Cornyn to check reports about Mexican chiefs

HARRY CABLUCK/The Associated Press

Storms rolled through Austin early Thursday, uprooting and destroying seven large trees and blowing out windows on the fifth floor of the Capitol dome. Workers were trying to determine which trees can be saved.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Cornyn, the top Republican on a Senate panel overseeing immigration, border security and refugees, plans to investigate reports of three Mexican police chiefs seeking asylum in the United States.

Mr. Cornyn told reporters Thursday that he had no information beyond what was reported in The Dallas Morning News: that three police chiefs from Mexico, fearing retaliation and assassination by drug cartels, had applied for political refugee status. He said the war between rival cartels and the government underscored the need for the U.S. to provide assistance to the government of President Felipe Calderón.

AUSTIN – Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Thursday named his Senate appointees to a panel examining the state's sporting goods sales tax for parks, meaning the task force can get to work on the assignment it was given a year ago.

Sen. Kip Averitt, a Waco Republican and chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, is the Senate leader of the House-Senate joint panel, Mr. Dewhurst said. Other members of the panel are Republican Sens. Steve Ogden of Bryan and Tommy Williams of The Woodlands, along with Democratic Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen. House Speaker Tom Craddick made his selections in September.

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