Texas can enforce a controversial abortion law while it’s being challenged in court. The ruling came this morning from a federal appeals court in New Orleans. The law requires doctors to perform a sonogram on a woman seeking an abortion and to read her the description of it.

The Texas Tribune’s Emily Ramshaw writes:

In an opinion, the judges said the measure's opponents "failed to demonstrate constitutional flaws" in the measure, which they said was "fatal" to their effort to prevent it from taking effect.

Rick Perry, trying to claw his way back into the 2012 presidential competition, conjured up images of hungry vultures on Tuesday to describe frontrunner Mitt Romney’s past as a corporate takeover artist.

Perry and other GOP hopefuls are increasingly using Romney’s track record at Bain Capital, the firm he led before becoming governor of Massachusetts, to tar the presidential frontrunner as a purveyor of greed and economic ruin.

Romney says he’s proud of his tenure there and frequently uses it to tout business credentials the other candidates don’t have. But during a town hall meeting in Fort Mill, Perry cited South Carolina companies that were taken over, broken up or sold off, prompting hundreds of layoffs.

Not only is it one of the fastest growing areas in the nation, but Williamson County has also just recorded the largest increase in weekly wages of any large county in the United States.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced today that average weekly wages in Williamson County grew by 18 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to $1,042. The increase of $159 compares to national growth of $26 or three percent.

A 29-year-old woman whose New Year’s Day murder shocked Austin’s music community will be laid to rest today following a funeral in El Paso. Esme Barrera’s body was found by police early January 1 inside her home on King Street near 31st Street. Two other women said they were assaulted nearby the same evening.

Austin police provided an update on the investigation last night at the Heritage Neighborhood Association's regularly scheduled meeting. Barrera’s friends, acquaintances, and others who were disturbed by the seemingly random nature of the crime packed into First English Lutheran Church at 3001 Whitis Blvd.

If the polls are any indication, it's unlikely that U.S. Rep. Ron Paul will emerge as the victor in today's primary in New Hampshire. But he's strongly positioned to take second.

Finishing anywhere in the top tier would help to propel his campaign forward, said the University of New Hampshire's Dante Scala, an expert on the first-in-the nation primary.

Paul's following in the Granite State has been well documented in recent days. His fiscally conservative and anti-federal government stances, plus his non-interventionist foreign policies, attract a motley crew of supporters, from the young to the elderly, the most liberal to the ultra conservative.

The drought does not recognize political boundaries. Astronomers gather in Austin. And some Texas drillers get big tax breaks. Here’s a roundup of the latest content from KUT and StateImpact Texas, our joint reporting project with NPR.

Starting in 2012, health insurance plans in Texas — and most of the rest of the country — may have to cough up millions of dollars in rebates to customers.

The rebates will come from health plans that spend too much on administrative costs instead of medical care. The change is part of the national health overhaul law, the Affordable Care Act.

But state officials in Texas and 16 other states have asked to push back the requirement for a few years.

If the New Hampshire primary goes as widely expected, Mitt Romney should emerge the winner among the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. For weeks, polls in the state have shown him with a commanding lead.

But the 2012 campaign season has already delivered some surprises. Maybe New Hampshire will provide the latest in the series of unexpected twists?

Texas Primaries Could be Delayed Further

The Texas Primary Election is scheduled for April 3rd but the U.S. Supreme Court could delay it. The Court heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine what Texas’ legislative and congressional districts look like for the upcoming primaries.

Legal wrangling over proposed redistricting maps already delayed the state's primaries by a month. As KUT's Matt Largey reported during Morning Edition, Monday’s Supreme Court hearing left open the possibility the primaries could be delayed further.

Police Meet with Neighbors about Central Austin Murder

Austin Police met with residents last night concerned about their safety after the New Year's Day murder of 29-year-old Esme Barrera.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today about Texas redistricting and now must decide whether the state's primaries must be delayed to buy time for the courts to approve new maps.

It appears that the justices have to choose between waiting for the current round of lower court proceedings to play out, pushing back the primaries or choosing an interim map to use now, keeping the primaries on schedule.

The high court took the case in December, after a panel of three federal judges in San Antonio adopted an interim map of its own making for the 2012 primary elections.

The City of Austin says it will pay up to $166,000 in costs and labor for someone to create a piece of “exterior art that is engaging for families and children” near a bridge that will become part of the Seaholm District redevelopment project.

The bridge, as you can see in the image above, will link Shoal Creek Trail to West Avenue via Second Street. The City of Austin’s Art in Public Places Project, which has been doing this kind of thing since 1985, says applicants should focus on meeting these criteria:

Austin’s never wanting for parties, and certainly not last weekend: A touring soirée known as the Decentralized Dance Party invaded downtown Saturday, Jan. 7, leaving a trail of a boombox-touting party people in its wake.

The brainchild of Canadians “Tom and Gary” (no last names given), the DDP is essentially a flash mob on steroids, embodying the nimble, adaptable nature of those gatherings, with a nod to the public space reclamation in movements like the Occupy protests. Or more simply, Tom and Gary use radio frequencies to transmit music from an MP3 player to party goers’  boomboxes. (The music encompasses “Booty Bass, Eurodance, Party Metal, Jock Jams and Choice Hard Rock,” according to the Music section of their “Party Manifesto.”) Wherever the crowd goes, the tunes do to.

Texas economists are confident that the financial upheavals long associated with Mexican elections are a thing of the past. Still, they are closely watching what this summer's presidential contest means for the peso and, in turn, Texas' symbiotic business ties to Mexico.

Texas politicians are paying close attention, too — to whether the trade, security and energy policies of President Felipe Calderón’s successor will affect illegal immigration or the state’s robust trade relationship with Mexico.

Three Texas customs districts, Laredo, El Paso and Houston, rank among Mexico’s top four trading partners. Collectively, they accounted for roughly $235 billion in trade between Texas and Mexico from January to September 2011, according to United States Census data analyzed by WorldCity, which tracks global trade patterns. The figures show an increase over 2010 despite the American recession and unprecedented violence in Mexico because of warring drug cartels.

Former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer is beating Governor Rick Perry among likely Republican voters in New Hampshire, according to the latest Suffolk University tracking poll.

As you can see in the graphic above, Perry garnered one percent support among Granite State GOPers, compared to two percent for Roemer. The poll’s margin of error is 4.4 percent, so it’s basically a wash.

The survey also shows Romney dropping a couple points to 33 percent, but still well in the lead. And the "drop" is actually still within the statistical margin of error. 

Over four inches of rain have fallen in parts of Houston since midnight. Here's the story as told through social media, compiled by Terrence Henry with the KUT-NPR joint reporting project StateImpact Texas.