By Anna Merlan
Published Mon., May 20 2013 at 10:44 AM

 

Carona

John Carona, our Republican state senator from Dallas, learned some hard lessons this session about how his fellow lawmakers’ business interests tend to dominate the doings in the legislature. Last month, Carona’s bill to try to reform the incredibly predatory payday loan industry was picked down to its skeletal bones by other state senators, several of whom were on the phone with loan industry lobbyists as Carona spoke on the Senate floor.But as Texas Tribune’s Jay Root reports today, in a particularly excellent installment of their “Bidness as Usual” series, Carona has also benefited spectacularly from the uncomfortably close relationship between business and politics that flourishes in the Legislature.  Read More