Get Ready for an Epic Texas 2020 Fight, Plus Three Questions That Could Shape the Presidential Race

Good morning!Here are the top political headlines from Austin, Washington, the campaign trail and Dallas.Points from Austin1. A federal appeals court ruling has come down in Texas' long-running class-action lawsuit over foster care. The state will have to submit to court supervision of plans for relieving the "crushing" workloads of Child Protective Services caseworkers who track foster children, the court ruled.But it didn't agree to all of the conditions U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack set forth in a remedy order. Bob Garrett lays out the details of the court ruling here.2. Reporter James Barragán is touring a newly opened child migrant center in Carrizo Springs, Texas, on Wednesday morning. Submit your questions here, and James will answer them in an online video Thursday.Bob's breakdownBob Garrett is the Austin bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News. A fifth-generation Texan, he has covered state government and politics for decades. Here, Bob offers his take from the Capitol. Politicians, immigration lawyers and journalists from mainstream news media outlets continue to describe overcrowding and poor conditions at the federal government's makeshift facilities for thousands of asylum-seeking families from Central American who have crossed the Texas-Mexico border. Can - and should - Texas step in? On Friday afternoon in Austin, two Texas House panels run by Democrats will explore that question. Dallas Rep. Rafael Anchia's International Relations & Economic Development Committee will join Eagle Pass Rep. Poncho Nevárez's Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee to hear invited testimony from state health and human services officials. Psst. Don't tell anyone, but here's what the state bureaucrats will tell the lawmakers, who doubtless will be frustrated that Texas each budget cycle can spend $800 million on border enforcement but is impotent to help destitute and desperate refugees: A few years ago, when unaccompanied minors and their mothers were kept in controversial private facilities in Dilley and Karnes County in South Texas, the state could inspect them because it licensed them as "general residential operation." But the Tornillo and Clint facilities that have been in the news lately are at Border Patrol stations in far West Texas. That's federal property, where state regulators have no jurisdiction. Points from the trail  Continue reading...