Governor Perry has called the Texas legislature together for a special 30-day session. The legislature can only consider items germane to the reasons he lists for the special session. When the regular session concluded, major communications reform had stalled and it is still unclear if he will add communications reform to the "call," but if he does, legislation is likely to pass. Hats off to Adam and Ray; their paper recommending how to move state law toward competition policy still has currency in Texas even as nitty gritty lobbying has moved conceptual discussions to the side.

Last week I joined John Rutledge , TPUC Chairman Paul Hudson and Bill Peacock of the Texas Public Policy Foundation as a witness at a hearing on general reform and the idea of a statewide franchise system for video providers. The statement is here and a paper on franchises is here. The hearing webcast can be found here (see Regulated Industries 6/30). While I did not make it to Antone's for blues, I did catch a live bluegrass performance at the Austin airport.