Tuesday Roundup - Making Rain

The questions concerning Governor Rick Perry's plan to privatize the Texas Lottery continue to creep up, and they seem to be centered on UBS, a financial firm consulting on the deal. Phil Gramm and Mike Toomey have popped up in the coverage, and now Griffin Perry has been hired by UBS. Griffin Perry is Rick Perry's son.

Of course, the immediate story is that the younger Perry won't be working on the deal in any way. The public perception of the whole idea continues to sour, though, and this kind of stuff can't help. I mean, we all know this happens - making a little rain for other people when you can is the way of the world. When your dad is the governor, you probably don't have to work at Starbucks while you're waiting for something good to come along. This, however, is a little too obvious.

Did you know lobbyists have lobbyists? While it isn't surprising, it wasn't something I can say I was aware of. The American Society of Association Executives has spent the last year or so making sure lobbyists still get to take members on trips.

On the floor of the House today, debate on the non-binding anti-surge resolution will get underway and run until midnight today, Wednesday, and Thursday. Lloyd Doggett, a member of the Texas delegation as well as the Out Of Iraq caucus, see this as the beginning of a fight that will last. The resolution is expected to pass, much to the chagrin of Republican pundits who claim the American public is mad at Democrats for only passing a non-binding resolution. I think the step-by-step approach is much smarter politically than an outright funding cut; closing up the Congressional purse would lead to shrill accusations from the GOP that Democrats don't support the troops and would open up the fight to more extreme accusations. The House Democratic leadership just seems to be getting a little smarter.

In state news, the San Antonio Express-News reports that a black market is beginning to develop for cigarettes. As a former smoker, I also understand that emergent behavior of people crossing the border into other states to buy cigarettes at prices not increased by a new tax, but I first encountered that sort of behavior in Massachusetts when people would go to New Hampshire to buy booze. This is not a new trend.

There's another emergent activity in Texas: foreclosures. Not that people haven't been losing their houses up until now, but the sheer number of foreclosures is ramping up in the state and the nation: in Texas, there were 14,728 foreclosures in January; that is the highest number of new filings in any state. State Representative Eddie Rodriguez is working on legislation which would require home buyers to receive counseling and details about what 'exotic' financing, adjustable rate mortgages, and balloon payments actually mean. He's also working on new processes for homestead exemption applications.

Mayor Bill White is set to unveil his plan for covering Houston in a wireless network, with cheap access for consumers and subsidized access for low-income citizens. There are projects underway all over the country to create municipal wireless networks: some of them are free, some are not, but all are usually less expensive than their current method for accessing the web. If the plan proceeds, likely contract-winner Earthlink will create the nation's largest municipal wi-fi network so far.

Finally today, the Navy is about to use anti-terrorism dolphins and sea lions for coastal and port protection at Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base in Washington state. That really sort of speaks for itself.