OPINION

State lawmakers have been scrambling for ways to protect the buying power of the fuel tax even as cars get more efficient and require less gas. The concept under discussion in Austin has been to index the tax so it would automatically rise with inflation or the cost of construction.

But that's looking to be old school even before Austin gets seriously close to acting.

In Virginia, lawmakers are already looking at a newer idea of indexing the gas to the average fuel efficiency of the cars on the road. That's yet another way to make sure that car owners produce a steady amount of revenue and keep up their per-mile tax support for roadways.

What gas tax is the best gas tax? The one we have or something new? Read more and comment on the Dallas Transportation blog.

First and most important among our weekend lineup -- Sunday inside the Points section you will find an expanded Editorial Page that wraps up every single race we've made a recommendation in for the March 2 primaries.

Tomorrow we're writing off what must have been terrifying for people working in that Austin IRS building -- the suicide pilot. We write: Some times crazy people do crazy things. Those isolated, unexpected outbursts of violence are the ones that are the most difficult to stop and difficult to fathom. We're all just left searching for answers that just aren't there. But here's one message we can take away from the suicide pilot in Austin: please don't let anyone make him a hero. Tod writing on behalf of the board.

Monday we comment on the aftermath of the recent report about Constable Cortes: If nothing else, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins now has a 92-page bound document that could provide fascinating bedtime reading. Nominally, it's the first report from Danny Defenbaugh, a former FBI special agent, on transgressions by Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes.In reality, it's a road map. As Watkins is quick to point out, if anyone is going to investigate allegations that county constables broke the law, it's going to be him and his office. By statute, that's his call, and he won't be pushed into anything by any county commissioners or outside critics. No special prosecutors or Attorney General's Office busybodies need apply. So get to work, Mr. DA. Mike writing on behalf of the board.

Also Monday we revisit Gov. Perry's decision to sue the EPA and explain why this may be good politics but bad policy -- and bad in many, many ways for Texas. There's no head room here, folks. This tactic has been tried and found not to be true. There are climate change issues at play here and Texas is the leading producer....don't fall for the false choice.... It's not a question of clean air and no jobs. Clean air brings different jobs. Jim writing on behalf of the board.

Just got an e-mail with this as a headline. It was just so good. I had to pass it along.

I have a partial answer to the question in the language of golf: He's no longer behind a tree, but he is still in difficult high grass. But let's face, this appearance is the first public phase of a media/image re-building strategy. Tiger apologized to his wife, sponsors, charities and then set some real boundaries for tabloid intrusion into the day-to-day activities. It's smart and also very appropriate. It's a step on the road back assuming that there aren't other secrets, such as performance enhancing drugs, which he directly denied using.

In the end, the sponsors and charities will want proof that they're not tied to a person who has no hope of regaining credibility. The immediate public reaction to Tiger's appearance, which I expect will be slightly more positive than negative, will be an early gauge of the public's temperature and capacity to move on. Iif he stays away for a few more months passing up the opportunity to appear in a his cherished "majors," and the returns as someone who is sincerely making progress, I think Tiger will rehab enough of his public image to at least be relevant off of the golf course.

We probably won't know for years whether Tiger's rehab work will pay off, but I was impressed with his statement today. He doesn't strike me as a guy who does humility or self-revelation well, so it wouldn't be natural for him to get up in public and acknowledge his mistakes. Cynics will say he's just doing it to get his money back from sponsors. Maybe so, but he came across as a guy who's trying to own his misdeeds. I see nothing wrong with that.

I love that the Golf Writers Association of America is boycotting the Tiger Woods show that is coming up in just a few minutes. I am willing to root for Tiger again. So that's not my issue. But I like that this group is sending him a message that he doesn't get to dictate how his return to the spotlight will go.

The basid issue here is hubris. Tiger thought he could do anything he wanted, and judging from the way this press conference is being handled, that major character trait of his seems completely unchanged. Do I expect him to always be cocky and arrogant, aloof and robotic? Sure. But he can't expect his fans and the press to simply play by his rules anymore. His actions ended the portion of his life where he was given a free pass. The loss of his marriage and a strained relationship with his children for life is his biggest punishment, but this is part of the package, too.

When you can't get an actual human to endorse your candidacy, the next best thing is to get Simone to do it. Remember Simone, from the Al Pacino movie? She's a virtual robot who will pretty much say anything you type into her mouth. So Jerry Ray Hall, who is seeking to replace Rep. Ralph Hall in District 4 using an odd truth-be-damned campaign strategy, went to oddcast.com and, voila! Instant endorsement.

It's weird beyond weird. I think even the Tea Party that he claims to represent would be appalled if they were organized enough to know that he's out there claiming to represent them.

I tried to embed Hall's video here, but it doesn't embed properly. So go to Jerry Hall's campaign Web site and enjoy the new world of virtual endorsements, which meshes nicely with Hall's "virtual truth" description of his academic, business and charitable accomplishments.

(By the way, oddcast.com also allows you to be endorsed by that little baby boy who appears on those E-Trade commercials. Or you can have Flo from Progressive Insurance endorse you. I think you can even get someone from Avatar to endorse you from an entirely different planet. The sky galaxy's the limit! Go Jerry!

He also apparently believes in virtual identities and credentials (law degree, doctorate). Hall wrote me two emails this week under his own name, using his jerryhallforcongress.org email address. But the IP address on the email was exactly the same as a posting we received earlier this week from a commenter named "Bill" who used the fictitious email address texdt@gmail.com.

Interest rates are still incredibly low so the Fed's decision to increase interest rates isn't a complete surprise. They had to do something to avoid re-inflating the cheap money bubble any longer than necessary.

Besides, an uptick in interest rates now is hardly going to deter economic recovery. The bigger economic issue is the lack of certainty on taxes, healthcare reform, energy and financial regulation. I'm sure I missed listing another ball dangling in the air, but you get the picture. Businesses don't know what they' ll be facing and therefore are doing less, rather than more. especially on the jobs creation front.

As a student of the Great Depression, Fed chief Ben Bernanke is making the calculated risk that it is time to slowly readjust interest rates, which went real low as an emergency measure. I'm guessing the other side of the wager is that he wants to stop the "emergency" mindset and thinks moderately higher rates will not be factor as stimulus dollars flow through the economy. Builders might not like it, but let's face it, there is excess capacity in real estate markets.

The surest sign of a political campaign in trouble -- other than a candidate regularly placing his foot in his mouth -- is the defection of so-called professional staffers.

The Shami campaign, such as it is (or was), has hit that rut.. Today's story notes the departure of several staffers over "strategic differences."

In other words, too many voices, no unifying theme or idea, and a candidate who strikes me as someone who has been comfortable pursuing his way in life without taking much advice from anyone. Is a campaign meltdown the inevitable outcome when an extremely successful self-made executive attempts to transition from the autocratic style of a company chairman who can operate in his comfort zone to a political candidate who must deal with issues that he has not thought about, let alone thought through.

In some ways, that was the curse of the Perot presidential run, but at least he had ideas and a clear purpose to his run. I haven't found any of that with Shami, and I think that is yet another in growing list of reasons Shami's campaign is in shambles. Even the Tony Sanchez campaign in 2002 had a clearer reason for being than Shami's and I might even rank Clayton Williams' ugly, insulting campaign ahead of Shami..Yikes.

I went to Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Peter's here in Munich last night. And like a good German, I showed up right on time for the service. I was shocked to find standing room only - the place was packed.

It was a reminder that while Europe as a whole may be fairly Godless, there is a European Bible Belt that runs right through Bavaria and other Catholic areas, like Poland. While I wouldn't say that people are as fervent in their beliefs as they are in the American Bible Belt, religion still has a big influence on the culture here.

All over Bavaria crucifixes hang in restaurants, bars and stores. Instead of saying "Guten Tag," folks here say "Grüss Gott," which translates roughly as "greetings from God."

Then, just like in the American Bible Belt, sometimes religion gets twisted, resulting in inane rules and regs. For instance, on Halloween Bavaria has a Tanzverbot, meaning that dancing after midnight (which is when All Saints Day officially begins) is strictly verboten. So all the clubs and bars have to close early.

Sadly, church attendance is on the decline here (it's dropping much faster than in the U.S.). And church life in Bavaria - or anywhere for that matter - can't rival the vibrancy of Dallas' religious community.

However, yesterday's service was a pleasant reminder that not all of Europe's cathedrals are empty.

President Obama's selected two really good people to head his new debt-reduction commission: former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson and former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles.

Simpson comes out of the era when parties duked it out but still put together compromises, like the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration bill he passed. That was one controversial bill, but he worked it through with Reagan's support.

Bowles comes out of the centrist wing of the Democratic Party. He is a business guy more than a politician, which sometimes cost him as chief of staff. But he understands how deficits drive up interest rates and threaten the economy's growth.

Great picks by Obama. The next step is naming more members to the panel. Here are two suggestions: Former Texas Democratic Rep. Charles Stenholm and former comptroller general David Walker. Both are not shy about promoting reforms that could get us out of this hole.

Our editorial plans for tomorrow's page:

1. We are surprised by the poll results released over last weekend indicating that voters felt the least onerous way to balance the state's budget is to cut highway funding. Setting aside for a minute the false choice this question presents (much of the highway funding is essentially uncut-able by legislators due to its sourcing), we paint a picture of what Texas - particularly North Texas - would look like without highway funding. We'd like to think this indicates a preference for transit funding - a policy option we think would go a long way toward helping resolve congestion and air quality issues - but we think it more likely a reflection of voter skepticism of all transportation-related spending. Rodger writing on behalf of the board.

2. Our final two candidate recommendations for the March 2 primaries -- Democratic primary for Precinct 4 Dallas County commissioner and Republican primary for the congressional seat currently held by Pete Sessions. Colleen and Bill writing on behalf of the board.

Feel free to join the debate with comments below.

(Thanks for sharing this toon, Steve Hill. Folks, check out his blog.)

In yesterday's meeting, Mike and Colleen made the point that we should not confuse air pollution with Greenhouse gases. Mostly, the regulation of such gases is a climate change thing. I get that. One University of Michigan site describes it this way:

Every week, we poll the members of the editorial board on a timely and divisive topic. This week, the question is:

Did Baylor University make a smart choice in naming former independent prosecutor Ken Starr as its next president?

Here are their responses:

One of our editorials tomorrow will comment on the sudden recent departures of two high-profile university presidents and the effect such actions may have on the state's ability to recruit top talent. The other editorial will be our recommendation in the Democratic primary for Dallas County judge.

Please feel free to use the comments section here to share with us ideas you have about how to make these commentaries the best they can be, as well as any ideas you have about important topics you think we're missing.

The following guest blog post is written by Murli Melwani, a published writer and a semi-retired businessman who lives in Plano. His e-mail address is murli@unigain.net.

Have you wondered why even affluent Americans have become medical tourists? According to the Deloitte Center for Health Care Solutions, 750,000 Americans travelled abroad for medical care in 2007. The Center projects that the figure will cross 1.6 million by 2012.

American dollars are turning the path green all the way from Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, through South Africa, India, Malaysia, Thailand, right up to Taiwan and the Philippines.

It's not simply because treatment in these countries costs anywhere from 80% to 30% less than in the U.S. Nor is it that the quality of the care and treatment meets American standards. Medical facilities abroad see to it that these standards are maintained. To take one example, the accreditation standards in India are controlled by the Indian Healthcare Federation, the Indian Medical Tourism Council and the Federal Ministry of Health. Some Indian hospitals also have international accreditation by the Joint Commission International, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the British Standards Institute, or are affiliated with healthcare organizations and insurance companies in the US.

The results of the Danny Defenbaugh-led investigation into Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes are front-page news today, and if you missed reading the article don't miss it here.

If you live in Dallas County, your tax dollars are funding this guy. Let me be clear, yes, these are accusations. But the evidence in the 92-page report looks pretty damning. I don't have time to even catalogue all the problems:

-- accepting bribes from a towing company.
-- mistreating employees.
-- forcing employes to contribute money to his campaign and work security details for free.
-- ordering employees who were out of favor to do off-duty work.

Then there's the whole preferential treatment to a deputy with whom he was romantically involved.

I spend a lot of time on the tollway. In the last few days, I've rediscovered I-35, and wish I hadn't. Randy Lee Lofis' story and the accompanying picture of potholes in the southbound lane of I-35 are on target.

In at least one of the lanes from about LBJ to the Loop 12 split, there's a pothole. And these aren't small -- some up to about 6 feet in length or width.and maybe 2 or 3 inches deep. No fun hitting these at 50 mph plus or watching as cars swerve to avoid hitting these moon craters.

I know there are a bazillion potholes out there -- the words of TX DOT spokesman Mark Pettit -- but surely I-35 through the heart of Dallas is a priority. I mean, it's embarrassing and dangerous.

Hey, I don't like the feeling that the bottom of my car is falling out when I hit one of these monsters. But here's another example of how bad things are around town.

1. We make clear how outrageous and indefensible the thinking of at least two of the gubernatorial candidates is - Medina and Shami. This is a particularly important message this week as this is the first week of early voting for this and other offices. It should remind us all of the importance of looking past the "sex appeal" of a protest candidate and really thinking carefully about how we cast our votes. We seek to build on some of the themes within the Weisberg Points column from Sunday about how we all dislike government (or the establishment) in the abstract, and yet we expect government to solve our problems for us. Here are two candidates who seemed to spring from that sort of thinking and thus are appealing to some voters. But be sure to look behind the curtain. Mike writing on behalf of the board.

2. We make recommendations in two local congressional GOP primaries, one the seat currently held by Republican Michael Burgess and the other currently held by Republican Ralph Hall. Rodger and Jim writing on behalf of the board.

Please join the discussion by adding your comments below.

The Republican primary for the 4th congressional district, currently held by GOP Rep. Ralph Hall, contains some real characters. And I don't mean that in a flattering sense. At least two of these characters have lied in big ways about their backgrounds, and that's troubling. It just goes to show that voters owe it to themselves to know their candidates before casting a ballot.

First, let's briefly look at candidate Steve Clark, who told us in his candidate questionnaire that he had never been arrested. Oops. It turns out that, in fact, he was arrested in 1986 and charged with assaulting his ex-wife. Odd that he would forget that little detail.

Now let's look at Jerry Ray (Tea) Hall, aka "Dr." Jerry Hall (no relation to Ralph Hall). When you look at his candidate questionnaire, he claims to have built a "successful" business that apparently experienced some un-success at some point, and he said he was "forced" to sell it. He doesn't name the company. But some curious eager-beavers down in Panama, where Hall used to live, have really done their homework. The best work on this is being done by Don Winner at Panama-Guide.com, an online newspaper/chat room. Panama is a very small place, and there's no such thing as a secret there.

Here's one of the Big Concerns: Jerry Hall lists himself on the Board of Advisors of the International Association of Mediators and Arbitrators as "Jerry Hall, Ph.D." He claims to be a graduate of the "Harvard School of Law negotiations." I'll attach his full resume on the following page, but some of his claims are quite inventive. Mysteriously, nowhere in the background he filed with The Dallas Morning News does he claim to be a Ph.D or a graduate of Harvard Law School. It's also noteworthy that Hall is listed as owner of the IAMA's Web site, and the IAMA's address also is one of Hall's listed Houston addresses. So any mistakes on that site go straight to Hall's doorstep.

While we're on the subject of addresses: I can't find any evidence that Hall actually lives in District 4 or anywhere in Rockwall. The only address listed anywhere for him in Rockwall is a post office box. I tried to call Hall on the home phone he listed for us. The conversation started off fine, but when I got to these questions, he interrupted me with, "Hello? Hello? I can't hear you. I'm on a cellphone out in the country and the signal's going in and out." Then he hung up.

Debra Medina's idea of replacing local property taxes with a higher statewide sales tax is intriguing, and it got me to thinking: What's my favorite tax?

We have favorite colors, favorite movies, favorite bands. But does anyone have a favorite tax? Or do we just hate all taxes? Maybe we just have a least-hated tax. Well, whatever you call it, mine is the motor fuels tax in Texas. Here's why:

Somehow, Debra Medina, the toxic GOP candidate for governor, used her empathy for 9/11 truthers to explain why she thinks there should be a moratorium on executions in Texas.

The twisted logic here is hard to follow, but when you realize what she is saying, it's far more damaging to the cause of a moratorium than it is helpful.

Essentially, she is saying that she believes there are some credible doubts at the government's ability to tell the truth . You know, sometimes government prosecutors get it wrong on issues of justice, hence the need for a moratorium on executions. And sometimes, White House officials who are cozy with Israel and energy companies conspire to blow up the World Trade Center. Um, no ...

Not the same thing.

Not even close.

Read more and comment.

Southwest Airlines has a problem on its hands, after kicking famed director Kevin Smith off a flight for being too fat to properly fit into his seat. Smith tweeted at length about the indignity; controversy ensued.

But I'm having trouble picking sides in this debate.

Exhibit A: Smith originally purchased two seats for his flight, so he must have known his weight could be an issue. However, he was trying to catch an earlier flight on standby; it was this earlier flight he got thrown off of. If Smith originally bought two tickets, why did he then think he could get away with one? Smith seems in the wrong.

Exhibit B: Southwest has fallen all over itself apologizing to Smith, first on Twitter and then in an official apology. And they gave him a $100 voucher for his inconvenience. This is probably good PR, but it's bad for consistency. What happens when a not-so-famous obese man has the same problem later? Would the same rules apply? This puts Southwest in a bad light.

I'll give the edge to Southwest for now. But this isn't the publicity it needs.

Thank goodness we don't have a flood of letters on the same subject today. We did have a good, solid commentary on local and national issues.

Debra Medina is probably the most-discussed person in the news. Specifically, readers discussed whether her comments on 9/11 hurt or helped her. One reader pledged his vote, even though he didn't agree with her on 9/11.

I didn't keep a formal count, but I did notice a good many letters about the weather.

Tomorrow is the start of early voting in the Texas statewide primary and so it's the day we will recap all candidate recommendations we've made to date - roughly three dozen recommendations in top races statewide and in North Texas.

Sadly, we've yet to publish our recommendations in five key races - three congressional and two county. We'll publish those recommendations later this week. Why the delay? We simply couldn't get the candidates in all 40-or-so key races in for interviews in the roughly six weeks between the candidate filing deadline and start of early voting. We've yet to interview in three key races (those interviews are today and tomorrow)....

Still, we think it's important to wrap up our thinking to date, given that tomorrow is the start of early voting, and so tomorrow's page will contain all but the remaining five recommendations. We will republish the complete list - with the Final Five - on Sunday and again on Election Day.

In the meantime, be sure to check out the candidates' answers to our questionnaires, which are online here. We emailed customized questionnaires to more than 130 candidates in 50 some races and more than 90 percent completed them for your perusal. Check them out and be a smart voter whenever you choose to go to the polls.

Michael noted in this morning's staff meeting that some anti-climate-change doubters are pointing fingers at the record D.C. snowfall (maybe the Dallas snow as well?) as a sign that the global warming issue is all a bunch of hooey.

I suppose that finger-pointing is out there, but we'd be better served to lend our editorial voice to what might need to be done as a result of the sloppy work in the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chage report of 2007.

At the end of November, we editorialized about "science climate researchers' stunning lack of integrity," as evidenced by a trove e-mails that a computer hacker stole from scientists. (Sorry, I've spent 15 minutes looking for the link and have finally given up.) And we've touched on errors in the 2007 report.

But this issue is gaining steam again because two GOP senators are citing the
errors (here's a good Washington Post takeout documenting/detailing those mistakes) as further reason to block mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Just last week, one of the senators, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said the U.S. should halt any action on climate until it verifies the panel's scientific conclusions.