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AG Offers Texas Redistricting Deal

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Attorney General Greg Abbott has accepted a deal on temporary voting maps that could salvage the state's April 3 date for primary elections.

Abbott said Monday that seven minority groups agreed to a plan that minimizes changes to the original redistricting maps drafted by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar's lawyer tells The Associated Press the plan gives Texas two new Hispanic congressional seats.

But at least one major minority group isn't on board. Attorney Luis Vera of the League of United Latin American Citizens says the new plan "means absolutely nothing."

A federal court gave the state and minority groups until Monday to reach a compromise, or see the primaries pushed back for a second time. The groups said the original plan was discriminatory.

AP

Gov. Perry Ventures Back Into Texas Public Eye

Rick Perry is breaking his silence. The governor is speaking Today at a Williamson County Republican Party dinner north of Austin. It will be Perry's first public appearance since he abandoned his run for the GOP presidential nomination Jan. 19.

Perry entered the race strong in August, but debate flubs and public gaffes saw his popularity sink.

He has kept a low profile since returning home and a recent poll commissioned by leading state newspapers showed his standing plummeting even among Texans.

Nearly half of respondents said Perry's presidential campaign hurt the state's image, and a majority said they don't want him running for a fourth full term as governor in 2014.

Perry's advisors aren't ruling out another gubernatorial run or a second try at the presidency in 2016.

AP

Man who claimed Dallas home for $16 told to leave

A man who gained notoriety for claiming he could live in a $340,000 suburban Dallas house for $16 has vacated the home following a judge's order.

Kenneth Robinson had filed an "affidavit of adverse possession" giving him the right to live in the empty foreclosed home in Flower Mound. He also became a kind of local celebrity, speaking to law school students and creating a website about his experience.

But Denton County Justice of the Peace J.W. Hand ruled Monday that lienholder Bank of America can force the 51-year-old Robinson out. The bank foreclosed on the house last month.

Robinson says he moved out early Monday morning, ending what he calls a "huge learning experience."

Prosecutors also are cracking down on others seeking to emulate Robinson.

AP

3rd day on stand for ex-Stanford CFO at fraud case

The man in charge of R. Allen Stanford's finances is returning to the witness stand for a third day at the former tycoon's fraud trial in a Houston federal court.

James M. Davis, the former chief financial officer for Stanford's companies, already has told jurors he helped Stanford fake profits for his Caribbean bank. The 63-year-old Davis is testifying under a plea deal. He's said he and Stanford funneled millions of depositors' dollars to a secret Swiss bank account used for personal expenses, bribes to regulators and employee bonuses.

Prosecutors contend Stanford bilked investors out of more than $7 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme using a bank on the island nation of Antigua.

Stanford, once worth more than $2 billion, has been jailed without bond since his 2009 indictment.

AP

Arson blamed for Fort Worth fire, 2 dead

Investigators have blamed arson for a North Texas house fire that killed a 90-year-old man and his disabled 67-year-old nephew.

Fort Worth fire Capt. Tom Crow says the fire appears to have been deliberately set. Further details have not been released.

No one has been arrested over Saturday night's fire at the older man's home.

Crow says both men were dead at the scene. Names of the victims were not immediately released.

Authorities are trying to determine if the deadly fire and a blaze less than two hours earlier, at another home on the same block, are related. Nobody was injured and that fire caused minor damage.

AP

Many Texans earn low pay, hold few assets

Texans politicians like to tout the state's economic growth, but more and more Texans are finding themselves teetering on the edge of poverty.

A study by the Corporation for Enterprise Development found that 27.7 percent of Texas households have no financial cushion in case of an emergency. If you exclude homes and automobiles from the calculation, a full 50 percent of Texans have no assets they could use to survive if they suddenly lost their income.

The poverty rate in Texas has also been inching up.

When compared to the rest of the country, Texans ranks 41st in financial security. Economic inequality will be an important issue in the 2012 election. Conservatives say the key is less government spending, while progressives are arguing for smarter health and education spending.

AP