Apparently, the gentleman from the third Congressional District thinks we should nuke Syria, and that he himself is the man for the job.

Now we know where Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) thinks the weapons of mass destruction are buried: in Syria, which he said he’d like to nuke to smithereens.

Speaking at a veterans’ celebration at Suncreek United Methodist Church in Allen, Texas, on Feb. 19, Johnson told the crowd that he explained his theory to President Bush and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) on the porch of the White House one night.

Johnson said he told the president that night, “Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on ‘em and I’ll make one pass. We won’t have to worry about Syria anymore.”

UPDATE: The Carpetbagger Report has one more line from that Roll Call article: "The crowd roared with applause." I guess the featured sermon that day did not discuss the thou-shalt-not-kill commandment.

I'll undoubtedly have more on this tomorrow, but for now here's the opening story from the AP wire about the lawsuit against Bill Ceverha of the Texas Association of Business. Clean Up Texas Politics has a bunch of links from pre-trial coverage: here, here, here, and here. Meanwhile, Nathan from Drive Democracy was in the courtroom and gives his initial impressions here while promising a longer post later. And finally, In the Pink Texas is bummed out that Speaker Craddick will be a no-show. More later as the stories get filed.

I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Rice forward Michael Harris, whose 30 points and 24 rebounds against Hawaii yesterday made him the all time career leader for the Owls in each category, surpassing Brent Scott on both counts. Harris has been a fantastic player for the Owls since he arrived, and though he's probably too undersized to play in the NBA, he'll be remembered at Autry Court forever. I hope that someday soon we'll be seeing his #33 uniform hanging from the rafters at Autry. Heck, maybe this will spur the Rice AD's office to finally give that honor to Scott as well. Anyway, my congratulations to you, Michael Harris. Thanks for playing the game so well.

Fantastic. Richard M. Raymen and Steven P. Hansen, the couple shown in the hateful anti-AARP ad run by USA Next has sent USA Next a cease and desist letter (PDF) regarding use of their images. Details here:

"In 2004, our clients allowed their picture to be taken at their public celebration, as couples getting married do every day,” Christopher Wolf, a partner in the Washington, DC office of the New York-based law firm Proskauer Rose LLP and counsel for Raymen and Hansen. “They did not volunteer to be models for a 2005 right-wing hate campaign, and never would have consented to having their images plastered in an ad of any kind, much less the one USA Next chose to run. USA Next has violated the law and must take responsibility for the consequences. Tort law is quite clear that USA Next acted illegally.”

“The USA Next ad communicates the false message that gay marriages generally, and our clients specifically, are the antithesis of supporting American troops during wartime,” said Wolf. “Gay marriage, and our clients’ ceremony, have nothing to do with support of the troops. Our clients are patriotic Americans who strongly support our service members.”

USA Next’s ad campaign has generated heated debate about the organization. Ramen and Hansen have been the subject of hate-filled messages and ridicule as a result of the ad campaign, and have suffered a significant invasion of privacy.

“We never signed up to be Harry and Louise for a hate-mongering group,” Raymen said, referring to the fictional couple used in television commercials to scuttle then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal. “USA Next is illegally using our photo to portray us as a threat to American values. How would any citizen like having their image stolen and broadcast for the purpose of tarring our troops and suggesting that you’re un-American?”

The next election of any major consequence in Texas will be May 7 in San Antonio, where they'll be voting for a new Mayor and all members of the City Council. Those of you who live in the Alamo City should take a minute and check out SAElections.com, which is a new site devoted to the nuts and bolts of election information there. Note well this bit from their FAQ:

Why hasn’t the City of San Antonio made this information available in a more user friendly way on its own website thus eliminating the need for a site like www.SAElections.com?

This is perhaps the most pertinent question of all. Of course the answer is, “with what the City currently spends on MIS services, if they wanted to they could and indeed they should.” Virtually all the information on this site was researched, collated, organized into a usable format and turned into a website through the efforts of one person in less than three weeks time. This is neither intellectually nor economically rocket science. By way of a couple of constructive suggestions to the City, the forms for these Campaign Finance Reports could be made available and filled out online. Technology could be employed to ensure that all blanks on the forms are filled out completely before it would accept the filings. This would also eliminate the problem of handwritten forms. What is more, this would make it easier for those who were inclined to import this information into a database that could be easily queried to help trace the connections between particular contributors and specific campaigns, or determine when multiple donations have been made from a given household at one address.

Anyway. You San Antonians have until April 6 to register for this election, so check out SAElections.com and prepare to do your civic duty.

Tonight's the night that Democrats in Dallas have it out with DCDP Chair Susan Hays over a list of grievances with her. Read all about it at BOR, StoutDem, 100 Monkeys Typing, and (for a different perspective) Pink Dome. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's wrapup of the meeting - I just hope this can get resolved in a relatively bloodless manner so we can move on to more important business, like the next elections.

Meanwhile, Latinos for Texas notes that there are problems with the Bexar County Democratic Party. Sheesh. Greg is right - warts and all, the Harris County Democratic Party is in much better shape, comparatively speaking. I happen to know that something cool will be forthcoming from the HCDP in the next few days, but can't say more than that at this time. Look for an announcement shortly.

In the Everything Old Is New Again Department, we have the return of the buffalo nickel.

Sixty-seven years after the government minted its last buffalo nickel, the symbol of the American West is returning to the 5-cent piece.

The United States Mint has shipped 97 million of the new coins to the Federal Reserve's 12 regional banks, and they will start distributing the coins to local banks Monday. The nickels should start showing up in stores' change drawers within a couple of weeks.

For those who can't wait that long, the Mint has planned an elaborate launch ceremony in Washington on Tuesday, complete with a live bison, tribal dances and American Indian speakers. People will be able to show up at Union Station and buy $2 rolls of the shiny new 5-cent pieces. The coins will also be on sale at the Mint's Web site starting Monday.

[...]

The Westward Journey Nickel Series is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, both of which occurred during the administration of the country's third president, Thomas Jefferson.

The first two nickels were introduced last year. One featured two hands clasping, a replica of the friendship medallion that Lewis and Clark handed out to Indian tribes along the way. The second had a depiction of the keelboat they used to journey up the Missouri River in 1804.

The series represents the first change in the nickel since 1938 when the Mint switched from the buffalo nickel with an American Indian on the opposite side to the Jefferson nickel that had a picture of Jefferson on one side and Monticello, Jefferson's home, on the other.

While the traditional portrait of Jefferson appeared on the two new nickels introduced last year, the new bison nickel has replaced the old version of Jefferson with a view that shows him in bolder profile and also features the word "Liberty" in Jefferson's handwriting.

This summer, the fourth and final new nickel in the series will go into circulation, depicting the Pacific Ocean, and an entry from William Clark's journal — "Ocean in view! O! The joy!"

But the big draw for nostalgia buffs is likely to be the return of the American buffalo to the nickel.

"Coin collectors have been eagerly awaiting this because it evokes the Indian head, buffalo nickel that we minted from 1913 to 1938," Fore said. "There has been a strong pent-up demand for this coin."

David Van Os has thrown his hat into the ring for Attorney General in 2006. Vince says that the announcement was not unexpected, and he includes some other tidbits about who may or may not be running for what.

The post I did a couple of weeks ago about Van Os generated a fair amount of email chatter, the details of which I won't get into since it's way too inside-baseball, but one thing I got out of it was a wish to see Van Os run against Lamar Smith in CD21. Doesn't look like I'll get that wish, however. Regardless, if I'm going to commend Barbara Radnofsky for making a commitment at this stage in the game, then I will commend Van Os for doing the same. May I have many more of these commendations to offer in the near future.

The more digging is done into the life and times of Jack Abramoff, the more malfeasance is discovered.

Tracking what happened to $175,000 contributed by two Indian tribes to a political group called CREA leads from a disgraced lobbyist to an elusive environmental organization spawned by Gale Norton before she became secretary of the Interior.

The money, which the tribes say they contributed to the group at the direction of a Washington, D.C., lobbyist now under federal investigation, is unaccounted for in public records where federal regulations say it should be listed.

The absence of an accounting adds another layer to the mystery of what became of more than two dozen contributions missing among $300,000 in checks issued by a Texas tribe to 79 political committees selected by lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

CREA stands for Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. According to its filings with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization, it has operated for more than four years without receiving any contributions or making any expenditures.

The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana said it issued checks for $50,000 to CREA in 2001 and $100,000 in 2002.

Also, the Tigua Indians, whose Ysleta del Sur Pueblo adjoins El Paso, said they issued a $25,000 check to CREA in 2002 and included it in a bundle of other political contributions they sent to Abramoff to distribute. Tribal Lt. Gov. Carlos Hisa said the check was cashed, but he would not disclose how it was endorsed.

There's a new member of the Goode Company family in town, a beer-and-chili place called the Armadillo Palace, located where the now-defunct Barbecue Hall of Flame was.

Restaurateur [Jim] Goode has mostly had the golden touch since opening his first restaurant in 1977. Each of his five eateries do huge business, but his 10-year-old Texas-themed gift shop, Barbeque Hall of Flame, flamed out.

Either March 3 or March 10 — depending on when it's ready — he'll unveil the Armadillo Palace at the former home of the Hall of Flame on Kirby near U.S. 59.

The Palace is a saloon featuring live Texas music and a Texas lunch menu of chicken-fried steak, hot roast beef sandwiches, venison chili and more.

Do you have what it takes to be a barbecue contest judge? Read this and find out.

Two more Texas blogs for your perusal: Secure the Blessing, written by a husband-and-wife pair of expats now in Washington, DC, which promises a "Progressive Christian perspective on current events"; and the interestingly named Canal Water Review, who has a modest proposal for the Texas delegation in the Social Security debate. Check 'em out.

Inside the Texas Capitol brings us this interesting tidbit:

The word on the street is that the Republicans' committee substitute for HB 2 will come out Monday night. The Democrats will wait 24 hours "to let the media digest it" then unveil their plan, which will include broader tax relief and more money for schools. No one expects that the Democratic plan will pass, it's just something that Democrats will use to attack HB 2, which Dem's say is more about property tax relief than improving schools.

Other commentary on HB2 that's worth reading comes from Rio Grande Valley Politics. Meanwhile, Latinos for Texas has some more on State Rep. Eddie Rodgiruez's income tax proposal, for which they are working to get a hearing from Rep. Kent Grusendorf, Chair of the Public Education Committee, and Save Texas Reps has a press release from the Mexican American Legislative Caucus that sharply criticizes HB2. Check it out.

Greg gets a chance to talk to Barbara Radnofsky and comes away suitably impressed. Among other observations, I think he's spot-on here:

Campaigns revolve around candidates and not being a candidate right now does nothing to move your party forward. If you're a potential candidate for anything in 2006, you're either sitting at home knowing whether you're going to run or not. And statewide, that's even more critical. Another shutout at the statewide level raises the serious proposition that Texas Democrats may go the way of Idaho Democrats. Alleviating that situation is not going to be a mere one-year solution.

[...]

If and when Kay Bailey decides on her electoral fate, an open race for the Senate will no doubt flush out a few candidates. They'll all have to answer the then-fair question about where the hell they were for the previous year.

The Chron gives an overview of the lawsuit against the Texas Association of Business and its treasurer Bill Ceverha by five defeated Democratic candidates for state legislature which begins tomorrow. Most of this is review material, but I do want to highlight something:

"This trial is about whether clandestine corporations can buy elections in Texas and corrupt the political process," said Cris Feldman, a lawyer representing the Democrats. "Do we want a legislature beholden to out-of-state corporate board rooms or Texas living rooms?"

TRMPAC lawyer Terry Scarborough said the lawsuit turns only on whether the committee's spending of corporate money to pay for polling or phone banks was a legitimate administrative expense under Texas law.

First there was caffeinated beer. Now there's caffeinated soap.

Shower Shock (aka "The Original Caffeinated Soap") is the hygiene equivalent of Jolt (aka "The World's Most Powerful Cola"). At 200 milligrams of caffeine per wash, consider Shower Shock your own Jolt-on-a-Rope or "the ultimate clean buzz," as the makers of Shower Shock call it. "Mornings have never been so invigorating!" say the press materials for Shower Shock, distributed by thinkgeek.com.

A vegetable-based glycerine soap, Shower Shock is scented with peppermint oil — lots of peppermint oil. Picture sudsing yourself up with a big breath mint.

It smells so minty fresh it may take great self restraint to stop yourself from washing your mouth out with it.

In addition, each 4-ounce bar is infused with caffeine anhydrous. There are 12 "servings," or showers, per bar with 200 milligrams of caffeine per serving, say the folks at thinkgeek.com. The caffeine is absorbed through the skin.

Very interesting.

Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick has struck a deal not to appear in Monday's corporate electioneering trial, saying he might have shredded any communications he had with Texans for a Republican Majority two years ago.

Five Democratic state legislative candidates who lost in 2002 are suing Bill Ceverha, the treasurer of the Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee, accusing him of spending illegal corporate donations in their campaigns.

Lawyers for the Democrats had subpoenaed Craddick to testify and produce documents. But this week Roy Minton, the speaker's lawyer, negotiated the deal that excused Craddick from appearing.

In the stipulation, Craddick acknowledges what has been widely reported — the political action committee sent $152,000 in noncorporate donations to his Midland office, where Craddick's staff distributed the checks to Republican candidates running for the Texas House of Representatives.

Questions have been raised about whether the PAC and Craddick violated a state law barring outside groups from assisting a candidate for speaker. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is investigating that, as well as allegations that associates of Texans for a Republican Majority laundered corporate money and violated state elections laws. (Three officials with the political committee were indicted last fall.)

The stipulation also said the documents requested by the Democrats "do not currently exist."

Furthermore, "to the extent such records ever existed, they were shredded in 2003," according to the stipulation.

In February 2004, Earle subpoenaed Craddick's records after news reports indicated that Craddick's staff distributed the PAC's campaign donations to House members who eventually voted in the members-only contest to elect the next speaker.

[Indicted TRMPAC Executive Directorr John] Colyandro sent $152,000 in noncorporate donations, intended for Republican House candidates, to Craddick's Midland office. That money then was sent to the candidates. Those candidates, once elected, voted for Craddick for House speaker.

Craddick has said he had already secured enough pledges from House members to become speaker before the $152,000 was routed through his office.

State law forbids outside groups from trying to influence a speaker's race in which only House members can vote. It also prohibits a candidate from accepting outside help.

Have you been following the ChoicePoint story at all? ChoicePoint is a big credit-reporting firm, and they recently admitted that they sold some 150,000 credit reports to a gang of crooks that had posed as legitimate businessmen. At first they were only going to notify Californians who were affected since California law required them to do so, but after the predictable outcry they agreed to notify the non-Californians as well. Later we learned that they underreported the number of affected people at first, and that they had the data stolen in October but didn't say anything about it until much later, and finally that two executives made a fortune selling shares between the discovery of the theft and the public announcement of it. If you've ever wondered why Hollywood makes corporations and their executives out to be greedy, soulless, evil bastards, this would be a pretty good example.

And after all that, ChoicePoint CEO thinks he's the real victim here.

ChoicePoint Chief Executive Derek Smith said Thursday he supports congressional hearings and tighter regulation of the data collection industry, if necessary, after revelations his company was duped into giving criminals access to its massive database of consumers' personal information.

His face drawn and eyes weary from two days of meetings in New York with investors, Smith said Thursday in his most extensive interview to date that he is working around the clock to keep shareholders and customers from running away.

He said his company is investigating whether anyone internally was involved in the breach, but he stressed there has been no evidence of that.

"If we knew somebody had done something internally, we would tell you that," Smith said in an hourlong interview.

Smith said he believes his company is as much a victim in the episode as the roughly 145,000 Americans whose personal information may have been viewed by criminals.

"I wish we would have caught it sooner," Smith said.

He added, "The painful part for me is that our mission is being called into question."

ChoicePoint says its mission is to arm customers with the information necessary to verify that the people they are doing business with are who they say they are. That selling point has been turned on its head by bandits who were given access to the company's database by duping it into thinking they were someone they were not.

Anyway. This Chron story has some more on the real victims here. Bruce Schneier says this will happen again unless the government forces the ChoicePoints of the world to behave, since they have no economic incentive to do so.

One good thing that may come out of this is a new law that would give Texans the same right to be notified of a security breach as Californians. Latinos for Texas has the story.

On the heels of the revelation of a major security breach at data broker Choicepoint, a State Representative Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) has introduced a measure to give Texas consumers the right to know when crooks infringe on their financial DNA.

“We only know about the Choicepoint fiasco because security breach legislation enacted in California requires notification when consumer data are compromised,” said Representative Eddie Rodriguez. “Texans should have the same right to know, so they can take steps to protect themselves.”

The bill, HB 1527, would require companies to alert their customers if a breach of security has put them at risk of identity theft. Recent reports that a fraud ring gained access to the personal and financial information of an estimated 11,081 Texans from computer databases maintained by ChoicePoint, Inc. This incidence underscores the need for tougher safeguards to protect Texas consumers against identity theft. The ChoicePoint files that were compromised contained such sensitive information as Social Security numbers linked to names and addresses. Already, an estimated 750 people were reportedly targets of an identity theft scheme as a result of the ChoicePoint security breach.

According to the ACLU, in 2003 blacks and Latinos were more likely to be searched by law enforcement officers at traffic stops than white drivers were.

Blacks were 3.2 times more likely than Anglos to be searched by the Houston Police Department, the report said, down slightly from 2002. Those rates are higher than those reported in Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and El Paso.

Latinos were 2.5 times more likely than Anglos to be searched by the HPD, up slightly from 2002 and higher than departments in Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso reported.

[...]

"Racial profiling is getting in the way of good policing," said Scott Henson, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. "The disparities that were evidenced in last year's report for the most part remained in this year's report at more or less the same levels or sometimes even more significant."

Father John points to a story about major problems with a new computer system used by Colorado to handle its food stamps, Medicaid, and other relief services:

[T]he explosion in hunger across the state is the direct result of problems with the state's $200 million Colorado Benefits Management System, a nightmare computer-software program that has thrown food stamps, Medicaid, Old Age Pensions and other relief services into chaos since it was brought online Sept. 1.

Ed Kahn, attorney for the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, said the state's own statistics, as well as calls to the center from people seeking help, indicate the problems in processing aid applications have not eased.

"There were more applications overdue at the end of January than there were in December" when Denver District Court Judge John Coughlin gave the state until Feb. 28 to reduce the backlog by 40 percent, Kahn said.

Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services, admitted as much. "We still have a considerable backlog," she said.

The old system does need to be replaced, because it is an old DOS based system that was created in the late 80's and early 90's, and has been increasingly hard to make work with contemporary computer systems that are available.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is planning on implementing Call Centers to process most of the work done in conjunction with the Food Stamp, TANF, and Medicaid programs. The problem is they are pushing this through without having tested the premises that they have based their model on, and one of them is that the TIERS system is going to save time, and require fewer people (who will be paid less than the already low wages paid to the current staff). The reality is that this program is still flawed, and it takes longer to process a case action than the old system does. They also assume that they can cut about half of our agencies staff, and possibly privatize these call centers, and still get the same or better end resulst that the current system produces. There is no reason to believe that this will turn out to be the case.

From a Slashdot thread on an ill-fated FBI software project:

Sounds just like the TIERS Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System [state.tx.us] software my agency has been trying develop. The Texas Department of Human Services, now the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, has contracted to Deloitte to develop a web based system similar to what is described in the article. $3 million a month (according to some) has been spent on this for a couple of years now and it is a HORRIBLE excuse of a system. I know case workers that are being forced to test the software that say it takes at LEAST twice as long to work a case now than it did with the old system that was developed in the 80's. This has been a boondoggle in the worst sense and any Texas taxpayer should be pissed off about it.

Eligibility for services will be done by telephone and/or the Internet. How many Texans do not have computers, Internet access or even a telephone- or still don't know how to use computers? A lot of our poor, disabled and elderly will fall through the cracks because they cannot utilize new technology. Children will lose Medicaid and will be taken to emergency rooms instead of a doctor's office. When parents cannot pay the bill, hospitals will recoup their costs from those who do pay. When parents cannot feed and provide for their children, crime will increase. Our elderly will spend money they saved for medicine on food because they could not get certified for food stamps.

The justification behind this plan is a new computer system that was supposed to roll out statewide in 2003. It was piloted in a select area. Clients in that area went months without benefits. Some are still doing without! TIERS-Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System-is not working! What will happen when offices close and the system still doesn't work?

Deloitte Consulting has a contract to develop the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System, Ms. Seals said.

Ms. Goodman said they do use consultants who have a specific task. Either they perform it or don't get paid.

Ms. Seals said Arlene Wohlegemuth of Burleson, who sponsored HB 2292 to reorganize Health and Human Services, isn't getting support for the bill from the people in her own county. Burleson lies in both Tarrant and Johnson counties.

"It's so crazy. She's not even doing what people in her county want (the bill) to do," Ms. Seals said, noting nobody thought the bill would work this way.

Even Rep. Bryan Hughes said it's not what he voted for.

Ms. Seals said 39 counties have passed resolutions to fight HB 2292 including a county represented by the bill's author.

Ms. Seals asked to be put on the Harrison County commissioners May 25 agenda. She said Judge Wayne McWhorter has to approve it, but she hasn't gotten a response. She said she just wants them to hear what she has to say because "something's not right."

"The county's budget is $18 million. Now if something happens to us what are they (the county) going to do?" Ms. Seals said.

Ms. Goodman said HB 2292, directed the commission to look at call centers for eligibility services as a means of saving at least $389 million over the next five years. Because offices are as close as one mile apart, staffed once a week and they still pay rent, it's time to help taxpayers.

But, Ms. Seals has questions about the savings.

"We're not sure how much it'll save. We've never seen figures," Ms. Seals said. She noted the only savings they see from their point of view are employees out of a job while consultant companies are making millions.

Plus, the approximate $389 million savings is over a five-year period, "not off the top," Ms. Seals noted.

"They're not showing us this is the bottom line," she added, noting she supervises in Cass County as well and cuts will affect the staff she works with in eligibility and functional assessment.

"Everything they (commission) say is always positive and never reality," she said.

Ms. Seals said the starting costs of the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System (TIERS) system alone was $160 million and it still doesn't work.

Ms. Seals said she sent two employees to Austin for training on the system in the last two months and they reported there's many errors with the system.

"They spent $160 million on the contract and issued $400,000 worth of benefits. They didn't say half of them were in error and how many people it took to fix the mistakes," Ms. Seals said.

In an e-mail, Ms. Goodman said the TIERS application is working.

The Stakeholder excerpts from a National Journal article detailing the long history between Tom DeLay and the disgraced casino lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Raw Story has more. Check it out.

I just want to say that any day which includes the Rockets re-acquiring Moochie Norris is a good day. Hair stylists all over Houston will be celebrating tonight.

Save Muni Wireless reports from the public hearings over HB 789, which would prohibit municipalities from offering network services, with news of the testimony favoring and opposing the proposed ban. He also notes that bill sponsor Rep. Phil King (R, Weatherford), may be open to changes in the legislation. Via Dwight Silverman.

Netaloid has been studying the recent uptick in comment, trackback, and referral log spamming, and has come to some interesting conclusions as well as a suggested course of action. Read the whole saga here, here, and here.

Meanwhile, via rc3, blog spam is hitting Technorati hard. This has inspired Brad DeLong to think about the issue in economic terms.

Boy, that Houston-Galveston Area Council 2025 Regional Transportation Plan sure is a gift that keeps on giving, isn't it? I've got a note from Andrea Warren, the Public Relations Committee Chair for the Oak Forest Homeowner's Association, informing me that the latest proposal is a toll road from Tomball to 610 at TC Jester, cutting through the Oak Forest neighborhood along the BNSF rail line. From Andrea's email:

The issue at hand is the idea of a 4 lane toll road where the BNSF rail line is now. That is the rail line that actually goes though Oak Forest, crosses 43rd at Mangum and borders the southern edge of Oak Forest. This is a highly residential area as you know. This proposed toll way would run all the way to Tomball bringing commuter though the heart of Oak Forest.

At the Citizens' Transportation Coalition (CTC) meeting last Thursday the toll roads were the featured topic. The CTC has put together a draft document that outlines that we as Houston resident's should approve all toll roads proposed to enter the City of Houston city limits. In order for this to happen, we will need the state legislature to pass a bill. In order for that to happen, we need to press or state reps and state senators about getting this legislation. It seems that the city itself was caught somewhat unaware about this bit of the HGAC 2025 document in that the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) does not need the approval of the city to build a toll road through it. I encourage you to attend their meetings, see their website [for details].

In addition to this, HCTRA will be announcing in the coming months that it will have the financing for the new toll roads. We need to act quickly and decisively. The CTC and neighborhood groups will be convening on city hall in the next few weeks to ask the council to approve this proposal allowing for city residents to vote on the measure. The hope is that with the city government accepting it, it will significantly legitimize it.

Apart from the passage of a bill from the state, or an amendment to vote on, pressure will need to be applied from us, the taxpayers and residents to the Harris County Commissioner's Court, specifically Judge Eckels and Precinct One Commissioner Jerry Eversole.

We are in the process of scheduling a "town hall" format meeting with the HGAC, Harris County, the City of Houston, the Harris County Toll Road Authority and neighborhood groups for the northwest region at either Waltrip or Scarborough HS. We hope we will get some questions answered, as well as voice our opposition to these new road proposals, the toll road in particular.

This meeting will unfortunately convene before the next scheduled newsletter, so we will be sending a special mailing to everyone in Oak Forest outlining what is happening, how to get involved, and where and when this meeting is going to be, so be looking for it and tell your neighbors.

The OFHA is currently in the process of making a section of the website where you can get all the info you need.

There's another move afoot to install casinos in Texas, but this time it's a little different than before.

Downtown Houston and Galveston Island could become casino destinations to compete with anything Las Vegas has to offer, a Houston senator said Thursday.

"Why should we subsidize Louisiana and Nevada when we can create jobs and boost economic development here at home?" Sen. Rodney Ellis asked.

Ellis filed a proposed constitutional amendment Thursday that would let Texans decide whether to allow seven casinos in urban areas, two on Gulf Coast islands and three in targeted economic development areas.

His measure, Senate Joint Resolution 18, would require a statewide vote and then local option elections in each county where a casino is proposed.

[...]

The proposed constitutional amendment filed by Ellis differs considerably from one filed earlier this month by Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston. Turner's House Joint Resolution 38 would allow state-taxed slot machines at horse and dog tracks and Indian reservations, as well as at one location in each of nine areas around the state.

Ellis said track owners would have to compete along with everyone else for casino licenses.

There's quite a bit of backstory that needs to be considered here. First, note that in this report, Sen. Ellis was much more pointed about the potential to keep gambling dollars in-state:

“You could just about shut down gaming in Louisiana if you legalized it in Texas,” Ellis said. “What I want to do is let the people of Texas finally decide this issue.”

Note this quote from ItTC:

Freshman Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin) said it best: "This item is the one on which we [Dem's] have the most leverage because a lot of Republicans want this bill – but they don't want to have to vote for it." To clarify, this is the only issue that Democrats have leverage on this session. Maybe tuition re-regulation, if they're lucky.

Finally, no issue is so serious that it can't be made fun of. Thankfully, In the Pink Texas is on the job.

Harris County GOP Chair Jared Woodfill's petulant whine about insufficient partisanship on City Council gets roundly panned today in this Chron editorial and in the letters to the editor. blogHOUSTON is also critical, though more of Woodfill's Jared-come-lately tactic.

I attended a Houston Democratic Forum event last night at which City Council member Ron Green was the featured guest. Green was asked about yesterday's story and reported that no one on the Council took it very seriously - they all joked about it that morning. The consensus opinion among people I spoke to at the HDF meeting was that Woodfill was prodded to do this by Republicans in Austin - Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in particular. That's all speculation, so take it for what it's worth. If I were to guess, I'd say we probably haven't heard the end of this, though I don't think there will be anything more at this time. We'll see how it goes, but if there really is concern about Bill White being a rising star, then there will be an effort to dim his luster. Next time I'd bet it's done better.

Rep. Kevin Brady of The Woodlands and Rep. Jeb Hensarling of North Texas are finding out that selling Social Security privatization is harder than they thought. Check it out.

Want more evidence that State Rep. Richard Raymond is a candidate for Congress in 2006? You got it.

A statehouse resolution opposing President Bush's plans to privatize a portion of Social Security could be a harbinger to a Democratic primary fight for a South Texas congressional seat.

The entire delegation of Texas Democrats in Congress, except for Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, has signed a letter supporting the resolution by state Rep. Richard Raymond.

It is no coincidence Cuellar withheld support for Raymond, D-Laredo, who is making it clear he is eyeing a run for Congress and possibly challenging Cuellar in the 28th Congressional District of Texas.

"I am interested," Raymond, 44, told the San Antonio Express-News on Wednesday. "And I certainly won't run unless I think I can win."

Raymond said he would wait until after this session of the Texas Legislature to make a decision on a congressional race.

This bit is music to my ears:

Raymond also is considered a potential candidate for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas if Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, runs for the U.S. Senate.

Bonilla has said he will run if Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, challenges Gov. Rick Perry in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

"I have been approached by people who have encouraged me to run for both," Raymond said.

Both the 23rd and 28th congressional districts include Laredo, Raymond's hometown.

Raymond said he would not rule out a race in the 23rd District, but noted he lives in the 28th Congressional District.

Via PerryVsWorld, the subscription-only Texas Weekly reports that both Ben Barnes and Kay Bailey Hutchison have denied the rumors that he's preparing to support her in a race for Governor. PerryVsWorld had previously quoted from an email denying this report which claimed the rumor was started by the Perry campaign, something which Barnes also suggests. Make of all that what you will.

Sorry, Lea. No early release for you.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner said he could find no legal grounds in her lawyer's motion to have her one-year sentence vacated and replaced with the seven months she's served for not reporting personal income from an Enron side deal on her 2000 tax return.

Her attorney, Mike DeGeurin, argued that her sentence, which began July 12, is twice what people normally serve for the misdemeanor tax crime.

DeGeurin also said Fastow has been in a maximum-security detention center in downtown Houston, while most tax offenders are in more amenable minimum-security institutions.

"I take full responsibility for this effort to bring Lea's sentence in line with others across the nation in similar circumstances. This is not something Lea requested," DeGeurin said.

"On the other hand, the hope to resume her life with her family that this effort fostered has been dashed, leaving a feeling of great emptiness. But I am sure Lea and her family will weather this too without complaint."

The judge, who refused to even suggest a minimum-security facility for Lea Fastow though he knew her lawyers requested it and most tax offenders serve in such facilities, did mention the harshness of her prison term. The prison bureau tries to accommodate judicial recommendations but does not guarantee it will follow them.

"While the court recognizes Fastow ... is serving her sentence under conditions that may be more harsh as compared to other first-time tax offenders, designation of offenders for place of imprisonment is subject to the complete discretion of the Bureau of Prisons," the judge wrote.

Prosecutors didn't object entirely to DeGeurin's motion to set Lea Fastow free, saying through him that a release now would still be more than the five-month sentence the government initially had sought.

The judge had indicated he would seriously consider the motion, but in 10 pages said he lacked jurisdiction since the government didn't say Fastow had provided substantial cooperation, the Bureau of Prisons didn't ask for her release and the judge declined to find she had ineffective counsel, the three ways she could be released.

Meanwhile, we'll have to wait till next year for the trial of the Big Three.

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ordered today that jury selection for ex-Chairman Ken Lay, ex-CEO Jeff Skilling begin Jan. 17, 2006. He'd been considering starting the trial as as early as this summer.

Judge Lake said he pushed the case into next year to accommodate the trial schedules of the multiple top-flight lawyers involved. "All these good lawyers are fully employed," the judge joked. "I appreciate you giving me the time of day."

Lay, Skilling and former top accountant Rick Causey all recently asked for a December trial date, saying there is no time before then when Causey's two main lawyers can be fully prepared or don't have other trials. The judge said he chose to skip to January to avoid holiday travel problems.

I keep trying to blog about this story, in which Harris County GOP Chair Jared Woodfill cries about Republicans on City Council voting on issues like SafeClear as they see fit rather than by party fiat, but I keep laughing every time I start. Suffice it to say that my morning cereal was more enjoyable than usual today with this as my reading material. See Greg for more.

All right, there is one serious thing I can say. Woodfill may be shaking his fist at these particular poltroons, but for the most part, he has no real leverage over any of them. Only first-termers Pam Holm, who won in 2003 by 29 votes over the more hard-edged Kevin Elfant, and MJ Khan, who's rumored to be a candidate for At Large 1 or 2, are in any real position to be hurt by a party-led revolt. This is clearly aimed at future Council members, in particular the eventual replacements for Mark Ellis and Michael Berry since they could then be more aggressive than their predecessors in opposing Mayor White. Of course, Woodfill might want to keep in mind that the city of Houston (not Harris County, at least not yet, just the city) is majority Democratic. Put that together with a popular Mayor White, and Woodfill may not have anyone in those positions to threaten retribution against. Not that this would be a terrible thing, mind you.

What about the post-Council political future of these folks? I'm sure Woodfill had that in mind as well, but honestly, what's available for them? Back when re-redistricting was still a theoretical possibility, there was talk of making Gene Green's CD29 and/or Chris Bell's CD25 more amenable to GOP challengers. That didn't happen, and unless Tom DeLay gets unseated by Richard Morrison this time around none of the four GOP-held seats that touch Harris County are likely to be vacated by their current occupants any time soon. There'll be a couple of State Rep slots, I guess - Hubert Vo will certainly draw an opponent (though I'd bet the field gets cleared for Heflin if he really does want a rematch), and Joe Nixon's seat may be open. The most fertile ground, at least for as long as Harris County is majority Republican, is probably the bench. I can't see Doctor Shelly running for a judgeship, but maybe some of the others might. All I'm saying is that I don't see a whole lot of golden opportunities around here.

Well, there is still one to consider. We all know Michael Berry has his eye on bigger things. What's the one bigger thing we know for a fact he's wanted? That would be Mayor. Do you think his chances will be better as a good Republican soldier (like, oh, I don't know, Orlando Sanchez), or as a middle-ground consensus-builder? I'll bet he's given that question some thought. If so, it doesn't look like Jared Woodfill cares for his answer. Alas.

State Rep. Joe Nixon wants to be the champion of compulsory charity.

The House Elections Committee on Wednesday heard a bill by Rep. Joe Nixon, R-Houston, that is meant to overturn Texas Ethics Commission opinions that Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, ran into when he tried to host a lobby pheasant hunting trip last December.

Swinford had bought the birds and reserved the hotel rooms for his annual lobby pheasant hunt to raise money for his political account. Then he discovered the hunt date was set for after the 30-day cutoff when legislators are prohibited from raising political money prior to a legislative session.

So Swinford tried to change the event into a fund-raiser for his local 4-H Club with his name on the invitation.

That's when Swinford discovered ethics commission opinions for 1992, 1993 and 2000 that say it is a violation of the state penal and lobby laws for a public official to solicit a charitable donation to be made in his own name.

"The only difference was my name was on the invitation. Otherwise, that 4-H Club has hunts all the time. The issue was my name being on the invitation was going to mess us up," Swinford said.

Swinford said he had the hunt, but no one was charged.

Nixon's bill says a charitable donation solicited by a public official would not be considered a political donation, a benefit to the official or "an expenditure made to influence" legislative or administrative action.

"If I say ... 'Give money to the Boy Scouts,' that could be an ethics violation. That's nuts. I can't put on an apron and sell pancakes at my church," Nixon said.

However, the ethics opinion is not that simple.

Ethics Advisory Opinion 427 from 2003 says a public official may legally solicit contributions for a charity so long as the money goes directly to the charity and is not made in the official's name. The opinion also says an unsolicited donation may be made to a charity in an official's name.

The opinion said it is only when the official raises the money, controls the money or has the money donated in his or her name that state law is violated by becoming a benefit for the official.

Nixon said the opinion would halt Speaker Tom Craddick's annual golf tournament to raise money for children's charities. He said the tournament last year raised $150,000.

The issue here is very basic. Charitable donations do not have to be publicly reported. If Nixon has his way, then any politician can use the guise of charity to solicit large contributions made in secret. I fail to see how less disclosure in these matters is in any way preferable. It's fascinating how there can be this kind of push at the same time as the push to tighten regulations and raise ethical standards. Who will win? Whether he likes it or not, I think Tom Craddick is going to have to take a side sooner or later. Then maybe we'll know.

Tom Craddick has been called to testify in the civil suit against TRMPAC Treasurer Bill Ceverha.

In addition to Craddick, a subpoena also has been issued to Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond. He once bragged that TAB had spent more than $1.9 million in corporate money to help Republican House candidates in the 2002 campaign, which resulted in a GOP takeover of the Texas House.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs want to show that Hammond's activities were coordinated with those of Texans for a Republican Majority, or TRMPAC.

[...]

Though Craddick is not a defendant in the trial, the case may shed more light on what role he played in helping TRMPAC raise and spend corporate money.

The trial begins Monday. Craddick's lawyer Roy Minton said the speaker has been subpoenaed to testify Tuesday, but he has asked lawyers for the Democratic plaintiffs to set a time when Craddick's testimony would not conflict with House business.

"There's no problem. He'll testify and answer whatever questions are asked of him," Minton said.

Minton said he has no concerns about Craddick testifying in the civil case while the grand jury investigation is proceeding.

[...]

Hammond also is tentatively scheduled to testify Tuesday, said his lawyer, Andy Taylor.

Taylor said he does not think Hammond will be asked to testify about the direct mail campaign TAB used in the elections. He said subpoenas indicate Hammond's testimony will be limited to how TRMPAC used a TAB mailing and helped pay for a telephone bank operation.

One more thing:

Another lawsuit against TRMPAC and one against TAB are not close to going to trial, said attorney Randall "Buck" Wood.

The lawsuit that begins Monday before state District Judge Joseph Hart of Austin was brought by Paul Clayton of Orange, Mike Head of Athens, David Lengenfeld of Hamilton, Ann Kitchen of Austin and Danny Duncan of Commerce.

Congratulations to all the winners. If your blogroll consisted of nothing but blogs mentioned in that post (plus, you know, me), you'd have a mighty fine selection. Special kudos to Grits for their co-win in the Best Single Issue Blog category, and to Best New Blog Mouse Words. I'm ashamed to admit that I hadn't realized before now that MW's Amanda is a Texan. Looks like I'll be updating the Texas Political Bloggers Page. Major thanks as always to MB, Eric, and Dwight for the massive amount of work they do on this great project every year.

Chris Bell may still be "exploring" a run for Governor, but that doesn't mean he can't point out a few things about the current occupant of the Mansion:

STATEMENT BY CHRIS BELL ON HB 23 Offered as testimony before the Insurance Committee, 2/21/05

There is no logical basis to link insurance rates to credit ratings. If someone is late on his credit card bill, that does not mean that a tornado is going to hit his barn. Economic redlining only serves to protect the profits of insurance companies, and we have a moral mandate to stop this now and to lower the barriers to home ownership.

This is not a partisan issue. The sponsors of HB 23 are Republicans, and in 2002, Rick Perry promised to end credit scoring in Texas. He was right to take that election-year stand back then, and though his appointee at the Texas Department of Insurance is protecting economic redlining, the Governor would do well to keep his earlier promise."

Just got a note from Houston Chronicle tech guru Dwight Silverman announcing a brand new page of RSS feeds at Chron.com. I'd been meaning to ask him about that since his Techblog got launched, but he beat me to it. They've got feeds now for top headlines, various sections of the paper, the three pro sports teams, and yes, for MeMo, too. Check it out. Thanks for the tip, Dwight!

Hey, did you know that the AARP has a blog? That's pretty cool, I think. Nice thing about blogs is that they allow one to respond rapidly to scurrilous attacks on oneself. Which they're doing.

Via Julia and The Stakeholder. I wonder if the AARP will follow Steve Soto's advice on how to respond?

CW Nevius makes a pretty good point about how good and bad behavior are rewarded and punished on reality TV shows.

Despite their attempts to manufacture conflict, the reality shows have become a national forum for what is acceptable public conduct. Instead of encouraging the worst in contestants (which is what nearly everyone expected), the shows have not only exposed bad behavior, they have scolded it.

Take Kendra Bentley, the vapid model who competed in the other CBS reality-ratings powerhouse "The Amazing Race." In that show, couples race around the world, hyperventilating and hollering. During one segment, Bentley, traveling through Senegal, looked out a taxi window and observed that, "This country is wretched and disgusting. And they just keep breeding and breeding in this poverty."

After the show, Bentley was backpedaling frantically, apologizing and explaining that the comment was taken out of context.

Burnt Orange has a statement from State Rep. Richard Raymond, who is supposedly exploring a primary challenge to US Rep. Henry Cuellar in 2006.

STATEMENT BY REPRESENTATIVE RICHARD RAYMOND REGARDING POSSIBLE RUN FOR CONGRESS

"I appreciate Aaron Pena's enthusiasm and potential support, but I have contacted him and told him I will not make any formal decision on running for CD 28, which is currently held by Henry Cuellar, until sometime after the legislative session.

Many people have contacted me and offered to support me and I appreciate it very much. However, I will not run, unless the support is there and I really believe I can win. I will continue to talk with and listen to those who are interested in me running for Congress.

This is an extremely important position and one in which I believe I could make a difference, were I to run and be elected. If you have any comments on this, pro or con, please let me know."

Richard Raymond
State Representative, District 42
Laredo
email: RRaymondTX AT aol DOT com

Twenty-five years ago today, the US Olympic hockey team beat the Soviet Union 4-3. A more exhilarating moment would be hard to imagine.

Sheila and Eric give us some imagery. Thanks for the reminder, you two.

The new year continues to bring new Texas political blogs, so I've done another update of the Texas political bloggers page. A few I'd like to call your attention to are the Capitol Annex and Inside the Texas Capitol, and also Rio Grande Valley Politics. The latter is a rare example of a political blog outside the Houston/Austin/Dallas axis, and I'm looking forward to seeing more from it. If I had one blogospheric wish, it would be to see at least one progressive political blog from every major population center in Texas. We're slowly getting there, but until an El Paso progressive blogger is found, we're not there yet.

The other two join an impressively large field of folks who cover the Texas Legislature as part or all of their mission. That group includes In the Pink Texas, PinkDome, State Rep. Aaron Pena (D, Edinburg, also from the Valley), A Little Pollyanna, Grits for Breakfast, and the Statesman's On the Lege. You want to know what's happening in the Lege this session, you've got plenty of resources available to you.

As always, if I've overlooked someone, please let me know. And as a side note to 'stina, I have found confirmation that the Bull Moose is indeed from Waco (confirmation found, appropriately enough, via Greg). He's now listed among the Expats.

Do you have everything in place for that fairy tale wedding of your dreams except for an officiant? You may be in luck - someday soon, your elected officials will be able to help.

Lawmakers and statewide elected officeholders would join priests, ministers, rabbis, religious organizations' officers and all kinds of judges on the list of those authorized to perform marriage ceremonies under a bill by Rep. Dianne Delisi, R-Temple.

Delisi said House Bill 1228 is a response to queries from constituents and friends who've wanted her or fellow officeholders to perform ceremonies and assume they already have that power.

She said among those who have been asked and would like to perform marriages is Gov. Rick Perry. His spokesman, Robert Black, said Perry's got no position on the bill.

The bill would authorize lawmakers and statewide elected officials, as well as those who retire after Sept. 1, 2005, to conduct marriage ceremonies.

It would forbid those in office from being paid for performing the ceremony or receiving a gift for the service greater than $50. Delisi said she will file a substitute bill to clarify that those same restrictions would apply after retirement from office.

There's a little controversy brewing over whether Democratic former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes will be helping Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in her (as yet purported) quest to become Governor in 2006. Save Texas Reps says Yes, here and here. PerryVsWorld says probably not. Byron is skeptical, and I must say I share his opinion. I could maybe see this happen in the general election, but it's really hard to see how a guy like Barnes helps KBH at all in a GOP primary.

You never know. If it's true, we'll find out soon enough. If not, it'll disappear into the bloggy ether. Since speculation is always half the fun, Greg offers his vision of what happens in either the Gov or Sen races. And Sarah is there with a reminder that despite popular perception and what will surely be the theme of Perry's opposition campaign against her, KBH just ain't that moderate. Another reason why I wouldn't expect anything resembling this until after the primaries, but again, you never know.

UPDATE: Forgot to point out this story of KBH travelling around the state much like Hillary Clinton did in NY prior to her run for Senate. Make of that what you will, and no, I'm not drawing any comparisions between the two women. Via PerryVsWorld.

Sigh. From the day that KLOL changed formats, the rumor has always been that morning DJs Walton and Johnson would return somewhere to pollute the airwaves. New rock station KIOL has been teasing about a "big announcement" the past week or so, and now it's official. They're apparently on as of today. All I can say is it's nice I finally added KACC to my radio dial. Via blogHOUSTON.

(They also say that Jim Pruett and Outlaw Dave may be back as well. That's fine, though neither here nor there as far as my tuning in is concerned. Honestly, the longer they keep the DJ-free jukebox format, the better.)

If you're not sure what Rick Perry's reelection campaign is going to look like this article should give you a pretty good idea: Jobs, jobs, jobs.

"We don't fund companies who already are planning to move to Texas," said Phil Wilson, Gov. Rick Perry's deputy chief of staff, who oversees Texas Enterprise Fund activities.

Given a peek into Texas' covert world of economic development, the Austin American-Statesman has found that of the 123 companies that have applied for money from the Enterprise Fund, only 17 have received any. That is proof, Perry's office says, that the fund is properly managed.

Of those that have been turned down, some were faltering businesses seeking a bailout. Others were ideas seeking a venture capital source. Others had bad business plans. Another wanted Texas taxpayers to retool its manufacturing plant.

Top aides to Perry say the rejections highlight the stringent checks and balances that have been built into the largely secret process of choosing which companies or projects will get Enterprise Fund money. Critics are adamant that the fund is viewed by companies as free money and that more regulations governing its use need to be written into law.

The Enterprise Fund was created in 2003 with $295 million that the Legislature took from the state's rainy day fund. It is overseen by Perry's Economic Development and Tourism Office and is to be used to close deals so that businesses will expand in Texas or move here.

When it was set up, it was the largest such cash fund in the country. With $212.4 million committed so far, Perry is seeking from lawmakers $300 million to replenish the Enterprise Fund and $300 million to establish an Emerging Technology Fund that would also be administered by his office.

[...]

"So far, 31 projects have received no consensus," Wilson said. An additional 43 have not located in Texas, such as Boeing Co., which was offered $45 million to come to the Rio Grande Valley, and Union Tank Car Co., which was offered a $2 million package to expand in the Houston area.

Among the 17 projects approved, 24,446 jobs are to be created during the next decade — about $8,700 each for the state's expenditure of $212.4 million. Perry aides note that the return on that will be $6.3 billion in capital investment in Texas.

"That's a great return," Wilson said.

The case against is a bit more complicated.

Critics say that although safeguards may be a part of the review process, enhanced accountability and public disclosure are needed and other measures for review should be added.

"The Texas Enterprise Fund has the opportunity to travel a 'high road' economic development path, paving the way towards transparency, rigorous compliance, higher wages and guaranteed health insurance coverage," said a recent report by the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an Austin advocacy group. "Or it could continue to pursue a 'low road' economic development approach — limiting public disclosure and reporting while subsidizing companies that don't pledge to create high-quality jobs."

[...]

If Texas must play the corporate incentive game, some lawmakers say, the safeguards are welcome.

But, said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D- El Paso, there's a better way to attract business: "The state ought first to invest in education, its work force and infrastructure before subsidizing corporate entities."

Via Perry V. World.

I previously mentioned a series of bills that are forthcoming to enact some tighter restrictions on corporate campaign contributions and related matters. One of those bills was filed yesterday.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, introduced a bill Monday to tighten the state's restrictions on corporate and union money in Texas politics. But the bill has no support with the Legislature's Republican leadership.

The legislation would ban corporate contributions to political committees not directly affiliated with the corporation. It also would ban corporate money from being used in advertising designed to influence a primary or general election.

"In Texas, we made the decision we're going to have naming rights for corporations to our baseball stadiums, our basketball arenas, our football fields," Eiland said. "But we don't need to authorize corporate naming rights to politicians and elected officials."

The bill is sponsored in the House by Eiland and Rep. Todd Smith, R-Bedford. In the Senate, it is sponsored by Sens. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock.

More than 60 public-interest groups announced support for the bill. Among them are the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention, the AARP and Common Cause.

Smith said the magic-words test, the cornerstone of the legal defense by the state business group, should not allow the use of secret corporate money to finance attack ads in the last weeks of a campaign. He quoted a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision as saying the magic-words test is "functionally meaningless."

"A magic-word test would destroy both our 100-year-old prohibition against big union and corporate contributions and our disclosure law," Smith said.

The bill would prohibit corporate or union money from being used to advocate the election or defeat of a candidate, regardless of whether the magic words are used. It would allow the money to be spent on a political committee's overhead — such as office rent, phones and clerical salaries — but would bar using it for political consulting, phone banks or campaign fund raising.

State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, added concerns about out-of-state money being used for attack ads.

Hinojosa and state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, are committed to leading the reform effort in the Senate, though no Senate bill has been introduced concerning the issue.

State Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, defeated Jack Stick, a major recipient of TRMPAC funds, to win his seat in the House. Strama has experience working with Rock the Vote, an organization dedicated to increasing youth voter turnout.

"One of the biggest reasons they chose not to vote was because they felt corporate money was more important to candidates than their vote," he said. "Money has become way too important in the political system."

Eiland admitted the bill does not cover all issues related to campaign finance reform, such as unregulated money for issue ads, made famous by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that questioned the integrity of presidential candidate John Kerry.

Call me crazy, but if you have to resort to this, I'd say you're admitting that you can't win the debate. Josh Marshall has the details.

I've seen a lot of reaction to this story about a new and "improved" version of Bugs Bunny. Pete and Laurence are up in arms, while The Talent Show makes an interesting observation about WB's motives and Mark Evanier says to wait and see what it looks like before getting too bent out of shape.

Personally, I fall into the don't-get-too-bent-out-of-shape camp. Whatever they do with Bugs Bunny, it won't detract from the reasons why he's a character we love - the "Rabbit Seasoning"s and the "Rabbit of Seville"s and so forth. But there's a question I have to ask after having read this:

Warner Bros. isn't sending the venerable original Looney Tunes cast into retirement, but it is trying to update the characters' appeal among modern kids. The classic characters were wisecrackers who rode their irreverent humor to stardom in the 1940s. The challenge now is to find a fresh way to tap the funny bone of an audience raised on Bart Simpson and SpongeBob SquarePants.

"The new series will have the same classic wit and wisdom, but we have to do it more in line with what kids are talking about today," says Sander Schwartz, president of Warner Bros. Animation. The plots are action-oriented, filled with chases and fights. Each character possesses a special crime-fighting power.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You can't do Bugs and Daffy and Elmer and so on without the voice of Mel Blanc. With all due respect, I disagree. I feel confident that there are quite a few actors out there who could do those voices in a way that's nearly indistinguishable from the originals. And let's not forget that the writers, animators, and directors had a role in making these characters memorable. The voices were vital, but they can be replicated.

In my mind, the smart thing for Warner Brothers to do is to forget about Bugs and Daffy as futuristic crimefighters (though who knows, it could work), find this generation's Jones, McKimson, Freleng, Clampett, and Avery, and turn them loose. I think they'd achieve their goal of making the characters more accessible to modern kids without alienating lifelong fans. Probably make a pile of money, too.

Of course, the absolute best thing to happen would be for these characters to fall into the public domain, as they would have by now under the copyright laws that were in effect at the time. Does anyone here think that there would have been no Bugs/Daffy/Porky/Foghorn/etc cartoons of any merit in the last, oh, fifty years or so had any artist with an idea and a budget been able to do one? I'd go so far as to say that Warner Brothers would still have a pretty nice cash cow on its hands if its characters were working regularly. Ironic, isn't it?

(On a side note, another character who really deserves to get freed of his copyright shackles and become a star again: Mickey Mouse. Does anyone think of him as anything but a corporate logo or a sweaty teenager in a costume any more? Can anyone recall an aspect of Mickey's personality? I have a bunch of Mickey Mouse comics from the 50s and 60s that had been my uncle's. He was often cast as an action/adventure type, what would be considered a fairly romantic lead if one wanted to pursue that angle. Goofy, who was actually a pretty competent sidekick, was his usual costar in these books. I grew up reading those comics (among many others) at my grandmother's house, and I'm thrilled that I'll be able to share them with Olivia some day. What might a modern-day Mickey Mouse be like? Sadly, we'll probably never know.)

Anyway. Some kind of Bugs is better than none, I guess, but I do regret the missed opportunity. Maybe next time they'll ask me first.

Let me say that I fully endorse the Count Every Vote Act.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate in 2008, joined 2004 nominee John Kerry and other Democrats Thursday in urging that Election Day be made a federal holiday to encourage voting.

She also pushed for legislation that would allow all ex-felons to vote.

Standing with Massachusetts Sen. Kerry and other Democrats who had alleged voting irregularities in the 2004 contest, Clinton said, "Once again we had a federal election that demonstrates we have a long way to go."

"I think it's also necessary to make sure our elections meet the highest national standards," said the New York senator.

[...]

In addition to creating a federal holiday for voting, the bill would:

_Require paper receipts for votes.

_Authorize $500 million to help states make the changes in voting systems and equipment.

_Allow ex-felons to vote. Currently an estimated 4.7 million Americans are barred from voting because of their criminal records.

_Require adoption of the changes in time for the 2006 election.

First of all, it would eliminate the kind of shenanigans we've seen with "cleansing" voter rolls. The potential for abuse is too great, as is the potential to get screwed by having the bad luck to share a similar name with a crook. I presume the CEVA does not go as far as I would advocate, so there will still be potential for abuse, but this is at least a step in the right direction.

Second, one of the many bad effects of the War On Drugs is the felonization of more and more activity. Losing the right to vote for the rest of one's life is too high a price to exact for many of these. And let's face facts here: by a wide margin, this disproportionately affects blacks. Restoring some perspective in the criminal justice system is certainly needed, but in the meantime I'll settle for restoring voting rights to people who should not have lost them.

Finally, I believe that a base level of civil rights should be uniform throughout the country. Losing the right to vote (or not) based on prior bad acts should not be a function of where you committed those bad acts. This is why federal action is needed.

Via Greg.

Greg Moses has two more articles as a result of his study of the original documents in the Heflin challenge, and he has concluded that Andy Taylor is guilty of attempting to violate the civil rights of some voters, specifically the voters whose registrations were fraudulently changed by Bernard Amandi. Here's the crux of Moses' argument:

Several voters of Nigerian descent discovered when they tried to vote in the November elections, that they had been fraudulently re-registered into a neighboring House District. Sometime in late 2003, someone had submitted new registrations for these voters, placing them into a legislative district that would soon involve a candidate of Nigerian descent. The candidate lost to an incumbent in the Democratic primary election.

During public hearings in the election contest that he brought to the legislature on behalf of his client Talmadge Heflin, Taylor argued that these African-American voters who preferred Democrat Hubert Vo should have their votes tossed out because they were cast in a legislative district other than where the voters were registered.

Yet, anyone with access to the original documents in the Heflin-Vo election contest (including Taylor himself, who submitted the docs in the first place) would have been able to plainly read the explanation that "fraudulent addresses" for voters of Nigerian descent had been allegedly submitted by someone other than the voters. In fact, the assertion was twice stated in carefully written explanations on envelopes for provisional ballots submitted by a husband-wife pair of voters.

The provisional ballots were approved by Harris County election officials who accepted that the voters should be considered as properly registered. And legislative Master of Discovery Will Hartnett (R-Dallas) also ruled the ballots to be legal. Hartnett explained in the election hearing that he had taken the time to call up one of the voters and discuss the predicament.

While it appeared to someone viewing the hearing that Hartnett was being exceedingly perceptive in his discovery of a pattern of fraud against the voters, in fact he was just reading what was plainly written, not once but twice, on the evidence submitted by Taylor. This plainly stated explanation, which was accepted by Harris County officials and Hartnett, never stopped Taylor from trying to suppress the votes of these African-American voters nevertheless, along with their votes for Vo.

The significance of this finding is that Taylor (the same attorney who defended the heavy-handed redistricting of the Texas Congressional map in 2004) continued to pursue allegations in a public hearing that a number of Nigerian-American voters (4-9 cases according to my preliminary estimate) had cast illegal ballots, even as he placed exculpatory evidence on the record that plainly indicated they were victims not perpetrators of fraud.

By pursuing his allegations against these voters in the context of a rare legislative election contest, Taylor used his law license to call down the power of the state to pursue certain voters under threat of arrest, when he had every reason to suspect they were innocent from the start. If the law is going to jealously guard Taylor's right to pursue election irregularities, should it not just as jealously guard the rights of voters against willful and obnoxious harassment by agents of the law?

Taylor's bad faith attack on these African-American voters counts as a Civil Rights infringement in two ways. First, it was an effort to criminalize voters of color by deliberately overlooking exculpatory evidence on the record. Second, it counts as a bad faith effort to overturn the election of a candidate of color. Using the power of law to harass voters of African descent in an effort to unseat a candidate of Vietnamese descent, accusing all parties of fraud when your own evidence indicates they have done nothing wrong, this is offensive, outrageous, indecent, and should cost Andy Taylor his license to practice law in Texas.

There's a good reason why Will Hartnett rejected Taylor and Benkiser's twisted logic, beyond the fact that it's a load of crap: People who didn't do anything wrong should not be treated like people who did. These voters were essentially victims of identity theft. To deny them their right to vote based on that would add to their victimization. But that's what Taylor and Benkiser wanted, and they're still advocating for it. Whether that's an offense worthy of the State Bar's intervention or not I can't say, but it's shameful and dishonest, and they deserve to be scorned for it.

The US59/I610 interchange is no longer one of the worst ten traffic interchanges in America, at least according to AAA.

Houston drivers may not notice much difference, but the city no longer holds a place on AAA's national list of 10 really annoying traffic bottlenecks.

When it last came out in 2000, the list included the epic confluence of the Southwest Freeway and West Loop near the Galleria, which holds the unofficial title of Texas' busiest interchange.

It is being rebuilt, with continuous frontage roads and redesigned connector ramps that will give some relief. But that's not why it missed the cut.

"The only reason you weren't on the list is that we had to cite something in Los Angeles that was a lot worse," said AAA spokesman Montill Williams. Texas' best candidate was bumped by the interchange of U.S. 101 (Ventura Freeway) and Interstate 405 in the San Fernando Valley north of downtown LA.

"That one is a monster," Williams said. The evening rush lasts about five hours.

Several Houston museums are looking to expand.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is planning an expansion that would bring a massive gallery of 20th century art to its Museum District campus just off Main Street.

A couple of blocks away, the Children's Museum of Houston wants to nearly double its size, adding gallery space and enlarging the courtyard.

And just to the north, Asia Society Texas has cleared a block to build Asia House, which will include exhibition space, a performance hall and a library to showcase Asian-American culture.

Throughout Houston's Museum District, a part of town anchored at the intersection of Binz and Main Street, similar new facilities, expansions and renovations are under way or planned at many of the 16 institutions that make up this growing cultural center.

[Susan Young, administrator for the Houston Museum District Association] said the light rail system and a new Main Street exit ramp off U.S. 59 will help shape how the area develops.

The Museum District is already served by three rail stops because it stretches from the Montrose area on the north to near Rice University on the south.

And the new freeway ramp, Young said, marks the first time since the 1950s that traffic has been able to conveniently reach the arts district.

Young also said the "museum walk," a federally funded infrastructure plan, will improve the area by linking pedestrians and Metro riders to the museums and district landmarks through walkways and signs.

Asia Society Texas chose the area for its new museum partially because of its proximity to light rail.

Drip...drip...drip...

Speaker Tom Craddick met with a small group of corporate donors to Texans for a Republican Majority at a Washington, D.C., breakfast just a month before the 2002 election and Craddick's elevation to leader of the Texas House of Representa- tives.

Two GOP consultants had been planning the D.C. affair for two months, including an early meeting in Austin where they urged Craddick to participate in the fund-raiser in the nation's capital, according to documents that likely will be submitted as evidence in an upcoming civil trial involving the 2002 fund-raising efforts.

A Travis County grand jury last fall indicted the two consultants, John Colyandro and Warren Robold, for their roles in raising corporate money.

As prosecutors continue to investigate Craddick's association with Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee, the newest court documents — including e-mails between Colyandro and Robold — further dispel Craddick's 2003 contention he did little for the committee outside of attending one or two fund-raisers.

In one e-mail, Colyandro told Robold, who was seeking fund-raising help from then-U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, that Craddick had faxed a request to the Bush Cabinet officer.

State law prohibits outside groups from trying to influence a speaker's election or a candidate for speaker from accepting help from an outside group.

[...]

Several Democratic candidates who lost in 2002 are suing the treasurer of Texans for a Republican Majority, former Dallas state Rep. Bill Ceverha, another Craddick ally, claiming the committee should have reported the $600,000 in corporate donations it ultimately spent.

Colyandro and Ellis were temporarily dropped as defendants in the lawsuit because both face criminal charges arising from the committee's fund raising.

The civil trial begins Feb. 28, and Craddick has been subpoenaed. The e-mails might be introduced as evidence.

Twenty-four hours after the election, several of the dozen or so Republicans [who had been previously opposed to Craddick's speakership] met Craddick's lieutenants at the Ruth's Chris Steak House in Austin and signed on to give Craddick unanimous support from Republicans.

The next morning, Craddick announced victory, with 102 members pledged to his election as the first Republican speaker in more than 100 years.

Colyandro sent Craddick the draft of a thank-you letter on the letterhead of Texans for a Republican Majority. It was to be signed by Craddick and sent to the contributors to the GOP committee.

"We won a major victory election night, and all of us involved with TRMPAC owe you a deep debt of gratitude," the letter said. "We look forward to building on TRMPAC's success and having you as part of our team. Many thanks. Sincerely, Tom Craddick. Speaker-elect."

[Craddick's lawyer Roy] Minton said that Craddick never signed the draft and that the letter was never sent. He refused to say why, but critics of Craddick say privately the letter would have amounted to a written admission of his role with Texans for a Republican Majority.

"He didn't sign it," Minton said. "End of story."

Crooked Timber points to this Financial Times article about the Tulsa race riot of 1921.

The riot began, as the battles in America's race wars often seem to, with an allegation of sexual assault. On the warm afternoon of Memorial Day, May 30, 1921, in the Drexel Building that still stands downtown, a 19-year-old black shoeshine boy named Dick Rowland had gone to the "coloured" men's toilets on the top floor. Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white girl - an orphan, Tulsans were soon told, working her way through college - ran the elevator. What transpired between the two remains a mystery, but whether Rowland tripped, or grabbed Page's hand, or never even touched her, the girl screamed. It was enough. By the following afternoon, a front- page headline in the Tulsa Tribune, trusted daily of the town's white citizens, exhorted: "Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator". Rowland, the Tribune cried, had attacked Page. The spectre of rape raised, the lynching calls ensued.

At the courthouse downtown where Rowland was being held, a white mob squared off against armed black men. Veterans of the first world war, they had come from Greenwood to stave off a lynching. Shots broke out and mayhem ensued. Officers of the Tulsa police and county sheriff's department sided with the whites, hastily deputising hundreds and handing out weapons. National Guard troops were called in from neighbouring towns, arriving in trucks mounted with machine-guns. The guardsmen not only abetted the violence, but disarmed and rounded up hundreds of black defenders of Greenwood. As the whites fired at will, local biplanes circled above, scouting for blacks and - according to some reports - dropping incendiary explosives.

When martial law finally brought quiet, 35 blocks of Tulsa's north side - with 1,256 houses and 23 churches - had burned to the ground. Hundreds of homes and shops had been looted. Black men had been shot, burned and dragged through the streets.

[...]

Years later, white witnesses would be haunted by what they had seen as young boys: a black corpse hanging from a telephone pole and others stacked like cordwood on railroad flatcars. The true death toll will never be known. The confirmed count stopped at 39, but a Red Cross tally at the time ran as high as 300 dead - most of them black. Rumours still persist that the dead were buried in unmarked graves or dumped in the Arkansas River that runs across the city's west side.

In the riot's aftermath, an all-white grand jury affirmed that "there was no mob spirit among the whites, no talk of lynching and no arms". No participant in the riot was ever tried for a felony crime.

I had heard of the Tulsa massacre before. A story I had not heard is recounted in a book by Texas Monthly's Patricia Bernstein, The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP, which is reviewed in today's Chronicle.

Among the scores of lynching photographs, one, taken in Waco on May 15, 1916, around noon, is remarkable. First, the photographer snapped it while the lynching was in progress and not after the fact. Second, it shows not a small mob but a huge crowd. Contemporaries estimated that 10,000 to 15,000 people witnessed the death of Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old black teenager accused of raping and killing a white woman.

[...]

The particulars of the Washington case are these: On May 8 Lucy Fryer, a farmer's wife in her mid-50s, was found outside her house, her skull crushed and her clothes disheveled. Jesse Washington, whose family worked on the Fryer farm, was taken into custody later that evening after blood was found on his clothing. Washington claimed he'd had a nosebleed.

Taken into Waco he confessed, according to authorities, and told police where to find the apparent murder weapon, a hammer. There's some indication Washington was retarded — after committing the murder, if he did, he went back to plowing a field 250 yards from the crime scene, and after his arrest he curled up and fell asleep in the back seat of a car.

On May 15, after a trial that lasted a little over an hour in a jammed courtroom, Washington was found guilty and sentenced to death. The crowd in the courtroom surged forward and seized the teenager, dragging him down the back stairs and into the town square, where he was alternately burned and hanged over a period of about two hours. Authorities made no attempt to stop the lynching — the mayor and police chief observed the proceedings from the second floor of City Hall, which is also where photographer Fred Gildersleeve set up his equipment.

A new bill has been filed that just might put a crimp in Governor Perry's grand plans for the Trans Texas Corridor.

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican whose district borders on the hotbed of anti-Trans Texas Corridor sentiment in Fayette County, has filed legislation to slim down the potential corridor width and provide ample crossings for farmers.

Her bill, HB 1273, would limit the width of the proposed 4,000 miles of corridors to 800 feet. That’s still huge compared with the 300 to 400 feet typical for interstates. But it’s positively anorexic compared with the 1,200 feet contemplated by planners of Gov. Rick Perry’s transportation centerpiece.

Perry envisions having six highway lanes for cars, four for trucks, six rail lines and additional space for utility lines. State officials have said that the corridor wouldn’t necessarily be one single swath, but rather several strips roughly paralleling one another. Although the bill’s language refers specifically to limiting “highway or turnpike” right-of-way to 800 feet, Kolkhorst said her intent is that the total width for all uses be no more than 800 feet.

In addition, the legislation would require that at each point where a state highway or farm-to-market road intersects a corridor (it is silent on ranch-to-market roads), the minor road would have full access to the turnpike and “uninterrupted service across the corridor.” And the bill would outlaw so-called non-compete clauses in any private agreements to build or operate corridor segments. Such clauses typically prohibit or limit improvements or new construction of parallel roads to a tollway.

The main organization in opposition to the corridor idea, Corridor Watch, was founded in Fayette County. However, the two corridor routes likely to be built any time in the foreseeable future — one paralleling Interstate 35 and the new Interstate 69 from Brownsville to Texarkana — would not go through either Fayette County or the four counties in Kolkhorst’s district.

“This bill is meant to open the conversation,” Kolkhurst said, adding that a coalition of lawmakers from both parties have been talking about placing limits on the Trans-Texas Corridor. “We would like some narrowing, no pun intended, of the parameters.”

The Chron's Dwight Silverman comes out strongly against the omnibus telecom bill that would ban municipalities from offering free WiFi to its citizens. He has some resources for those who wish to make their opposition known, including SaveMuniWireless.org. Check it out.

Today is my thirty-ninth birthday. Looks like I just missed sharing a birthday with Atrios, though he's a whippersnapper compared to me. Last year at this time, the Feds celebrated for me by busting Jeff Skilling. They may have a hard time topping that. Other highlights from history are here. And of course it wouldn't be my birthday if I didn't mention that I'm exactly as old as Justine Bateman and exactly one day older than Cindy Crawford.

Before anyone asks, the answer is no, I'm not at all unhappy about being on the verge of 40. My thirties have been very good to me. If my forties are to my thirties as my thirties are to my twenties, I'm in for a hell of a decade. Bring it on, I say.

Two new blogs to check out: Dos Centavos, by Stace Medellin of La Raza Unida, and Latinos for Texas, which is affiliated with Democracy for Texas. Ther latter brings news that State Rep. Richard Raymond is going to run for Congress in 2006, apparently as a primary challenger to Henry Cuellar in CD28. Yeah, I still want him to run in CD23, but that's okay. Stace, meanwhile, piles on to Rep. Betty Brown's voting registration restrictions bill. Check them out.

Jeralyn notes that State Sen. Eddie Lucio has once again submitted his bill to allow for a sentence of life without parole in capital cases (it's SB60). Apparently, Governor Perry now supports this, so the third time may be the charm for Lucio's bill. The Brownsville Herald also offers its support.

There's a rumor going around that Tom DeLay might be getting a promotion to Speaker in the near future. I find it a little hard to understand. It's not like the change in title would mean more actual power for him. Maybe it's a legacy thing - history seldom remembers Majority Leaders. I'm pretty sure history won't forget Tom DeLay, though.

Mostly what puzzles me is that this would make DeLay a lot more visible, and thus a lot easier for Democrats to run against in 2006. I guarantee that one of the first things to happen after this were to be announced would be another round of editorials bashing DeLay and the Congressional Republicans for their ethics problems. All of which is fine by me, of course, but I'm not seeing what the Republicans will get out of it.

Anyway. It's a rumor, and rumors are written on water. If it does happen, there will be plenty more to say.

Governor Perry has achieved majority approval (barely), but is still the least liked statewide officeholder in Texas.

The Scripps Howard Texas Poll found 51 percent of the Texans surveyed said Perry is doing a good job as governor while 33 percent disapprove of his job performance. That is in marked contrast to a year ago, when half the Texans surveyed disapproved of Perry as governor.

The poll also shows strength for Perry among his own partisans. Among Republicans, 73 percent approved of the job Perry is doing as governor.

As for the others, it's pretty clear that KBH is very popular, and that a lot of people don't know much about anybody else. Note also that President Bush's disapproval rating matches Perry's at 33% while his approval rating is 61%, ten points better than the Governor. For sure he's got better numbers among Republicans, and probably equal totals among Democrats. That may yet mean there's room for Perry to go up, but his history suggests otherwise. In the end, of course, there's only one poll that matters. We'll see what happens.

UPDATE: PerryVsWorld has some thoughts on this as well.

I confess, I had not realized that there was an existing model for Social Security privatization right here in Texas. If the Chron ever wrote about it, I flat out missed it. I find it interesting that none of the people quoted who are actually receiving payments from this plan say they did better off than they would have under Social Security. Read it yourself and see. Via The Stakeholder.

The hard drive on our year-old Dell died miserably on Monday. Tonight at nine PM a tech came out and replaced it (he was supposed to be here between 1:45 and 4:45 - don't ask). It took me way longer than it should have to realize that the reason the system wasn't recognizing the PCI wireless adapter was because there was an unknown device in Device Manager that needed to be configured, but eventually I got it and now we're back on the Net.

Tomorrow: reinstall printer, wireless mouse, CD writer software, and backed-up data. Oh, this is so much fun. And sometime within the next ten business days, try to re-connect the bad drive as a slave device to see if anything can be recovered from it prior to shipping it back to Dell (we get charged for the new disk otherwise, according to the tech; I guess "under warranty" only goes so far).

Did I mention it's my birthday on Saturday? I'd gripe about what a rotten present this is except I'm so happy to have a live Internet connection again that I can't bring myself to be too grumpy. Yes, I'm that pathetic.

It's not available for free online, but The Daily DeLay has a few excerpts. Check it out.

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training this week. All is temporarily right with the universe.

This was in the previous article that I'd linked on the topic, but since I didn't emphasize it there, I'll note it here: Governor Perry is receptive to the idea of indexing the gas tax to inflation.

"There may be some type of approach that is put in place that I could support, but let's just wait and let it work its way through the (legislative) process," he said.

The idea of tying the gasoline tax to an inflation index was broached Tuesday by Speaker Tom Craddick. Perry said the proposal is "an interesting idea."

[...]

Both Perry and Craddick indicated that any increase would be limited, at least initially.

State Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said he is trying to draft legislation to tie the gasoline tax to a highway construction cost index or something similar.

Two years ago, Perry and Craddick insisted on bridging a $10 billion budgetary shortfall without raising state taxes. Now, regardless of what happens to the gasoline tax, the governor and lawmakers are trying to piece together a package of new or higher state taxes in exchange for sharp reductions in local school property taxes.

But Perry's goal is to avoid an overall net tax increase, spokesman Robert Black said.

Dick Lavine, an analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said state leaders are facing budgetary reality.

"It's no longer just a flat no-new-taxes (attitude)," he said. "It's a recognition that sometimes you have to pay to get what you want."

But Lavine, whose group lobbies for low-income people, said the gasoline tax is regressive. The increase, he said, would disproportionately hit poorer Texans harder because gasoline consumption is not a function of wealth.

"No matter how rich you are, you really don't drive that much farther than the average person," Lavine said.

Now, I have been critical in the past of various attempts to shift tax burdens from items which are deductible on one's federal taxes to items which aren't, and an increase in the gas tax as a piece in the property tax reduction puzzle fits that bill. I don't see this as being a big enough piece to worry about, though. A five-cent per gallon increase (which is probably more than Perry and Craddick would go for anyway) would cost a household that buys 20 gallons of gas a week and extra hundred bucks a year. And as far as this being a regressive tax goes, I can't see it comparing all that unfavorably to any sales tax increase proposal.

Lastly, since a portion of the gas tax goes to education, I'd take it over just about any harebrained scheme to expand gambling that the Lege might cook up. I see where the critics are coming from, but in the end I think this is an idea to consider.

That won't stop me from complaining about this shinola again:

An increase of only a few cents in the gasoline tax would do little to close the highway construction gap, and Perry still supports the increased use of toll roads, which has stirred controversy in parts of the state.

Another historic inside-the-Loop neighborhood girds for battle with TxDOT.

Nestled in a small pocket northeast of downtown and surrounded by highways and railroad tracks, Houston's Near Northside has both suffered and benefited from years of relative isolation.

Home to dozens of Victorian-era gabled houses that once housed the European immigrants of the 1880s and 1890s, Near Northside retains its architecture and its blue-collar character.

But Preservation Texas, a statewide historic preservation group based in Austin, says the neighborhood is in trouble. The group announced Wednesday that it has placed Near Northside on its 2005 list of Texas' Most Endangered Places.

The most immediate danger, preservationists say, comes from the state. The Texas Department of Transportation has proposed widening and extending the Elysian Viaduct, a move that residents and preservationists say will further decay a neighborhood that could be a model of preservation and a landscaped gateway into downtown.

[...]

TxDOT officials say they think the viaduct is unsafe. It has no shoulders and is restricted to vehicles weighing 12 tons or less, whereas current standards call for bridges that can handle 40-ton truckloads.

Critics of the TxDOT proposal have suggested instead replacing the viaduct with a scenic surface-level boulevard that could be the trigger for redevelopment and historic preservation in the area.

Norm Wigington, a TxDOT spokesman, said the viaduct has to remain elevated because it spans two railroad tracks and Interstate 10.

He said the agency has proposed an alternative plan to detour around a group of houses by building the viaduct farther to the east after it passes the second railroad track near Harrington. He called that plan a "working document."

Gene Goins, the president of Northside BOND (Blocks Organized for Neighborhood Defense) and a 60-year resident of the area, is one of those residents who wants TxDOT to leave the area alone.

"We don't want things crammed down on our throats," he said. "They're trying to pave us over and act like we never existed."

Lea Fastow's lawyers are asking the judge to cut her sentence short.

In a motion made public Wednesday, Mike DeGeurin asked U.S. District Judge David Hittner to vacate her one-year prison term for not reporting personal income from an Enron side deal on her 2000 tax return.

DeGeurin notes that her sentence, which began July 12, is twice what people normally serve for the misdemeanor tax crime.

He also said she has been in a maximum-security detention center in downtown Houston, while most tax offenders are in more amenable minimum-security institutions.

Prosecutors don't object to the motion entirely, although they don't agree in full either. While there's no guarantee the judge will free her, Hittner is expected to seriously consider it.

"She has now spent seven months under fluorescent lights, not allowed outside for fresh air even for recreation, in overcrowded conditions and without the basic programs offered by a normal institution. She has been serving hard time in the literal sense and without complaint," states the motion.

Looks like Senator Whitmire got what he wanted and will drop his push to kill SafeClear.

Whitmire said the bill he filed to kill the program still will technically be pending before the Senate, but that he won't push it if the city makes progress on the changes.

"It's pending business, but it may be allowed to die," he said of the bill, which has passed committee and was scheduled for a full Senate vote Thursday.

Besides the new rule on requesting police to be present at tows, the points Whitmire said helped changed his mind about opposing the ordinance were:

·The city will participate in and expand the county's Motorist Assistant Program, which offers help and minor repairs to stranded motorists.

· Any revenue the city raises through the Safe Clear program will go to mobility projects. Tow truck companies pay the city for exclusive rights to tow on certain freeway stretches.

·The Texas Department of Transportation will review Safe Clear and any similar program to address Whitmire's concern that the city is "leasing" portions of state highways to wrecker companies as a revenue source.

Safe Clear, which White pushed as a way to improve safety and reduce traffic congestion, has drawn criticism from the public and elected officials since it went into effect Jan. 1.

Greg Moses of the Texas Civil Rights Review has embarked on his study of the original documents in the Heflin electoral challenge. Today he reports on the case of one deposed voter who answered the questions the way they deserved to be answered.

Meanwhile, Grits reports on yet another awful bill being filed in Austin, HB 516, by Betty Brown (R, Kaufman), which would amend the electoral code to add the following requirements for a voter's registration card:

(1) a driver's license or personal identification card issued to the applicant by the Department of Public Safety or a similar document issued to the applicant by an agency of another state, if the department or the agency of another state indicates on the driver's license or personal identification card that the applicant has provided proof that the applicant is a United States citizen;

(2) a birth certificate or other document confirming birth that is admissible in a court of law;

(3) United States citizenship papers issued to the applicant; or

(4) a United States passport issued to the applicant.

Proof of registration as a voter in another state or county is not acceptable as proof of citizenship.

I'm not saying that we should be unconcerned about the issue of noncitizens voting. I am saying that I'm not aware of any problems with the current system that would necessitate such an enormous change. Remember, there was a grand total of one non-citizen who provably voted in the HD149 election, and that guy filled out the application form honestly (it was Paul Bettencourt's office that screwed up, something which they've admitted). What's so badly broken here that we need this kind of fix?

Grits has more reasons to scorn this bad bill, so be sure to read his recap. In the meantime, consider telling your representative what you think about this, and hunt around for that birth certificate just in case.

In the Pink Texas dissects Paul Burka's list of the "25 Most Powerful Texans" in this month's Texas Monthly. I think she's wrong on Ronnie Earle (we'll see if he gets convictions in the Ellis/Colyandro/RoBold cases; I believe it will be much tougher for the Lege to clip his wings if he succeeds) but pretty much spot on everywhere else. Check it out.

Via Ginger: About four percent of online adults, representing some five million people, have purchased a product or service via spam. I am at a loss for words.

Unfortunately, the fine folks at Wampum were not able to cover the steep bandwidth costs resulting from their annual hosting of the Koufax Awards, and so their site is currently offline. If you want to help them get back up and running, please consider making a donation to help defray those costs. Thanks very much.

House Speaker Tom Craddick has thrown his support behind an effort to prevent the state's gas tax from eroding over time.

The tax, last increased in 1991, is a major revenue-raiser for highways and the public schools, but the state hasn't cashed in on the high gasoline prices of recent years because tax revenue — which is based on quantity, not price — has been relatively flat.

Nor has the tax kept pace with increasing costs of highway construction, prompting the state to begin promoting more toll roads in urban areas, even in the face of public opposition.

The tax is expected to raise almost $3 billion this year, with three-fourths of the revenue going to highways and one-fourth to education, as required by the state constitution.

But the Texas Department of Transportation has said that won't come close to meeting the state's growing highway needs. The agency has estimated a tax increase of about $1 per gallon would be necessary to close that gap, a level that still seems out of the question politically.

Looking at that chart strengthens my belief that TxDOT's assertion of the need for a dollar increase to adequately handle road construction is absolute baloney. No state has anywhere near that level of taxation. Further, if the current 20 cent tax brings in about $2.2 billion per year for roads (75% of the $3 billion cited above), a tax rate of $1.20 would bring in $13.2 billion per year. That's more than double what Cintra is spending to build the PerryPike, and it's a seven-year project. Hell, at that rate the state could fund the entire Trans-Texas Corridor in a little more than a decade, and it's supposed to be a fifty-year plan. This is a total red herring, and someone should call TxDOT out on it.

Anyway. Governor Perry and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst are also on board with this idea, which will be sponsored by Rep. Mike Krusee (R, Round Rock). Some of this money also goes into school funding, which is no doubt part of the reason for their support.

Via Sam Heldman, I see this assertion from David Van Os:

I carried 17 rural counties that Kerry-Edwards lost, and ran ahead of the ticket statewide and in every region.

           Brister Van Os                                  Total

County     REP     DEM     Brister Pct     Van Os Pct      Votes

BEE	   4,185   4,517        48.09%         51.91%      8,702

CAMERON	  26,570  35,765        42.62%         57.38%     62,335

CULBERSON    289     316        47.77%         52.23%        605

FISHER       808     831        49.30%         50.70%      1,639

FRIO       1,482   1,957        43.09%         56.91%      3,439

KLEBERG    4,085   5,000        44.96%         55.04%      9,085

MORRIS     2,266   2,618        46.40%         53.60%      4,884

NEWTON     2,335   2,751        45.91%         54.09%      5,086

REEVES     1,217   1,690        41.86%         58.14%      2,907

ROBERTSON  3,086   3,174        49.30%         50.70%      6,260


            Bush   Kerry                                   Total

County      REP    DEM        Bush Pct       Kerry Pct     Votes

BEE        5,428   4,045        57.03%          42.50%     9,518

CAMERON   34,801  33,998        50.32%          49.16%    69,156

CULBERSON    407     375        51.65%          47.59%       788

FISHER     1,161     758        60.37%          39.42%     1,923

FRIO       1,991   1,931        50.66%          49.13%     3,930

KLEBERG    5,366   4,550        53.81%          45.62%     9,973

MORRIS     2,818   2,437        53.39%          46.17%     5,278

NEWTON     3,159   2,513        55.42%          44.09%     5,700

REEVES     1,777   1,600        52.34%          47.13%     3,395

ROBERTSON  3,792   2,979        55.81%          43.84%     6,795

Pretty impressive, but not the whole story. To see what I mean, consider the results in those counties in the Railroad Commissioner race between Democrat Bob Scarborough and Republican incumbent Victor Carillo:

        Carillo      Scarborough                           Total

County      REP      DEM   Carillo Pct Scarborough Pct     Votes

BEE       3,601    4,891        40.60%          55.14%     8,870

CAMERON  26,457   32,366        41.37%          50.61%    63,948

CULBERSON   297      326        44.93%          49.32%       661

FISHER      841      927        47.22%          52.05%     1,781

FRIO      1,284    2,103        36.05%          59.04%     3,562

KLEBERG   3,811    5,033        40.57%          53.58%     9,393

MORRIS    1,925    2,942        38.75%          59.22%     4,968

NEWTON    1,886    3,174        36.30%          61.09%     5,196

REEVES    1,222    1,595        39.97%          52.18%     3,057

ROBERTSON 2,846    3,372        44.45%          52.67%     6,402

There's more. Scarborough carried a lot more counties that were not carried by Van Os. I've reproduced those totals, including Garcia's but without the percentages, beneath the More link.

My point here is not to bash David Van Os. I voted for him, and I agree with his argument that Democrats need to deliver their message aggressively and forcefully, and they must not be afraid to deliver it in places that aren't traditionally friendly. Kerry's campaign was understandably not present here, and the result speaks for itself. The point I am making, though, is that the right person has to deliver that message as well, and while I admire his fighting spirit, that person most likely isn't David Van Os.

All counties carried by Bob Scarborough (BS) and not carried by David Van Os.

County          REP     DEM     LIB   VC Pct  BS Pct  Votes

BASTROP      10,147  10,835   1,269   45.60%  48.69% 22,251

BREWSTER      1,601   1,673     165   46.55%  48.65%  3,439

CALDWELL      4,781   5,684     576   43.30%  51.48% 11,041

CALHOUN       3,026   3,171     264   46.83%  49.08%  6,461

CAMP          1,945   2,103      67   47.27%  51.11%  4,115

CASS          5,300   5,646     261   47.29%  50.38% 11,207

COTTLE          274     328      18   44.19%  52.90%    620

FALLS         2,372   2,680     134   45.74%  51.68%  5,186

FOARD           224     274      17   43.50%  53.20%    515

GOLIAD        1,486   1,518     144   47.20%  48.22%  3,148

JASPER        5,756   6,037     266   47.73%  50.06% 12,059

KARNES        1,860   2,257     200   43.09%  52.28%  4,317

KENT            185     236      13   42.63%  54.38%    434

MARION        1,798   2,102      84   45.13%  52.76%  3,984

MILAM         3,807   4,210     202   46.32%  51.22%  8,219

NUECES       46,178  47,307   5,091   46.85%  47.99% 98,576

ORANGE       14,572  14,977     737   48.11%  49.45% 30,286

RED RIVER     2,293   2,426     104   47.54%  50.30%  4,823

REFUGIO       1,266   1,546     182   42.28%  51.64%  2,994

SAN AUGUSTINE 1,417   1,907      90   41.51%  55.86%  3,414

STONEWALL	286     363      13   43.20%  54.83%    662

SWISHER         984     991      42   48.79%  49.13%  2,017

TRINITY       2,753   2,754     152   48.65%  48.67%  5,659

TYLER         3,361   3,461     206   47.82%  49.25%  7,028

UVALDE        3,633   3,747     472   46.27%  47.72%  7,852

Adina Levin notes that this omnibus telecom bill authored by Rep. Phil King would, among other things, ban municipalities from providing free wireless Internet service to its residents.

(Actually, for all I can tell amidst the strikeouts, underlining, and definition of terms, this bill could also mandate the wearing of pink socks on the third Thursday of months containing the letter R. I stand in awe of your ability to glean anything meaningful from this sucker, Adina.)

Anyway. Adina compares public wireless access to roads and street lights, while Sarah talks about the Telecom Infrastructure Fund and its positive effects on small rural towns. This bill sounds like a bad idea to me, and is yet another example from this session of the demise of Local Control as a governing philosophy.

If you're concerned about toll road construction and/or speculation about where new toll road construction might someday be and you want to Do Something about it, may I suggest hooking up with the folks of the Citizens Transportation Coalition, whose mission it is to get involved in such matters? They've got a meeting this Thursday, February 17, at 7 PM at the Upper Kirby Building, 3015 Richmond (1st floor, "Upper Kirby" room). Got questions for them already? Here's their contact info.

The estate of oil heiress Caroline Wiess Law will be donating upwards of $400 million to Houston's Museum of Fine Arts.

When all of Law's assets are sold and the legal proceedings conclude, possibly by the end of this year, the museum could net between $400 million and $450 million, said director Peter Marzio.

"In recent history, this would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest cash gifts to an art museum," said Mimi Gaudieri, executive director, Association of Art Museum Directors in New York. "This money will help make Houston one of the most important museums in terms of programming and serving the public."

Law's giving would rank as No. 1 in non-art donations to museums on a list compiled by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, which tracks charitable donations of $50 million and more.

[...]

Soon after Law died in 2003 on Christmas Eve and her 85th birthday, her estate gave the museum Law's contemporary art collection valued at between $60 million and $85 million. The 55 major works include pieces by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro.

The estate also distributed $25 million checks each to the museum, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

What was not mentioned in the museum's announcement about that gift was that Law named the museum the residual beneficiary of her estate. Anything not specifically given to a person or institution was to go to the museum, including all of the assets of her foundation, which is valued at $18 million and is scheduled to be dissolved by the end of the year.

The endowment also allows the museum to use less of the endowment's income every year to run the fine arts museum and the central administration of an arts organization that also operates the Glassell School of Art and the decorative arts museums at Rienzi and Bayou Bend.

All I can say as the odious bankruptcy bill, also known as Everything The Financial Services Industry Ever Wanted In One Convenient Package, wends its way once again towards passage is that I hope no one currently reading this ever gets seriously ill. Among other things, making it that much harder to recover from financial misfortune (whether largely self-inflicted or not) would seem to increase the likelihood of children being forced to inherit their parents' crushing debts. Doesn't sound very family-friendly to me.

DavidNYC and Tom Kirkendall offer a variety of reasons why this bill sucks. As Senator Santorum says, "This is the best case to point out where the 55 Republican senators will make a difference." Yes, indeed it is. And I'm sure there's plenty more where that came from.

UPDATE: Commenter John Greenman says that children do not inherit their parents' debts; rather, creditors can make a claim against one's estate, and once the estate is gone, that's that. Fair enough. It's still my position that making it harder for people to recover from financial misfortune will have a deleterious effect on those people's children.

Interesting development in the Abramoff/Scanlon scandal.

A Texas Indian tribe that paid $4.2 million to two Washington consultants for help reopening its casino -- while unaware that the same consultants had quietly worked to shut the casino down -- has reached a settlement with the law firm Greenberg Traurig, which employed one of the men.

Representatives of the Tigua tribe of El Paso said yesterday that they negotiated a confidential financial settlement with Greenberg Traurig in January. As part of the arrangement, they said, Greenberg Traurig will have the authority to pursue claims on the tribe's behalf against its former employee Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon.

[...]

Attorneys for Scanlon and Abramoff said they were surprised yesterday by the settlement. "If its terms are as described by the Tigua representative," said Scanlon's lawyer, Stephen L. Braga, "it's a most unusual posture for Greenberg Traurig to put itself in, and we would have to see how it plays out in court."

"Without seeing the settlement, Mr. Abramoff can have no comment," said a spokesman for Abramoff's lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell. "But it would be an odd legal arrangement for the firm to be able to sue one of its former employees on behalf of a tribe it did not represent and does not stand in the shoes of."

In tangential news, the CRNC Truth Caucus has some of the actual letters sent out by the College Republicans to scare senior citizens into sending them lots of money. They also say that CRNC President Eric Hoplin, the driving force behind this debacle, is mulling a run for Congress. Yo, Jesse Lee - call your office.

The NCAA has approved a framework for instant replay in football games.

College football appears to be embracing instant replay. The NCAA's Football Rules Committee endorsed expanded use of the concept Wednesday after the Big Ten Conference successfully tested replay in 57 games in league stadiums last season.

Use is restricted to the regular season. The rules committee weighed and opted against availability to bowls, in part because an officiating crew from a conference that didn't use replay could find itself working a postseason game that employs it.

How replay is used will be up to each conference. Unlike the NFL's version, which permits coaches to challenge officials' calls during a game, the Big Ten format left challenges solely to a press box observer monitoring a game's television broadcast. He called the on-field timer, who stopped play while the call was reviewed.

"Some of the conferences ... I think they would like to use the referee on the field in some way," said Ty Halpin, the NCAA's liaison to the rules committee. "It's a lot of pressure to put (solely) on a person who isn't on the field.

"What the committee would like to do, if not in 2006 then as soon as it can, is have one standardized system that everyone uses."

Leagues must submit their plans for the 2005 season by June 1. In the meantime, the broader use of replay must be approved by an NCAA oversight panel that meets Feb. 24.

Anyway. I'm not sure how they're going to resolve the issue of replay at non-televised games - do you force every stadium to buy cameras and hire operators? - but as I generally approve of the replay review option, I think this is worth a try. We'll see what they do with it.

My hat is off to John Nova Lomax for spending 24 hours doing nothing but listen to Houston radio in order to try and measure just how much it sucks. The verdict: Other than the pop, country, rock, oldies, 80s, and right-wing-talk stations, it doesn't suck that much.

Couple of quick hits:

"Houston radio sucks." You hear that truism everywhere you go. Google that unique phrase, and you get no fewer than 44 hits, and that doesn't count all the people who share the sentiment if not the identical phrasing of it.

11:07 a.m.

KTHT/97.1 FM, Country Legends Conway Twitty croons "Rest Your Love on Me Awhile." Not a horrible song, but Cox, the owners of this station, pissed away a golden opportunity here. When Country Legends debuted, it shot straight to the top country slot. A slow slide set in thereafter. There is only one DJ on the station -- the rest of the week, Country Legends is simply a jukebox, one that spits out the same lame songs way too often. ("Hello Country Bumpkin" once an hour, it seems.) If Cox had given this station even a little TLC -- hired some old-school country DJs, involved the listeners a little, played less country-pop pap -- it coulda been a contender.

3:38 p.m.

KACC/89.7 FM, the Gulf Coast Rocker A hidden gem for lovers of pure, unadulterated rock, Alvin Community College's station follows the Doobies' overfamiliar "China Grove" with the Wallflowers' "Three Marlenas." Nice variety, kids. This is one of those stations that choice-loving preacher could have been talking about. It's good rock radio, full of surprises but not as liable as KTRU to slip into intentionally hideous caterwauling.

Speaking of the new rock station, 97.5 KIOL, Lomax's Racket column deals with it.

Rock 97.5 seems to have gotten the fact that people are burned out on the likes of "Paranoid," "Back in Black" and "Jump," and seems to recognize that its fans are savvy enough to know more than just the smash-hit singles. Also, "Alive" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd was tossed out as a sop to the Stevie Ray-lovin' bluez dawgz, and somehow the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" slipped into this rough-and-rowdy company.

And so we come to the verdict. Right now, I'll give their transmitter a solid D. I'll give their music a C-plus for the moment, but I will say this: It's already shaking up the Buzz and the Arrow, even if their method of fighting back is to declare over and over again that nobody will out-AC/DC or out-Zep them -- expect an all-out war, or, if you will, a Battle of Evermore Zep and AC/DC.

And all of those stations are focused on the past, except for the Buzz, which might as well be, for as little relevance as it has. So anyway, rock is all but covered. Now all we need is something new, something exciting, something that will make what few tourists trickle our way and turn on their radios think this place is something other than a cultural backwater. If only the Point would flip to that blend I've been touting -- that Franz Ferdinand-Kanye West-Modest Mouse-Roots-Interpol-OutKast-'80s alternative-classic rap thingy -- maybe then I'd be able to move on from writing these columns, the Point wouldn't ever have to play "Tainted Love" again, and a new format would be born, one the whole entire world could be proud of.

Anyway. My ideal rock radio station would be similar to this, with a broader playlist among the oldies and more of a focus on acoustic/folk-type rock of today; some alt-country might be a nice fit, too. I'm about as likely to get that format as Lomax is to get his rock/hiphop hybrid, but there's no harm in asking.

Last word to Lomax, from the first article:

Houston radio is all about the burbs. National radio consultants come down here, host their focus groups and determine that we are a bunch of rustic SUV-driving simpletons begging to hear more Sting, more Sade, more Chesney, more Yes and more Nickleback clones. We don't want to be challenged by new music -- leave that to the cool kids in Austin and L.A. We don't want to hear rap and rock side by side. What we want is radio that looks like our neighborhood: a deed-restricted, master-planned, cul-de-sac'd purgatory where nothing bad happens but nothing much else does either. Meanwhile, satellite radios positively fly off the shelves back here as people walk away from the whole mess.

Focus groups don't work for radio. People don't know what they like until they hear it a few times. Sure, you can test new music on them in a focus group, but that's no way to hear new stuff. You need to hear it at home, in your car or in a club. And relying on focus groups over a period of years -- as big radio has done recently -- is going to ensure that fewer and fewer new artists get on the air.

I bounced back in a big way in January with a smidgeon over 55,000 hits, thanks in large part to a gazillion search engine referrals for Ashley McElhiney. At a guess, I'd say I'd have had a more modest 45,000 hits or so without that. Why she was such a popular search engine request I can't say, but it drove me some traffic, that's for sure.

Unfortunately, a lot of my top referrers for the month were spam sites, something which is continuing in February and which is crowding out some real referrers. I have no idea why any spammer would think this is a good thing for them to do, since the only place these URLs show up is on pages that require a login, but they're there and they're really annoying. I even got a bunch of spam referrals that appear to be spoofing a legitimate blog. Go figure on that one. At some point, I may try to implement this solution for referral spam, but it's low on my to-do list right now.

Be that as it may, I am as always glad you, the actual readers, stopped by. That's what matters, and it's why I do these posts every month. Thank you all very much. Top (real) referrers and search terms are beneath the More link.

Aggregators, collections, indices, etc
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296:  http://blo.gs/
242:  http://www.bloglines.com

Weblog referrers

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1938:  Daily Kos


1696:  Political Animal


723:   Atrios


567:   TAPPED


320:   The Burnt Orange Report


141:   The Sideshow


128:   Pandagon




Top search terms

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#reqs: search term

-----: -----------

 7044: ashley mcelhiney

  497: ryan pitylak

  468: extreme home makeovers

  364: diane zamora

  332: park dietz

  327: schlitterbahn galveston

  317: real men of genius

  293: whfs

  276: naugas

  276: buy girl scout cookies

  221: american idol tryouts

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Turns out that crazy non-standard Metro funding plan could have been accepted by the Federal Transportation Administration if some mysterious someone hadn't removed a provision in an appropriations bill to make the FTA accept it.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, offered a rider to the Senate version of the appropriations bill that would have forced the FTA to accept the Metropolitan Transit Authority's nontraditional financing proposal. House staff members said they inadvertently inserted similar language in the House version, but it was deleted during frenzied conference-committee negotiations days before Thanksgiving. A similar rider for a San Francisco light rail project was not deleted and is now law.

The deletion has infuriated rail proponents, especially in light of the success of San Francisco, represented by U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Metro and its supporters contend that completion of the next four light rail lines will be postponed.

"It's an affront to the citizens of Houston," said Ed Wulfe, chairman of the Main Street Coalition, who has promoted development along the 7 1/2-mile light rail line that opened last year. "Somebody is putting their personal agenda ahead of what the people want."

[...]

Hutchison's amendment would have authorized 100 percent federal funding for the Northline and Southeast extensions in exchange for Metro funding two later rail lines solely with local tax dollars. While DeLay and Culberson say they had nothing to do with the deletion of the amendment in the final version, they say they opposed Hutchison's rider, which by authorizing full federal funding, exempted Metro from federal law requiring at least a 20 percent local contribution on each rail segment. The typical local share is more like 50 percent.

"Culberson is the only Texas member of the transportation appropriations subcommittee," said Robin Holzer, chairwoman of the Citizens Transportation Coalition, a grass-roots organization that promotes more public transit in Houston. "The committee conferees would defer to the Texas delegation on this matter, especially the representative from Houston."

[...]

DeLay and Culberson both repeated their pledge last week not to block MetroRail funding once the FTA recommends it. Metro hopes to get its FTA rating no later than July so it will be eligible for money in the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill.

This is the best part of the story:

Other lawmakers question why Culberson would vehemently oppose flexibility for financing, and why he'd vote for a bill giving such flexibility to San Francisco but not Houston.

"We have been providing these light rail funds to cities that are half our size," said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.

"It seems like we as a delegation ought to quit fighting old battles and get together."

Green said Metro is not asking for anything unprecedented. San Francisco for years has obtained a waiver for its Third Street light rail line, the first section of which is under construction solely with local funds.

Lame excuse time:

Culberson said he doesn't know why the San Francisco waiver went through while the Houston waiver got spiked.

"Just because San Francisco was able to sneak illegal and inappropriate legislative language into the final omnibus bill doesn't make it right for Houston," he said. "We shouldn't change the law to let one guy rob the bank."

Anyone catch "Primetime Live" this past Wednesday, when they did an hourlong story on a so-called "faith healer" in Brazil called "John of God"? You want a non-political example of how our "bad not biased" media (tm, Greg Wythe) fails utterly to serve the purpose of truth? Listen to radio host Paul Harris as he interviews magician, debunker, and all-around smart guy James Randi and find out entertainment won out in this story. Randi will have more on his website this Friday. Via Mark Evanier.

Houston's worst defense attorney, Ron Mock, has been suspended for nearly three years by the State Bar.

The 58-year-old former bar owner was placed on probation most recently in February 2004 after state officials found that he had accepted $4,600 to handle a woman's sexual harassment claim but had not told her that he had little experience with such cases. The woman's lawsuit was dismissed after Mock failed to respond to a preliminary motion, records show.

Originally, Mock was to have served one month of active suspension in March 2004, followed by 35 months on probation. The State Bar's board of disciplinary appeals ordered the longer suspension starting in December, however, because he violated his probation terms, which included notifying clients and the courts in which he worked about the disciplinary action, state records show.

[...]

Mock handled 19 capital murder cases between 1986 and 2001, and 16 of his clients ended up on death row. More than 10 have been executed, records show.

He stopped accepting court-appointed capital murder cases in 2001, after a new state law set stricter requirements for indigent capital defense.

"I was tired of the heat, so I got out of the kitchen," Mock said in an interview last year.

Several death row inmates he represented claimed on appeal that Mock did not represent them adequately.

Most recently, Frances Newton of Harris County said Mock met with her several times but never thoroughly discussed with her the case involving the 1987 murders of her husband and two children.

Anthony Westley got Mock as his attorney. Westley and an acquaintance, John Dale Henry, were charged in the 1984 robbery of a Houston bait-and-tackle shop. One of them fired the .22-caliber bullet that killed the owner. Then they fled, leaving just one witness, a clerk. Henry went on trial first. The evidence in Henry's trial, including the clerk's testimony, suggested Henry was the robber with the .22-caliber pistol, with Westley carrying a different gun. The prosecutor told jurors that all signs pointed to Henry as the victim's killer. But Henry was not sentenced to death.

Five months later, at Westley's trial, a different prosecutor gave the case a new slant, tailoring the presentation of evidence, and eliciting testimony from the clerk in a way that pointed to Westley as the robber who fired the fatal shot. Westley was sentenced to death. "I did the best I could for him," Mock recalled in an interview.

Except he did not take the basic step of attending Henry's trial or reading a transcript for a preview of the state's case against Westley. Had he done so, a judicial report later concluded, he would have been well-equipped to undermine the spin that Westley's prosecutor put on the crime. That was just one of many mistakes Mock made in the case, according to a 100-page report by a court-appointed special master, Houston lawyer Brian Wice. Wice reviewed the case in minute detail as part of Westley's appeal. He wrote that Mock's preparation for Westley trial was so lax, and his performance in court so inept, that "a breakdown of the adversarial process" occurred.

Let me just say that it's a good thing I wasn't eating when I stumbled across Andy Taylor's op-ed on "voting irregularities" in today's Chron. It's as bad, as self-serving, and as disingenuous as you'd expect from Taylor. Greg has already done the heavy lifting here, so I'll leave you to that. One thing I do want to expand on:

To protect our democratic process and the vote of citizens who have ambiguous or disputed registrations, local officials should be allowed to use "provisional ballots" that can be easily added to or eliminated from vote tallies after investigations occur. Right now, votes can only be removed under the umbrella of an election challenge and the burden of proof for determining who loses — or gains — the votes is almost impossible to meet. In fact, a determination can only be attempted by legal deposition and as my client learned, most voters simply cannot remember with absolute certainty who they voted for.

The genius of provisional balloting is that once a determination is made that a vote may be illegal, it can be retrieved electronically and an accurate determination of whether that vote should count in an election and for whom, can be quickly made. If an out-of-county voter demands the right to vote, they can be allowed to vote but a retrieval code in place of the voter's name determines exactly how that vote should be handled.

Greg Moses of the Texas Civil Rights Review picks up on this as well and explores the contrast between Kristin Mack's column on Taylor and the Chron's editorial stance on the whole matter. Check it out.

Happy three-year blog anniversary to Julia! Here's to many more. Judging from her updated user icon, I'd say the appropriate way to celebrate would be a nice big plate of cookies. Way to go, Julia!

The Texas Civil Rights Review, which contributed several useful articles about the Heflin challenge while it was going on, has filed an Open Records request for the original files of evidence submitted in the case. They're still interested in pursuing some of the voters' rights issues that may have gotten put aside once the challenge was dropped. We'll see what they find.

Looks like Senator Hutchison has beefed up her campaign staff.

The Republican senator's spokesman, David Beckwith, would not say what race the new campaign staff is preparing for.

"Whatever she runs for in 2006, it's time to start assembling the campaign team," Beckwith said.

The new campaign manager is Terry Sullivan, who most recently ran the successful campaign for U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative from South Carolina. Sullivan guided DeMint's campaign through what he described as a "brutal, competitive and heated" Republican primary.

The senator also hired Scott Howell of Dallas to direct the media campaign. Howell has worked for the Bush-Cheney campaign, as well as those of five other Republican senators, including Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

That campaign, against incumbent Democrat Max Cleland, was particularly rough. Cleland, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, was coupled in ads with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Hutchison acknowledged that Perry supporters are preparing for a campaign against her, including questioning her credentials as a conservative, if she runs for governor.

"I have heard that some people will put in whatever it takes to defeat me. But that is of no consequence to me," Hutchison said after speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and the Fort Worth Petroleum Club.

[...]

Hutchison denied speculation that President Bush or Republicans close to him have attempted to persuade her to stay in Washington rather than creating a party rift by challenging Perry.

"The president ... would not get involved," she said.

Anyway. This Red State post has some more on the KBH developments. Star-Telegram story via Jimbo, Red State post via Kimberly.

The Daily DeLay has an interview with former Congressman and potential Democratic candidate for Governor Chris Bell. How far will a reform-oriented campaign go in 2006? I don't know, but I'm sure ready to give it a try. Check it out.

Those of you with TiVos and either Cinemax or DirecTV should take a moment to program your system to catch the showing of the documentary Welcome to North Korea, which according to this TiVo Community thread will be Sunday, February 20, at 10:05 AM (not sure of the time zone for that). In some ways, WtNK is the scariest and most disturbing movie I've ever seen. I may need to order Cinemax just so I can see this again. Seriously, don't miss it if you can help it.

UPDATE: My bad - the movie is on one of Cinemax's digital channels, not the main Cinemax itself. See William's comment for more. It also appears that the 10:05 time is Central, so adjust accordingly. Thanks, William!

You know, nothing says "Pop culture is filth" to me quite like John Derbyshire's face on your breast. What woman could resist that? Thanks (I think) to Jack for the tip.

They've narrowed things down to eight finalists per category in the Koufax Awards at Wampum, so hustle over and help pick the ultimate winners. If you thought the choices were hard before, they're even harder now. The good news is, you can't go wrong. Happy voting!

The Statesman slams State Rep. Mary Denny (R, Aubrey) for filing "one of the worst pieces of legislation in recent memory in an effort to protect themselves from criminal prosecution for election law violations." She must have gotten some flack for it, because she appears to be backing away.

"My only motivation was to get some help," said Rep. Mary Denny, a Republican from Aubrey who heads the House Elections Committee. Stymieing prosecutors "was the last thing on my mind," she said.

Under Denny's House Bill 913, prosecutors would have to get a green light from the Ethics Commission before they could prosecute election code violations, which is not what Denny had in mind when she drafted the bill, she said.

"My intent is not to make it so that the Ethics Commission has the final say," Denny said.

[...]

Democrats charge the bill is a not-so-veiled attempt to obstruct campaign-related prosecutions, like the felony cases Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has brought against three associates of U.S. House Rep. Tom DeLay.

Denny denied Earle was in her cross hairs.

"Heavens no," she said when the question was posed.

Shannon Edmonds of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, which opposes the bill, said that in a mid-afternoon meeting on Thursday Denny seemed receptive to suggestions the bill be changed so the Ethics Commission wouldn't have the final say in what cases prosecutors could pursue.

The Texas District and County Attorneys Association will likely oppose a bill that would let the state Ethics Commission pre-empt local prosecutors in their enforcement of the Texas Election Code, Midland County District Attorney Al Schorre said Thursday.

However, he said a bill filed in Austin by state Rep. Mary Denny, R-Aubrey, might be acceptable if modified to give district and county attorneys the authority to prosecute criminal violations in cases where the Ethics Commission failed to do so.

"There are lots of instances where it's appropriate to refer cases to the commission and they can assess civil fines," Schorre said, referring to such infractions as candidates' failing to report campaign contributions.

"However, there are instances where a civil penalty would not be enough," he said. "If there was real corruption that needed to be prosecuted, we wouldn't want the commission to thwart that for some reason."

UPDATE: Liz adds on about Rep. Denny and her bill.

I've been pretty critical of TxDOT lately, so it's nice to be able to single them out for doing something that makes a lot of sense.

Texas transportation officials want $100 million a year to relocate railroad lines that clog traffic in Houston and other urban areas.

[...]

Ric Williamson of Weatherford, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT, acknowledged it's not going to be easy to ask for more money as the Legislature continues struggling with how to fund public education.

But the commission contends the benefits of rail relocation are so enormous — including potentially moving more freight from trucks to trains, which would reduce traffic and wear and tear on state highways — that lawmakers have to find the money this year so the process can get started.

The effort has the support of officials in Houston and Texas' other large metropolitan areas, who want freight lines consolidated into grade-separated corridors.

That would speed freight delivery and reduce grade-level railroad crossings that stop traffic and are dangerous to cars, officials say. And rerouting some freight lines could free up urban tracks for passenger service such as commuter rail.

On a side note:

John Langmore, a consultant to House Transportation Chairman Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, said the rail relocation fund will be a high priority but funding will be a challenge.

"These rail lines currently run through urban centers, making their use for other purposes very attractive," Langmore recently told the Houston-Galveston Area Council's Transportation Policy Council. "But that makes it expensive to do anything with that. We are not going to, won't be able to, create new taxes, yet we're looking at $20 billion statewide to deal with all the rail relocations."

Langmore said Krusee intends to draft legislation indexing the state gasoline tax to inflation in the construction industry. The current 20-cent tax — 15 cents for transportation and public safety, 5 cents for schools — has not been raised since 1991. That means the purchasing power of the gas tax has declined thanks to 14 years of inflation.

"This could potentially be a tough sell, but he's going to pursue that," Langmore said.

Kristen Mack writes about Larry Veselka and Andy Taylor, the two lawyers involved in the Heflin challenge and notes that for their roles - Taylor for taking up "a cause that made some Republicans uneasy", and Veselka for winning - that both of them have raised their stature in the eyes of their parties.

I did get to hear Larry Veselka speak yesterday. Didn't really get a chance to pursue the questions I had (time was limited), but got quite a bit out of it anyway. One thing he talked about that I want to point out in the Hartnett report (PDF), and that's point three of Will Hartnett's opening statement: "Contestant has produced no evidence of any intentional voter fraud which affected the final vote tally to his detriment." I emphasize that last bit for a reason. Scroll down to page 24 where the vote total adjustments are summarized and you'll see that the categories "double vote" and "non-citizen" both contain deductions from Heflin's vote totals. We already knew about the Norwegian citizen who voted straight-ticket Republican; the one person who admitted to voting twice (she received two mail-in ballots and figured she was supposed to send them both back) was also a Heflin voter. Ponder that for a minute.

(The other main category of alleged fraud was voters from outside Harris County. Most of them were residents of Fort Bend, where as Paul Bettencourt notes, many people don't have a firm lock as to where the county line is. One case that was touted initially was a voter from "as far away as Denton County!" that cast a ballot in the HD149 race. That voter, upon deposition, said she was selling her house in Houston - it was still on the market on Election Day - and was living in a rented place in Denton but was travelling back and forth and still considered Houston her permanent residence; she had not registered to vote in Denton County. Her vote was ultimately counted, as no challenge was raised to it in the evidentiary hearing. She voted for Heflin.)

Go back to Greg Moses' transcription from the hearings, in which Veselka calls BS on Taylor's fraud charges. That sentence from Hartnett's opening was put in there at Veselka's insistence to ensure that the record reflected that there was no fraud, at least none that damaged Talmadge Heflin. There's an old lawyer's saying that goes "When the law is on your side, pound on the law; when the facts are on your side, pound on the facts; when neither is on your side, pound on the table." Veselka had the facts and the law on his side, which is why if you even saw a quote from him in the paper prior to the hearings, he was the voice of calm and reason who stuck to the facts and the law and expressed confidence that House members would do the same. Taylor had nothing, which is why he and his henchwoman Tina Benkiser spent the entire time baying at the moon. Their only hope was for partisanship to win out. It's to Will Hartnett's eternal credit that he was not swayed by them, and it's to Veselka's eternal credit that he recognized his winning hand and played it accordingly. And the real winners are the people of HD149 and honest Texans across the state.

Yesterday, I suggested that the Federal Transportation Administration's rejection of Metro's application for federal matching funds might have had Tom DeLay and John Culberson's involvement. Today's story doesn't exactly disprove that hypothesis.

"It really is a shame Metro continues to be its own worst enemy and create problems that could easily be avoided by obeying the law and following the same rules that every other transit agency in the country has to follow," said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, a member of the House transportation appropriations subcommittee and a light rail skeptic.

"They want to be given special consideration allowing themselves to cut in line and ask for utterly inappropriate amounts of money or changes in law that they are not entitled to."

When the Metropolitan Transit Authority applied for federal financing of the Northline and Southeast rail segments in August, it asked the FTA to pay for 100 percent of those lines in exchange for Metro footing the entire bill to construct light rail routes later in the Harrisburg and Westpark corridors.

"We did not expect to receive a negative response to it," said David Wolff, Metro board chairman. "We thought it was innovative, and it has been done before in other parts of the country."

Federal law requires a transit agency to pay for at least 20 percent of a project with local money, though the match usually is more like 50 percent. In its application, Metro asked the FTA to consider the next four rail lines together so that by 2012, when they were all done, Metro and the federal government would end up splitting the cost. Not using federal money on the subsequent two lines would allow Metro to skip the lengthy federal "New Starts" application and review process.

"They knew it would not be accepted when they submitted it," said U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

Paul Griffo, FTA spokesman, said the agency informed Metro last fall "that's not going to work and they needed to submit a conventional New Starts application."

Culberson said Metro didn't run the plan by him before it was submitted in August. He called the request "highly improper, inappropriate and utterly impossible for the federal government to do." He cited Metro's need to resubmit its financial plan in November as a significant reason the transit authority didn't receive a project rating from the FTA in time to make Tuesday's budget report.

Metro officials wanted the FTA to match them project for project rather than dollar for dollar on each line, as is generally done with urban rail construction nationwide. Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson said other cities, including San Francisco, have been allowed to use the nontraditional approach to get a system built faster.

"We don't see it as inappropriate," Wilson said. "This was the only way to meet the startup date for all the lines and use federal money to do it."

But please, spare me the lecture from Culberson and DeLay. For one thing, if these two big powerful majority-party mukka-muks really cared about getting Houston the transit dollars it deserved, they maybe could have used some of their power and influence to try to persuade the FTA that Metro's proposal was fine as it was. Alternately, if they knew in August that it was going to be turned away and needed to be resubmitted in November, they could have said something publicly prior to November to generate some pressure on Metro to get it right. Saying "I told you so" after the fact, no matter how satisfying and maybe even deserving it may be, simply isn't constructive.

It does score points, though. And maybe it serves a purpose. Too bad it's not a helpful one.

I previously mentioned the two-part project Hot Town, Cool City - it's a documentary film and a website with reader-input information about cool things to see and do in Houston. At the time, the HTCC website was not yet ready, but a comment I got today from someone affiliated with them indicates that it's now up and running. Check it out - there's probably something of interest to you in your area, and if there's not, you can tell them about it for inclusion.

A bill has been filed to give the Texas Ethics Commission power to veto any investigation into electoral code violations by district attorneys.

Rep. Mary Denny, R–Aubrey, chairwoman of the House Elections Committee, would create an office under the state commission to conduct election code violation investigations such as Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's two-year investigation of the Texas Association of Business, Texans for a Republican Majority and Craddick.

House Bill 913 would prohibit a prosecutor from pursuing charges if the state office determines there is no criminal offense.

Shannon Edmonds with the Texas District and County Attorneys Association said the group is taking a wait-and-see attitude on the legislation but added, "It seems to keep prosecutors from prosecuting crimes."

One, as the story notes, the Texas Ethics Commission doesn't have a whole lot of juice:

Craig McDonald with Texans for Public Justice said the Ethics Commission, appointed by state officials and split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, is not known for taking action against officials.

"I think it's incumbent politicians circling the wagons to protect themselves from prosecution," McDonald said. "It puts a roadblock in the way of local prosecutors, who should have a free hand in prosecuting violations of the law."

The Ethics Commission, created in 1991, has civil authority over election code violations and can refer criminal complaints to prosecutors. The agency, however, has never subpoenaed a witness or documents to investigate a complaint or referred a criminal case.

In addition to other penalties, a person who discloses
information made confidential by this section is civilly liable to
the respondent in an amount equal to the greater of $10,000 or the
amount of actual damages incurred by the respondent, including
court costs and attorney fees.

Point two is related to this. The TEC, which has the power to sanction wrongdoing by members of the Legislature, is funded by the Legislature. They fear, with some justification, biting the hand that feeds them. This makes them less than fully independent, and as such adding their oversight to this process would politicize it more, not less.

Finally, what other kind of criminal activity requires an outside body to approve an investigation by a DA's office? Shannon Edmonds got it in one - this is designed to hinder prosecutions. If the Lege doesn't like the laws that they themselves passed to regulate their own actions (and those of their colleagues in Congress), then they should move to change those laws. The reason they're not doing that is because they know full well it wouldn't be popular. This is the easy way out.

As I've said before, one can reasonably make the case that violations of the electoral code should be investigated and prosecuted by the Attorney General instead of 254 district attorneys. I'd be very wary of any such proposals at this time because of the obvious partisan connections to the ongoing TRM/TAB cases, but those concerns could be addressed. I see no value at all in this bill, and I hope it dies the quick death it deserves. Via The Daily DeLay.

Hmm. There was some pushback on the Trans Texas Corridor in the Senate yesterday.

“There’s a lot of dissatisfaction out there among the troops,” Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, told Texas Transportation Commissioner Robert Nichols. “A lot of people who should be your allies, aren’t.”

People such as the Texas Republican Party, which voted last summer to include a plank in its platform opposing the corridor plan put forward by its party leader, Gov. Rick Perry, or the Texas Farm Bureau, which gave it a thumbs down in December, and a number of cities and counties along I-35 calling themselves the River of Trade Coalition.

That coalition wants the I-35 corridor to be close to the existing interstate, as near as three to five miles, so that longtime stream of commerce doesn’t dry up, Dallas City Council Member Sandy Greyson told the committee. The Farm Bureau wants it to be much thinner than 1,200 feet, to have ways for farmers and ranchers to cross it to work agricultural land split by the road, and to make sure that the state doesn’t sink water wells in the state right of way and draw water from under nearby farms.

Nichols, a Farm Bureau member from Jacksonville and a transportation commissioner for the past eight years, good-naturedly took on all comers, and had good answers for most of the concerns. But it will be hard to split the difference as the commission decides in the next few months where to put the first corridor road between San Antonio and the Oklahoma border somewhere north of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Put it out 20 or 30 miles from Dallas and you anger both the farmers and the trade coalition. But put it near I-35 and right of way costs will go out the roof, probably driving up toll rates and eventually choking with urban traffic what is supposed to be an uncongested overland route.

Anyway. The last paragraph in this story notes that despite "all the flak" from their constituents, the Senate and House Transportation committees are still firmly in line for the TTC. That says to me that there needs to be more noise about this. Rodney Ellis, who was mentioned in this article but whose position is unknown to me, would be a good starting point. The TTC is a boondoggle, and I believe the voters can be convinced of that. But it's going to take time and effort to do that, and that should be done now, before too much of it gets started. If you agree with me that the TTC is a bad idea, consider contacting your Senator and saying so. They need to hear it.

On a side note, the WaPo has an article on the TTC which doesn't shed any new light, but is (in my opinion) pretty friendly to it.

I've harped on the drastic cuts in CHIP funds from the 2003 legislative session many times. It was bad policy in many ways, and helped contribute to the deserving defeats of Arlene Wohlgemuth and Talmadge Heflin at the polls, but even I didn't realize it was this bad.

State health care budget cuts in 2003 cost the state economy as much as$16 billion in lost productivity, stunted employment growth by about 70,000 jobs and shifted at least $1.5 billion in costs to local taxpayers, according to separate economic impact studies released Tuesday.

[...]

Major cuts were made in state services in 2003 as lawmakers tried to balance a budget with a $10 billion deficit without raising taxes. This year state revenues are about adequate to maintain current services, but pressure is growing to restore almost $1 billion in health care cuts made two years ago while also recognizing the potential for growth in the client population.

The budget cut about 250,000 low-income children from the Children's Health Insurance Program and 365,000 more from health care coverage through Medicaid for the poor.

The Mental Health Association in Texas and the Texas Hospital Association released separate studies showing the Texas economy has suffered from the 2003 health care funding cuts.

The hospital association study, which focused on state health care funding that impacts hospitals, found the cuts cost the state economy about $8.4 billion in the past two years and dramatically stunted job growth.

"Hospitals across the state have seen an increase in emergency-room visits because the ER has become the only way many uninsured people can access health care," said Dr. Dan Stultz, chairman of the Texas Hospital Association board of trustees. "In those communities with hospital districts, local taxpayers have seen tax increases to compensate for losses in Medicaid and CHIP funding and increases in charity care."

Economist Ray Perryman, author of the hospital association study, said the state budget cuts cost Texas $1.4 billion in lost federal matching funds.

He said additional strains put on the state's health care system also drove up premiums for employers who provide health insurance for their workers.

"Thus, the actual effects were to reduce federal health care funding in the state and shift the burden to providers, local taxpayers and companies offering insurance to their employees," Perryman said.

That story comes out on the heels of this one, which shows the effects of bad luck with one's health on middle class families. Will we finally get a serious discussion of health care insurance some day?

Rep. Sylvester Turner has had a change of heart, and is now supporting slot machines.

In addition to allowing slot machines at horse and dog tracks and Indian reservations, the legislation would legalize the games at one location in each of nine areas around the state. It would raise more than $1.2 billion a year, Turner said.

In addition to allowing slot machines at horse and dog tracks and Indian reservations, the legislation would legalize the games at one location in each of nine areas around the state. It would raise more than $1.2 billion a year, Turner said.

Turner, a key member of Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick's leadership team, said the gambling legislation represents a change of heart for him. He said he even talked with his pastor about the issue, weighing the need for better health care for children and the state's limited revenues against his opposition to gambling.

"Two years ago I would have voted 'no' on this," he said. "We can't be asking for additional revenue for children, pay raises for judges, significant property tax cuts, without trying to come up with legitimate ways to pay for those needs."

He filed two proposals, House Bill 897, the actual legislation, and House Joint Resolution 38, a constitutional amendment necessary to expand gambling in Texas.

The bill doesn't specify a location for slot machines in Houston or Galveston, but there could be one site in each area. Last session, a Houston lawmaker proposed turning the Astrodome into the world's largest luxury casino.

Getting the video lottery measure on the ballot in November would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. Turner said the issue is being introduced in the House first because that's where it faces the stiffest opposition.

UPDATE: In the Pink, Texas makes the obligatory snarky remark.

Pink Dome picks up a quote from the conclusion of the Heflin Challenge that I had missed:

Republican Party officials praised Mr. Heflin's efforts against what they called "illegal voting and election fraud" and called on the Legislature to take up election reform during this session.

"Unfortunately, the real losers today are the people of House District 149 and honest Texans across the state," said GOP Chairwoman Tina Benkiser.

Anyway. Any dishonest and/or loser Republicans want to comment on this?

Banjo notes that the ad space on Shaune Bagwell's boobies has been sold for $15K, apparently to Golden Palace Casino. Apparently, this is part of a broad advertising outreach strategy they're on. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do when Fox is clamping down on Super Bowl ads. I wonder how much I could get for ad space on Olivia's stroller. Hmmm...

Now that the Heflin Challenge is officially over, Rep. Hubert Vo can focus on the job he was sent to Austin to do.

"I feel very much relieved. Now I can focus on my work," Vo, 48, said.

Members from both parties wished him well, including House Speaker Tom Craddick, who put his arm around Vo as they talked.

"They said, 'It's over now, and we are glad we don't have to have this battle on the floor,' " Vo said.

Heflin already has said it is "highly likely" he will seek to regain the seat in 2006.

But for now, with the election contest behind him, Vo can hang pictures on his office walls and concentrate on legislative duties.

Meanwhile, Rick Casey gets a bit muddled about the actual fraud that Rep. Will Hartnett found in his discovery process. Greg sets him straight - Casey was quoting somewhat out of context from this article. As Greg notes, this more recent article, which I linked to yesterday, goes into more detail.

By the way, one of the things those TxDOT people kept mentioning last night was that mass transit, in the form of express bus and light rail service, was a key component to the overall plan to alleviate congestion on I-45 and improve mobility in the North Hardy Corridor. Apparently, no one told the Federal Transportation Administration about that.

In a report to Congress released on Tuesday, the Federal Transit Administration details rail and bus projects that it believes should get funding assistance for the fiscal year 2006. Houston MetroRail appears in a 55-page appendix listing hundreds of pending projects across the United States not ready for grants.

The "New Starts" report did not surprise Metropolitan Transit Authority officials, who said they've yet to receive a project rating from the FTA on the proposed Northline and Southeast light rail extensions. Nevertheless, they are disappointed and concerned Metro might not be able to break ground on the next rail segment in 2006 as planned.

"For people who really care about Houston and believe, as I think every intelligent person does, that transit is a necessary part of the solution to our mobility problems, it is frustrating to see the money for transit going to these other cities," said Metro board Chairman David Wolff. "It's not like the money is going to come to this city instead for highways or parks or health care."

The FTA lists 20 projects in 15 cities it would like to help fund next fiscal year. Another six are mentioned as potential funding candidates, including a third light rail line in Dallas.

Houston has long struggled to obtain federal funding for its light rail system, the first 7 1/2 -mile piece of which opened last year. Metro paid for that initial $324 million segment on its own after U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, wrote a provision into law barring any federal grants because the transit authority had not obtained voter approval to build rail.

After Metro passed a 2003 referendum calling for an 80-mile rail network by 2025, DeLay and other congressional critics dropped their opposition to federal funding, though they have continued to voice concerns over whether investing in light rail is a wise use of taxpayer dollars.

I did manage to make it out to the public meeting last night on the I-45 expansion, along with about 400 of my neighbors and representatives of various public officials. TxDOT engineer Mike Tello spoke to us for about ten minutes regarding the project; he was followed by Janet Kennison from Carter & Burgess, who expanded on his remarks. (Also in attendance was Pat Henry from TxDOT, whom Tello introduced as his boss. Henry did not give any opening remarks but was involved in the Q&A that ensued.) Tello and Kennison gave a brief overview of the project, which they insisted was in the initial stages, which is to say prior to any actual schematics. There were references to an ongoing study (the Chron article says it was finished in October last year), with schematics to follow within the next year or so. After that, maybe three more years for one plan to be selected and then work to begin.

Both Tello and Kennison talked about current conditions, projected growth, the need to utilize multiple solutions such as light rail and express bus service, and the fact that the current thinking is for the single HOV lane to be turned into four "managed" lanes, which would (I believe; they weren't totally clear on this) be like HOVs with a toll option for single-passenger vehicles. Other than mentioning the Hardy Toll Road as part of their overall plan, none of this was particularly new to me.

The Q&A session was where the action occurred. Well, in the questions, anyway, where the opposition to any widening of I-45 outside the existing right-of-way was a recurring theme. With the huge crowd present, questions were written down and submitted to be asked by a moderator (who I believe was Jim Weston of the I-45 Coalition). My questions did get asked - they were "Why are we widening I-45 when we've already got the underutilized Hardy Toll Road?" and "Won't widening I-45 north of I-10 just make congestion on the Pierce Elevated worse?" To the first, Tello and Kennison more or less repeated what they said up front, which is that the Hardy is an integral part of the overall mobility plan. If they had any figures as to the projected use of the Hardy in 2025 (the benchmark year used in the I-45 study), I didn't hear about them. As to the Pierce, Tello basically conceded that there was no plan to do anything about that, then when pressed on the question Henry got up and suggested US 59 and Spur 527 as alternate routes. I did not find that to be a good answer, but it's what I got.

Other issues raised in the Q&A: Henry came about as close to completely disavowing the Houston Avenue alternative as one can without actually doing it - he cited cost, the number of homeowners that would have to be displaced, and the historic nature of the proposed route as the case against it. Despite repeated variations on the question, no one would commit to not expanding beyond the existing right-of-way (in all honesty, there's no way they could have committed to that at this time). Probably the most important thing anyone said was when Henry told us that if we were to attend just one public meeting regarding this project in the future, it should be the one where they discuss the proposed schematics in order to decide on the winner. He said that would be at about this time next year, maybe a bit sooner.

After the Q&A, representatives for various public officials got up and spoke. First up was City Council member Adrian Garcia, who was one of only two officials representing himself or herself. Garcia thanked Tello for coming out and listening to us (unlike TCEQ, he noted), then basically lit into him. One of the questions earlier was along the lines of "Tell us what we need to do to defeat this plan." Tello's answer was "No comment." Garcia said that it was "unethical" of TxDOT to not tell the community under what conditions it could achieve its goal of preventing the widening of I-45. He also said that TxDOT has been telling us all along that we need to attend meetings and give them feedback, but they needed to look out at the hundreds of people in attendance, nearly all of whom opposed to what they're doing (he called for a show of hands; a total of four people said they were in favor), and realize that they've already got a bunch of feedback. He was clear and forceful in his own opposition as well, and as far as I'm concerned, with all due apologies to Annise Parker, if he runs for Mayor in 2009, he's got my vote.

The only other in-person public servant was Karla Cisneros, who brought with her two gentlemen from Superintendant Abe Saavedra's office whose names escape me. She expressed HISD's official concerns about this project, which presumably have to do with Travis Elementary's proximity to I-45.

The first stand-in to speak came from State Sen. Mario Gallegos' office. He read a letter from Sen. Gallegos which expressed his (nearly as forceful as Adrian Garcia's) opposition to any widening of I-45 outside the existing right-of-way, and which called on his fellow Senators to do something about it. That could be a very big deal from the affected-homeowners' perspective.

Diane Mosier spoke for State Rep. Jessica Farrar, who is already on record in opposition and who has been meeting with the I-45 Coalition folks.

Other officials with a presence at the meeting were Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman Gene Green, County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, and City Council members Shelley Sekula-Gibbs and Michael Berry. None of them stated an unequivocal position - they pretty much all said some variation of "we support the community, we share your concerns, please feel free to contact us" with the exception of Sylvia Garcia's person, who simply said he was there at her request to find out what people were saying and report back on it.

I respect that TxDOT took the time to come out and talk to us, but overall this was a frustrating experience. One questioner observed that TxDOT's mantra was "this is too early in the process to know what was going to happen", yet the same issue came up several years ago and then vanished after an outcry at the time. (The link to the IH-45/ US 59 Freeway Corridor MIS on the Woodland Heights page, which was put up during that time, is now dead. I can't find it anywhere on the TxDOT Studies page - you wind up getting redirected to this North Hardy Corridor page, which as far as I can tell is all about Metro light rail expansion.) What happened to that MIS? How can we still be "early" in the project when that work had been done once before? The answers we did get were vague and mostly told us things we already knew; many questions were never directly answered. The answer I got to my Pierce Elevated question was beyond bogus. I already use those alternatives - sometimes I'm forced over to US 59 because there's such a huge backup at the exit from I-10 to I-45 that I literally can't get there entering from Taylor Street. Besides, in my experience, if I-45 is too clogged to get on, US 59 isn't any better. Spur 527 is a fine alternative if you ultimately want to get on 59 South, but you can't get to SH 288 from there, and that's where I need to go for my commute. And call me crazy here, but I bet all those nice folks who bought townhomes on Bagby Street in Neartown probably didn't expect to be on an official TxDOT-sanctioned alternate route for I-45.

Further, I don't know about you, but the idea that there's One Meeting You Really Ought To Attend at some point in the future is alarming to me. How can there be enough time to present all of the schematics that are up for consideration and then allow proponents and opponents of each to state their cases? TxDOT did say that all of the schematics would be on their web page prior to this, but I'm still very worried that there won't be enough of an opportunity to really influence their thinking. Their track record of responding to community input is not encouraging, and I can just hear them say "You had your chance to talk to us at that schematic meeting" down the line.

After the presentation, while I was chatting with some of my neighbors, I overheard Dawn Shumway say that her office had lost a contract on a house on Houston Avenue that very day because of uncertainty surrounding I-45. This was not the first one she'd lost because of this, and it probably won't be the last.

Last but not least, it was announced that the I-45 Coalition was still working on its website and hoped to have it up soon. If anyone reading this was at the meeting last night and wants to add to or correct anything I've said here, please do so.

Greg Moses reads through the Hartnett report (PDF) and finds some items that undoubtedly will not get any further attention now that the Select Committee on Election Challenges' meeting will be a formality, but should. Check it out.

On a side note, I'm going to be at a gathering on Thursday that will include Larry Veselka, Hubert Vo's attorney in this matter. If I get the opportunity, I'll ask him about some of this.

Chad Orzel has a problem with GenEd science classes, and asks for some understanding from the humanities majors out there. Check it out.

Search engine Ask Jeeves has bought Bloglines for an undisclosed sum. Various mainstream coverage is here, here, here, and here. They say they won't make any major changes, at least not at first, but you never know what will happen. Rafe seems pretty bummed about it. Personally, as long as Bloglines remains free, does more or less what it does now, and doesn't go all ad-intrusive on me, I'll stay a happy customer. And I do find the prospect of a real blog search engine to be appealing. So we'll see.

UPDATE: Here's what Bloglines says about the acquisition.

Tom Musselman, Official Dad of BOR's Karl-Thomas Musselman, is running for City Council in Fredericksburg, Texas. If anyone reading this is from Fredericksburg, take a moment and check out his resume. And if you're an Austin Lounge Lizards fan, you probably now have the Chester Nimitz Oriental Garden Waltz playing in your head, too.

Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn now has a Movable Type-powered blog with comments. Zorn had been blogging for the Trib before, but that was on their branded site with their software; now, though he's still on the Trib domain and servers, he's got a look and feel like any other blogger. I think that's a pretty forward-thinking move by his management to allow that. And with every such advance I allow myself a little bit of hope that the Chron will eventually realize that Ken Hoffman was born for that kind of gig. Someday, someday...

Via ArchPundit.

'stina brings word of a new documentary/community project called Hot Town, Cool City, which "attempts to answer the question -- Why Houston?" Their website is currently under construction, but when it is up, it will apparently solicit input from the community to point out things to do and places to go around here that people might not know about otherwise. Ought to be interesting, so check back later and see when they're up and running.

Just a little linkage related to the recent purge of disloyal Republicans on the House Ethics Committee, in particular a few editorials giving them what for: from the WaPo and NYT (via the Daily DeLay); the Chron and Baltimore Sun (via The Stakeholder). And as an extra added bonus, some missing campaign contributions from the Tigua tribe which were apparently last seen in Jack Abramoff's possession (via AJ Garcia).

Talmadge Heflin has withdrawn his challenge after Discovery Master Will Hartnett recommended that it be dismissed.

Hartnett concluded that Heflin had produced "no evidence of any intentional voter fraud" that would have affected his Nov. 2 loss to Vo in District 149. Vo won then by 52 votes, a margin that narrowed to 33 with an official recount including mail-in ballots.

"It became obvious that we didn't have the data to meet the hurdle," Heflin said of his effort to convince Hartnett and the House that the participation of ineligible voters put the result of the election in doubt. "When you see that you can't meet a criteria that is thrust upon you, it makes no sense to move ahead."

[...]

Heflin, who served 11 terms in the House and was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said it was "highly likely" that he would run again to regain the House seat or another public office.

Vo said he looks forward to serving, and that the residents of the district will "have a say again in two years."

During the campaign, Vo said Heflin had lost touch with the increasingly diverse district.

Heflin wouldn't address tha today, saying he was not going to dwell on the past and that in the election challenge, he only wanted to seek the truth.

"It's not something I was in because I couldn't let go of (the seat)," he said.

[...]

After reviewing Hartnett's report, Heflin decided it was time to move on, said his lawyer, Andy Taylor.

"We made a political decision not to ask for the select committee to overrule Rep. Hartnett," Taylor said. "I didn't think that would be in the best interest of the parties or the House."

He added that Heflin did not want to put House members in the "uncomfortable position" of having to weigh in on the race.

Heflin and Taylor said they still believe that the race was decided by ineligible voters, and said they wish they had had more time to collect evidence.

"Even under the most critical review of our evidence, a new election should have been ordered," Taylor said. "How can anyone say with any confidence whatsoever that the outcome the election was such that one candidate prevailed over another?"

Heflin said he respected Hartnett's report but doesn't regret his challenge.

"Any time you seek the truth it's worth it," Heflin said. "The integrity of the election process is what's at risk."

As for Andy Taylor...jeez, what a jerk. You were wrong every step of the way. Quit whining and go home. Oh, and be sure to read Hartnett's full report (PDF), which explains at length and with many footnotes why you lost. Maybe you'll learn something.

Anyway, Vince excerpts from the report, while Greg focuses on a specific case of interest. One thing I want to note from Page 16 of the report, which I suspect will make Kevin happy:

"The two months of discovery in this case show that very little about the November 2004 election in District 149 has not been examined. If anything, this contest has pulled back the carpet and allowed the master, the parties, and the Select Committee to sweep away the dust to allow an in-depth examination of the problems of conducting a modern election in a mobile urban society, while guaranteeing access to the ballot box for all and ensuring the integrity of the elections."

"During the final conference call, all of the parties and the master expressed a willingness, after the resolution of this case, to sit down and discuss their experiences and jointly discuss possible changed in election law raised by this case."

We aren't anywhere near the point of specific proposals to overhaul our state's tax structure, but we all know that redoing the way we tax businesses is going to be a big part of it. The issue, as always, is hoe to do it fairly. Let's just say for now that my definition of "fair" favors broader-based taxes with fewer loopholes and exceptions. Let's also just say for now that I'll be shocked if that's what we actually get, given the array of interests and lobbies that will work overtime to ensure that their clients get excepted in the name of truth, justice, and promoting a good climate for bidness in this here state, not to mention the lily-livered nature of the state leadership, especially when it has to push back on its overlords. But I can hope.

Do remember that all of this is being done in the name of making public school finance secure and adequate. What's not being addressed but is also in dire need is financing for higher education. This Statesman article gives a good view of the situation, and it ain't pretty. We know that one of the tacks those don't-tax-my-business lobbies will take is to proclaim that taxing their little piece of capitalist heaven will be bad for the state's economy. What's the price of doing nothing?

State Demographer Steve Murdock sees a bleak future if current higher education trends go unchecked: declining household income, more poverty, more crime, higher incarceration rates, more people on food stamps. His projections show average household income declining by roughly $5,000 between 2000 and 2030, producing a ripple effect that would cost the state's economy many billions of dollars.

Yet the state's business community, with a few exceptions, has not sounded the alarm.

Rep. Will Hartnett is scheduled to release his report on the Heflin challenge this morning. This news brief indicates that Rep. Hubert Vo will be declared the winner, though with a slightly decreased margin of victory. I have been informed this morning by a Democratic source that Hartnett's official report will indeed confirm Vo as the winner. Looking around, I see that Harvey Kronberg has the same information I do. Here's Hubert Vo's statement:

I appreciate the careful and thorough job my colleague Mr. Hartnett has done under intense pressure and in difficult circumstances. He refused to be distracted by sidebar issues and kept his focus on making sure the will of the voters is upheld.

I am confident that my colleagues on the special committee and in the full House will live up to the standard Mr. Hartnett has set in honoring both the spirit and the essence of our democratic process.

UPDATE: Hartnett's report is up (PDF).

"Contestant Heflin has failed to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the outcome of the contested election, as shown by the final canvass indicating Contestee Vo as the winner, was not the true outcome of the election. Accordingly, Contestant Heflin's contest should be dismissed."

UPDATE: The report has hit the wires. Here's the Chron story and the Star Telegram story.

Two more pieces worth your time to read which cover a subject touched on here recently: the toothless Texas Residential Construction Commission and the forced march to binding arbitration instead of the right to sue. The Texas Observer covers the former (note the presence of John Krugh in that article), while Hotshot Casey deals with the latter. Why is the homebuilding industry so afraid to settle disputes outside of venues over which they do not control?

It's been a bad couple of weeks for TRMPAC, as they've had a couple of setbacks in the civil suit against them. First, Trevor Potter, a "lifelong Republican and former commissioner and chair of the Federal Election Commission" will testify for the plaintiffs against TRMPAC.

The lawsuit – a civil spin-off of an ongoing criminal probe touched off by the 2002 election upset – will be heard in a nonjury trial that begins Feb. 28. TRMPAC attorneys had sought to have Potter eliminated from the plaintiffs' witness lineup, but a ruling last week cleared the way for his testimony. The pretrial setback for TRMPAC followed arguments before Senior Retired State District Judge Joe Hart. Lawyers for the TRMPAC defendants asserted that Potter's legal expertise on federal election matters doesn't qualify him as an authority on the Texas Election Code. In fact, said attorney Terry Scarborough, referring to a transcript of Potter's Jan. 11 deposition, Potter "is guilty of not even knowing the basic definition of a campaign contribution in Texas." (Of course, TRMPAC's apparently ingenious redefinition of Texas campaign finance law is exactly what is at issue in the lawsuit.) Scarborough represents TRMPAC campaign treasurer Bill Ceverha. Attorney Mike Thompson Jr. also presented arguments on behalf of client John Colyandro.

Plaintiffs' attorney Joe Crews said Potter's experience, which includes drafting the new McCain-Feingold law on campaign finance, is so vast, "I don't know how anyone can be more qualified." Potter will be called on to bolster the lawsuit's claims that the TRMPAC defendants violated campaign finance laws by illegally soliciting or failing to disclose corporate and noncorporate contributions.

As a California phone bank was urging a select group of Texans to vote for Republican legislative candidates during the final days of the 2002 election, Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond was touting those candidates in a letter mailed to the same likely GOP voters.

It was no coincidence that the phone calls and Hammond's letter targeted the same list, created with corporate money from Texans for a Republican Majority, a political committee led by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

Linkmeister sent me this link, written by a comic named Scott Long about his experience as entertainment for a corporate event at last year's Super Bowl. Scott, if you'd like to know what Houston is like under more normal circumstances, drop me a line. It's a lot nicer than you think.

For purposes of comparison, this was my Super Bowl experience from last year. I think I like watching from home better.

Now hear this: If Jim Henson were still alive, there's no way that the Muppets would be shilling for Pizza Hut. That is all.

You can't afford to get sick in Collin County.

Flat broke, out of work for nine months and with only an old SUV to his name, William Wright was stunned to learn he is too well off for public health care in Collin County.

"I think I fit the idea of low-income," said Wright, 28, who last worked as a satellite-dish installer. "I'm no-income."

In June, he spent seven days in a McKinney hospital after a near-fatal highway accident. When Wright, who was uninsured, applied for county help to pay more than $50,000 in doctor and hospital bills, he found that Texas' wealthiest county — home to sprawling new houses, luxury stores and corporate campuses — gives little to help the poor in need of medical care.

"They said I made too much," said Wright, who would have to have earned less than $2,328 a year to qualify for indigent health care in Collin County.

Social workers in Plano, and Dallas County officials who say their public hospital is losing millions of dollars a year handling patients streaming in from their northern neighbor, have recently begun putting heat on Collin County to open its wallet and its heart.

But the county's fiscal conservatism has thus far proved to be an immovable force.

"You bet. We don't like to pay taxes," said Collin County Commissioner Jerry Hoagland. "Nobody I'm talking with wants to raise taxes to pay for this."

"They brag they haven't spent taxpayer money on this in 20 years," said Pam Kaus, health care coordinator for Collin County Interfaith. The group, which has been vocal on the issue, was rebuffed in 2003 when it sought county money to open a clinic.

[...]

[S]ome uninsured Collin County residents — 237 in 2003 — end up at Dallas County's taxpayer-funded Parkland Hospital.

Of those, Collin County reimbursed Dallas for one through its indigent trust fund.

Those in-patient stays, plus 4,575 outpatient visits by uninsured Collin County people that year, left Parkland $6 million in unpaid bills, according to an audit report.

Because of Parkland, Dallas County's taxes are double those of its northern neighbor.

"Parkland believes anybody who shows up should get health care. It's not our problem they don't qualify patients before they admit them," said Collin County Commissioner Phyllis Cole, who said she believes health care should be left to charities and the private sector. "I wish they would get off my back."

For all the complaining some parts of Texas has done about the redistributive nature of school funding, you'd think there might be more of a fuss about one county foisting its health care problems off on others. Maybe it's time there were.

UPDATE: Boadicea notes that any residents of Collin Cunty who happen to be reading this can give some feedback to Commissioner Cole on Monday.

Ah, well. It was always a longshot, but we were playing with house money. This is a long-term investment. Getting good people to run is the first step. Kudos to Rose Spector for being willing to take that step, and to Charles Soechting and Sue Schecter for their assistance.

You did know that final voting for Koufax awards ends on Monday, right? Here's a link to all posts of nominations. Hurry up and make your voice heard, and if you'd thought about making a donation to help cover Wampum's cost for all their hard work but hadn't gotten to it yet, here's another reason to do so (you'll have to go to their main index to find the Donate button).

Meanwhile, Kevin Hayden has updated his bigass list of liberal blogs indexed by state. It's called States Writes and it's pretty darned impressive. The nature of the blogiverse being what it is, there are sure to be some omissions already; leave a comment here if that includes you, but please note that Kevin is taking a well-earned break after doing this, so be patient.

Greg and Cate tell you what you need to know about this story in which voters from HD149 were alleged to have been illegally moved into HD137. To answer Greg's question about how this affects the Heflin challenge, I recall a quote from Will Hartnett in which he said that a voter who registered properly and then had his registration changed to an incorrect address without his knowledge or consent should not be disenfranchised. I can't find the cite offhand, but I'm pretty sure those votes will be counted in that race.

Meet Doctor Eric Sheffey:

[Sheffey] has been sued more than 60 times and accused by patients' relatives of causing four deaths and two suicides.

[...]

Last year, administrative law judges found Scheffey had performed 29 surgeries on 11 patients that were either partly or entirely unnecessary. Two of the patients who had unneeded back surgeries died. Several others started out with minor problems and ended up permanently disabled in the course of undergoing repeated surgeries.

Late last year, the judges recommended license revocation and a $210,000 fine.

That fine, alone, was equal to half of all the money collected by the board in 256 separate decisions in fiscal year 2004.

Board members upped the fine to $845,000 on the basis of 169 violations of proper patient care they found in an examination of Scheffey patient records. The money goes into the state's general fund.

The board, which has more money for investigations and a tougher stance on medical malpractice than in previous years, was expected to accept the recommendation — but it was not a sure thing. Twice before, the board considered taking Scheffey's license. In 1995, administrative law judges recommended it — but the board voted to give him probation instead.

[Texas State Board of Medical Examiners] attorney Robert Simpson, said if the 1995 board had not given Scheffey that second chance, at least two patients "might be alive today."

Although Scheffey spent nearly half his career on board-ordered probation, he lived in a $5.8 million home near the Museum of Fine Arts and owned a private jet. He saw patients from the lower-income areas of east Harris County in his office, East Harris County Orthopedics at 9343 N. Loop East. He was one of the most prolific doctors at Vista Medical Center, a Pasadena hospital cited frequently by regulators for inadequate patient care.

In 2002, he was the top-paid doctor in the Texas Workers' Compensation program, earning $3.3 million. (In the past 1 1/2 years, Scheffey and two other top earners in the workers' comp system from Houston, orthopedic surgeon Mark McDonnell and diagnostic radiologist Joon Lee, have been barred from the Texas Workers' Compensation Commission's approved-doctor list because of questions about their medical care. McDonnell was a colleague of Scheffey's at Vista, and Lee did imaging studies on Scheffey patients.)

Scheffey, who failed his orthopedic certification exams three times, first came to the attention of state regulators in 1985, when he was arrested after 30 grams of cocaine was found in his Jaguar. (He was not convicted in that case.) Five days before that arrest, a patient died on the operating table. In 1986, the board placed Scheffey on 10 years' probation for "intemperate use" of drugs. The probation order didn't mention the patient's death.

Grits brings the news of HB 575, filed by State Rep. Pat Haggerty (R, El Paso) that would bring some much needed reform to probation. You won't read about it in the papers, so head over to Grits for Breakfast and check it out.

Today is the day for the special election in San Antonio's HD121. There are other items on the electoral agenda in Bexar County, so whether you're in HD121 or not, you should be going to the polls today. Be sure to say Hi to Byron and Karl-Thomas if you see them. Happy voting!

Those of you who want to give a piece of your mind to TxDOT regarding the proposed I-45 expansion into downtown should attend this public meeting on Tuesday next week.

The I-45 Coalition will play host to a public meeting Tuesday to address concerns regarding the Texas Department of Transportation's proposed "managed lanes" project for Interstate 45.

The meeting, at 7:30 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 3606 Beauchamp in Woodland Heights, will feature a presentation by TxDOT engineer Mike Tello, followed by a question-and-answer session.

[...]

Members of the I-45 Coalition, formed in 1998 after TxDOT initially announced it was looking at an expansion plan for the interstate, say it's imperative for community members to get all the facts from the transportation department regarding the expansion and how they will be affected.

Coalition representatives say communication among the community and TxDOT has in the past been minimal, something they hope to change regarding the I-45 project.

"What we're hearing from (TxDOT) right now is that there are no plans in place, just concepts," said Laura Armstrong, a member of the I-45 Coalition. "But when there are plans, it will be too late for us.

"We want to get TxDOT working with us now, rather than us scrambling to have our say once plans are already in place. In the past, there's been fairly little communication. We don't feel they listen to community concerns."

Added Coalition member Jim Weston, "We're concerned we're going to blink two or three times and the plans will have been finalized.

"TxDOT public meetings are designed to fulfill their requirements, not get a productive dialogue going with the community. They lay their study results and analysis out on a table, say that they're still in the design phase and tell anyone who has questions to mail them to the department. We've got to show them that that won't get it done in this case."

The I-45 Coalition has a domain name registered, i-45coalition.org, but there's nothing there yet. I'll mention it again when it's up and running. And I want to give props to State Rep. Jessica Farrar and City Council member Adrian Garcia for all the work they've done so far with the neighborhood groups on this one.

Lots of new Texas blogs popping up lately. I've already mentioned Pink Dome, which won my personal snarky post of the week award on Monday, and now it's been joined by the similarly-named In The Pink Texas, written by "professionally trained journalist gone bad" Eileen Smith and set for a Monday debut (via Roman Candles.)

Branching out from his perch at the Burnt Orange Report is Jim Dallas, blogging as Texas Yojimbo, which should not be confused with Usagi Yojimbo, though there are certainly worse things with which to be confused.

DeLayWatch From The District will be keeping a close eye on everyone's favorite unethical Congressman from Sugar Land.

Save Texas Reps has been repurposed into a regular blog, and asks why is it that Mike Krusee and Rick Perry want to eliminate the requirement that the executive director of the Department of Transportation be a registered professional engineer in Texas.

I've mentioned Clean Up Texas Politics before but failed to mention that they have a blog, too.

I also should have mentioned before now that Steve Casburn has a second blog, called Walking? In Houston?. Better late than never.

Texas Blogs is a group blog that anyone who is a Texas blogger can join. Scott wonders why no one from Houston as done so yet.

Last but not least is the non-Texas blog The Next Left which among other things has a question for Angela Jolie.

Share and enjoy!

I've said before that the 2005 city elections look to be a snoozer, at least when compared to 2003 (and barring, of course, a massive anti-SafeClear popular uprising which John Whitmire may head off at the pass anyway), but that doesn't mean there won't be any good candidates running. One of them will be Jay Aiyer, looking to replace the term-limited Gordon Quan in At Large #2. That looks to be a crowded race, and if Sue Lovell enters there will be at least two worthy candidates there, but you never know how these things will shake out. Keep an eye on Jay, I think you'll be hearing his name quite a bit in the future.

Greg is wholly on board with Aiyer, and reprints an email from Chris Bell about Aiyer which I also received.

UPDATE: Just received an email confirming that Sue Lovell is in this race as well. No website for her as yet.

Looks like Ashley McElhiney's wild ride has ended with her still in the coach's chair, as the rest of the management of the ABA's Nashville Rhythm has overruled co-owner Sally Anthony.

Yesterday's statement from the franchise said "the majority owners and the team general manager have since confirmed that this action was taken without their consent."

McElhiney's agent, Washington D.C.-based Gioberto Garcia, said the two sides held a lengthy meeting yesterday in Nashville with lawyers from both sides. McElhiney ultimately agreed that she and her representatives would not divulge the details of the meeting or discuss the on-court incident involving Anthony.

Another of the team's co-owners, Tony Bucher, is Anthony's husband. He will now take over her title as the team's CEO and oversee his brother, general manager Daniel Bucher.

Daniel Bucher did not return phone messages from The Tennessean yesterday.

It is unclear what, if any, role Anthony will maintain in the team's operations, but her status as a public face of the team management is almost certainly over.

"She is still part of the ownership," said Mark May, an Indianapolis attorney representing the team.

[...]

Yesterday, in just the second public statement from the franchise since the wild night unfolded, Daniel Bucher asked fans to reaffirm their support for the team.

"The owners regret the incident and want to apologize to Coach McElhiney, the team, our fans, Lipscomb University and our sponsors, all who have supported the team throughout the season," he said. "We have had a very successful season with a record of 18-7 and have worked hard to provide a good value to our fans.

"We understand any disappointment and anger our fans felt from the incident. But we now ask them to please put this in context with the whole season and show their support for our coach and the team. The Rhythm needs our fans to help us finish the season successfully."

May said he did not know if Anthony has spoken with McElhiney since Saturday.

"I do know this: she's received multiple apologies regarding the incident and I think she is comfortable with those," May said. "We want it to be clear that we are sorry that it happened."

After yesterday's meeting, McElhiney, the first woman to coach a men's professional basketball team, met with players and told them "we're good to go."

She said she's "very confident and comfortable with the decision I made to continue what I started. We've been in it together from the beginning and we'll finish it together."

The State Lege will once again take a crack at telling local governments how to mind their own businesses.

Keeping up the pressure to lower the cap on local property appraisals, a lawmaker from Houston filed on Thursday the third bill, so far, of the young legislative session to address that issue.

House Bill 784 by Republican state Rep. Dwayne Bohac would lower the current 10 percent cap on annual appraisal increases to 5 percent.

State Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, earlier filed a similar bill, HB 108, calling for a 5 percent limit, and state Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, is sponsoring HB 359, which would lower the cap to 3 percent, the level advocated by Gov. Rick Perry, who has made property-tax relief a major priority.

[...]

The House overwhelmingly approved a 5 percent cap two years ago, but the measure died in the Senate during the session's closing days.

Perry tried to resurrect the proposal during last spring's special session on school finance, but it failed.

Perry once more identified the appraisal caps as a priority during last week's State of the State address to the Legislature. He said Texans are "sick and tired of taxation by valuation."

Bohac said he doesn't want to apply the lower appraisal cap to the taxable value of minerals, which are important sources of revenue for school districts and other local governments in some parts of Texas. A dispute including minerals helped stall the bill in the Senate during the 2003 session.

Crockett County draws 92 percent of its revenue from oil-rich property, County Judge Johnny Jones said. Spurred by the 2004 oil boom, property values increased 25 percent.

"We can't let them impose some sort of arbitrary limit there," Jones said. "We're opposed to that, and all counties are, as far as I know."

In Eldorado, an increase in property-tax revenue allowed the Schleicher County Independent School District to lower its tax rate while gaining enough extra money to replace a dilapidated air-conditioning system.

In Reagan County, where the first West Texas oil well was drilled, oil-driven property taxes account for more than 70 percent of its revenue, Turner said. Property values there increased 40 percent last year.

A cap on property appraisals would drain funds from already strapped county governments and school districts, Griffin said. The entities in turn would divert funds from road improvements, sheriff's departments and school materials to pay for state mandates, he said.

According to the Texas Association of Counties, which is lobbying heavily against the bill and lobbied against similar proposals in last year's special legislative session, 61 percent of a given county's property tax revenue goes to funding its schools.

"There are some counties that can cope with it better than others," such as wealthier areas north of Dallas or south of Houston, said Elna Christopher, a Texas Association of Counties spokeswoman.

The counties are not as poor as they make themselves sound, said Robert Black, a Perry spokesman.

"They can raise additional funds," Black said. "All they have to do is call a meeting (to raise the tax rate). Most local entities don't have to raise their tax rates because they get a big cash cow from appraisals that go up."

And just to prove that the concept of We Like Local Control As Long As You're Doing What We Like is a bipartisan one, we have State Sen. John Whitmire's efforts to cut the SafeClear program off at the knees. Maybe SafeClear is a good idea and maybe it's not, but as Rick Casey noted, thirteen City Council members voted for it in an election year. If the people of Houston really think that SafeClear sucks, they'll have ample opportunity to express those wishes in fairly short order. Unless, of course, a bunch of non-Houstonians at the state Capitol take that choice away from them. Because, of course, they're in a better position to make those decisions than we are.

(DMN and San Angelo Standard links via Lasso.)

So Rudy T has stepped down as coach of the Lakers for health reasons, half a season into a five-year deal. I'm sorry to hear that, but I do wonder why he thought it would be a good idea to get back after his health forced him to step down in Houston. It's not like the Lakers gig was going to be an easy one, and even though there's been little of the soap opera we've been used to, it had to be a tough task.

Not that it matters, I guess. Get better and take care, Rudy. I'm sure I join with Rockets fans everywhere in wishing you well.

Got some free time this Saturday and want to help Rose Spector win that special election? Hook up with Byron and Karl-T as they road-trip south to pitch in. Contact details are in Byron's post.

What does the phrase "general diffusion of knowledge" mean, and what effect does it have on school funding? The Lege wants to know, and may impose its own answer as a way of keeping those pesky court rulings at bay in the future.

A school funding bill being filed today by House Public Education Committee Chairman Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, will include a "placeholder" for the definition, which likely will be written by the committee members.

The effort to define a constitutional protection worries lawyers for school districts who won the landmark ruling from Dietz. They fear that lawmakers, in an effort to avoid major new taxes, want to establish lower standards than those envisioned by Dietz.

"This is a sign of desperation to avoid the ruling. Rather than pass a new finance bill, now they're attempting to amend the scope of an adequate education," said George Bramblett, who represents a coalition of school districts, including Houston, that won the ruling last year.

Harrison Keller, research director for Speaker Tom Craddick, said representatives may correlate the definition to the state's accountability system, which rates schools based on student test scores.

"The Legislature has the right and responsibility to define a 'general diffusion of knowledge.' The floor of the Legislature is where people need to have those debates," Keller said.

Meanwhile, the Lege has proposed three billion dollars in new school spending. How they will fund this, especially with the proposed 50-cent cut in property taxes, they haven't said yet - that will be included in a bill to be named later. Have I mentioned lately that the much-ballyhooed "surplus" was a mirage?

Win a Tom DeLay bobblehead doll. Need I say more?

I do so hope that this script was at some point turned into the training video it was intended to be.

The script calls for an introduction by "Jeff."

"Here at Enron, we're in business to make money," Jeff says. "There's no doubt about that. But there should also be no doubt about the way we make our money — we play by the rules. All of the rules."

Jeff further instructs his employees: "Look for yourself in this story. Look for your co-workers. Pay attention."

The script's main character is a BMW-driving, womanizer named Jay. His license plate reads: "Cha Chng."

When he arrives at the office, his pal Brent asks: "So, has Jennifer figured out yet that you were with Traci last night?"

Jay, Brent and their trading team — their rough language depicted with bleeps — strong-arm their trading partners. One trader crows: "We will control the market."

The "dynamic duo" are called on the carpet by Greg Whalley, then president and chief operating officer of Enron Wholesale Services. But they persist.

Jay is then arrested on the trading floor by FBI agents. Then the script calls for: "Cut to shot of Jeff Skilling, stopping on the way to his car to pick up the morning paper. As he reads the headline, he looks up. Agents with subpoenas in their hands approach Jeff."

In the ensuing trial, Jay appears on the witness stand, trying to justify comments that Enron's competitors "wouldn't survive" or that Enron would "set the price."

After the trial, Jay is shown desperately — and unsuccessfully — trying to find another job.

Jeff then returns, to say: "What you've just seen could happen to us. ... Do not think for a moment that it can't or won't happen to Enron."

While much of the script is prescient, it misses on one key point: The scandal sends Enron stock falling to $40 a share.

In slightly more serious news, the bigass trial of Skilling, Causey and Lay will probably begin don't call the courthouse to volunteer.

The first forum for the CleanUpTexasPolitics panelists is now online. Jane Laping of Mothers for Clean Air will be responding. The initial questions were taken from audience members at Tuesday's event, but you can sign in and ask a few yourself. Check it out here. Thanks to Texas Nate for the heads-up.

February 3, 1959, was the day in which a plane crash killed rock musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. "Jape" Richardson, a/k/a The Big Bopper. Here's a great article about the life of The Bopper, who was a disk jockey in Beaumont before he began his recording career. Here's something I'll bet you didn't know:

[In the fall of 1958], Jape also told a British magazine about another idea he had: He called them "music videos." He imagined a jukebox that played both music and a short film of the artist singing it. He'd filmed three of his own songs and had proposed the idea to his producers.

"It will ultimately become standard practice for every record artist to make a film of himself performing his record," he told DISC magazine, which published its story under the headline "Records will Be Filmed!" in January 1959.

"We owe J.P. Richardson, The Big Bopper, much more credit than just for Chantilly Lace," says rock expert Bill Griggs of Rockin' 50s magazine.

Step right up and put your ad on Shaune Bagwell's boobies.

For $2,000 a month, you can put a tattoo of your company's logo across her chest. Bagwell is a pretty voluptuous bikini model, so there's room for a lot of logo.

The deal is up for bids on eBay right now. Click on www.eBay.com, do a search on "Shaune Bagwell" and you'll find it:

Ad Space on Swimsuit Model Shaune Bagwell's Cleavage.

Bagwell came up with this idea after watching a fellow model sell her used chewing gum on eBay.

"A man bought it for $20. I don't know who I felt sorrier for, the man who bought the gum, or the model who sold it," Bagwell said. "Models are selling their underwear on eBay. I thought this would be a funnier and more creative way to utilize my marketability."

Bagwell said the tattoo can be henna ink or body paint or whatever, just nothing permanent.

Here's the deal: "For 30 days, I will maximize the ad's visibility by wearing strapless dresses, low-cut tops and bikinis. I plan on attending Rockets games, walking at Memorial Park, and having lunches and dinners at high-profile eateries," she said.

The only advertising she'll refuse: "anything pornographic or including an obscenity."

Other than that, anything goes — across her cleavage.

Her only regret is she didn't think of this sooner.

"I should have done this before the election. That could be a whole new frontier, political endorsements!"

I attended a cool event last night, a forum sponsored by Clean Up Texas Politics on the effect of big money in our political campaigns and what's going on to fix it. Mayor White gave a keynote address, City Council member Pam Holm moderated a roundtable discussion, there were other worthwhile speakers (more on all this in a sec), and best of all, there was free food beforehand.

White made a number of good points about campaign ethics during his address, drawing on numerous bad examples from the 2003 municipal elections (see here for one of the things he mentioned; he also used with her permission the story of a mailer which made a false claim about Pam Holm). He put some responsibility for clean campaigns on the voters, basically saying that at some point you have to refuse to vote for someone you'd otherwise support if that person does sleazy things in the name of winning, and that you have to let that candidate know that he or she is in jeopardy of losing your support under those circumstances. Hard to argue with that.

One of the more interesting speakers was Mickey Jo Lawrence, former member of the Texas Ethics Commission, appointed to that position by then-Gov. Bush. She helped bring a bipartisan feeling to the event, and gave a good overview of how powerless and constricted the TEC has been. It's not as bad as it once was - commissioners no longer fear that they'll be arrested if they try to ask questions of a potential witness, and no, I'm not joking - but it's still pretty bad. She touched briefly and subtlely on the issue of corporate campaign contributions, and though she never came out and said so, one could see that she supported Ronnie Earle's efforts in the TRMPAC case.

The subject of corporate campaign contributions was mentioned several times. Fred Lewis of CleanUpTexasPolitics spoke about a bill to be filed by Reps. Eiland and Smith that would close the current loopholes that allowed for the creative interpretations we saw in 2002. Other bills, to do things like impose donation caps and ban sham "issue" ads a la McCain/Feingold, also with bipartisan sponsorship, are in the works. I'm told that Mark Strama will have a non-sponsor role to play, which fits with his campaign from last year.

I'm sorry I couldn't stay for the panel discussion, since the opening statements were pretty lively, but they were behind schedule and I had to get home. Panelists were John Cobarruvias of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, Linda Stall of Corridor Watch, and Jane Laping of Mothers for Clean Air. Cobarruvias was quite blunt as he tore into the influence of homebuilders and how they've rigged the system (see here and here for some background; apparently Jordan Fogal was in attendance, but alas, I didn't get a chance to talk to her). If he ever decides to run for office (John Davis is his state rep), I think he'd make a race out of it. For a relative newbie to this sort of thing, Stall was a very good speaker. She sounds natural and authentic, her cause is one that a lot of people don't know much about (see here and here for more), and she fed off the responses she got as she spoke about it. Laping, alas, was not a natural speaker - she was reading from notes, and kept losing her place. I suspect she did better in the moderated discussion, but I'd departed by then.

All three panelists will be taking part in online discussions at CleanUpTexasPolitics.com. I don't see anything about it on there now, but Laping is scheduled for tomorrow, with the others to follow in the coming days. I'll post a link when I know more; I'm told there will be a transcript available afterwards as well.

Last but not least, you might think that an event that drew 250 people, featured the Mayor as keynote speaker, and had various politicos like Sylvia Garcia in the audience might attract a reporter or two. Sadly, no - I can't find any press coverage of this. Too bad, and our loss for it. I gather that there will be more of these events in the future, presumably elsewhere in Texas, so check the CleanUpTexasPolitics.com site and see if one is coming to an auditorium near you.

UPDATE: Greg adds on.

The new caffeinated beer, which I mentioned before, is now officially on the market. Putting aside the travesty that is beer with ingredients like "guarana", this is an Anheuser-Busch product. What more do you need to know?

Oh, all right, here's one thing. It may taste better than cough syrup.

The popularity of a cocktail made by adding vodka to the energy drink Red Bull has inspired several brewers to create caffeinated beers. Most are small local brews such as Moonshot, a Boston-based beer. One is nationally known: Sparks, a malt-based energy drink containing many of the same ingredients as BE.

Rolling Stone magazine raved about Sparks last year: "The wave of the future is getting invigorated and wasted in one go with Sparks, the energy drink that has thoughtfully already added booze for you."

But Rolling Stone did not rave about the flavor: "It tastes like cough syrup."

BE doesn't taste like cough syrup. It doesn't taste much like beer, either. It tastes like ... something else.

"It has an aroma of blackberry and a little bit of cherry, which is unexpected," says Nathaniel Davis, the brew master who created BE. "It has typical beer flavors, like hops and malt, and it finishes with what we're calling the wow factor."

What's the wow factor?

"That bright, slightly sweet tart finish," he says. "People who drink it, their eyes light up and they say, 'Wow!' among other things."

Cracker Barrel becomes the third corporation indicted in the TRMPAC case to cut a deal with the Travis County DA's office, joining Sears and Diversified Collections Services.

Travis County charges against the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. restaurant chain regarding an allegedly illegal political contribution have been dismissed.

The charges were dropped as a result of an agreement signed Feb. 2 by Cracker Barrel and District Attorney Ronnie Earle.

In the settlement, Earle acknowledges Lebanon, Tenn.-based Cracker Barrel didn't intend to violate any laws. The agreement between the DA and Cracker Barrel also states the company has demonstrated "a history of good citizenship and high ethical standards."

Under the settlement, Cracker Barrel is donating $50,000 to support what it calls "a nonpartisan, balanced and publicly informative program" at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

[...]

Cracker Barrel spokeswoman Julie Davis says: "We're pleased with the dismissal of all charges. Since this matter was instituted, we have steadfastly maintained that we had not engaged in any illegal conduct. We believe that this agreement confirms our position."

Davis says the agreement with the DA's office doesn't include an admission of wrongdoing by the company.

Under the settlement, Cracker Barrel must disclose all corporate political contributions on its Web site for two years, and can't make any illegal corporate political contributions in the Texas or any other state that prohibits them.

In other news, Rep. Joel Hefley has paid for his sins and will no longer be a threat to Tom DeLay. The Stakeholder has more.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall has more on the Ethics Panel purge.

Yesterday was the last day for early voting in the San Antonio special election, which will decide the HD121 race among others. Early turnout was strong, relatively speaking.

With the close of early voting Tuesday, 14,157 people had cast early ballots for a joint election for ACCD, the Bexar Metropolitan Water District and the San Antonio River Authority.

A separate contest to elect a state representative in Texas House District 121 generated 2,125 early votes by Saturday — a high number considering the circumstances.

"If you compare this to the last special election for a state representative seat, there were only about 3,000 votes total," [Christian Anderson with Election Support Services] said. "For an election that had about a two-week time span, clearly the candidates have done a good job of letting voters know there is a vacancy to fill."

Anderson estimated that total turnout for the joint election would probably hit about 28,000, while up to 7,000 could vote in the state House election.

In the House race, candidates announced last-minute support.

Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Rose Spector, a Democrat, stood before a slate of women from local political organizations, including the Tejano Democrats and the Bexar County Democratic Women.

Meanwhile, Republican candidate Joe Straus III received the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Business in Texas, an advocacy group for small-business owners.

Kinky Friedman has officially announced his candidacy for Governor in 2006.

Some 13 months before the established political parties select their nominees in the state primary elections, Friedman and his trademark black cowboy hat and Cuban cigar were entering the political arena Thursday morning for what he's promised will be an unconventional campaign.

"I want the thing to be fun," he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "But you can do something fun and still have it be important."

The 60-year-old Friedman, whose nearly two dozen books include "Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned" and whose campaign bumper stickers proclaim "Why Not Kinky?", chose the grounds outside the Alamo, the symbol of Texas independence, to officially begin his independent campaign.

"It's just this choice is decaf or regular, paper or plastic, these two political parties," he said of Republicans and Democrats. "It's no choice at all.

"Now we'll have a choice, a voice, and see if it means anything."

If you're detecting a note of sarcasm in all that, it's because all along his campaign has sounded awfully Naderesque in its rhetoric to me. I thought it was all BS then, and I think it's BS now. I rather doubt there's a campaign or a message he can run on that's both substantive and noticeably different than those of the eventual GOP and Democratic candidates, but hey, I could be wrong. Show me what you got, Kinky, and we'll see if I'm convinced.

Rep. Henry Bonilla will run for Senate if Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison does not.

The announcement, during an interview with a Lubbock radio station, is the first GOP shot fired in what is expected to be a free-for-all to fill the seat that Hutchison has held since 1993, when she won a special election to replace Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, a Democrat.

Hutchison has yet to rule out a gubernatorial bid, fueling speculation about who will run to succeed her in the Senate.

"If she makes a decision on her own to move on, then I am in that race -– no ifs, ands or buts," Bonilla, R-San Antonio, said on the Jane Prince Jones Morning Show on KFYO in Lubbock.

Bonilla is one of several Republicans in Congress eyeing the Senate seat. He used today's interview on KFYO in Lubbock to jump ahead of the potential field of hopefuls.

"All the stars are aligned. It's time to go for it," Bonilla told the San Antonio Express-News.

Former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Tom Loeffler, a former Republican congressman from San Antonio, will play a role in the campaign, Bonilla said.

"Phil Gramm is my co-pilot on this. He's coming off the bench and has been very encouraging," Bonilla said.

In addition to Bonilla, other members of Congress mentioned as possible Senate candidates include Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas.

Political observers say Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans also are potential candidates. Houston attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Democrat and partner in the Vinson and Elkins law firm, announced on Jan. 10 that she is a candidate for the Senate seat.

Other Democrats mentioned as possible candidates include Ron Kirk, a former Dallas mayor who ran for U.S. Senate in 2002, and former Rep. Ken Bentsen of Houston.

More from Ken Rodriguez. Almost as interesting to me is the speculation over who would run to replace Bonilla. Jaime Castillo floated a few names a couple of weeks ago, but I'd expect to hear more of that now. And I'd still like to see State Rep. Richard Raymond take a shot at it.

The Chron picks up the story today. This quote from Our Only Governor is just too precious for words:

"I feel like that those in Washington, D.C., should stay focused on helping Texas up in Washington, D.C.," Perry said. "Helping Texas is what we're all about. And the best way to do that, from my perspective, is for him (Bonilla) and all the other congressional delegation to stay there and do a great job for Texas."

Greg riffs on the need to make serious challenges in every race. I feel pretty confident that Barbara Radnofsky will put in the time, money, and effort to make a serious challenge, but as a first-time candidate with (so far) little name recognition, her climb is steeper than most. Hell, her officially-announced candidacy for the Senate didn't even warrant a throwaway mention in a story on who may or may not be running for the Senate produced by her hometown paper (the Express-News at least acknowledged her existence), which is as good an illustration of the challenge before her as anything. There's much work to be done, that's for sure.

We'll have to wait till next week to find out what will happen with the Heflin challenge.

State Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, who is gathering evidence for a House committee that will consider Heflin's charge that he lost because of ineligible voters, had hoped to make his recommendation today. But he said Tuesday he needs more time to sift through evidence from a two-day hearing last week.

Hartnett said he will tally the votes and "implicitly state a winner" Monday.

The House's nine-member Select Committee on Election Contest will begin its hearings on Tuesday.

Hartnett will issue rulings on each of about 250 ballots alleged to have been cast by ineligible voters, and recommend whether the votes should be counted or tossed. Hartnett said he will agree to remove only votes in which voters were proved to be ineligible, voted in the Heflin-Vo race and will testify for whom they voted.

[...]

After weeks of alleging fraud, Heflin's lawyers acknowledged Friday that they found no organized fraud in the election that unseated the Republican lawmaker.

Hartnett said he did find cases of fraudulent voter registration but that it did not appear intended to affect the Heflin-Vo race.

He said the registrations of about five voters in District 149 were moved without their knowledge to a different district, possibly to benefit a candidate in that district.

Heflin's lawyers tried to get the votes thrown out, contending the voters were registered somewhere else but allowed to vote in the District 149 race.

Hartnett, however, declared their votes legal, ruling that the voters were legitimate residents of District 149 and that their registrations in the other district were forged.

"If someone you don't know moves your registration you should not be disenfranchised," Hartnett said. "The state is not going to recognize fraud on these innocent people."

This article by Greg Moses, the same fellow who produced the ILCA pieces noted here, sheds some light on the voters whose registrations were moved, and gives a bit more detail on the hearings. Via Andrew D.

I keep getting boatloads of hits from Google searches for Ashley McElhiney. It's an odd story and all, but I wouldn't have guessed there'd be that much interest in a soap opera involving a team from the obscure ABA, even if it involves a unique coach.

Anyway. CNN/SI's Chris Ballard has a fairly thorough and rather amusing rundown of the situation so far. A more straightforward recap is in the IHT, which notes that team co-owner/pop singer/attention hound Sally Anthony does not have the power to fire McElhiney on her own. Indeed, the Nashville Rhythm has now issued an apology via email to McElhiney and just about everyone else. They'll reveal their ultimate plans for the team shortly, so stay tuned.

I never would have thought that the economics of 19th century whaling could be that interesting. Good thing Ted thought so, though. Be sure to read the comments, too.

You can make whatever observations and draw whatever conclusions you want about the demographics of Texas Lottery players. To me, the big story is right here:

Fewer people gambled on Texas Lottery games last year than ever, but those who did press their luck spent more than they did two years ago, according to a new study of lottery players by Texas Tech University.

About 47 percent of Texans reported playing a Texas Lottery game in 2004, down from 56 percent two years ago — the lowest percentage since the lottery came to Texas in 1992.

[T]he average amount spent by a lottery player in 2004 was $44.55 per month, compared to $38.13 calculated in a similar study two years ago.

"So we have fewer people reporting having played, but they're actually spending more money when they're playing," said Brian Cannon, operations director for the laboratory that conducted the survey, in giving his report to the Texas Lottery Commission.

[...]

Although the percentage of people playing has dropped, the Texas Lottery income has increased, said Bobby Heith, lottery commission spokesman. Overall sales in 2004 were $3.4 billion, compared to $3.1 billion in 2003. Last year, the revenue for the state was $1.1 billion, up from $888 million in 2003.

Gerald Busald, a mathematics professor at San Antonio College whose students studied the report, said the numbers show more than minor increases in individual spending on state-sponsored gambling.

"There is a greater percentage of people who have a gambling problem with the Texas Lottery than ever before," Busald said. Responding to the charge that more people have gambling problems, Heith said the commission doesn't use the surveys to determine whether problem gambling has increased.

"I would say that people who read these things will draw their own conclusions," he said. "We have a problem (ed. note: I presume he means "a program") out there that is called 'Play Responsible,' and we put that message out on the back of our tickets and on our Web site."

About a dozen of the 1,255 respondents to the survey said they spend thousands of dollars a month on lottery tickets. The report presents two sets of data, one that includes the dozen and one that doesn't.

When these players — who spend an average of $1,515.64 on tickets — are included, the overall average monthly spending among all players increases from $44.55 to $76.16. Researchers could not determine whether these individuals were unusual players or if they were fabricating their responses, and Cannon said they were not included in the core of the report.

blogHOUSTON and MeMo are making nice. I'd ask if anyone noticed any bayous running uphill this morning, but as Joel Achenbach so kindly pointed out to us, we don't have any hills here.

Well, at least now we know what it takes to bring some peace to that little corner of the blog world. Surely love and understanding can't be far behind. Meanwhile, anyone else waiting to see some of the furious emails Achenbach got from Houstonians?

(Almost forgot: Joel? Flat buildings? Compared to what?)

I'm sure you've been following all the twists and turns in the Social Security privatization personalization modernization transmogrification debate - Josh Marshall has certainly been a tireless resource. It seems we've reached a critical juncture:

Lawmakers said a turning point came Friday when House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), who has been leery of taking on Social Security, argued that the caucus had a "moral obligation" to do so.

The point here is just a bit of framing. DeLay, when people have heard of him, isn't very popular. Neither (so far, at least) is Social Security transmogrification, but a lot of people have heard of it. That's two bad tastes that taste bad together, which sounds like a good thing from my perspective. We'll see if it catches on at all.

Remember the point-and-shoot hunting website? It's under fire from two different sources.

State wildlife regulators last week introduced a rules change that would ban remote-controlled hunting for all game animals and game birds native to Texas. The proposed rule is part of a package of new regulations to govern hunting and fishing in the state.

David Sinclair, Parks and Wildlife Department's chief of wildlife enforcement, said his agency's main concern is the inability to uphold Texas hunting laws when a hunter may not be physically present in the state.

"We wanted to stop this before it happened because it's going to be hard to enforce a hunting license requirement for somebody that's in, say, New York City," said Sinclair, who is based in Austin.

"Even though they might be registered and they've got a hunting license number," he said, "there's no way to prove that it's that person that's operating the mouse."

[...]

But the Parks and Wildlife rule would not pertain to John Lockwood, a San Antonio body shop estimator and creator of Live-Shot, because Lockwood's idea for Web-based hunting on a ranch in Edwards County would focus on non-native species such as blackbuck antelope, Corsican sheep and fallow deer.

A bill filed in January by Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, would prohibit remote-controlled hunting for any animal.

Like Sinclair, Smith used the image of someone carrying out a big-game hunt from the Big Apple as rationale for his bill.

"I saw (Lockwood's idea) on the news and I said, 'That's ridiculous,' " he said from Austin. "The notion of businesspeople in New York skyscrapers killing Texas muledeer by clicking a computer mouse at their desk is difficult for me to take."

UPDATE: Sarah in the comments points to this piece, which pretty clearly indicates that regular hunters don't think much of this practice, and would apparently support its banning.