It's aways nice when the Lege gives the press pack a heads-up on what the next big scandal will be. Most people were caught off-guard (but not surprised) when the Texas Youth Commission turned out to be the debacle it did last session. But now the first order of business for '09 seems to have arrived: the systematic abuse of some residents in the state school system of homes for people with profound mental and educational disorders, run by the Department of Disability Services.

Last Thursday, with little fanfare, Speaker Tom Craddick put out a press release stating that he would "continue to monitor the Texas State School system." The system, he said, had become an "interim priority" – Lege shorthand for "well, we know what we're going to have to fix next session."

The House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics Committee is already working with DADS and Family and Protective Services, and there's an interim improvement plan in place. But they'll need it. After a truly horrifying US Department of Justice report on the Lubbock State School and some damning reporting by the Dallas Morning News, the magnitude of the scandal is becoming clear.

But here's the kicker: Craddick say that "it is my intent to make the issues of State Schools a priority for consideration as an interim charge so that any new policy recommendations might be made available for the 81st Legislature." Which is odd, because the DoJ report was lodged with Rick Perry on Dec. 11, 2006 – before the 80th session.

Wading through the Statesman's letters-to-the-editor page, something stands out amidst wheezing, watered-down Las Manitas outrage and a confused offering of "but Clinton lied too!" so old it's ready to collect a pension, something rather interesting: a letter from local political consultant Mike Blizzard regarding the article on Lee Leffingwell's SOS "loosening" that ran last week:

I was paraphrased as saying that current limits on redevelopment over the aquifer "cut into profits for developers." I never said that.

I did say that there are old developments over the aquifer that have no water quality controls and are polluting Barton Springs. The problem is that the amount of impervious cover is directly related to the amount of square footage and parking, so even a deteriorating structure can generate more money for a property owner than ripping up 75 percent to 80 percent of the concrete to redevelop under existing rules. So those old developments keep polluting.

If we allow property owners to redevelop their properties with their existing impervious cover and require them to add water quality controls and contribute to the preservation of open space, we can clean up pollution in Barton Springs without increasing impervious cover over the aquifer.

Mike Blizzard

At the end, this:

Editor's note: After reviewing interview notes, the paper stands by the story's characterization of Blizzard's remarks.

Hmmm. Real Rashomon situation at the Batcave this morning.

Anyone watching Karl Rove's resignation speech yesterday will recall him getting all choked up when he started talking about praying for his soon-to-be-ex-boss. "At month's end," he said, "I will join those whom you meet in your travels, the ordinary Americans who tell you they are praying for you. Like them, I will ask for God's (break for scarcely choked-back sobs) continued gifts of strength and wisdom for you and your work, your vital work for our country and the world, and for the Almighty's continued blessing of our great country."

Find the video here. It's a special moment. Only there's a leeeetle problem with this devotional invocation.

"Anyone that's had two or three conversations with Karl knows that he's agnostic," said Jim Moore, co-author with Wayne Slater of Rove biographies The Architect and Bush's Brain. "He told Bill Israel when they taught a class together at UT, 'I wish I could believe, but I can not,' which is a very standard response for an intellectual person like Karl. Yet yesterday, in another of his manifest moments of hypocrisy, he's getting all emotional in invoking the Almighty."

Rove has modeled much of his career on Lee Atwater, the near-legendary Republican fixer who had a deathbed repentance and literally phoned dozens of his old political enemies to plead for their forgiveness. But Moore's unconvinced, "Maybe this is a guy cramming for final exams, and he's hoping for religious atonement. But I doubt that."

Mind you, as Chronic's noble siblings over at The Gay Place have pointed out, this isn't the only example of Rovian "do as I say, not as I do."

According to an Austin Independent School District study, the percentage of Austin high school graduates going to college has increased from 55% in 2002 to 62.6% in 2006. The study took a comprehensive look at who is going to college and what type of school they are attending. In 2006, 38% of the students moved right into a four-year college – up from 32% in 2002 – and around 23% went to Austin Community College.

The study also broke the graduates down by ethnic group, and found a troubling gap. Although 76% of white graduates went on to college, only 46% of Hispanic graduates and 57% of African American graduates did the same, and economically disadvantaged graduates fared the worst – only 43% went on to higher education. The full report is available online at AISD's website.

For those of you wondering exactly which Mattel toys might give your child lead poisoning, the Attorney General and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission have put out a list and details of what to do with these dangerous toys.

The recall list includes a bunch of Batman, Barbie, Doggie Daycare, Shonen Jump, and Polly Pocket toys, a slew of Fisher Price products, plus the 2 1/2 inch metal Sarge from Disney/Pixar's Cars. Chronic genuinely feels for those parents that have to now mount Operation Grinch and explain to their kids why they're taking their toys away.

We live in dark times. If you can't trust Barbie's pooper scooper, what can you trust?

If you're following the controversy over Gov. Perry's veto that could cost Texas' community colleges $154 million in funding, a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education is taking up that issue right now. Morning testimony was, well, testy – especially between the Senators who originally approved the funding, and former Sen. Ken Armbrister, who now represents the Governor's office. Biggest highlight: Armbrister said that "our office's door is always open" to community college administrators to discuss solutions to the funding crisis, which drew loud guffaws. Armbrister wheeled around in his chair, gave the mad-dog eye to the standing-room-only crowd, and challenged, "Is that funny?" To which many in audience loudly murmered "Yes."

The subcommittee has just returned from lunch; click here to watch testimony live. Witnesses are expected to testify on the effect the cuts will not only have on their schools, but on their communities as a whole.

When is a federal facility not a federal facility? When they use private contract security, seemingly.

Attorney General Greg Abbott announced on Friday he gained permanent injunctions against security firms Deco-Akal JV and Asset Protection and Security Services, and the International Union of Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America. They'd been operating under a closed shop agreement to provide security staff at two Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service centers - Deko-Akal at the El Paso processing center and Asset Protection at the Los Fresnos Detention Facility in Bayview.

They'd been doing this under what's legally known as the federal enclave exception. Layperson's terms: that's when a federal facility is excluded from a whole swath of state and local laws. Now generally this has been applied to shield the feds from local oversight, like the way that the famous Groom Lake (aka Area 51 to the conspiracy-minded out there) testing facility in Nevada is functionally invisible to state law. This can also extend to businesses that operate on those sites: for example, if a firm leases a federal facility, they may not have to pay local property taxes.

Abbott had contended that, even though both sites were run by ICE, they weren't really federal enclaves, making the closed shop agreements illegal under the Texas "Right to Work" law. It seems that the 117th Judicial District Court in Nueces County and the 171st in El Paso agreed with him.

Had we spoke too soon Thursday in proclaiming Water Treatment Plant No. 4 dead as the salamanders it will surely murder (Just joking … or am I?). Lee Leffingwell sent out this mass emailing following his successful substitute resolution Thursday delaying construction of WTP4 at the headwaters of Bull Creek for a year. Despite all the feel-goodism about the delay and reexamination, Leffingwell still subtly sounds like a weary, yet undeniable proponent of the plant ("…we must assume that Bull Creek remains the likely home of a new water treatment plant…," "Sometimes good policy is bad politics…"). He also takes a shot at Brewster McCracken's proposal to move WTP4 from Bull Creek via building a smaller plant on a smaller tract ("building a smaller facility would end up costing the ratepayers more over time").

While we're all for the delay – especially in light of Leffingwell's water conservation measures, there's no rush for a new plant – it clear the calculations pertaining to WTP4 are increasingly political. Brewster initially exploited the difference between him and his future mayoral opponent, while Lee turned around and changed the terms of the debate with his delay.

So how does Jackie Goodman feel about WTP4?

Leffingwell's full press release below the fold …

We've already brought you the most (Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Rockwall) and least (Rep. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso) conservative Texas legislators, as measured by right-wing religious pressure group the Heritage Alliance. But what of the middle ground of supposedly centrist Republicans and right-wing Democrats?

Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton, and David Farabee, D-Wichita Falls, tie at 58% as the most conservative Dems. This makes them more acceptable to Heritage Alliance tastes than Republicans Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, (55%), Joe Straus III, R-San Antonio, (52%), and lowest-scoring GOPer Anna Mowery, R-Fort Worth, scraping in with 51%. Meanwhile, the Senate lives up to its reputation as the Chamber that avoids extremes. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, may have the most conservative voting record of all his colleagues, but still only gets a 79% rating. Similarly, table tail-ender Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, comes in with a 40%.

And where does the Austin caucus come in all of this? Kirk Watson places well in the lower half of the Senate with 45%, but still comes in above the House contingent of Mark Strama (34%), Dawna Dukes (31%), and Elliot Naishtat and Eddie Rodriguez (who we forgot earlier - sorry, Eddie) tying on (24%).