Tuesday Roundup: Whooping It Up in Qatar

Halliburton is on its way to Dubai, and so is Rick Perry. The Chron's Clay Robison wins the "Headline of the Day" award with this gem: "Perry Prepares to Gig 'Em in the Middle East." If I were having the month Perry's been having, I would be going out of town, too.

State Senator Jane Nelson added to Perry's no-good, very-bad month yesterday by discussing the Attorney General's recent informal opinion on gubernatorial authority. Apparently, Perry's executive order on the HPV vaccination doesn't carry the weight of law. I called the AG's office to see if this opinion applies to all of Perry's executive orders or just the one on Gardasil, and Jerry Strickland, a spokesperson for the office, said "In this issue, as with other issues, we don't discuss the substance of those conversations. We were asked to provide legal advice to our clients and we did so." The implications of all executive orders being nothing more than 'friendly suggestions,' as Senator Nelson described it, are legion, but I'm gonna have to do a little more digging to find out if that's what this means.

Apparently, one of the problems contributing to the ignorance over TYC abuses was how complaints were reported. Both the Chron and the Statesman have stories today about how the reporting and referral practices at TYC resulted in cases not being prosecuted. Statesman breaks down the problem:

When Youth Commission investigators received reports of abuse or neglect, they would notify a local law enforcement agency, as required by state law. When the Youth Commission's investigation was complete, the local law enforcement agency was sent a notification of the finding. No case file was forwarded for review. No other information was provided. And no other action was taken, according to state investigators.

Whether this facilitated a willful coverup or was just bad policy remains to be seen, but my gut tells me it may have been the former rather than the latter.

In more sad news of governmental problems, the deal with Cintra for the 121 toll project apparently could have made Texas six times as much money. The deal in which Cintra pays Texas $700 million was approved, while the North Texas Tollway Authority could have given $2.1 billion up front for rights and paid in just over $4 billion over the life of the deal. Everyone cautions this is a rough estimate, but it seems as if someone might have at least looked into what advantages could be had from keeping it in state.

In case you were wondering, the idea to fire all those US Attorneys came from the White House. I heard on NPR this morning that Harriet Miers had initially proposed canning all of them. Now Democrats on both the House and Senate Judiciary committees are encouraging Karl Rove to testify on the matter. Consider this an official encouragement from me, Karl. Get out there and tell it like it is! Or like it was previously agreed upon to be!

Finally today, there will definitely be a runoff in the Dallas mayoral election -- barring any paperwork problems, 13 candidates have joined the battle, which may be the largest field in history. I was most surprised to learn that one of the candidates is homeless, although this particular story in the DMN doesn't name which candidate it is beyond saying they are also a transgender political activist. I like that the editor of the American Airlines in-flight magazine, Zac Crain, is a candidate. If only we could get the guy from Sky Mall.