Secretary of State Roger Williams ruled today that Kinky can be "Kinky" but Carole Keeton Strayhorn Rylander Cougar Mellencamp will simply have to go by her given-name, not "Grandma." Williams said that Friedman has been widely known as "Kinky" for years, while Strayhorn's moniker of "Grandma" was obviously just part of a campaign slogan. Strayhorn's attorney, Roy Minton, has countered that she began using the nickname when she became a grandmother in 1994. Wow!......

Local: The Austin City Council has decided to reduce the speed limit in three Austin neighborhoods from 30 miles to 25. In addition, they have given the green light to require Austin residents to reduce their water consumption by 1% for the next 10 years. State: Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams has until September to decide whether Carole Cougar Mellencamp can use the nickname, "Grandma," on the ballot in November. We are happy......

According to the announcement today by Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, independent gubernatorial candidates Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn have collected enough voter signatures to make the November election ballot. From the Statesman: The signatures had to be from registered Texas voters who did not cast ballots in the Republican or Democratic primaries this spring. Strayhorn submitted some 223,000 signatures, and Friedman submitted 169,574. Let the games begin.......

An anti-tax group called Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes ("CLOUT") has filed suit against state lawmakers alleging illegal spending of our tax dollars over the last 28 years. According to CLOUT, lawmakers use inflated budget numbers to overspend and this leads to Texans being overtaxed. Democratic goober nominee Chris Bell has reported that his campaign received a donation of $100,000 from Houston oilman A. Earl Swift. According to the Texas Ethics Commission for the......

Apparently all of Ms. Strayhorn's clever campaigning has come back to bite her in the ass. The "Tough Grandma," as she's been self-monikered, wants to have her name appear on the November ballot as Carole Keeton "Grandma" Strayhorn. Wow! Strayhorn says that her campaigning slogan has left such a lasting impression with voters that many have come to know her simply as "the Grandma." We think the whole thing has a bit of an American......

Rick Perry unveiled his school financing plan yesterday and it looks like the smokers get the short end of the stick, again. In his efforts to devise a plan to fund schools and give property tax relief, Perry has suggested cutting property tax by $6 billion, the largest reduction in history, and broaden the franchise tax to apply to more companies and raise cigarette taxes by $1 a pack. Critics of the plan say......

Texas - Texas Independent Gubernatorial Candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn sued Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, a Perry appointee, last Friday, claiming Williams' plan to manually examine her petition signature by signature instead of using a statistical sampling method violated her constitutional rights. Williams also refused Strayhorn's request to be allowed to turn in an initial batch of signatures and then add to that before May 11. Carole Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman have until......