Monday Roundup, School Voucher Feature

Today we have a new feature by Karl Lynch on the much-discussed issue of school vouchers. We also have a little bit of news to catch up on.

First is this massive proposal being considered for a $3 billion research project which would endeavor to find a cure for cancer, right here in Texas. Perry and the rest of the GOP are talking about the idea and are currently in the stages of figuring out where they would get money. One of the leading voices in the discussion about the whole project, according to the Star-Telegram article, is John Sharp. This project is a chance for everyone to get together on something worthwhile, but there will probably end being at least a minor scuffle on stem cell research somewhere in there.

This article about leadership role reshuffling that took place in the Senate has an interesting additional pontification - that if Hillary Clinton gets the Presidential nomination for the Democrats, Kay Bailey Hutchison may be an attractive Republican VP nominee for gender balance. That isn't normally the kind of thing I would expect the GOP to care about, but in a world where they have to appear a little more kind and gentle, a female presidential nominee may be sufficiently worrisome to spawn this kind of action. I still think Hillary is ultimately polarizing and her gender doesn't matter - a woman who has a negative view of one or both of the Clintons won't vote for Hillary simply because she's a woman.

State Senator Kel Seliger has taken it upon himself to be the TAKS warrior in the state Senate, and the Republican from Amarillo has plans to introduce legislation doing away with the test. That legislative idea has met with broad support from educators within Seliger's constituency, on the Senate Education Committee, and from pretty much anyone else who has ever stopped to consider the efficacy of the TAKS in the Texas education system. I'm wondering where this bill will run into trouble - probably not on committee, but I'm sure once it gets to the floor we'll hear a great deal about 'accountability.'

The Washington Post has a bit about the political possibilities inherent in web video. I think web video not only has the political potential for almost instantaneous distribution to a wide audience via mass emails and website announcements, but it has the additional advantage of being low overhead. You still have to pay to have the video written, shot, produced, and edited, but now you drop it on your website or YouTube and (depending on your level of popularity) you get several to hundreds of thousands of views rather than buying TV ad time. While it is admittedly quite targeted to a niche audience and is nowhere near ready to replace traditional TV buys, there is still a lot of message projection to be had via a relatively simple and low cost process that works well this early in the game.

After drought conditions have been underway in North Texas for the better part of two years and all this concern about water rights and usage has been voiced, nature is being nice and making January pretty moist for the region. According to the Morning News, this has been the wettest January in over a century. That obviously doesn't fix everything, but its a good start. Drought has been a cyclical problem in North Texas for a long time and will probably only get worse in the coming years.

Rick Perry canceled some lobbying contracts. Not just any lobbying contracts, mind you, but lobbyists who received taxpayer money to lobby on behalf of the state of Texas to Congress. The firm in question had ties to Abramoff and Tom DeLay, which should be no surprise. Democratic State Reps were quick to applaud and just as quick to lament the access lobbyists have to lawmakers in Austin. Earlier in the session, Democrats had proposed a House rules restriction on lobbyist access to the back hallway, and it was tabled.

Speaking of Rick Perry, the finance totals for the Governor's race are out, and it cost about $46 million. I think the most interesting figures are how much Strayhorn had available to spend - $12.6 million - versus how well she did, which was not very. The article also hints that some of Strayhorn's campaign staff didn't get paid at the end even though she had money left over.

This is sort of disturbing - apparently, Houston is sinking. Since the sinking is being caused by geologic activity that can't be forecast or even measured, currently no one is sure what storm surge maps or flood plain outlays actually are for the region. So that's bad. I'm not really sure what a responsible public policy approach is to this sort of thing - it is inexorable and can't be stopped, so the smart thing to do would be to offer ten- and twenty-year projections for clearing out of the area before it slides into the sea. Not that that will happen in either Houston or New Orleans, but it never hurts to suggest.

In the Rolling Hills neighborhood in south Fort Worth, a woman received two letters in the same envelope which made an offer on mineral rights leasing for her property. The letters had essentially the same content; the key differences were that one was in English and one was in Spanish, and the one in Spanish offered a lower royalty than the one in English. Needless to say, there has been some discussion about the incident, even though Dale Resources, who issued the letter, claims it was a mistake and that the Spanish letter was supposed to go to a different neighborhood.

From the Statesman: Austin City Council member Mike Martinez is kicking around the idea of single-member districts for the state capitol. Single-member districts would likely provide more of a voice for Republicans, lower and lower-middle class neighborhoods, and minorities, and that diversity representation has usually been the reason at-large councils get replaced by single-member districts in the last 40 years or so. The argument can also be made that the city has grown so much that a new structure would better be able to address the needs of the city's different areas and possibly foster even more economic growth. The idea has been defeated six times already, but the idea may have more support now than in the past.

Finally, in media news, this Op-Ed from the Dallas Morning News discusses the right of journalists to protect sources and suggests the Texas Legislature pass a measure recommitting to the idea. I'm strongly in favor of a shield law and I think the operation of a free press is vital to a healthy democracy, but I wouldn't hold my breath on this one getting passed, or even seeing the House floor, in Austin.