Free Republic

Texas Governor-elect Greg Abbott (R) says he will sign a bill to legalize the open carry of handguns as soon as the legislation reaches his desk. Abbott spoke to reporters in Austin the morning after he won the Lone Star State's gubernatorial election. According to WFAA 8 ABC, Abbot said: "If an open carry bill is passed by the House and Senate, I will sign it into law." Abbott added, "If open carry is good enough for Massachusetts, it's good enough for Texas."(continued)

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he opposes a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico. Speaking to hundreds of New Hampshire voters at a private reception Saturday afternoon, the Texas governor says a fence would be ineffective and take too long to build. The comments, which produced one angry shout, expose a rift with some conservative voters over Perry's immigration record. Tea party activists in Texas have been particularly upset by his steady opposition to the fence. He also signed a law giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition for Texas universities.

With the wide-eyed wonder of a 10-year-old, Timothy Miranda entered the hallowed, dimly lit church of the Alamo. It was in the venerated shrine that his great-great-great-great-grandfather, then a 13-year-old and named Juan Losoya, is said to have watched his older brother, José Toribio Losoya, die fighting for Texas independence in 1836. "I saw a bunch of cool stuff here," Timothy said, reflecting on his first visit to the Alamo. It was a well-timed adventure. Timothy has been studying Texas history in his fourth-grade class in Houston and found out just last year that he had ancestors at the Alamo....

Michael Stravato for The New York Times In 1857, Mexican-American freight haulers were hanged on an oak tree at the courthouse in Goliad, Tex. GOLIAD, Tex., July 16 — In history books, the killing of more than 300 Texan rebels by Mexican troops here has long been known as the Goliad Massacre. But to many residents of Goliad, with its 18th-century Spanish fort and towering monument to the dead, that brutal episode in its history is still open to interpretation. At the heart of the dispute, largely between Anglos and Mexican-Americans, is the porous definition of who is a Texan...