but to initiatives from Dallas City Hall, one from Mayor Mike Rawlings, a similar one from city staff. Mayor Rawlings calls his “Grow South,” He addressed a late afternoon group of city movers and shakers to plead his case.

“We must start to develop Southern Dallas,” he said, prefacing his plan. It was part of his campaign promise to heal the perceived north-south rift and boost the fortunes of southern Dallas residents.

Leonard Nolen was listening closely; he just moved from the mid-cities back into his childhood neighborhood in the Fair Park area. He bought property first, now he’s moved to cement the deal.

“ If i’m going to have property and be a part of owning something over here you might as well stay over here.”

The mayor’s 10-point plan covers much of the same area as the city staff plan unveiled this weekend. Encouraging economic growth, and changing the sometimes negative perceptions of the area.

“I’m excited about the part that talks about changing perceptions of southern Dallas,” said Bob Stimson, President of the Oak Cliff chamber of Commerce.

He agrees that re-investing in areas like the Bishop Arts District can change perceptions; adding amenities like the Trinity Audubon Center to existing attractions like the Dallas Zoo and the State Fair can, as well. On top of this, the city urges targeting investments into successful areas and tracking and promoting their progress.

Pinnacle Park is a success in terms of business and jobs; Stimson wants the formula repeated down the road at I-30 and Westmoreland.

“Certainly the fact that Pinnacle Park has done so well has gotten investors interested in the property around it” he said. Looking south is where the city says developable land is. It has the infrastructure for highways and transportation, quick access to downtown, and a nearby educated workforce.

Gary Clark hopes the excitement spreads to Central Oak Cliff, where his sporting goods store has been located for more than 30-years. He sees parallels to recent downtown economic success.

“At one time the downtown area was down but they’re doing things to bring people back into the downtown area,” Clark said.  “So I’d love to see something like that go on over in this area.”

Called the Cotton Belt line, the train will be similar to Denton’s A Train.

The Cotton Belt’s path will run right behind a number of homes – and that’s not sitting well with residents.

CBS 11′s Sharrie Williams reports:

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Senator Schumer kicked off his news conference in New York on Sunday by referencing Ellen Terrell, the female passenger who spoke out to CBS 11 earlier this month.

“At one point the passenger was asked if she plays tennis because she of her ‘cute’ figure, “ said Schumer, who held his both hands up making quotations signs with his fingers as he said “cute.”

He described what happened to Terrell at DFW airport as it was reported word for word in our CBS 11 investigation.

“A passenger at Dallas Fort Worth claims she was asked to walk through a body scanner three times for the simple purpose of letting screeners in another room get multiple views of her image.”

And, Schumer was not only familiar with Terrell’s claims but also the complaints our investigation exposed from other female travelers.

“Some report feeling targeted or being subjected to a peep show.”

The Senator announced that he is introducing legislation this week that will mandate TSA post passenger advocates at every airport in the country who can be summoned by passengers to hear their concerns if they feel they’ve been inappropriately treated by TSA officers.

“These latest incidents offer further proof that passengers need an onsite point of contact who they can bring grievances to and who can advocate on their behalf when they feel they are being treated unfairly or inappropriately, “ said Schumer.

“Going through security at our nations airports should not be a humiliating or degrading experience. Because the TSA has refused to put passenger advocates at our nation’s airports, today I’m introducing legislation that would force them to do so.”

The RIGHTS act would specifically:

• Require the TSA to establish an “Office for Passenger Support”
• Require every airport where TSA operates to have at least one TSA Passneger Advocate on duty at all times
• Mandate every airport where TSA operates to have clearly visible signage explaining that a TSA passenger advocate can be summoned
• Establish best practices to resolve frequent public complaints and conduct training of TSA officers to resolve frequently occurring passenger complaints
• And field advance notification calls from individuals with medical conditions or disabilities to pre-arrange for a screening process at the airport that ensures the safety of the flight without causing undue hardship for the disabled passneger.

In response to the proposed legislation, Ellen Terrell told CBS 11 she likes the idea of a passenger advocate. She believes the Senator is on the “right track.” Terrell, however, would like a “third party, unbiased person” to become the passenger advocate, not a TSA agent.

The council’s transportation committee is considering whether to place the panels on several locations, including the roofs of the Dallas Convention Center, Dallas Police Stations and Dallas Love Field.

LISTEN: KRLD’s Austin York Reports –

Kris Sweckard with the Office of Environmental Quality says the benefits are numerous.  Sweckard says the short term costs of the plan are relatively high,  but will be substantially offset with federal funds and grants from Oncor.

Sweckard says the panels could potentially save the city millions.

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Romney spent Friday at the CPAC convention trying to convince conservatives that he is one of them — despite the fact that as Massachusetts Governor he passed not only a healthcare law that required individuals to buy health insurance, but also stricter environmental regulations.

Romney’s speech, along with Santorum’s and Gingrich’s, were all praised by conservatives.

Romney even won the straw poll at the conservative convention.

But many conservatives still don’t know if they can believe Romney’s “severely conservative,” as he has claimed.

Romney won the Maine caucus as expected, but not by much over Ron Paul.

New national polls over the weekend show Santorum still surging.

A Gallup tracking poll shows Romney still ahead, but only by seven over Santorum, 34 to 27%.  Gingrich has 16 and Paul 8.

But a Public Policy Polling survey shows Santorum in the lead by 15 points.  He has 38%, to Romney’s 23. Gingrich has 17 and Paul has 13&.

Even in Georgia, where Gingrich served in Congress, Santorum is gaining.

He’s now in second there, nine points behind Gingrich at 35% to 26%.  Romney is third with 16, and Paul has 5.

The other question this year that’s gaining more traction is the very real possibility this fight will go all the way to the national convention in Tampa, Florida this August.

This past weekend, former Alaska Governor and Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin said a brokered convention, in which no candidate gets the required 1,144 delegates, wouldn’t hurt Republicans.

A lot still has to happen to create that scenario.

The bottom line remains:  will Romney seal the deal with Republicans or will Santorum capture the lead?

At this point, Gingrich appears to be fading.

But as Santorum told me during an interview last week in North Dallas, if you don’t like the way the campaign is looking, wait 2 or 3 weeks and it’ll change.

On March 6th — just three weeks away — it’ll be Super Tuesday, when ten states go to the polls.

I suspect the picture will become clearer on March 7th.

Click Here To Read More From CBS News

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Texas was supposed to take part in the Super Tuesday vote on March 6, but the failure of the state to win approval of new political maps in Washington and a separate civil rights lawsuit in San Antonio delayed the vote to April 3, when the state was scheduled to use temporary maps drawn by the San Antonio judges.

The U.S. Justice Department or a federal judge must approve any changes to Texas election law because of the state’s history of racial discrimination, and without that approval federal judges must draw temporary maps. Minority groups have also sued in federal court claiming that the maps dilute their political power and have offered up alternative maps. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has argued that the maps only dilute the power of Democratic voters, which is perfectly legal.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the temporary maps first drawn by the San Antonio court and said the judges should have paid more attention to the Legislature’s original maps for Congress, the Texas House and the Texas Senate. Trying to short circuit another appeal, the judges asked the state and the minority groups to reach a compromise. But that didn’t happen in time for an April 3 primary.

On Friday, the judges ordered all sides to keep trying to draft compromise maps before Tuesday, when lawyers for the state and minority groups will appear again before the judges to make their final arguments.

“It is the court’s desire to have redistricting plans in place for an April primary and all parties must continue their negotiations to assist the Court in accomplishing that task,” Judge Orlando Garcia wrote in an order issued Friday. “If the parties have ceased negotiations, they should resume with all due effort between now and the time of the hearing.”

The judges clearly want a compromise by next week. Politicians and party operatives will hang on the judges’ every word, hoping for some indication of when they will finish and set a primary election schedule.

“There is still some chance we will have an April 17th primary if maps can be put in place by February 20,” Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri said Wednesday in an e-mail.

Party leaders have many good political reasons for wanting to vote soon. Texas Republicans still want a chance to sway the outcome of the presidential nomination race and they want a high voter turnout, which comes if Republican voters think they’ll have a say in picking their presidential candidate.

“Fortunately, the Presidential race appears to still have a long ways to go and this increases the likelihood that even a later Texas Presidential primary will still have an impact on the selection of our nominee,” Munisteri said.

Incumbent politicians also want a quick primary to limit the chances of a challenger catching up to them before election day. Every day a challenger has to shake hands and raise money is another chance they have of winning.

Time is also running out, though, for more practical reasons. The primary also selects who will attend the precinct, county and state conventions, a process that takes normally takes 45 days. Candidates who don’t get more than 50 percent of the vote must also face run-off elections that should be completed before party conventions.

Because of municipal elections previously scheduled for May, early voting and time needed to program voting machines, there is not time between April 17 and May 27 for the primaries. Holding a primary on May 27 with conventions running June 8-10 is nearly impossible.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties put down large deposits for hotel rooms and convention space and they don’t have time to reschedule.

Getting everything in place for an April 17 primary will also challenge the skills of county election officers. Once the new maps come out, the candidate filing period must be re-opened to give politicians a chance to jump back into the race if they choose. Then counties have to hold a drawing to determine in what order the names will appear on the ballot and then get ballots printed.

Counties will also have to redraw precinct boundaries and issue new voter cards. Lastly, county election officers must mail absentee ballots, program voting computers and set up early voting stations.

Combined, these factors mean the court needs to produce maps no later than Feb. 20 for the state to hold a primary on April 17, the last date to prevent the collapse of the party conventions and a delay of elections until late-May. The people of Texas should know more this week.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The abuse of prescription drugs has skyrocketed across the nation, and especially in Texas where, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, accidental overdoses from 1999 to 2007 increased 150%.

Now the Texas Legislature is hoping to take action to curb prescription drug abuse.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has kept tabs on who is prescribing, filling and buying controlled substances, such as hydrocodone and Xanax, two of the most commonly abused prescription drugs, for years. Physicians, pharmacists and law enforcement officials can register for access to the information. So far only, there are about 200 registered users of the database, known as Prescription Access Texas, or PAT. Of the 200, 22 are in Dallas/ Fort Worth area, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The PAT database is set to go online in the summer of 2012, but in next year’s legislative session, lawmakers will consider requiring doctors and pharmacists to check the database before writing or filling prescriptions of controlled substances, something that currently is voluntary,  The purpose, lawmakers say, is to “take a proactive approach to prevention, assist with criminal investigation and provide historical reporting and identify trends,” according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Former addicts, like Maryrose Zielan, a Dallas radio personality, says something like that may have saved her life.

“I would shop, I had 3 different doctors I was going to, I had to make notes which pharmacy,” Zielan said.

Zielan first mingled with prescription drugs to treat migraines but a bulging disk in her back and caring for her sick mother took her addiction to another level. At one point after back surgery, Zielan says she was taking up to 20 pills a day to manage her pain.

In the next legislative session, lawmakers will consider legislation that would require doctors and pharmacists to check the database before filling and prescribing controlled substances.

“It’s possible that an patient can claim that it’s an invasion of their privacy under the constitution 4th amendment,” said Peter Vogel, a privacy attorney for Gardere.

The other concern for privacy advocates is how law enforcement will use the data.
“Are they then going to have a drug raid on that person’s home? Is the police going to come and seize the drugs? It’s not real clear what would happen with all that,” said Vogel.

The Texas Department of Public Safety says the data will be used to help identify fraud, all in an effort to curb prescription drug abuse.

Zielan said, if the database can save one life, it’s worth it.

“This year on April 24th, I’ll be sober for 7 years and I’ve seen Christ work in my life. I can’t believe I’m alive,” she said.
The database is scheduled to be rolled out online this summer.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Special honors will be extended to students and faculty members at a school in southeast Dallas on Friday morning. First Lady Michelle Obama is in North Texas for a second day to thank the school for a job well done in the arena of healthy eating.

At a morning event, Mrs. Obama will highlight the healthy eating changes that students in the Dallas Independent School District are making each day, especially at Nancy Moseley Elementary School. The campus is a ‘gold’ school in the Healthier U.S. School Challenge program.

The DISD has more ‘gold’ schools than any other district in the nation.

There will also be a competition at the Dallas elementary school on Friday, including stars from the reality cooking show “Top Chef” battling to see what meals they can dish out for students. Some of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders will also be there.

Mrs. Obama received a warm welcome to the DFW area at an Olive Garden restaurant in north Fort Worth on Thursday night. She was there to meet with eight parents, to discuss how they have been able to get their children to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Jenny Hogan and her three kids from Frisco met Mrs. Obama on Thursday and 9-year-old Amanda Hogan even got the First Lady’s autograph on a folder. “It’s something special I should keep,” the little girl said.

“We were discussing about how fun it is to get all the kids out together, riding their bikes and running,” said Jenny Hogan. “And when you do it together as a group, you share the excitement.”

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In a court filing laying out the settlement terms of the prayer case, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery wrote that he forgave Christians who “venomously and vomitously” threatened his assassination, he thanked the U.S. Marshals for providing him additional security and without singling anyone out by name, offered a self-deprecating nod to those wished him the worst.

“To those who have prayed for my death: Your prayers will someday be answered, as inevitably trumps probability,” Biery wrote.

The unusually personal comments in a federal court order overshadowed the actual settlement. The case had been closely watched by social conservatives, and on the campaign trail, Newt Gingrich has portrayed Biery, a 1994 Clinton appointee, as the embodiment of so-called activist judges.

After winning the South Carolina primary, Gingrich singled out Biery as a “dictatorial religious bigot” for his decision in the San Antonio court case.

Under the settlement, the Medina Valley Independent School District won’t officially make prayer part of graduation ceremonies. The settlement does not, however, prohibit valedictorians or other student speakers from praying during their remarks.

Craig Wood, an attorney for the school district, said the deal forces the district to make only minor changes.

Last May, Biery granted a temporary restraining order filed by an agnostic family who claimed that traditions at their son’s graduation, including the invocation and benediction, excluded their beliefs and violated their constitutional rights.

Biery’s ruling prohibited Medina Valley seniors from asking audience members to join in prayer, bow their heads, end remarks with “amen,” or even use the word “prayer.” A federal appeals court later reversed the ban before the ceremony took place.

Being overruled didn’t prevent Biery from coming under fire. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who hadn’t yet officially announced his run for president, called Biery’s decision “reprehensible” and an “inappropriate federal encroachment into the lives of Americans.” His state’s attorney general, Greg Abbott, joined the South Texas district in helping fight the case.

Although Biery didn’t admonish any politicians by name, Perry appeared to be one of his targets.

“To those in the executive and legislative branches of government who have demagogued this case for their own political goals: You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Biery wrote.

Perry spokesman Josh Havens said in a statement that Perry is a staunch defender of the Constitution and will continue to fight for the right to freely pray. He did not address Biery’s personal remarks.

Biery began his opinion by stating that the case was not about right to pray. Instead, Biery said, the case was about whether the Constitution allows for a governmental body to promote and support a religious viewpoint not held by a minority.

Biery applauded the terms of the settlement.

“The settlement memorialized in today’s Order signifies a bright point in our nation’s long and difficult effort to harmonize the competing interests written into the First Amendment,” he wrote.

The settlement prohibits Medina Valley school district employees from joining students in prayer circles or inviting others to pray. The district is also forbidden from displaying crosses, Bible verses or any other religious paraphernalia on school grounds. Wood, however, said teachers may still keep religious icons on their desks.

Students are still allowed to deliver prayers at graduations, football games and other school events. Those moments must generically be introduced to the audience as simply “student remarks.”

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – First Lady Michelle Obama received a warm welcome Thursday night in North Fort Worth.

The First Lady came to an Olive Garden restaurant to meet with eight parents to talk about how they’ve been able to get their children to eat more vegetables and fruits.

Mrs. Obama’s dinner visit marks the second anniversary of her ‘Let’s Move’ Initiative to reduce childhood obesity by getting them to exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables.  Nationwide, nearly one-third of children are overweight.  Nearly one-fifth are obese.

The First Lady held the event at the Olive Garden because their parent company, Darden Restaurants, has started offering healthier choices on its kids’ menus at all of their restaurants.

On Friday morning the First Lady will be meeting with Dallas ISD elementary school students, chefs, and some Dallas Cowboys players to take part in a healthy cooking competition.

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The first 10 states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The only state that applied for the flexibility and did not get it, New Mexico, is working with the administration to get approval, a White House official told the AP.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the states had not yet been announced. A total of 28 other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have signaled that they, too, plan to seek waivers — a sign of just how vast the law’s burdens have become as a big deadline nears.

No Child Left Behind requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Obama’s action strips away that fundamental requirement for those approved for flexibility, provided they offer a viable plan instead. Under the deal, the states must show they will prepare children for college and careers, set new targets for improving achievement among all students, reward the best performing schools and focus help on the ones doing the worst.

In September, Obama called President George W. Bush’s most hyped domestic accomplishment an admirable but flawed effort that hurt students instead of helping them. He said action was necessary because Congress failed to update the law despite widespread bipartisan agreement that it needs fixing. Republicans have charged that by granting waivers, Obama was overreaching his authority.

The executive action by Obama is one of his most prominent in an ongoing campaign to act on his own where Congress is rebuffing him. No Child Left Behind was primarily designed to help the nation’s poor and minority children and was passed a decade ago with widespread bipartisan support. It has been up for renewal since 2007. But lawmakers have been stymied for years by competing priorities, disagreements over how much of a federal role there should be in schools and, in the recent Congress, partisan gridlock.

For all the cheers that states may have about the changes, the move also reflects the sobering reality that the United States is not close to the law’s original goal: getting children to grade level in reading and math.

Critics today say the 2014 deadline was unrealistic, the law is too rigid and led to teaching to the test, and too many schools feel they are labeled as “failures.” Under No Child Left Behind, schools that don’t meet requirements for two years or longer face increasingly tough consequences, including busing children to higher-performing schools, offering tutoring and replacing staff.

As the deadline approaches, more schools are failing to meet requirements under the law, with nearly half not doing so last year, according to the Center on Education Policy. Center officials said that’s because some states today have harder tests or have high numbers of immigrant and low-income children, but it’s also because the law requires states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test.

In states granted a waiver, students will still be tested annually. But starting this fall, schools in those states will no longer face the same prescriptive actions spelled out under No Child Left Behind. A school’s performance will also probably be labeled differently.

The pressure will probably still be on the lowest-performing schools in states granted a waiver, but mediocre schools that aren’t failing will probably see the most changes because they will feel less pressure and have more flexibility in how they spend federal dollars, said Michael Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank.

While the president’s action marks a change in education policy in America, the reach is limited. The populous states of Pennsylvania, Texas and California are among those that have not said they will seek a waiver, although they could still do so later.

On Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said states without a waiver will be held to the standards of No Child Left Behind because “it’s the law of the land.”

Some conservatives viewed Obama’s plan not as giving more flexibility to states, but as imposing his vision on them. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the president allowed “an arbitrary timeline” to dictate when Congress should get the law rewritten and set a dangerous precedent by granting the education secretary “sweeping authority to handpick winners and losers.”

Duncan maintained this week that the administration “desperately” wants Congress to fix the law.

In an election year in a divided Congress, that appears unlikely to happen.

A Senate committee last fall passed a bipartisan bill to update the law, but it was opposed by the administration and did not go before the full Senate for a vote.

Kline released a draft of a Republican-written bill to update the law, earning the ire of California Rep. George Miller, the committee’s ranking Democrat. Miller said such partisanship “means the end” to No Child Left Behind reform in this Congress. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate committee with jurisdiction over education, has said he believes it “would be difficult to find a path forward” without a bipartisan bill in the House.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)