DMN INVESTIGATES

Some readers noted that I mentioned an average monthly temperature for the Dallas area in a previous column and wondered where to get that information.

The easiest place to go is the National Weather Service.

To find the average for each month, the information is located in the notes. To do a month-to-month comparison, you'll have to pull the information out yourself, though.

To look into things on a daily basis, I go to the University of Dayton's website where they keep average daily temperatures for the Dallas area. They also use the official weather service numbers and it's really easy to read.

Texas nursing-home investigators usually miss deadlines for responding to complaints with a "high potential of harm," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.

Chris Traylor, the new commissioner of the Department of Aging and Disability Services, vows to improve response times soon.

The agency says it "expects to complete 1,550 nursing home investigations during a two-week, statewide blitz later this month" and will start hiring 35 new investigators next month.

Do you have a tip about a nursing home? Regulators? Send me an e-mail or join the conversation by commenting below.

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WIth the heavy snow it's likely there is going to be a long line of people waiting for their various utilities to be up and running.

Remember that if you have someone disabled, newborn, elderly or ill in your home to tell that to the customer service people who answer your call.

I wrote about a woman who needed help getting AT&T to fix her services in last Sunday's column.

That column points out two things everyone should do when calling in a repair problem: Ask if there could be a reduction in the wait time and a credit for the days service was down.

Let's add this up and see how safe we feel about a certain Dallas-based airline -- and the government employees who are supposed to oversee it.

The latest: Federal regulators suspect Southwest Airlines, for several years, flew dozens of jets whose fuselage repairs didn't follow approved procedures.

Previously:
1) A football-sized hole (right) opened up the fuselage of a Southwest plane last summer, forcing an emergency landing.
2) Also last year, the Federal Aviation Administration found that a Southwest maintenance contractor used unapproved parts.
3) Southwest was fined in 2008 for flying six jets with fuselage cracks.
4) A cozy relationship between regulators and the airline repeatedly let Southwest avoid punishment for safety violations, a 2008 federal watchdog investigation found.

I'll stop for now. If you need more scary stories right away, go to dallasnews.com and type these terms into the search box: Dave Michaels (investigative reporter in our Washington bureau) and Southwest Airlines.

Southwest says safety is its top priority.

I've found there is very little help out there for people who owe money on old bills.

There are a number of churches and charities which help when a current utility bill is beyond a person's resources. That helps keep the lights and water on.

But in the case of Todd and Shirley Ritrovato of Greenville, the utility debt was 14 years old. and created when their daughter was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

The Ritrovatos have known they owe the money for the past two years, but have not had much extra money to pay it. The couple lives on less than $700 a month, along with food stamps and housing assistance.

I've had some readers interested in helping out. If that's you, Hunt County Shared Ministries is willing to handle any donations for the couple. The address is 3724 Oneal St
Greenville, TX, 75401. Make sure you mark it for the Ritrovatos.

Many people write to me because they're unhappy with the bill they've received, but occassionally I'll hear from someone who can't get a statement.

That was the case for John Bigony. He tried to get the electric bill on his rental house for months. He knew that if he ignored the situation, he'd wind up with a whopper of a bill someday down the road.

TXU Energy got him a statement soon after I called. They also charged him less than the original quote since the meter was changed out during that period.

Different types of concerns are on residents' minds in two different suburbs:

1. Arlington's mayor and council members have reaped free tickets and food at the city's luxury suite at publicly subsidized Cowboys Stadium, the Star-Telegram reports. The market value of the "perk of the office," as one leader called it, is around $400,000. Some observers fear this creates a conflict of interest.

2. In Frisco, residents living near a battery-recycling plant continue to worry that their health is at risk. The News' Valerie Wigglesworth and Matthew Haag cite study results from 15 years ago that found 45 children had "lead levels that today are linked to myriad health issues, from learning disabilities to behavior problems to brain damage."

Do you have thoughts or tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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1. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found levels of cancer-causing benzene in the air at North Texas sites impacted by Barnett Shale gas drilling, The News and other outlets reported. A state official said there was no "widespread air-quality issue." But the mayor of one Denton County town faulted the state's testing, saying it didn't get enough samples from populated areas because "I don't think they want to find anything."

2. The board of Dallas County's public hospital, Parkland Memorial, is standing by the bonuses -- I forgot, we're supposed to call these incentives -- paid to executives worth 19 percent to 31 percent of their base pay. That caused consternation last week among rank-and-file employees. The hospital had cut jobs recently and handed them merit raises of mostly 2 percent.

3. The Dallas County district attorney's investigation of misconduct allegations inside constable offices produced its first charges Wednesday. Among other things, Lt. Howard Watson was accused of coercing sex from two women in exchanging for not arresting them. He has been unavailable for comment.

Do you have thoughts or tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Robert McKenzie continues to struggle after being declared dead accidently by a local hospital. Most recently, he had problems trying to get his health care coverage reinstated.

The 72-year-old man was working with the Social Security Administration to get his Medicare card back, but instead got an expired Medicaid card in the mail. I made a call on his behalf and I've been promised he should get the correct card in the next few weeks.

McKenzie may actually qualify for Medicaid though, so his case worker is looking into that for him. He and his wife support their grandchildren on limited funds.

When a reader asked me why any gas lines to her home are her responsibility, I found that home builders work pretty closely with Atmos Energy to figure out where to place meters.

Where meters sit on a homesite is decided by the overall subdivision design and placement of the gas main. The gas company runs the line to the house, but it becomes the homeowner's responsibility to maintain the piping from the meter to the home.

Things are a bit different on the commercial end though. Builders say they have to pay to install the gas lines from the curb to the building, regardless of where the meter is placed.

The reluctance of the Internal Revenue Service to discuss almost 1,000 suspicious claims filed by non-citizens from Texas for a first-time homebuyer tax credit leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

As I wrote today, IRS officials told Congress last fall that there are more than 160 active criminal investigations involving the homebuyer credit around the country. But where are those investigations? The IRS won't say.

Texas is disproportionately represented in the suspicious claims uncovered by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration? Why? Again, the IRS is mute.

IRS has made a point of saying that tax fraud is something they take seriously, and those who ignore the law will be held accountable. But so far, there has been only one prosecution and one civil lawsuit filed against tax preparers accused of filing fraudulent claims. Is that all there is?

Until the IRS talks, we're left wondering.

An environmental group says yes -- and that adds to the list of concerns about gas drilling activity in the lucrative Barnett Shale covering western Dallas-Fort Worth.

The News' Randy Lee Loftis writes that companies can use a certain type of unregulated fluid that has high levels of benzene -- which can cause leukemia and other disorders -- as part of the drilling process. Some residents in Denton and Tarrant counties were already worried about drilling's impact on the air, drinking water and safety. In some cases, research backed up their worries.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Railroad Commission told Randy that state rules have prevented cases of groundwater contamination. So the agency "does not see a need to monitor fracturing fluids," she said.

Do you have thoughts on drilling in the Barnett Shale or have tips on other stories? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Hope you had a better holiday weekend than the three subjects of today's blog post.

1. Another public servant in trouble: A former Irving police officer pleaded guilty to defrauding a Housing and Urban Development program that sought to revitalize slumping neighborhoods by enticing law enforcers to live there with a 50 percent discount off the list price on a home.

2. Were you customers of these electric providers -- Pre-Buy Electric of Grapevine and National Power Inc. of Houston? If so, you may be due a refund after the Texas Public Utility Commission penalized each nearly $2 million.

Do you have tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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A reader signed up for a fixed-rate electric plan, but was surprised to see an "Oncor Delivery Rate Increase" show up on the bills.

Can they increase the fee with a locked-in rate, she asked?

The answer is yes.

According to the Public Utility Commission, retail electric providers are allowed to increase the bills if transmission rates increases. There are other instances as well, such as charges for "storm recovery."

The federal government beat brought two interesting stories in the past 24 hours, as two of our top reporters tell us:

1. Two mortgage companies in Tarrant County were hit with subpoenas as part of a U.S. Housing and Urban Development investigation, The News' Dave Michaels reported from Washington. They were among 15 that the feds alleged had "significant" failure rates with federally insured loans.

2. One of the convicted defendants in last year's Dallas City Hall corruption trial is now accused of following around a juror, The News' Jason Trahan reported. The presiding judge said in a hearing Wednesday that she was "very concerned" by the allegations, which include ex-Plan Commissioner D'Angelo Lee approaching the juror in a movie theater to discuss the case.

Do you have tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Assistance for business owners in obtaining federal stimulus grants. Moonlighting opportunities as a mystery shopper. Free trials of products endorsed by trustworthy celebrities.

The Better Business Bureau has identified these and others as the top 10 scams of 2009. These targeted consumers and small businesses with the hope of deceiving them into disclosing private financial data or conducting transactions that lock them into a never-ending cycle of charges, the BBB said.

"While many of the scams on the list are perennial problems, some scams were distinct in 2009 because of the economic climate and scammers' penchant for taking advantage of the top headlines," said Jeannette Kopko, BBB spokesperson in Dallas.

Any readers out there have stories to share about these rip-offs?

If you don't have the Internet or a phone book, it's obviously not that easy to look up the number on how to get a phone book.

I wrote this past weekend about a woman who had run into that problem. Since the column ran I've heard from several others who want the directories, but don't know how to get them.

AT&T delivers White Pages and Yellow Pages once a year in the Dallas area and have just started doing it for 2010.

Tad A. Camp is a former sheriff's deputy, private investigator, non-profit official and entrepreneur. He'll tell you about that in his online biography.

What Camp fails to mention in his biography is that he left law enforcement after being accused of beating his wife. Luckily The News' Steve Thompson filled in information gaps for us.

The omissions matter because Camp is seeking publicity for his newest business. He wants to speed missing-child cases by letting parents proactively store and share information about their little ones that could be used in the event of something terrible.

Donna Norris -- the mother of Amber Hagerman (right), the Arlington girl whose abduction and slaying inspired the Amber Alert system -- is one of his business partners. She said Camp disclosed his past to her, "and I'm OK with that ... It's just a shame that someone has to bring it up, because all we're about is saving children's lives."

The holidays are approaching, so if you're flying make sure your drivers license or passport isn't going to expire soon. If you find out it has, you might be able to still go with a minimum of trouble.

I researched the issue officially after a reader contacted me asking what she should do about her son's outdated ID.

The Transportation Security Administration does have procedures in place if this happens. Make sure you bring your expired photo ID and any renewal paperwork to the security checkpoint.

Also, be prepared for additional screening. Several years ago, I lost my own license on a trip. Fortunately, I still had my outdated one in my wallet and I was able to board after some an additional pat down screening.

I wrote a column on Sunday about a reader's interest in getting AT&T's U-verse, a high-speed Internet service.

It obviously brought up a sore subject for numerous readers who are waiting for any type of broadband product in their neighborhood -- let alone one that is considered cutting edge.

"I live in Henderson County off a very populated state highway south of Athens. We barely have telephone service, much less broadband," one reader wrote. "Where on earth do rural residents have access? I currently subscribe to a dial-up service."

The state of Texas applied for stimulus funds to find out exactly. At the end of July, a contract was awarded to map broadband availability in the state. A statement from the Department of Agriculture at the time said that the "initial phase of broadband mapping" should be done by the beginning of February.

Here's a loose end from the long holiday weekend: Federal banking regulators ordered Dallas-based Jefferson Bank to end its many "unsafe or unsound banking practices and violations of laws and/or regulations."

Bank chairman Barry Orr blamed the bank's problems on the the lousy home-building market and "a significant fraud loss," The Dallas Morning News' Brendan Case reported. What kind of fraud? All Orr would say was "customer fraud, not internal fraud."

Jefferson Bank's management team was dismissed as of Sept. 1. The institution agreed to follow Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. orders but did not admit wrongdoing.

Readers, can you tell us more about what's going on here? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Hilda Esquibel of Flower Mound was trying to reduce her mortgage payment after her job situation changed and her salary was cut.

She let Chase Bank know, but instead of a mortgage modification she started getting collection notices.

Interesting, because she'd never missed a payment.

The bank verified to me that she was fully current on her loan and didn't have to worry about her credit. All the same, Chase didn't say explain how the mistake occurred.

Esquibel decided to get a loan from a family member and pay off the mortgage instead of getting a new loan with Chase.

Every follow-up story on last year's 17-fatality bus crash near Sherman seems scarier than the one before. In October, it was the National Transportation Safety Board's long list of crimes and errors that preceded the disaster.

Now here's the latest, from Dallas Morning News reporter Jason Trahan: Texas DPS officials say 5-Minute Inspections, the Houston company that issued the bus' inspection sticker, routinely awarded such certificates without actually inspecting the vehicles.

5-Minute Inspections' Web site says: "need a quick inspection? tired of dealing with crooks? Come see the 5 Minute Inspection TEAM!"

Readers, do you know of other businesses that are doing this? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Robert McKenzie of Dallas was shocked to hear he was declared dead.

When he left Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas in July he was actually feeling fine. It wasn't until later that he found that the hospital had mistakenly marked him deceased instead of discharged.

"My income, even my Medicare was cut off," McKenzie told Problem Solver. "I'm 72 years
old. I can't be going through this mess."

Once Presbyterian found out it was an issue, workers tried to make things right.

"We did notice the mistake pretty quickly and notified Social Security. We were shocked when you called, and we found out that it hadn't been fixed," said Stephen O'Brien, a spokesman for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. "We made a mistake, plain and simple. We goofed, and we apologized. We reviewed our processes and identified this as a coding error. It was an isolated incident."

The hospital offered McKenzie a settlement to try and make up for the hardship, which he accepted.

Embattled Dallas County constables Jaime Cortes and Derick Evans used to say they had no contracts with Dowdy Ferry Auto Services, which has seized thousands of vehicles for them.

Now, mysteriously, Dowdy Ferry says it does have written deals, The Dallas Morning News' Kevin Krause reports today. And somehow I wasn't shocked to see that Dan Wyde (right) is the lawyer doing the talking for the towing firm.

It reminded me of a 2006 story about Wyde's history. He was running for DA at the time and had attracted attention for using his synagogue's private membership directory to send campaign solicitation e-mails.

Among the other Wyde controversies mentioned in the story:

* As a young prosecutor, he left the DA's office after allegations that "he had an improper discussion with a jail inmate without the man's defense attorney being present."

* Later, as a judge, he began contempt-of-court proceedings against a prosecutor who allegedly disparaged him in a private conversation outside Wyde's presence. Another judge ruled that Wyde's effort had no legal basis and raised "serious free-speech issues."

* A defense attorney was barred from his courtroom for four years because she would not apologize in writing for questioning one of his rulings. Another judge ordered Wyde to recuse himself from more than a dozen cases that the defense attorney had pending in his court.

Wyde denied any wrongdoing.

Do you have a tip about constables? Towing firms? Lawyers? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Some stories about the Garland animal shelter generated pictures in the facility. Included in that was a trio of kittens.

Patsy Thompson wrote to Problem Solver saying she would like to take all three. She has a piece of land and several other animals. She would have been happy to add the mix.

"You just want to take them all. I'll drive up there and get them," she said.

I contacted the city of Garland immediately and they checked for me and the kittens were no longer there. Unfortunately, the city was unable to say where they went without identifying numbers. They may have been adopted. They may have been euthanized.

During the past few months, I've had several people write to say their bills skyrocketed when their meters were changed out for the new digital version.

In several cases, I've found that there was a misread when the replacement was made. In the case of Gary Borman of Mesquite, the amount of electricity his family used doubled on his next bill.

But that was incorrect. It turned out that Oncor's reading was off by 1,000 kilowatt-hours. To fix the situation, he wound up with an $89 credit.

When companies figure out a misread, it can often take several months for the credit to wind up on the bill. Oncor sends the corrected information to the electricity provider, which then has to make the credit.

Even with my involvement, it took weeks for Borman to see his money. That's an added frustration after a lot of aggravation.

As of the weekend, state health officials were accusing a Farmers Branch business of misrepresenting itself to get a huge stash of swine flu vaccine.

Now a spokeswoman for Jeff Vitt's Star Medical Group says he did nothing wrong and blames the dispute on a communication problem -- failure to clarify the distinction between Star Medical and another Vitt company called Flu Shots of America.

Texas health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said Friday that Star claimed to be a private medical practice, making it eligible for an early shipment of vaccine. The state's theory has been that such practices are the best way to reach the highest-risk patients first.

But Vitt's business turned out to be what the state calls a mass vaccinator, and it was selling shots to anyone willing to pay $20.

Vitt's spokeswoman, Elaine Vitt, said in an email today:

There's an astonishingly long list of crimes, errors and other things that went wrong before last year's bush crash near Sherman killed 17 people, Dallas Morning News reporter Todd Gillman details today.

Here's a partial list of National Transportation Safety Board findings, in chronological order:

* Federal authorities ordered the bus company off the road because of safety violations.
* Owner Angel de la Torre re-registered it under a new name, ignored the order, and was operating without a permit or insurance.
* A Houston garage that inspected the bus about a week before the crash didn't notice an illegal retread tire on the front axle and wasn't equipped to inspect heavy vehicles.
* Bus driver Barrett Broussard drank alcohol and used cocaine shortly before departing Houston. He had previously been fired from another bus company after testing positive for cocaine.
* The tire suffered a puncture and operated -- underinflated and undetected -- for many miles. Pressure gauges aren't required for pre-trip inspections, and older buses such as this one don't have pressure warning systems like those in newer cars.
* The bus lacked seat belts, and some passengers were ejected in the crash.

Do you have a tip about transportation safety? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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The fallout from the corruption verdicts against Dallas Mayor Pro-Tem Don Hill & Co. continues at City Hall, as we look at today's stories:

1. The Dallas City Council spent much of Monday talking about ethics reform, The News' Rudy Bush reports on the City Hall blog. Among the proposals: lobbyist registration, bans on lobbyist gifts and new requirements on zoning cases. The point of the last one: weakening the type of power that Hill, as a council member, wielded over developers who needed his approval for their projects in his district. The plan calls for multiple council members to weigh in on zoning cases.

2. I'm getting to this item a little late, and some of you may wish you hadn't ever seen it. The McClatchy newspaper chain found that Moody's Investors Service "punished executives who questioned why the company was risking its reputation by putting its profits ahead of providing trustworthy ratings for investment offerings." Doesn't restore your confidence in Wall Street, does it?

Do you have tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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It took about two years, but Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has finally fixed the problems for TollTag users parking in Express lots.

People who used their tags and parked in the lots often found they were charged the more-expensive terminal rates, rather than the reduced price.

Problem Solver requested records and found that about 1,500 people were overcharged and issued refunds during 2008 and the first six months of this year. The airport decided to take a look, too, and found that some additional people deserved a refund, but hadn't gotten one. So, without being asked, they settled the accounts for some additional people. Fewer than 100, according to the airport.

If you think you may have been charged too much -- and you still have your paperwork --let them review your case. You may get some money back.

Turns out, the rather-ancient parking system had a lot of bugs that needed to be worked out. But the airport thinks it's finally got it all done.

I received a call from a reader that an elderly woman's caregiver was not taking care of her. The reader said the caregiver wasn't showing up daily, but she was frightened of the worker and was afraid of a confrontation, so didn't want to say anything.

So, she asked me to look into the situation. I reported the problem to both the caregiver's employer and to Adult Protective Services. The state investigated the situation and said that the elderly woman is getting adequate care. The reader agrees that the situation is better for the elderly woman and that the caregiver is now coming to work.

If you see an abusive situation of the elderly, children or the disabled, you can call APS to investigate. Their toll-free number, 1-800-252-5400, is answered round-the-clock. You might experience a wait though. It took about an hour for me to get through.

Our blog has featured a couple of items on complaints with the North Texas Tollway Authority's billing system. The most common we've received: The agency doesn't keep track of toll payments then assumes drivers haven't made good, levies a stiff late fee and sics a bill collector on them.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's watchdog columnist, Dave Lieber, reported this weekend on similar complaints he's hearing. One reader was told he could be arrested if he didn't pay up.

A top NTTA official says the fees -- $25 per toll violation, plus other costs -- are needed to cover its collections operation. But state Sen. Jane Nelson is skeptical.

"It's gotten out of hand," she told Lieber. "What really bothers me is this is not supposed to be a revenue source for the NTTA."

The implication: Funding is tight as NTTA expands with more toll roads. Nelson also told Lieber that when she's made inquiries about this with agency officials, "They've been very defensive."

Do you have an experience with NTTA's billing system? Post a comment.

I'm starting to sound repetitive. Because once again, stories over the weekend remind me of my colleagues' State of Neglect series, which exposed how Texas' network of government agencies and regulators often operate with industry insiders first in mind.

1. Back in 2002, The News' Doug J. Swanson told you how Texas lets doctors keep licenses despite criminal behavior and other misconduct. The state pledged reforms after the stories, et cetera et cetera. Fast forward seven years. Enter another News reporter, Brooks Egerton. And you can guess where I'm headed. My question this morning: Is anyone in a position of power dialing the Texas Medical Board to ask why it let these doctors remain active?

2. A Boston firm seeking a billion-dollar contract from the Texas State Board of Education has given gifts to two key members who then failed to disclose them, News freelance writer Jeff Horwitz writes. Explanation from one of the two: He thought he had received the gifts out of friendship, not because he served on the board. The other member declined comment, which was probably a smarter move.

Do you have tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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My colleague Elizabeth Souder, a business reporter who watches the oil, gas and electric industries in Texas, points out that in September, the Public Utility Commission of Texas received 1,306 electricity complaints, including 402 about billing.

That's up from last month, but better than a year ago, when the PUC received 1,849 electricity complaints in August 2008. Electricity prices dropped this year, leaving people feeling more satisfied with their service.

The PUC lists the complaints, but cautions consumers to "keep in mind that large companies will naturally have a greater total number of complaints because of their size."

The companies with the lowest complaint rate are Green Mountain Mega Energy and Nueces Electric Cooperative Reliant Energy.

You can buy them at the grocery, at the garden store, at some farmers markets and -- of course -- online. And your kids, armed with a little Internet knowledge, can turn them into something deadly:

1. Cory Young (right), an 18-year-old in Keller, recently died from drinking poppy tea, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Boiling seeds or seed pods essentially creates cheap, homemade morphine, of God-only-knows how strong a concentration. "The kids are all after it," Cory's dad is quoted as saying. "It's supposed to be a pleasant high, a euphoria effect that you get out of it."

2. Cory is not the first area resident to die this way, according to another grieving family's Web site. They've documented several deaths around the country, including another one in Tarrant County early this year.

Do you have a tip about drugs? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Chase Bank has had some slowdowns for its refinancing customers, which frustrated some of my readers. I wrote about a couple of those problems in my column on Sunday.

One of the readers said today that they were never told that their filing fee was not refundable.

"Not once were we told by any of the dozens of Chase personnel that we spoke to did they ever mention that the $750 was non-refundable," wrote Jo Ann Douglas. "The spokesman's (Chase) rhetoric does not match what their employees are actually saying or doing!"

You missed a lot if you missed the paper this weekend. You can catch up quickly with these Hot Links:

1. Yes, utility operator Ken Weaver (right) really was a stock car driver. But college football star? College baseball star? College degree? That stuff was all made up, my colleagues Steve McGonigle and Ed Timms discovered. They found that Weaver also has a record of plane and car theft. But the Texas Public Utility Commission didn't seem to notice. It let him run Freedom Power, which sells prepaid electricity to the poor and amassed the highest rate of consumer complaints of any electricity provider in Texas.

2. Comments posted on my colleague Dave Tarrant's report from Jordan suggest that many readers don't want any back story on Ellis County terrorism suspect Hosam Smadi. But for those of you who do, this piece is a must-read.

3. Keashia Matthews, the Arlington mom at the center of a scandal we exposed over how Child Protective Services works, is defending herself to Channel 8. Sort of, anyway. My favorite quote from the TV piece regards the thought that has haunted her since she left her toddler to die in a hot truck: "Just what I could have done different."

Do you have a tip about child welfare? CPS? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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With little but a disco-era law standing between vulnerable people like children and about 80,000 chemicals in commercial use in the United States, it's probably time for a regulatory makeover. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson promised one Tuesday when she outlined the Obama administration's principles for rewriting the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.

As my story in today's paper notes, Texas is the heart of the U.S. chemical industry, especially along the Gulf Coast from Beaumont-Port Arthur (right) to Corpus Christi.

The toxic substances law regulates chemicals as they come into contact with people through products or industrial uses. Risks from chemical emissions into the air fall under the Clean Air Act.

Some readers let me know they were disappointed that I wrote about a stalemate between a customer and an appliance store in my column Sunday.

"Your read left me and certainly Adrin Kirk with an empty helpless feeling," wrote John Mitro.

This was the first impasse that I have written about. The appliance store would not give a refund. The appliances were used and not covered by warranty. Kirk could report the store to different consumer groups, but that wouldn't get her money back. She could try small claims court, but she's already spent more time than she wanted to on this.

So, this is one of those situations where the consumer is left unhappy. Maybe someone handy will be interested in purchasing the appliances.

Robert Crandall (right), AA's former CEO, is backing a U.S. Senate bill that would let passengers leave planes that have been stranded on the ground for more than three hours.

"Every responsible airline executive I know thinks these things are an outrage," he said yesterday, when he testified before Congress.

The bill was born in large part out of December 2006 storms in Texas, during which many people were stuck on parked American flights for more than eight hours. That led the Fort Worth-based carrier to talk of reform and a four-hour limit.

"Because no similar situation has occurred in the 80-plus years of American's history, it is a rule that may never be used again," the airline told Congress and reporters at the time.

But the rule soon turned out not to be a rule, as The Dallas Morning News' Terry Maxon reported in 2007.

The push for the federal law has largely been driven by California real estate agent Kate Hanni (right), who was among those stranded in 2006 and who founded FlyersRights.org.

The Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines, says new rules are a bad idea.

Do you have a tip about airlines? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Baylor Health Care System's main partner in its doctor-owned hospitals was silent in today's story because the company declined comment.

But United Surgical Partners International's relationship with the not-for-profit Baylor system goes back a decade, mirroring the growth in physician-owned hospitals (Baylor Medical Center at Frisco shown in photo) and ambulatory surgical facilities.

Baylor chief executive Joel Allison is on the board of directors of USPI as is former Baylor CEO Boone Powell Jr. Allison receives no compensation for his board service, according to USPI's financial filings with the SEC. Powell received $35,000 in cash and another $11,000 in stock awards from USPI in 2008.

Former Baylor executive Brett Brodnax is an executive vice president for Dallas-based USPI and its chief development officer.

Our first item in Hot Links explains what your bank account has probably been feeling.

1. The idea was competition would lower Texans' health-care costs. What patients got instead were fatter bills and less effective treatments, according to a Dallas Morning News multi-day series called "The Cost of Care" that began Sunday. Some of my colleagues who contributed reporting will be blogging here on their findings this week.

2. Closing arguments are expected to begin later this morning in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial, The News' Jason Trahan reports. After these end, jurors will deliberate on a verdict for what could be weeks.

3. I didn't hear NBC give a shout-out last night to the Arlington voters who agreed to subsidize the new Cowboys Stadium. The upshot: NBC did compare it to the pyramids, Parthenon, Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal and Roman Coliseum. We'll see if it attracts similar numbers of tourists so that Arlington can recoup the tax dollars residents are giving Jerry Jones.

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For today's Hot Links, let's catch up from the weekend:

1. Another family is accusing child psychiatrist William Olmsted (right) of misconduct with their daughter. And they're likewise mad at the Texas Medical Board, saying that it did nothing after they complained. Last week, Dallas Morning News writer Diane Jennings reported that the board let Olmsted keep his medical license after a Dallas County court put him on probation for molesting a girl. Board officials won't talk about why they chose this disciplinary route.

2. The Plano Chamber of Commerce wants residents to shop within the city, News reporter Theodore Kim reports. Seems that sales tax revenue has plummeted as new shopping magnets have beckoned further north. How long will it be, do you think, before Frisco starts losing out to the next big thing even further north? What will be the first Dallas suburb in Oklahoma?

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The results of Dallas Morning News investigations are all over the paper today:

1. A Dallas County court put child psychiatrist William Olmsted (right) on probation for child molestation. But he can still work as a doctor. That's because the Texas Medical Board recently decided not to take his license away, as Dallas Morning News reporter Diane Jennings shows today. The board decided it was enough to limit his practice to treatment of men, in a group setting. Olmsted must also get a psychiatric evaluation, attend "professional boundaries" courses and pay a fine. All of which recalls my colleague Doug Swanson's 2002 investigation showing that the board was reluctant to punish doctors who sexually assaulted or otherwise harmed patients. And it recalls Doug's 2007 follow-up on a Texas legislator who was in business with a doctor and called a special hearing to see whether the board was too aggressive in its discipline.

2. Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert says real police officers will begin checking out car-burglary complaints in person instead of letting civilian call takers handle the task by phone. And there will be a sweeping review of all 2009 reports that Dallas police labeled untrustworthy. The changes come in direct response to News reporters Steve Thompson and Tanya Eiserer's recent findings that cops weren't counting all crimes.

3. Today's update on the Dallas Episcopal Diocese's stockbroker-priest scandal: A second clergyman has left his pulpit -- and he's talking about suing parishioners who accuse him of investment-related misconduct.

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Dallas Episcopal Bishop James Stanton (right) is responding to the scandal surrounding stockbroker-priest William Warnky with new rules for his clergy.

Effective immediately, priests are "barred from soliciting, providing or selling secular products or services to parishioners," a diocesan press release says. It quotes Stanton thusly: "This new policy is designed to eliminate any conflicts of interest, and we hope these changes will raise the level of confidence in our clergy and that of the people under their care."

Diocesan leaders previously told me that priests had long been prohibited from financial involvement with parishioners. But it turns out that the policy was pretty vague -- it read, according to the press release: "The relationship of members of the clergy with fellow clergy and with members of the laity must be of the highest moral and professional character."

Stanton recently suspended Warnky from the ministry after financial regulators barred him from selling securities. The regulators acted because Warnky failed to pay a former parishioner, D.R. Marshall, $50,000 for stock fraud.

Diocesan leaders are now weighing whether to also suspend the Rev. Raymond Jennison (right). He runs First Canterbury Securities, a northeast Dallas firm where Warnky worked, and is priest in charge of St. David's Episcopal Church in Garland.

Another former member of Warnky's parish (Good Samaritan, near White Rock Lake) told diocesan officials this week that Jennison mistreated her when she complained to him, in late 2007, about Warnky.

In today's Hot Links, we see why I a) have a fear of flying and b) am glad I'm not Dan Morales' ex-wife.

1. American Airlines is rejoining Southwest on the list of carriers facing regulators' ire over maintenance practices. According to The Wall Street Journal, the FAA suspects that AA mothballed a plane to hide defects. The move reportedly occurred as regulators investigated possible improper repairs to at least 16 MD-80s. American says allegations of impropriety "misrepresent the facts." Southwest, meanwhile, recently got permission to keep flying dozens of planes with unauthorized parts. Back in the spring, you may recall, the FAA made both airlines cancel hundreds of flights over inspection and repair issues.

2. Dan Morales (right), the Texas attorney-general-turned-federal-felon, secretly made a key to his ex-wife's house and entered it without permission, Texas Lawyer reports. Now a judge has ordered ol' Dan, who was freed from prison on probation, to have no contact with his ex. Remember why he went to prison? Tax fraud (not telling the IRS about his personal use of political contributions) and mail fraud (related to his pursuit of fees in the state's multibillion-dollar tobacco lawsuit settlement).

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FBI agents today arrested former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Eugene Lockhart (right) on mortgage fraud charges.

The so-called Hitting Machine played for America's Team from 1984-90 and, according to a federal indictment, went on to work in businesses that played off his former employer's name. They allegedly included America's Team Mortgage, America's Team Realty, America's Team Funding Group, Cowboys Realty and Cowboys Mortgage.

Lockhart, of Carrollton, and eight others are accused of running a scheme from 2001 to 2005 that generated "approximately $20.5 million in fraudulent loans" in the Dallas area, federal prosecutors said.

Today's Hot Links look at twists in ongoing Dallas scandals:

1. What has become of Robert Peters? He was principal of Lang Middle School (right) but "left" DISD after a TAKS cheating scandal recently came to light, my co-worker Tawnell Hobbs reports. Dallas school district boss Michael Hinojosa says Peters bears some responsibility for what happened and has quit cooperating with investigators. Teachers probably aren't responsible and students definitely aren't, Hinojosa adds. Check out Tawnell's DISD blog, where skeptical commenters are already having a field day.

2. Hold your breath: The FAA says Southwest Airlines can take until Christmas Eve to replace unauthorized parts on its planes, as The Dallas Morning News' Eric Torbenson reports.

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Ray Harton of Rockwall just wanted to pay his electricity bill. He got a new digital meter in April, but then stopped getting bills from TXU Energy.

There are often delays between fixes at the meter and an electric bill. Unfortunately, this went on for some months and Harton was concerned about how he would be able to know if the looming bill was correct by the time it arrived.

"I called TXU in early June to inform them and got little help," Harton wrote. "I asked them how to contact Oncor in regards to the meter problem and was not given any assistance there as well."

Problem Solver relayed his information. He finally got a bill this month. It was indeed a whopper, coming in at $1,200. Harton said he plans to pay at his own pace.

A reader said she needed help because she had two faucets she could not turn off, wasting thousands of gallons of water a month. "Please help me if you possibly can," she said.

The woman, who asked that her name not be used, is retired and living on Social Security. She lives alone and has no family to turn to for a loan. She has no credit cards and no savings to draw on. She supplements her income by substitute teaching during the school year, but that wasn't going to help her out of this situation any time soon.

"I won't get even a small check from school for at least six weeks, and these faucets have been leaking for months. I'm an environmentalist, so I just hate wasting this water, and the bill is huge. I'll have to be two weeks late to even pay it," she said.

"These leaks are a constant stream in both the kitchen sink and bath tub, wasting many gallons per hour. This is my family home and fixtures are old. It was built in 1956," she said.

Today's Hot Links begin with another look at household dangers. Then we move on to a scare in the air:

1. See the red ring around this little boy's neck? It's a reminder of the window-blind cord that nearly killed him a few months ago. His family, the Yearouts of Garland, say last week's federal recall of several brands of window blinds didn't go far enough in addressing strangulation risks, The Dallas Morning News' Ray Leszcynski reports. The Yearouts now advocate banning corded products from day-care facilities in Texas. Thinking about all this took me back to my recent post on killer bassinets.

2. Is part of the Southwest Airlines fleet about to be grounded? The News' Eric Torbenson says the hometown air carrier is about out of time to resolve its latest maintenance mess.

Do you have a tip about a household product? Southwest Airlines? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Dallas Episcopal Bishop James Stanton's list of problem priests isn't limited to the Rev. William Warnky (right), who, as I reported in yesterday's paper, has been suspended in recent days from both ministry and securities trading because he owes an ex-parishioner $50,000 for stock fraud.

I learned today that two months ago, Stanton quietly stripped the Rev. Keith Roberson (below right) of his collar for three years for "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy."

Here's a partial translation that I coaxed out of Stanton's top aide, Bishop Suffragan Paul Lambert: The conduct was directed at women at the Terrell church where Roberson worked, Good Shepherd. "It was more harassment than anything," and "it was nothing physical."

Roberson declined to comment today. He runs an optical repair business in Fort Worth called J.R. Optical, whose Web site says:

"I am an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church and I uphold the values and character traits associated with a life of personal commitment and service to the Lord. I live by the Scripture verse 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.' I am honest, open, professional, congenial, and stand by my word."

Lambert acknowledged that Roberson previously left another parish -- he wouldn't say which one -- amid controversy. "It was a bad match," he said. "It was not sexual harassment."

Years ago, Roberson also worked briefly as a fill-in priest at Good Samaritan, where Warnky was the priest in charge until this week. It hasn't been decided yet how long Warnky will be out of ministry.

Scam artists are going after consumers desperate to pay their bills. One reader wrote in to Problem Solver to say she had to borrow money from her in-laws to get out of a jam when she was conned out of $2,900 by a secret-shopper scam. Another said she, too, had lost money.

"Kate, is there anything that I can do to go after these people and get some sort of restitution?" one of the readers asked?

Columnist Pamela Yip wrote about this type of scam in June, but unfortunately the reader didn't see her warning. There are various twists to the shopping con. One has the shopper giving the con artist access to bank information to cash their "paycheck." Another has the shopper receiving a money order to buy several small items then sending back the cash to their "employer." The money order winds up as a fake and is later denied at the bank. The cash and employer are long gone by that time.

There is usually no recourse in getting any money back, but if you're caught up in something like this you should report it to the authorities, such as the Federal Trade Commission and Texas Attorney General's office. These scams seem to proliferate, but at least if the right people have the information a few thieves may get caught.

Two utterly unrelated spats caught my eye this morning in the back pages of The Dallas Morning News:

1. The controversy surrounding the car-towing practices of Dallas County constables Derick Evans and Jaime Cortes grows more interesting by the day. Evans has now hired powerful state Sen. Royce West (right) as his lawyer amid a corruption investigation by the Dallas County District Attorney's office, reports Kevin Krause. West has been a major donor and adviser to DA Craig Watkins. And Watkins' office, meanwhile, defends constables when they face civil lawsuits. What do you make of all these potential conflicts of interest?

2. Jaguar of North America filed a federal lawsuit accusing Plano-based Millennium Motor Cars of submitting more than $2 million in false warranty claims and other charges, Terry Box reports. Millennium owner David Stephens (right, with one of his babies) has counter-sued. He blames service department employees for any irregularities and accuses Jaguar of withholding information.

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Dallas Episcopal Bishop James Stanton (right) confirmed today that he has suspended a priest-stockbroker who, as I reported Sunday, owes an ex-parishioner/ex-client $50,000 for securities fraud.

Stanton said he was unaware of what I discovered late yesterday: A Dallas judge put the Rev. William Warnky (below right) on 10 years of probation in 2006 for contempt of court after he failed to pay about $50,000 in child support to his second wife.

Warnky should have disclosed this to Dallas Episcopal Diocese leaders, the bishop said.

"Mercy," he added. "That is a very serious matter."

This spring, the Texas attorney general's office sought to jail Warnky because of continuing child-support failures. The judge let him stay on probation. Warnky has been making payments since, the AG's office said.

The priest declined to comment today. He led services Sunday at his church, Good Samaritan, which is a few blocks south of White Rock Lake. Stanton said his suspension from ministry took effect Monday.

Ronnie Dawson of Greenville couldn't pay his electric bill and was worried about how he'd survive. It wasn't the heat so much as the lack of refrigeration for the insulin that he takes daily for his diabetes.

Dawson just bought and moved into his mobile home in May. He was floored by his first electricity bill when it arrived. "I got this high-dollar light bill, and it killed me," Dawson said. "I've gotten in over my head."

The bill from city-owned Greenville Electric Utility System was initially a little more than $365. But Dawson, 56, asked for another read of his meter. That did knock $89 off the total, but the clock was ticking. He now had fewer than 48 hours to come up with $276.

"It might not be much to you, but it is to me when I don't have [the money] and they won't work with me," said Dawson.

Parents of little ones, take heed of today's Hot Links:

1. The bassinet pictured at right looks like a place where a baby would enjoy sweet dreams. But it's really a death trap, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says. The latest apparent victim is a 6-month-old girl in Fort Worth. Four baby deaths have now been linked to convertible "close-sleeper/bedside sleeper" bassinets manufactured by Simplicity Inc., of Reading, Pa. Two have died since the federal commission issued a recall and safety alert a year ago.

2. The Fort Worth victim, who hasn't been publicly identified, died in January. So why is the safety commission only now sounding the alarm again? New commission chair Inez Tenenbaum said she could not discuss the death because it remains under investigation, according to the Associated Press.

3. What has become of Simplicity? Here's what the commission says: "SFCA Inc., the Reading, Pa.-based company that purchased the assets of juvenile product manufacturer Simplicity Inc. after foreclosure, no longer appears to be conducting day to day operations. SFCA Inc. is no longer answering phone calls or responding to e-mails from consumers."

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Debbie Rifkin of Plano was frustrated to find out she was being charged a commercial electricity rate at her residence of more than two decades. She made calls to TXU Energy hoping to get the billing issue fixed. After a month of calling to no avail, she wrote to me.

Michael Gutierrez, spokesman for the electricity provider, made sure that the bill was corrected soon after I notified him about the problem. It turns out that the company's new computer system added a DBA, which is short hand for "Doing Business As," before Rifkin's name and then listed it as a commercial account.

"The next day, I did receive my billing history," Rifkin said. "I will now be able to see how much money we are saving with the new windows that we installed."

Here's an update about car-accident victim Alyssa Cisnero, 25, whose family fought Methodist Medical Center to keep the hospital from sending her back to a nursing home they thought offered horrendous care.

Cisnero, who is in a coma with a tracheotomy, feeding tube and numerous broken bones, is doing well in a second nursing home that was found for her. She is showing improvement, her family says.

"Alyssa is doing better at this new home. They are working with her and doing rehabilitation," said her sister Jessica Bustillos.

Two questions this morning: Is Texas using its regulatory resources wisely by focusing on small-time gambling operations? And does probation really mean anything in this state?

1. Execs of Dallas-based Aces Wired have pleaded guilty to running a gambling operation, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The company, which runs game rooms in several Texas counties, previously insisted that its machines met state requirements by not awarding cash prizes. Now it will forfeit more than $1 million, and the bosses will be put on probation. Prosecutors had planned to present allegations at trial that the execs bribed a Fort Worth police officer, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported recently.

2. Plano resident William Fletcher pleaded guilty to securities fraud three years ago and was put on probation. Now he's been charged with doing it again and using the proceeds to pay court-ordered restitution from the 2006 case, The Dallas Morning News' Elizabeth Souder reports. Will Fletcher -- who did business under the names Texas Oil Equities and Raptor Oil & Gas -- get probation again?

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David Stecko of Dallas wrote me concerned that if he wanted to change electricity providers at the end of his contract, he'd be dependent on when Oncor would read his meter. "This is very unfair, because Oncor's meter-read date is completely out of my control," he said.

Oncor runs the power transmission lines and reads meters for the various companies that provide electricity in North Texas. Stecko was concerned that if the Dallas-based power company read his meter early, he'd wind up with a cancellation fee for switching electricity providers before the end of his contract. If Oncor read it late, then he'd be subject to the month-to-month variable rate, which "can be very expensive."

He also objected to paying the $7.25 fee that Oncor charges to get an out-of-cycle meter read because he figured he'd wind up doing that every year as he shopped for the best rate when his contract expired.

Turns out that as of Sunday, the rules change and he won't have to pay anything extra to have his meter read whenever he changes electricity providers. And he won't have to worry about timing things perfectly any more either.

Several items in the news today reminded me of the State of Neglect series that my colleagues on the investigations team produced earlier this year. That explored how Texas government, through its mangled bureaucracy or deference to big business, leaves the little guy lacking.

1. Oncor customers will pay a total of $115 million more statewide after the Public Utility Commission agreed to the company's request for higher rates, The News' Elizabeth Souder reports. That move ignored a previous ruling by a panel of administrative law judges that found Oncor should get only $30 million to subsidize an "imprudent" purchase of high-tech meters that didn't meet PUC requirements.

2. Star-Telegram watchdog columnist, Dave Lieber, has a nice piece on a 78-year-old military veteran who can't get his food stamps allotment renewed because of confusion within the Health and Human Services Commission. Some residents have sued to try and get results.

3. An employee who helped stage those infamous fights among the mentally disabled residents at a state-run Corpus Christi school was convicted Thursday. Those were not the only problems at the facility, which operates under the oversight of the Department of Aging and Disability Services.

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Testimony is reaching a critical stage in the Dallas City Hall bribery trial. Jurors will earn their $40-a-day pay after times like Wednesday.

1. Federal prosecutors, in the meat of their case, scored as developer-turned-informant James R. "Bill" Fisher testified about paying a load of money to Don Hill's associates and finally winning his vote. However, in a boost to Hill's defense, Fisher acknowledged Hill never asked for cash and Fisher never paid him directly. (Trial is recessed until Monday, fyi.)

2. We know Rick Perry is the longest serving governor the state's had. And we know before then, he toiled in Austin as well. So why was he also claiming a home in College Station to get a tax exemption? He dropped it after the Associated Press broke the story this week.

3. Now for a little media talk: The Texas House is apparently blocking a Houston-based online news organization from covering an upcoming session. I know this news org, Texas Watchdog, is a competitor to The News. But c'mon, House. We Texans need more -- not fewer -- journalists covering Austin. Give them access.

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Alan and Kathy Lynn Dieken of Kaufman did get their money back after taking a honeymoon cruise to nowhere. The couple booked a trip at the end of April on Carnival Cruise Lines out of Galveston that was supposed to port in Mexico. But when swine flu broke out in the country, cruise ships all headed to other ports.

Not theirs. It parked in the Gulf.

It also returned to Texas early because of a medical emergency.

Despite my intervention, Carnival only refunded the couple a total of $80 in port taxes and offered 50 percent off a future cruise.

So the Diekens disputed the remaining $1,770 they paid to their credit card. "They took it off completely," said Dieken. He said he is now satisfied with the result.

That's one takeaway, among many, that you should have from the Dallas City Hall bribery trial. Let's explore:

1. Co-defendant Allen McGill (shown at right) testified Monday that his sham Black State Employees Association of Texas opposed a housing developer's project to force the hiring of minority contractors who'd give it kickbacks later, The News' Jason Trahan reports. Once the developer played ball, the opposition lifted. McGill and his cohort, Darren Reagan, realized that they were ones worked over months later: The developer was an FBI informant.

2. The Hearst network of newspapers, which includes Houston and San Antonio, is wrapping up a series that finds about 98,000 people die each year from preventable medical errors. That echoes The News' State of Neglect investigative series, which earlier this year found that Texas lets hospitals hide their mistakes from the public.

Do you have thoughts or tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Margaret, 69, has had a heart attack and stroke. She suffers from asthma and uses an oxygen tank. She called me, asking for help in getting the air conditioner fixed in her Pleasant Grove apartment. "I'm in a mess and I would appreciate your help," she said.

Margaret said she reported that her air conditioner was leaking and no longer putting out cool air last week to the out-of-state owner of Cherokee Village Apartments. She said a worker showed up and cut out a piece of carpet that was soaked from the leak.

But he didn't do anything to repair the air conditioner. "No cold air comes out, and they didn't fix it," she said.

The state's academic testing program in grammar and high schools has fed a running argument over whether it puts emphasis more on scores or learning. Critics surely will seize on this data analysis by The News:

1. Holly K. Hacker's Sunday story found half of college-bound graduates from some North Texas high schools earned less than a C average their freshman year. That includes middling results from kids at Dallas' nationally recognized magnet school. The state's higher education commissioner said it was a "serious problem" that students are "stunned when they arrive on a college campus." Look up your school with this online database.

2. Current and former members of the non-profit that runs the Alamo has been squabbling over finances. That brings this to light: The state may own the landmark, but no agency provides management oversight. That worries San Antonio's mayor, The News' Marjorie Korn reports.

3. News reporters aren't the only ones who fight for records. An audit released this morning shows the FDIC wouldn't share documents with the State Auditor's Office as part of a review of the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending.

Do you have thoughts or tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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How many times must the State Auditor's Office -- not to mention news reporters -- ding the State Board of Dental Examiners for problems that impact Texans? We may need two hands to count.

1. In its latest audit released yesterday, the auditor's office cited 19 examples in which the dental board's online database didn't have up-to-date disciplinary actions against practitioners. Because the public can use that information, the gap "puts patients at risk of receiving services from licensees who have committed repeated violations." The audit is dense reading. So I recommend you first check out the story by The News' Terrence Stutz.

2. Dallas City Hall trial item A: The state passed laws requiring community approval for the type of low-income housing projects at the heart of the corruption case. Testimony reiterated how some co-defendants feigned community opposition to allegedly extract kickbacks from developers.

3. Dallas City Hall trial item B: Laura Miller's name came up again, as I predicted. The defense questioned Dallas' housing director about Miller's appointment of Brian Potashnik, a major campaign contributor of hers, to a task force that created policy benefiting his company.

Do you have thoughts or tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Last week, we wrote about Abel Lachica of Mesquite, one of several Oncor customers who saw big jumps in their new digital meter readings - and in their electric bills.

Soon after the blog went up, a spokesperson from Oncor contacted us and requested to speak with Lachica. After Oncor re-read the meter and verified the reading, he agreed to accept the bill and paid.

"[My wife] has been watching the meter to track our usages, and we're just going to wait and see how much the bill is going to be this time," Lachica said.

Spokeswoman Carol Peters attributes the sharp increase in usage to the unexpectedly warm weather.

We have conflicts of interest in various facets of life -- housing deals, law enforcement and medicine -- in today's morning round-up of stories:

1. There's a new twist in the controversial dealings between Dallas County constables and the troubled towing company they're using: One of the law enforcers gave a worker from the firm a job, The News' Kevin Krause blogs. A state agency is investigating.

2. Dallas' housing director testified in the City Hall bribery trial that he thought Don Hill and co-defendant D'Angelo Lee were too cozy with developer Brian Potashnik, The News' Jason Trahan reports. Hill approved Potashnik's projects against recommendations from the housing department, which we reported in this 2005 story.

3. The New York Times explores the pharmaceutical industry's influence on scientific research: A company secretly paid a ghostwriter to draft published papers backing hormone therapy in women, benefiting later as sales of the drugs it produced soared.

Do you have thoughts or tips to share? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Several readers' emails scorched my computer, taking me to task for writing about Alyssa Cisnero, who was severely injured when she drove her car into a metal pole on Cockrell Hill Road.

Some questioned whether she had been drunk or drugged when she had her accident. No, she wasn't. She had no alcohol or drugs in her bloodstream, her family says.

Others wanted to know if she was on welfare. She was not. She worked for her grandfather in his electrical supply store for about eight years.

Twenty-five-year-old Alyssa Cisnero was in a car accident in May and is now in a coma with a severe brain injury. She has 19 broken bones and both a trachea and a feeding tube. She also is uninsured.

Methodist Dallas Medical Center was recently working to move Cisnero to one of the few nursing homes locally that would accept her. But her family had found that home appalling during a previous stay, so they refused to sign a release allowing the transfer.

"They [Methodist] gave us an ultimatum. Either you find a place or she goes to your house," said Cisnero's sister Jessica Bustillos. "That's basically sending her to her deathbed."

The family said they appreciated the care offered by Methodist's medical staff, but they were offended by how they were treated by the administration. A spokeswoman for Methodist said they were unable to speak about specifics of this case because of patient privacy.

High temperatures and high electricity bills have frazzled a lot of readers' nerves this summer. In the last three months, scores of people have written The Dallas Morning News asking for help in sorting out problems with their accounts.

Fortunately, TXU Energy spokesman Michael Gutierrez and a team of customer service workers have graciously fixed more than four-dozen of the accounts they've been sent by Problem Solver.

They also helped out in the case of Paula Reynolds, who had her meter misread by 1,981 kilowatt-hours. Oncor caught the problem, but Reynolds has spent months trying to get her bill to accurately reflect the credit.

Last week, TXU closed the loop on that problem. "The account has been given a credit of $77.97 for that billing period and, as a courtesy, we applied a credit of $25.50," Gutierrez said.

The common theme is investigations. Let's take a closer look at today's stories:

1. State regulators are now investigating the car-towing company used by two Dallas County constables that has created controversy in recent weeks, The News' Kevin Krause reports. The company -- which has no county oversight -- is run by a troubled businessman who also has an auto salvage shop.

2. Protections for federal employees who blow the whistle on corruption were expanded yesterday, USA Today tells us. Most can now request that a jury hear their case, excluding intelligence agency employees. Advocates wanted protections for all workers.

3. Perhaps the biggest story in Dallas is the City Hall bribery trial. But it's not the only corruption case in the courts. A suburban D.C. jury is deliberating the fate of former U.S. congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana.

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Abel Lachica of Mesquite wrote in to sympathize with the six Oncor customers we wrote about last week. They all saw discrepancies in their meter readings after new digital meters were installed.

Lachica said his July 2009 meter read a usage of 1,508 kilowatt-hours, as compared to about 800 kwh from the same month last year. That's even though he has not bought new appliances or changed any usage habits.

"I talked to a couple of our neighbors and they experienced the same thing," Lachica said in an e-mail to us. "I would really appreciate if you would continue to investigate this matter because I believe that lots of people are being ripped off."

Flan Monk has burn scars on more than half of his body. He also lives in a sweltering pay-by-the-week apartment house in East Dallas. His mother bought him a window air-conditioning unit, but his landlord won't allow him to use it.

"I need air, it is 107 degrees in my room," Monk said. "I need help. I can't live in hell all my life."

The Texas Attorney General's Office today filed a consumer-fraud lawsuit against the college-prep software company that I first raised questions about in April.

The suit targets the Coppell-based SAT and ACT Test Prep Center and its operators, a Cedar Hill couple named Frances Stuart and John Joseph Stuart (at right, after his recent arrest on unrelated charges -- more on that below).

I just tried to reach the Stuarts at the Coppell business and got a recording saying that the phone had been temporarily disconnected. I also left a message for them at the Student Resource Center, a virtually identical business that Frances set up in May, using a downtown Dallas address.

My original blog post about consumer complaints led me to do a little digging about the Stuarts. I discovered that John had been convicted of sexually exploiting a child in Arizona, was a registered sex offender -- and had failed to tell police that he was working at the prep center. Cedar Hill police responded by arresting him.

The AG's office says the Stuarts' telemarketers made calls to several states, "falsely telling parents that their children had expressed an interest" in test-prep software. Many who bought the material "discovered that the CD they received matched an outdated, 2006 version that was offered by a nationally recognized company" for far less.

The Stuarts have previously denied wrongdoing. I last heard from them early this month, when Frances posted a comment on another of my blog posts and told me to "go to hell."

I saw the documentary, "Food Inc.," last week. It was a great piece of reporting, exploring the rarely seen underbelly of our food-production system and how Corporate America's influence is creating consequences felt by you and me. The film resonated when I saw these stories over the weekend:

1. Food and Drug Administration data found that "deviations" from good food-manufacturing processes were found in nearly a third of 16,500 safety inspections during the last fiscal year, the Chicago Tribune reported.

2. So you want to eat organic food and are willing to pay the higher price. Can you be sure you're getting what you're buying? The agency responsible for ensuring such authenticity is overworked and understaffed, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Do you have a tip these or other subjects? Send me an e-mail or leave me a comment.

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Be careful with your vehicles and what you do inside them, as two stories in the news show us.

1. Wouldn't you like a deal like this? A businessman whose companies have stripped vehicles and sold parts builds a troubled record that includes loads of unpaid taxes. Yet he manages to get exclusive contracts with two Dallas County constables ... to tow vehicles. He and the constables end up doing so at a rate greater than some of the area's biggest suburban police forces. And, as The News' Kevin Krause tells us, he faces no oversight.

2. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration kept private research that showed driver inattention from cellphone use was similar to that of drunken driving. The agency worried Congress would become upset because it wanted researchers simply to gather data, not lobby states for action. Consumer groups now accuse the government of cover up, The New York Times reports.

Do you have a tip these or other subjects? Send me an e-mail or leave me a comment.

Like social networking? Follow us on Twitter at DMNInvestigates and ReeseDunklin. You can also join our Facebook group at DallasNews Digs.

Six North Texas readers wrote to complain that when Oncor installed new digital meters earlier this year, their electricity bills skyrocketed. "A glance at our usage history will make it evident that this billing is totally out of whack," wrote one reader.

When a new meter is installed, the technician takes the final reading in the field. The old meter is then taken to a warehouse and read a second time before it is recycled. That information is then entered into a database, where it is analyzed for problems.

A review shows that the technicians misread the meters for five of the readers.

A reader let me know this morning about her issue with the North Texas Tollway Authority. She said I was welcome to post it for the rest of you readers.

"Today's article (DMN Problem Solver) was incredibly timely!

I called NTTA this morning regarding a 'Late Notice' I received for a charge ($6.17) that I knew I had paid on time. The 'Late Notice' assessed me a $2.50 late fee, for a total of $8.67.

Rosemary Udell of DeSoto doesn't have a TollTag, but she knows she always pays promptly when a bill arrives from the tollway. That's why she was upset when she got four invoices for 75-cent tolls, each with a $25 fee attached. She called. "They have a phone number, but they never answer it," she said. She wrote, but didn't hear back.

She e-mailed. "The email response said, 'We're too busy to look into this and we'll get back with you later.' The 'later' was a $103 collection agency notice," she said.

The problem was that the North Texas Tollway Authority didn't know Udell had paid her bills.

"The problem is there were no reference numbers on the checks, so they couldn't be cashed," said Sherita Coffelt, public information officer for the tollway authority. "The customer service director called her and worked it out. Everything should be good."

Udell confirmed that things should be fixed. Still, "I don't know why it's so difficult to get to someone," she said.

A reader called Problem Solver asking what should be done about a disagreement between her daughter and her daughter's landlord.

When her daughter moved out of her apartment the landlord claimed the place was "trashed." But the daughter had hired a cleaning crew to scour the place.

"Besides having lived there for two years, we had the carpets constantly cleaned, and [there were] some holes in the wall where we put pictures, it was clean," the daughter told my colleague Daphne Chen. "'Trashed' is the farthest thing from any truth at all."

Now, the landlord is threatening to take the tenant to small claims court.

Real? Fake? Hard to believe? Today's Hot Links are about guns in Texas:

1. Dallas banned public display of real-looking toy guns in 2007. But that did not stop a couple of guys from nearly getting shot by police recently, as The Dallas Morning News' Steve Thompson reports today. Do we need a law that bans the replicas outright, as other governments have tried? Who makes these products? Why is their manufacture allowed? Why do parents buy them for their kids?

2. The New York Times says John Shipley, an FBI agent in Texas, has been charged with running an unlicensed business: dealing guns that ended up in Mexico, used in narco-vs.-army shootouts.

Do you have a tip about real guns? Fake guns? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at "DMNInvestigates."

Here on the right is Robert Cantu trying to stay cool at Barclay Square, in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood of Dallas. The apartment complex has been plagued by air conditioning problems, but a court hearing yesterday brought no legal fix.

Now let's look at a mansion in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. (Thanks to Zillow.com for the image.) Till last year, it belonged to Brian H. Printz, an officer of the company that controls Barclay Square.

Printz is a real estate lawyer. He sold the seven-bedroom, eight-and-a-half-bath place for about $6 million, public records show.

Records show that he also owns 80 acres of undeveloped land a little further north, in Napa Valley. His business partner, James S. Goody, owns about five acres there, plus a home in San Francisco valued at $1.7 million.

I could not locate them for comment this afternoon. The Web site for their company, Bay Equity Real Estate Acquisitions, lists no contact information. A phone number I found elsewhere online is answered by a recording that does not state the company's name.

If your apartment is roasting and the A/C is on the fritz, there are several steps you should take. Don't delay in doing something either. Texas heat can be deadly.
Of course, the law doesn't really mean landlords have to provide a cool apartment -- just one where the heat won't make you sick.

Since I wrote about the Carnival Cruise Line trip that parked in the Gulf, I've heard from a couple of readers.

One person wrote that her family had a "crummy experience" last spring break, while another said she doesn't understand what the fuss is about because she often prefers to skip ports and stay on the ship.

The upset reader said her family missed seeing Jamaica because the seven-day cruise returned to Galveston one day after it left because of a medical emergency.

"What mayhem on the ship!" she wrote.

All aboard! Buckle up for today's rough ride to some theme-park Hot Links:

1. Despite Six Flags Over Texas' best efforts, some info is finally getting out about what went wrong with the Texas Giant last week. The wooden roller coaster promises "sheer white-knuckle terror" when it's working right. Sounds like its failure was pretty scary, too -- a safety inspector told me the last car on the train lost its proper track position and was dragged up to 300 feet, gouging the rails.

2. Six Flags isn't the only amusement park with safety problems. Federal regulators are investigating a deadly monorail crash that occurred early Sunday at Disney World, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Do you have a tip about amusement parks? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at "DMNInvestigates."

Six Flags Over Texas spokeswoman Sharon Parker announced Saturday's restart of the Texas Giant roller coaster with this written statement:

"On Friday, the ride was thoroughly inspected by Six Flags engineers and an inspector from the Texas Department of Insurance and has been cleared to reopen."

The insurance department begged to differ with part of that statement.

"We did not do any inspections," department spokesman Jerry Hagins said today. "We do not have any inspectors."

Regular readers of this blog already knew as much from Thursday's post about the wooden coaster's safety woes. It was shut down most of last week for reasons Parker initially would not explain. Later she said that hot, dry weather had caused track misalignment.

Hagins said recent news coverage did lead the insurance department to ask Six Flags to have the ride checked. In Texas, amusement parks' insurers hire the inspectors who certify -- usually once a year -- that rides are safe.

So I went back to the Six Flags spokeswoman for clarification. Her reply: "The Texas Department of Insurance gives final approval for the ride once a third party inspection is completed and passed."

To which Hagins clarified further: "We don't give final approval for a ride." The state merely issues a sticker after getting a signed statement from the insurer's inspector.

Earlier in the day, I asked the Six Flags spokeswoman what was done to get the Texas Giant ready to roll again. This was the reply: "We have no further comment."

Even though Mexico had a swine flu outbreak, Alan and Kathy Lynn Dieken of Kaufman decided to go ahead with their honeymoon cruise. That's because when they called Carnival Cruise Lines before heading to Galveston to board the ship, they were told the ship would port somewhere -- maybe not Mexico -- but somewhere.

But it didn't. The ship went out into the Gulf of Mexico, basically parked, then sped back to Galveston one day early, the couple said.

Because of the change in itinerary, Carnival says it has refunded each passenger his or her $40 in port taxes and will offer 50 percent off a future cruise as a "goodwill gesture."

"Our first experience was so horrible, I don't know if I want to spend another week on a ship," Kathy Lynn Dieken said. "We were essentially lied to."

Six Flags Over Texas is talking more since yesterday's post about the problems that have shut down its famed Texas Giant roller coaster for most of the week.

Spokeswoman Sharon Parker said today that hot, dry weather caused misalignment of the wooden track. The ride will remain closed all day today, she added.

But she did not initially answer this question: Did any riders report pain or injury when the ride was stopped Monday afternoon?

Late today, she emailed this response: "Our First Aid department did not inform me of any."

Amusement parks must tell the Texas Department of Insurance about all injuries that require a physician's attention, TDI spokesman Jerry Hagins said. But they only need to file reports quarterly, so there's no way to get new info today.

State officials do not inspect the rides or require owners to notify them when safety problems arise.

The state does require owners' insurance companies to hire an inspector. That person must perform an annual check and certify to the state that rides are fit to operate.

Six Flags Over Texas now says the Texas Giant roller coaster will remain closed all day today -- the third straight day of a mysterious safety problem at the Arlington amusement park.

But spokeswoman Sharon Parker won't talk about what's wrong, beyond saying that staff "detected an error with one of the cars on the track."

What kind of error? "I haven't been given that information yet," she told me. "I'm just holding tight until the engineers provide me with that information."

Why aren't they telling people more? Parker's response:

"Our priority right now is getting to the root of it and making sure that we get it up and running safely. To me that's the No. 1 priority. I'm in constant communication with them. When the time is appropriate they will let me know, and I will convey that information to you guys. Until that time there is nothing else to share."

The ride is scheduled for a $10 million renovation next year, as my newspaper reported in March.

No major injuries were reported on the ride last year, according to this terrific searchable database published by the San Antonio Express-News. It covers all injury reports that Texas amusement parks must make to the state Department of Insurance.

Six Flags made headlines last month when its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection.

When swine flu hit some Mesquite schools before the school year was over, school officials scrapped several extracurricular events. That included an orchestra competition in Corpus Christi. The student musicians were worried they were going to lose the money they had paid in advance for the trip.

"What I was hoping you could do is maybe investigate the money issue and put it in the paper. This may give us a chance to get some money back," said one of the student violin players.

The student musicians were initially told that they'd get a refund from the hotel. But after the trip was called off, they found out that probably wasn't going to happen, because the cancellation occurred just a week prior to their arrival.

My post last week exploring whether dealings between a Dallas ISD trustee and a college-prep program's founder had posed a conflict reminded a reader about the state laws for disclosing such relationships.

Reader "STC" was correct that Texas' Local Government Code, chapter 176, requires public officials to fill out forms disclosing conflicts of interest with prospective government contractors.

But there appears to be several loopholes in the law.

The biggest seems to be that the state law defines a conflict as a financial relationship, employment or business. Friendship -- which you and I might think warrants a heads-up to the public -- does not.

Even if there is a financial relationship, it may not have to be disclosed under chapter 176, depending on the money at stake and the timing of the transaction.

Paula McComas of The Colony wrote in to say she had gift cards from a Kwik Kar Wash in her city, but it had gone out of business. "I don't have money to discard. They closed down without any type of notice or anything," she said. "Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated."

Because the carwashes are franchises, the $86 in gift cards actually are not good anywhere else but the place they were purchased.

Even so, Kristin Poulain, manager of the Kwik Kar Lube & Tune in east Plano, said she'd be happy to honor them. Poulain said the credit could be used for oil changes, as well as carwashes and detail service. McComas was delighted with the offer.

A reader asked what D/FW does to recycle. He sees a lot of recycling efforts at other airports, but not as much here. He sent a letter to the Airport Board to try to get the information but didn't get a response.

It turns out they do a lot of recycling. Tons of it.

Specifically, more than 7,813 tons of material since 1996. The airport collects recycling all over the place, too. There are 86 public-use newspaper recycling containers, 76 public-use plastic bottle recycling containers and 80 administrative office mixed paper-recycling bins.

The airport has almost doubled its primary recycling collection from 550 tons to 978 tons annually, Magana said.

A reader wrote that the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has consistently overcharged him at terminal rates of $17 a day on his TollTag - even though he was parking in the Express North lot, which charges $10 a day.
He tried to explain the error to the operators at the exit tollbooths, but he couldn't prove that he had parked in the cheaper lot. He complained, but the problem has continued for months.

"That's an extra $7 a day for each person paying this," he said. "There is no incentive to fix their system when you figure how much they've been making on this."

The airport says there is a faulty data connection in its computerized system, so information is not always relayed from the Express North lot to the toll booths at the airport exits. When that happens, customers are charged at the higher terminal rate.

The airport is working on fixing the connection. Airport spokesman David Magana said the problem "should be corrected by the end of the month."

How did these guys get from Point A to Point B? That's the theme of this morning's Hot Links:

1. Last year, Susan Hyde lost her paramedic's certification and her kids because she subjected them to dozens of medical treatments they apparently didn't need. This year, Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachie hired her as a patient care assistant, according to Dallas Morning News reporter Jon Nielsen. How and why did this happen? Hospital officials won't say. One possibility is that a background check focused only on criminal records -- and Hyde doesn't have one.

2. Addison-based Debt Relief USA said it could help you with your bills. Then it filed for bankruptcy, The News' Pamela Yip reports. Click here for updates on that case and a lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general. Also note that the Addison company is not affiliated with a New Jersey one that operates the Web site www.debtreliefusa.org. (I confused the two earlier.)

Do you have a tip about background checks? Bankruptcy? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

It was an ad that first caught my eye in The Dallas Morning News this morning:

1. The entire back page is about Zicam, a line of homeopathic cold remedies. "Based on the FDA's recommendations, we have voluntarily taken two nasal products off the shelves," the ad says. But it never says what the safety issue is: Hundreds of users claim the non-prescription products have destroyed their sense of smell. The manufacturer, Matrixx Initiatives, disputes this -- but also has paid millions to settle claims from customers, The New York Times reports. Another thing the ad doesn't mention is this sharply worded warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

2. Back up to yesterday's paper for an excellent set-up piece on the Dallas City Hall corruption trial, which is getting under way this morning in federal court. My colleague Jason Trahan did a terrific job of laying out the issues and the players. This morning's update: Developer-defendants Brian and Cheryl Potashnik didn't show up in court.

Do you have a tip about over-the-counter drugs? The City Hall trial? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

We were reminded of how Rick Perry, through his longevity, has become perhaps Texas' most powerful governor through his appointment powers in two of today's public-interest stories from The News and Web-o-sphere:

1. One backdrop to Texas A&M president Elsa Murano's resignation is an emphasis among Perry friends and associates in commercializing research, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Perry, an A&M alum, is said to exert influence in other ways. This increasingly upsets the faculty members "by what they perceive as a command-and-control management style" by the Perry-picked chancellor and Board of Regents.

2. The state Insurance Commissioner, Perry appointee Mike Geeslin, will decide how much State Farm Insurance owes -- if anything -- as part of overcharging complaints on homeowner policies. The options: The state consumer advocate's office says $785 million plus interest; the Texas Department of Insurance says $250 million plus interest; and State Farm says zip.

Did I miss a good story? Or do you have a tip? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

Here's a look at public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere that gave me pause at breakfast:

1. Recession? What recession? Irving's City Council voted last night to pay City Manager Tommy Gonzalez more than $390,000 a year. That makes him the highest paid city manager in the area and maybe the state, my dogged colleague Brandon Formby reports. Gonzalez made news last week with text messages saying the Dallas Cowboys organization "pushes things thru" City Hall and built a practice facility that "probably never was structurally sound enough." He made those observations shortly after the facility collapsed; Brandon obtained the texts with an open-records request.

2. Frontiers of outsourcing: Southwest Airlines has reversed course and will use a company in El Salvador, Aeroman, to perform some "heavy" maintenance work.

Did I miss a good story? Or do you have a tip? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

Here's a look at public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere that raise serious questions about building practices:

1. Dallas Cowboys officials knew before building their practice facility that a new, similar structure erected by the same contractor had recently collapsed, I'm reporting today in The Dallas Morning News.

2. Another disaster killed three construction workers yesterday in Austin. The project's developer, Gary Perkins, has deep ties to the Dallas and Denton County areas.

Did I miss a good story? Or do you have a tip? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

Let's catch up on a couple of public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. Judges must not hear cases involving major campaign contributors, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. So what do we do in Texas with litigation involving billionaire home builder Bob Perry, who has given big bucks to all nine justices on the state's highest court?

2. Many new details of the tainted-syringe scandal are emerging in a ProPublica/Chicago Tribune report. It paints a chilling picture of problems at the Food and Drug Administration. Among the four people who've died is a Texas toddler.

Did I miss a good story? Or do you have a tip? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

Four years ago, a reader subscribed to DirecTV. When the installer came to the house to put in the satellite television system, he went up to the attic to run wires.

That's when things went wrong. He stepped right through the ceiling over the garage, leaving a gaping hole in the sheetrock.

"He said he'd fix it, but he disappeared, and we've never seen him again. This is one 4-by-8 foot sheet of sheetrock. More ironic, is that the young man who stepped through the ceiling said that his regular job was hanging sheetrock," said the reader in a telephone interview.

A lot of phone calls from the reader to the installation company and DirecTV resulted in nothing but a lot of frustration. "It's been years. No one seems to care that they put the hole in the garage. You can get a college degree in four years. You can serve as president in four years. It would be a miracle if you can get this settled," she said.

Someone in England stole Martha Weempe's credit card number last year and went on a buying spree, purchasing a British Airways plane ticket, Gatwick Express train ticket and more than $20,000 worth of goods.

Each month, Weempe would get another fraudulent charge and then would ask Capital One to shut down the account.

"I just want the thing closed, but they say they can't cancel it until it has a zero balance for two months. I can't get a zero balance with this yahoo over there charging things," she said.

"I do not know where to turn," she continued. "I have begged and pleaded, sent them letters, talked to the Attorney General's office. I've called my state representative and reported it to the police department. They just threw up their hands. Can you help me?"

We start today with questions, as we look at some of the public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. What's leading to all the fatal wrong-way crashes on the Dallas North Tollway? Overnight we had yet another one. Police say alcohol may be a factor in what The News' Scott Goldstein counts as the fifth such crash since October.

2. Are some homeowners' associations getting a little overzealous? One in Lake Highlands threatened to tow the vehicle of a Vietnam vet if he didn't remove military decals that he had displayed on his ride, News columnist James Ragland tell us. The HOA likened it to advertising.

Did I miss a good story? Or do you have a tip? Send me an e-mail and let me know.