Weekend Roundup - Video Slots and Flood Plains

A couple of firms have put forward some proposals for what they would do with the lottery if they bought it, and those proposals include such unsavory things as video slots and keno. Outside of the fact that keno has always seemed sort of silly, increasing the breadth of the lottery to include the aforementioned additions as well as online gaming is going to make the sale even tougher for Governor Perry.

The story about Warren Chisum's anti-evolution memo, with which the Anti-Defamation League took umbrage, continues to be in the news. This weekend's edition features assurances from Chisum's Jewish friend in the legislature that Chisum isn't anti-Jewish. Another lesson that you have to read stuff before you send it out to everyone.

The Senate didn't accomplish much on Saturday — yet another vote to force debate on Iraq failed, but Senate Democrats were sufficiently encouraged by the advances made to start working on a revision of the 2002 law that gave Bush the authority to go to war. In one way or another, they aren't going to let the argument go away.

Lyle Larson, the only Republican Bexar County Commissioner, is already talking about running against Ciro Rodriguez in 2008. Now is the time to get started, so it makes sense for us to be hearing about it. The article outlines how Bonilla lost Bexar County 44-56 after redistricting. Maybe Larsen has some hometown pull in his county, but it seems like the South Side will still present a formidable problem in the district, which encompasses 20 counties.

There is a growing tide of resentment about a lot of things concerning access to a college education for Texans. First the Texas Tomorrow Fund gets what amounts to an administrative axe due to its unsustainability, and then the best new idea that comes out about financial aid is grants you have to pay back. Over and over again it seems like higher education is just not a priority for Texas' leaders, despite the good universities we've got here and the potential for economic growth that they represent.

Out in West Texas, a Valero refinery exploded on Saturday. No one was hurt, but it seems like an awful lot of chemical and gas plants are exploding lately in Texas.

Apparently there are all kinds of problems in Driscoll, Texas. The traffics cops are very aggressive and municipal corruption is rampant enough to result in lawsuits that allege racketeering among former city officials. The next step up would be extortion, I guess, but things are enough of a mess anyways. One clue to the trouble is that the city borrowed over half a million dollars to build a city hall. It never got built; the current city hall is a doublewide right off the highway.

Lastly, a big chunk of El Paso is about to get a new federal designation. Because the integrity of levees along the Rio Grande can't be certified to federal standards, FEMA is about to classify it as a flood plain. That matters because it means people with mortgages will have to buy flood insurance. There's some wrangling over silt and money and rebuilding the levee; you can expect arguments over requiring the insurance as well, which could cost some people about a thousand dollars a year.

Also, if you want some blow-by-blow coverage of what's going on in the Presidential race, the blogs over at The Politico are good for that, including this chronicle of how tired John McCain is of talking about Iraq.