Laney put off by today's Texas politics BY D. LANCE LUNSFORD AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Former Texas House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, spent more than 30 years engaged in the daily wrangling and haggling over legislation, but his last years to serve have never been more contentious, he said Wednesday. Political campaigns waging war on the South Plains show the growing political partisanship in Austin throughout the last few years, said Laney. "It didn't used to be that way," he said. "We take pride in the fact that we handled our business in Texas differently than they did in other states." Noting...