OPINION

Our editorials for tomorrow will be about what we think Sen. Hutchison ought to do regarding staying/leaving the Senate given her disappointing loss in yesterday's primary and what we suggest DISD and other districts should do beyond what they're already doing when it comes to teachers who abuse kids.

The former will be written by Mike Hashimoto and the latter by Jim Mitchell.

Feel free to use the comment section here to offer suggestions about these editorials.

Very classy. I thought she was generous in her comments, poised in her demeanor.

I also thought, frankly, that she conceded a bit prematurely. But perhaps her campaign sees a firm pattern via vote distribution that isn't yet apparent to those outside the organizations. (Then again, wouldn't it be awful to concede and then a couple of hours later see your opponent's lead dip by 2 or 3 percent - just enough to toss it into a runoff?)

I'm thinking Johnson wins in the Democratic primary for state House District 100, and more easily than expected.

But is that my heart or my head talking?

What do you think? Percentages anybody?

Update at 6:54: I posted this before reading Sharon's post below. That one's worth reading before commenting here....

Building off Michael's post below, let me ask a variation of same. What's your most honest Jim Foster prediction in the Democratic primary for the Dallas County judgeship?

(I could get really microcosmic and ask for a three-way Foster-Jenkins-Duncan prediction, but because I'm basically a kind person I won't go to such lengths. Feel free to extrapolate in this direction, though, if you like. Anybody expect a runoff?)

My prediction for Foster? 20 percent.
(No runoff. Jenkins wins.)

We'll summarize on tomorrow's Editorial and Viewpoints pages the 39 candidate recommendations we've made over the last six weeks or so and urge voters who haven't already early-voted to be sure to get out and do so tomorrow.

In summary, we did 36 sit-down interviews with something close to 100 candidates - plus phone interviews with the candidates in another three contests - as part of formulating our recommendations. We also relied heavily on the questionnaires candidates filled out online for us, as well as on our own independent record checking and ancillary interviews.

Here's a link to our candidate recommendations.

And here's a link to the questionnaires, which, by the way, more than 90 percent of the 134 candidates we invited to complete them submitted. You can read about the candidates thoughts and positions on issues in the candidates' own words - unedited and unfiltered - for free!

We're working on editorials now for tomorrow's page having to do with how Texas can best deal with its looming budget deficit and what seem to be the Obama administration's stepped up emphasis on the virtues of nuclear energy.

(As an aside, a key essay in yesterday's Points section provides a great back drop for our editorial regarding nuclear energy. I'd link to it here, but Foreign Policy magazine doesn't allow us to do so. Check out the essay in the pulp product, back of the Points section: It's worth the effort.)

Read on in the extended section for more detail about these two editorials and which Editorial Board member is crafting each. And please use the comments section to share your thoughts.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

Those are the topics we're working on for editorials for tomorrow's paper.....

Clearly, we'll be writing live off the debate tonight, right up against deadline. This time around writer Tod Robberson and editors Sharon Grigsby and Jarrett Rush are in the hot seat....But we'll all be live blogging, too, so there won't be any shortage of commentary tonight....

The other two editorials for tomorrow will be written and edited by this afternoon, per more standard practice. Jim Mitchell is crafting our recommendation for the RR commission spot that has a GOP primary and Rodger Jones is crafting the recommendation in the Dem primary for Agriculture Commissioner.

Please let us know in the Comments section here how we can make these essays the best they can be. And let us know what other topics you think we're missing.....

Here are the editorials that we're working on for tomorrow. Please feel free to share in the Comments section how we can make these essays as persuasive to you as possible....

TERROR - We explain why the feds are honor bound to have to pick up the cost of trying the terror defendants, regardless of where the trials are actually held. It's a shame the administration didn't work all of this out before proposing, rather precipitously, NYC as the locale. Tod Robberson writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

QUESTIONNAIRES - Our questionnaires went up online this morning - more than 90 percent of the 130-plus candidates in nearly 50 North Texas races responded. Check out the candidates' answers and be sure to vote accordingly. Early voting starts Feb. 16. Jim Mitchell writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

FAMILY254 - We recommend in this local court....Mike Hashimoto writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

DIST363 - We recommend in this court... Michael writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on these two topics - how's that for a bizarre combo? - pegged to developments last week and casting the debate forward from here.

Read on in the extended entry for details. And feel free to use the Comments section to offer suggestions about how to make these editorials the best they can be and what other topics you think we should be commenting on.

Those are the topics of our editorials tomorrow. If you'd like to provide input, feel free to contact via email Tod Robberson re our Haiti commentary, Michael Landauer re our plan for live blogging tomorrow and Colleen McCain Nelson for our latest take on the county mess.

And let us know in the Comments section here what other topics you think we ought to be examining editorially.

Here are the topics our editorials tomorrow will deal with along with the names of the Editorial Board members crafting the essays on behalf of the board. Feel free to let us know how we can make these as persuasive as possible, as well as whatever other topics you think we should be addressing.

PARDON - We laud the AG for his sound decision last week that Gov. Perry does indeed have the power to issue a posthumous pardon for Timothy Cole, a Texas Tech student who died while in prison for a crime DNA proves he didn't commit. We urge the Board of P&P to move swiftly so that the governor can act quickly on this, as his latest comments seem to indicate he will. We express some disappointment about the way Perry handled this, per our earlier commentary, but the bottom line to this editorial is that everybody has an opportunity now to do the right thing and we urge them to do so quickly. Written by Tod Robberson on behalf of the Editorial Board.

REID - What he said was dumb. He has apologized. It's time to move on. We don't defend Reid in any way in this editorial - for this or for other political shortcomings - but we also deplore the political hay that the Republicans are trying to make here by "piling on." It's such a waste of time and energy to point fingers back and forth over this - let's face it; the Dems would likely be doing the same thing if a Republican said what Reid said - and it all distracts from the nation's business. Written by Jim Mitchell on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Why congressional leaders are foolish to deny CSpan coverage of the final stage of health-care negotiations and another reminder of why it's so critical that our state's school-finance system be updated - those are the two issues we'll deal with in our editorials tomorrow.

Read on to get the details and the names of the essay writers. And feel free to let us know in the Comments section what other ideas you think we should be considering....

These are the two topics we'll be editorializing about on our pages tomorrow. Please click to the extended entry for details and authors.

And feel free to use the Comments section to provide suggestions about how we can make these editorials better and what other topics you think we should editorialize on.

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

Should Texas Tech coach Mike Leach be fired?

Here are their responses (which they provided prior to Texas Tech's actual firing of Leach moments ago):

These are the topics of our two editorials for tomorrow's newspaper.

The first one is pegged to a study released last week about how more students are taking six years to finish their university degrees, largely due to the economy. We cite this to make three key points that we think are particularly important for Texas readers and Texas legislators to understand. Bill McKenzie is writing this on behalf of the Editorial Board, and you'll just need to read the full editorial to get those three key points.... We're also trying to drive a good discussion of this topic over on the Education Front blog. Check it out here.

Second editorial will be about the second-to-be-revealed Texan of the Year finalists. Can't spill the beans prematurely here, but I will tell you this: Michael Landauer is writing this one on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Feel free to chime in about these an other topics in the comments section here.

No, those topics are not one and the same. I'm describing two separate editorials; each will appear on our page tomorrow.

The first one is about...well, you can no doubt guess... though we're hoping to offer a fresh splash of perspective in thinking about this much-chatted-about fall from grace. Bill McKenzie is crafting this essay on behalf of the Editorial Board.

The second editorial is about...well, you'll just HAVE to guess, because I'm not at liberty to disclose who will be the first-revealed finalist for Texan of the Year. I will tell you this much: The essay is written by Rodger Jones on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Feel free to use the comments section to offer suggestions about these or other topics you think we should be editorializing on....

These are just a few of the topics we'll address in editorials this weekend. Mike Hashimoto is crafting the White piece on behalf of the Editorial Board; Colleen McCain Nelson re tollway fares; Bill McKenzie re Gov. Perry and table money.

And there's lots more than that. Check it out in the paper!

Please feel free to let us know via the comments section here any suggestions you have for making these editorials sing (as one my early editors used to always say) or what important other topics you think we're overlooking.

And, also, have a great weekend!

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on these two topics. Please offer any suggestions in the comments section about how we can make these essays more persuasive/compelling or ideas about what topics you think we're overlooking.

OBAMA - We spell out why we're not in favor of the stimulus package President Barack Obama proposed in a speech this week at the Brookings Institution.... With the federal deficit ballooning and Obama proposing another way to spend billions of dollars, the president is developing a credibility problem.... Jim Mitchell writing on behalf of the the Editorial Board.

HUMAN - We comment on the human toll of TARP, an oft-overlooked and nearly always underappreciated aspect of the country's efforts to right the listing ship. Rod Dreher writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Our editorials tomorrow reflect on the outcome of yesterday's DISD runoff election and last weekend's tragedy in Terrell. Feel free to suggest in the comments section how we can make these good, compelling, persuasive editorials, or to offer ideas about what subjects you think we're missing....

DISD - We comment on the outcome of the two DISD runoffs. We're supportive of Bernadette Nutall (whom we recommended), but we have reservations about Bruce Parrott (we recommended Ellis). He has made pains to link himself to his wife, who once held the seat he'll occupy, and we caution him against following her lead of focusing energy on things were not productive.... We'll also note that the public perception of DISD took another hit this week, with the firing of Patricia Viramontes -- another in the seemingly endless examples of poor performance in the district.... Jim writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

TERRELL -- After three young girls were killed crossing the recently expanded State Highway 34 in Terrell, we question state transportation officials about the lack of posted speed limit signs and lighting. We question why the speed limit on new roads defaults to the maximum allowed by state law, rather than a lower limit. TxDOT should have a better system in place to anticipate high-accident areas, rather than requiring them -- and the accompanying injuries and perhaps deaths -- to occur before enacting safety measures. Rodger writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on plans for an exciting new carbon sequestration plant in West Texas and the upcoming congressional vote on the debt ceiling. Details below. Please feel free to use the comment section to suggest how we can be most persuasive on these issues....

ODESSA - We herald developments having to do with the nation's first clean coal ("carbon sequestration") plant in Odessa, Texas and explain why this is so exciting and so promising. We note that this is the company that former Mayor Laura Miller went to work for, and they apparently are the first to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to finding a way to continue to use coal to generate power but to do so in a cleaner way. Colleen writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

DEBT - Pegged to upcoming congressional vote to once again raise the debt ceiling to an unconscionable high. We urge leaders to couple this vote with the creation of an entitlement review commission, along the lines of what Sen. Cornyn and others are proposing.... Bill writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Here's what our editorials will be about for tomorrow. Please feel free to offer suggestions in the comments section....

GOV - We note with interest the official entry of White into the governor's race. He's clearly the best Democrat running for this office in some 15 years and having a strong two-party system in Texas should work to the state's benefit. We offer a bit of preliminary analysis around several points.... Bill writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

ELEX - Short bulletin-style edit reminding readers in key DISD districts to vote for Ellis and Nutall for reasons we've already published... Jim on behalf of Editorial Board.

TCU - It seem so unfair they're not in the BCS. We explain and call for reform... Colleen writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

The ongoing health care debate and what's happening on that front in North Texas, the mess at Dallas County Commissioners Court and the climate-change summit in Copenhagen are just some of the topics we're tackling with our editorials over the weekend.

Read the extended entry for more details and the names of the essay crafters. Also, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section about how we can make these editorials persuasive and what topics you think we might be overlooking.

Tomorrow's editorial will be our December installment in the long-running Ten Drops in a Bucket series documenting challenges and successes in southern Dallas. The editorial is being written by Colleen on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Feel free to use the comments section here to offer suggestions about this feature and how we can make it the best it can be.

We had a pretty full discussion this morning in our staff meeting re President Obama's speech last night and hammered out an editorial for tomorrow expressing our thoughts. We also previously had discussed what to say about Texas Speaker Straus' interim committee lists.

Click on the extended entry to read more details about these two editorials, which will be on tomorrow's Editorial Page. And feel free to comment on how you think we can make these editorials better.

We're working on editorials today that will publish on our pages tomorrow having to do with the latest high-profile applications of the new Castle Law and Iran's weekend snub of the United Nations with regard to nuclear fuel enrichment efforts.

Details and the names of the Editorial Board members crafting these essays are on the extended jump here. Please feel free to use the comments sections to offer suggestions about how we can be most persuasive on these topics and what issues you think we may be missing.

Rod announced yesterday that he's decided to trade Dallas for Philadelphia, TDMN for the John Templeton Foundation. It was a bittersweet day here as most of us struggled to balance our sadness about Rod's departure with our desire to share in his excitement about building something new for Templeton.

Rod told his Editorial Board colleagues of his decision at yesterday staff meeting. Shortly thereafter, I shared the announcement with the rest of The Dallas Morning News. Read on for a copy of that announcement:

Happy No Whining Day and Thanksgiving Eve to everybody!

We'll be offering a wide array of Thanksgiving toasts in our editorial tomorrow and then over the holiday weekend we're planning to editorialize on the latest developments regarding climate change, north Oak Cliff, Texan of the Year (deadline for nominations is Sunday!), Sarah Palin coming to Plano next week, etc. These are just some of the topics we'll be editorializing on over the next few days - barring any unexpected news developments that will require us to modify our plans.

Read on here for a bit more detail and to see who's writing what on behalf of the Editorial Board. Please feel free in the comments area to offer us suggestions about how we can be most persuasive and whether there are topics you think we're missing.....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the Democratic race for Texas governor, irresponsible approaches to transportation needs and ... whining....

Read on here for details about these three editorials and for the names of the writers crafting the essays. Feel free to offer suggestions in the comments section....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the Senate's vote on the health-care reform package over the weekend and last week's summit on food shortage and "food insecurity." In both cases we expect to have concrete suggestions for how best to go forward, how to improve the eminently improvable....

Read on here for more detail and for the names of the editorial writers crafting the essays. And feel free to offer in the "comments" section any suggestions you have about these editorials and/or reflections on topics you think we're missing.... (Full disclosure: We've penciled out our commentary plans for most of the week, since we're all hoping to take Thanksgiving off, but we're always open to suggestions and improvements....)

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the administration's plans re immigration reform and what we consider to be awful catch-and-release practices in Dallas County and elsewhere regarding illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes.

Please read on for detail about these two editorials. Feel free to comment in the comments section about how we can make these editorials as persuasive as possible. We're also interested in what topics of significance you think we're overlooking.

We're working on nearly a dozen editorials - long and short - to be published over the next three days. Three of the most intriguing have to do with newfound interest among urbanites in agriculture, a new plan for getting absentee landowners in southern Dallas to be more responsible with regard to maintaining their properties and some upcoming hearings about the importance of statewide water planning.

Read on here for more detail about these editorials and for the names of the editorial writers charged with crafting these essays.

Feel free to comment in the comments section about how we can be as persuasive as possible on these issues and what issues you think we're missing.

Our editorials tomorrow will comment assess the job David Kunkle has done as police chief in Dallas. In fact, it's already available online ... . We also comment on the latest chapter in the constables saga.

Read on here for more detail about these editorials and for the names of the editorial writers charged with crafting these essays. Feel free to comment in the comments section about how we can be as persuasive as possible on these issues and what issues you think we're missing.

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

Identify a couple of potential Texans of the Year not already on our draft blog list that you think should be considered this year.

Here are their responses:

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on inadequacies at the North Texas Transit Authority and Unify Southern Dallas efforts.

Read on for some additional detail about these editorials and the names of the Editorial Board members charged with crafting the essays. Please comment in the comments section with suggestions about how we can make these editorials as persuasive as possible and with any ideas you have about topics you think we're missing.

Good morning, North Texas. This morning, I have read your e-mails to the editor and learned that:

-- Many conclude that the shooting at Fort Hood was definitely a terrorist attack and reject the calls not to jump to conclusions.
-- Many don't like the health care bill passed by the House this weekend, but many do. How many each way? I can't really tell because a lot of the e-mails we received were clearly inspired by a call to write mass e-mails.
-- Several are concerned about Afghanistan and a few about Colombia.
-- Lots wrote about sports, and I forwarded these to the sports editor.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the ongoing debate within the White House regarding Afghanistan and the election of Cathie Adams as head of the Texas Republican Party.

Read on for details about these two editorials and the names of the writers crafting the essays. We invite your suggestions about how to make these editorials more persuasive and about what other topics you think we're missing.

We seek to dispell two myths in our editorials tomorrow - one that much of the code violation problem in southern Dallas is due to residents who are too poor to fix their houses or just don't care, and two that the Prop 2 on next week's statewide ballot will lead to a statewide property tax.

Read on for details about these topics and who's crafting the editorials. And let us know how we can make the commentary sharper, as well as what topics you think we're missing.

Our editorials tomorrow will support efforts at Dallas City Hall to impose basic ethics standards already accepted as best practices at most other major cities in America and laud efforts by a campus-based organization at the University of Texas-Arlington to right wrongs having to do with a Texas capital-crime case.

Read on for details and for the names of our editorial writers crafting the essays. And please let us know how you think we can be more persuasive on these points and what topics you think we're missing.

These are the two issues that will dominate our editorials tomorrow - the latest developments in the infamous Willingham death penalty case and the latest brouhaha over Dallas PD writing tickets for crimes that don't exist (though we're flabbergasted that somebody who's lived here legally for nearly 30 years still wouldn't trouble herself to learn the language).

Read on for more detail about these two editorials and who is writing them on behalf of the Editorial Board. Feel free to offer suggestions about how we can make these editorials more persuasive and what topics you think we're missing.

Our editorials for tomorrow will focus on what went wrong with DART re the Texas-OU game, etc., this past weekend and what this could mean for the future development of regional transit efforts, as well as what to make of last week's whole shameful Balloon Boy charade.

Please read on for details and the names of our essay authors. Feel free to offer your thoughts on these topics together suggestions here about how we can make these editorials better. And let us know what other issues you think we should be focusing on....

These are the two issues we'll deal with in our editorials tomorrow.

The first editorial has a nifty "virtual" helicopter tour that goes with it, so be sure to check it out. Details for both are in the extended entry here, so keep reading....and please be sure to share any suggestions you have about how we can make these editorials better and what other topics we should be dealing with.

Update Friday morning: We had to hold the land ownership editorial at the last minute last night to double check some aspects of it and so we scrambled to put an editorial we'd prepared for Saturday's page having to do with the county leadership vacuum on the Friday page, and to expand our planned commentary about Justice's passing to round out the editorial stack. Lots of action around here at 5:30ish yesterday.... Stay tuned for the land ownership editorial sometime later this month.....

These are the three topics we'll be addressing in our editorials on tomorrow's page. Please read on for details and for the names of the editorial board members charged with crafting the essays. Also, feel free to offer your suggestions here about how we can make these editorials as strategically persuasive as possible and what other topics you think we should consider later this week....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on Prop. 4 on this fall's constitutional election ballot (this editorial will be the first in our election-recommendation editorials leading up to the start of early voting on Oct. 18 for the Nov. 3 election), the tragedy of research into the causes of Gulf War syndrome potentially going unfinished, and the city of Dallas' budget and an unprofitable skating rink in southern Dallas.

Pls read on here to learn more about the details of these editorials and the writers involved. Feel free to offer suggestions about how to make these editorials better and about what other topics we should be tackling....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the issues of electrical dereg problems, TXI pulling its request for a tire-burning permit and the proposal to rename a portion of Central Expressway for labor hero Cesar Chavez.

Please go to the extended entry for details and the names of the essay authors. Comment here with suggestions for us to consider.....

Our editorials for tomorrow's paper will focus on today's verdict in the Dallas public corruption trial, the Obama-McChrystal dust-up last week and Letterman's admission of sexual relations with women who work for him.

Please read the extended entry for detail and for the names of our essay authors. And feel free to offer suggestions here about how to make these editorials better.

Did you catch James Traub's essay (The Distance Between "We Must" and "We Can") on the cover of the NYT's Week In Review section yesterday? It's one of the best analyses I've read recently about the competing foreign policy visions for the U.S. role in Afghanistan. The tension between foreign policy realists and idealists is well known. Traub does a good job in this piece of applying/translating those philosophies to the on-the-ground situation today.

(Quick personal disclosure: In general, I've always counted myself as a foreign policy realist. I regret, with the benefit of hindsight, that I allowed Colin Powell et al to sweep me past my instincts into supporting the Iraq war....)

To me, the most poignant portion of Traub's essay is the final three paragraphs. I'd quote them here, but it's really best if you reach them after reading the rest of the column....

Read the column and then answer its question: How grave a price would Americans pay if Afghanistan were lost to the Taliban? A "terrible misfortune" a la Vietnam? Or a "disaster" that would serve as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda?

Tell us why you answer this question the way you do and what course of action you think the U.S. should pursue....

Sometimes good writing is worth celebrating...just because. Two disparate pieces in the NYT today fall into this category - definitely worth reading just for the fun and enjoyment of the experience, whether you're actually in interested in the topics or not.

The first is Eric Wilson's Adventures in Washington State's Wonderland. I confess that my husband and I are big into camping and hiking (though of late we've cultivated what we call "comfort camping" in our little 17-foot, Texas born-and-bred Casita travel trailer - dry bed, hot water, etc.), but even if we weren't, I'm sure I'd find this essay entertaining. I'll bet you will too. The author's self awareness and sense of humor had me chuckling out loud at several points during the course of reading it.

On a more serious note - but not entirely - was Michael Kimmelman's essay, A Gallic Shrug, Preserve of Artistes , re reaction to Roman's Polanski's arrest in Switzerland last weekend on 30-year-old sex charges. Talk about letting people hang themselves by their own petard...priceless...
.

Our editorials for tomorrow will focus on high-speed rail across central Texas and textbooks for Social Studies classes.... Please contribute your thoughts here on this blog after you read the extended entry to get a bit more detail about our planned editorials and the names of the authors crafting these essays....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on how to deal with Iran and its growing nuclear threat and - at the opposite end of the topical spectrum - a special safety zone at Booker T. Washington school in downtown Dallas. We're particularly excited by the school zone issue because...well, you'll just have to read the editorial (or its summary line) to know why.

Please click on the extended entry for editorial details and for the names of the authors writing on behalf of the Editorial Board. Feel free to contact the authors directly via email if you've suggestions for the editorials. And let us know if you think there are other topics we're missing....

These are the two topics we're writing about on our editorial page tomorrow. Please click the extended entry to get more detail and to determine who on the board is crafting the essays.

Feel free to comment and/or email the essay authors with any ideas/information you have that you think we need to know.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the latest flap re ACORN community organizers and the efficacy of last weekend's march on Washington, D.C.

Please click the extended entry for detail and the names of the essay authors who are writing on behalf of the Editorial Board.

And feel free to post comments or email the authors directly with any constructive ideas or thoughts you'd like to share on these topics.

We'd hoped to be able to identify the "good guys" who helped strike a good arrangement among colleagues on the Dallas City Council with regard to cutting office budgets in keeping with the city's overall need to shave $190 million bucks from the city's overall budget. But that deal was unraveling last week as we began crafting the editorial and so now we're left with bemoaning the lack of any serious Council office cutting at all.

What a shame.

Our editorials tomorrow will deal with this issue as well as movement in the U.S. Senate on legislation designed to assure that the public will retain its ability to benefit from newspaper-backed investigations that reveal wrongdoing (i.e. the number of sex offenders as staffers in a correctional institution for juveniles, etc.) at taxpayer expense.

Click on the extended entry for more detail about these editorials and the names of the authors who are writing on behalf of the Editorial Board. And feel free to email the authors direct or post comments with your ideas about these topics.

Our editorials tomorrow will deal with sex offenders, cultural civility and Norman Borlaug. Please click on the extended entry to read details and the names of the essay authors - and to offer thoughts of your own that you think we should consider.

Our editorials tomorrow focus on those three topics. Read the extended entry for more detail and for the name of the author of each essay.

Our editorials for tomorrow focus on the AG's decision to hire a special prosecutor to pursue alleged torture abuse within the CIA during the Bush administration and Ted Kennedy's passing.

Read the extended entry for detail and essay authors.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on a key development in the education debate, Appeals Court Judge Sharon Keller's wouldn't-do-anything-different comment and Jerry Jones' scoreboard.

Read the extended entry for details and essay authors.

I was unexpectedly called out of state recently and so have fallen behind in my blogging. I hope to get back into the saddle here fairly quickly....

Since you can already find the editorials we wrote today for tomorrow's Editorial page online, there's no sense my posting their summary lines here at this late hour - as I generally do each morning. So instead, I'll post a link to an Ask the Editor column which summarizes our experiences this year with the third annual Points Summer Book Club.

The column was just posted. Please read it to the end. We ask for some specific suggestions from our readers and we'd love to hear from you. Enjoy!

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on several critical tasks ahead for Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott when it comes to assuring accountability in our public education system and on the long-awaited release of the two American journalists held illegally in North Korea (and at one point, sentenced to 12 years' hard labor!).

Before we get to the details of these topics, let me take just a minute here to reiterate the purpose behind the daily Topics-of-the-Day post. It's really three-fold.

First, we want you to know what we're working on so that if you've important information to add, you know who to contact to share it. That's why I always list in the extended entry the name of the editorial writer working on the essay on behalf of the Editorial Board. (I usually post these earlier in the day, before noon.) You should feel free to email the authors directly with any important, pertinent info.

A second reason for telling you want we're working on is so that if you've got a better idea - if you think we're missing something important - you can let us know. The best way to do that is by filing a comment at the end of these posts. Copies of all comments to my posts are automatically routed into my email bucket, so I see them either that way or when I check the blog myself.

Third, we hope that by giving you a heads up about what we're working on you'll want to read the full editorial, either online later today or in the paper first thing in the morning. Yes, this is a shameless plug for readership. That shouldn't surprise anybody.

So for more detail on the education and North Korea editorials - together with their authors - please read the extended jump.

Our editorials tomorrow focus on the Dallas City Council's consideration of turning the Dallas Zoo over to the Dallas Zoological Society as part of a cost-cutting move (and for other reasons) and the significance of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's latest proposal about shipping the homeless out of New York City.

Read the extended entry for details and essay authors.

Our editorials tomorrow will express frustration that so many schools seem to be ignoring well-formed guidlines designed to guard against the dangers that can befall summer football practices in scorching heat and support for the concept of outlawing texting while driving.

Read this extended entry for details and essay authors.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on some intriguing policy developments with regard to biofuels that we think are very much supporting as well as the need for better quality TV shows....

Read the extended entry for details and essay authors....

I'm way late with these today - messy day! - but our editorials tomorrow have to do with the Dallas City Council's amazing intransigence when it comes to leading by example and being frugal with their budgets (Allen, Margolin, Hunt among the admirable exceptions) and what's missing from the US-China talks.

You'll just have to read the full editorials in the paper tomorrow for details (or online now; I think Mike just posted them), since I figure it's too late in the day now for there to be much value in my going much further down this path here. Suffice it to say that Colleen wrote the first on behalf of the Editorial Board; Jim the the second on behalf of the board.....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the skirmish reported last weekend between the feds and UT-Southwestern over research money re Gulf War syndrome and the city of Lewisville's latest crackdown on day laborer pick-up points.

Read the extended entry for details and essay authors.

Check out the interesting discussion of the book The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, by Vanity Fair correspondent Bryan Burrough, going on over on our special book club blog.

And you can register to attend the special Q&A with Burrough that Points is sponsoring this Saturday at the Dallas Arboretum over on the book club blog, too!

Our editorials for tomorrow deal with the latest feuding among this generation's "Big Rich" and about how the state simply must get off the "hamster wheel" of poor staffing at state schools leading to abuses at state schools leading to poor staffing at state schools leading to abuses at state schools.... and so on. It's unconscionable.

Read on in the extended entry for details and essay authors.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on some needed reforms with regard to Dallas County constables and their towing/impoundment practices as well as President Obama's news conference yesterday about health care and what we think needs to happen next.

Read on here in the extended entry for details and essay authors.

How's that for a combination? Those are the two topics our editorials tomorrow will focus on. Read the extended entry for details and essay authors.....

Our editorials tomorrow will offer suggestions regarding the city of Dallas' plans to whack the budgets of libraries and parks, as well as with regard to President Obama and Congress' plans to reform health care.

Read on for details and essay authors....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the two issues cited in the title above.

Go to the extended entry for details and authors of the essays.

Last week I noted Steve Blow's column about Big D's biggest celebrities and used that as a segue to sharing an interesting lunchtime conversation I'd had with two women executives. We started speculating about who the most powerful woman in Dallas is... and quickly observed how there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus around the answer to that question. Here's a link to that post, where I also promised - in the interest of gender fairness - to later pose the same question about men.

Well, later is now. So here it is: Who do you think is the most powerful man in Dallas?
To read my answer, go to the extended entry.

I was intrigued by columnist Steve Blow's column this morning about Big D's biggest celebrities. These are always fun themes to explore; everybody has different ideas. Some of Steve's picks on the list are obvious (Bush) but others less so (Jayne Mansfield).

Which reminded me of a lunchtime conversation I had with two women executives recently. One of them wondered aloud about who the most powerful woman in Dallas is. The other one said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison without hesitation. I noted the senator's stature, but said I wondered if somebody from another field wielded more power. Maybe the president of a bank or corporation, leader of a prominent non-profit, etc.? I confess no other names leapt immediately to the tip of my tongue.

Which brings me to my query for you, dear readers. Who do you think is the most powerful woman in Dallas. (And later, if you like, to avoid accusations of gender bias, we can discuss the same question with regard to the most powerful man.)

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the 10-page special report about Texas in the most recent issue of the Economist magazine and on some steps being taken by Dallas DISD to get its financial and accounting houses in order.

Read the extended entry for details and essay authors....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on state failure to provide unemployment benefits to qualified recipients, the need for tougher regulation by the FAA to guard against holes blowing open airplanes and Gov. Perry's appointment last week of a new chair of the State Board of Education.

Read the extended entry for details and essay authors.

Our editorials on tomorrow's page will focus on Gov. Perry's much-heralded border camera project and Al Gonzales going to Texas Tech to teach.

Read extended entry for details and essay authors....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the Obama administration's efforts to toughen food-safety regulations and what's most important to keep in mind with regard to the release of the latest traffic-congestion study.

Read on in the extended entry for details and writers....

Our editorial tomorrow will be an update on our yearlong-plus "10 Drops" campaign to get things fixed in southern Dallas that have been allowed to decay, go vacant or otherwise be an impediment to progress.

We expect to be able to take one or two "drops" off our list this time as successes - joy! rapture! - which will make room for adding another "drop" or two that need work. Colleen writes these on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Update at 4:10 p.m.: Turns out we can't take any new "drops" off our list after all. The edit you'll read outlines less progress than we'd hoped for. My apologies for the confusion.

Our editorials tomorrow will outline two controversial topics.

First, we'll suggest that the state's current leadership has handed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison a huge wedge issue for the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, what with their collective failure to develop sound and progressive transportation policy. The question is whether KBH will be able to exploit the opening.

And second, we'll note how the city of Dallas tried admirably to make its furlough policy, painful for many, as palatable as possible.

Read on for details....

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on AT&T's fleet conversion to natural gas and the re-emergence of the Pickens Plan, as well as what we hope for with regard to Palin's post-gubernatorial future. Read the extended entry for details....

Today Newspapers have shut down. Details here.

Sad. It looks like this leaves the Best Southwest edition of neighborsgo as the only weekly newspaper covering that area.

Our editorials for tomorrow have to do with fireworks traditions around the Fourth of July and policies having to do with suspects fleeing from the cops.... Details in the extended entry....

I stumbled across this story in The Week magazine the other night. (It was originally reported in the Los Angeles Times.) Talk about inspirational!

It's a story about how one little homeless girl - with much of the world's deck seemingly stacked against her, who attended something like 12 schools in 12 years - demonstrated almost unimaginable maturity and focus and earned a full-ride scholarship to Harvard. Reading it will be bring a lump to your throat and reinvigorate your belief in the Power of One. It will also might re-inspire some belief in our public education system.

It also leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and I don't want to pretend that just because Khadijah could succeed the system is somehow OK. Clearly, she's the exception and we wish her sort of success were more the rule.

All that said, just read the story. It's pretty amazing - and impressive. Go Khadijah!

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the important progress made this week in Dallas County with regard to the inland port and in Iraq with regard to the pullout of U.S. military forces from urban areas.

Read the extended entry for details....

Here's an interesting story from Runner's World about Palin and her love of running, about how sweat is her sanity.... We've several long-distance runners in this department (as well as a couple of pretty serious tennis players and cyclists).

So here's my question: Would it matter if the Obama-Palin race were a marathon or a 10K?

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on the start of the special legislative session and the significance of what's happening in Honduras. There are some interesting ironies and subtexts to both....

Read the extended entry for details.

Our editorials tomorrow will focus on last week's sad news about Paul Quinn College losing its accreditation and this morning's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Ricci case.

For details, read on....

Our editorials tomorrow focus on several recent rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States and an inspirational program dedicated to preparing kids to succeed in college.

Read the jump here for details and essay authors.

Our editorial stack tomorrow contains our best thinking on the topics of charter-school quality and presidential helicopter updates.

Read the extended entry for details and the planned essay's authors.

Our editorial stack in tomorrow's newspaper will be dominated by commentary about what the U.S. should do with regard to Iran's disputed election and what to make of Gov. Perry's perplexing vetoes.

Read the extended entry for details and the names of the Editorial Board members crafting the essays on behalf of the Editorial Board.

Later this morning, Michael is going to post links to some of the best stuff on our five new Area of Emphasis blogs. These are blogs we've set up in recent weeks to drive discussion of issues and policies key to five areas of priority to this Editorial Board.

Those AOEs are Transit, Education Reform, Bridging Dallas' north-south gap, Energy/Environment and Death Penalty Reform.

To read more about the thinking behind these new blogs, go here to read my latest Ask The Editor column on this topic.

Most important: Don't be shy. Please be sure to chime in the discussions.

Our editorials on tomorrow's page will focus on our expectations in three key categories regarding various proposals to reform the U.S. health care system and why it's critical that the U.S. live up to its NAFTA obligations - even Mary Kay is demanding change here.

Read the extended entry for details and writers.

Our editorials tomorrow have to do with Obama's just-announced regulatory plan and what to read into Netanyahu's recent comments about Israel and Palestine.

Read the extended entry for detail about our commentary and who's writing it on behalf of the Editorial Board....

I just finished reading the new book, The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, by former Wall Street Journal reporter Bryan Burrough. It's a wry, hard-knuckle, finely woven tale of the Big Four oil barons who shaped much of what Texas is today.

"If Texas Oil had a Mount Rushmore, their faces would adorn it," Burrough writes. "A good ol' boy. A scold. A genius. A bigamist. Known in their heyday as the Big Four, they became the founders of the greatest Texas family fortunes, headstrong adventurers who rose from nowhere to take turns being acclaimed America's wealthiest man."

It's a good read, and one I'd highly recommend. In fact, Points Editor Nicole Stockdale has chosen this book to be the centerpiece of our Third Annual Points Summer Book Club project. Details on that to come shortly, but start reading the book now to get a head start on a special weeklong DMN-sponsored blog discussion beginning July 27.

We discussed the book briefly at a staff meeting earlier this week. I asked how many Editorial Board members could rattle off the Big Four. Bill McKenzie got it right. For detail here, you'll have to read into the extended entry....

But first, I want to go on record here asking each of my colleagues - and our readers, of course - this question:

What's the best book about Texas in your opinion and what makes it so good?

Read into the extended entry for Editorial Board member responses and then feel free to comment away!

Our editorial stack tomorrow will include our commentary re Sen. Cornyn's emergence from Texas' junior senator to national leader and concerns we have about the manner in which Texas A&M University President Murano's departure has been (mis)handled.

For details about our thinking on these matters and the editorial writers charged with crafing our essays, read the extended entry here.

Good discussions in our staff meeting this morning. We got a good start on planning our editorial commentary for the week.

Tomorrow's editorial page will feature our best thoughts about the outcome of the weekend's local elections in two southern Dallas city council districts and what might become a silver lining to the disappointing outcome to last week's elections in Iran.

Read the extended entry for detail.

Apropos of nothing, I'm just pleased to note that in the last week or so I've stumbled upon three new (or almost new) and fabulous restaurants the central-southern area of Dallas. Each is in a struggling area and each deserves to succeed. Check them out and post here if you agree. Vote with your feet - and taste buds.

The three restaurants? They are Lemongrass in Deep Ellum (Remember East Wind? The owner is back, same location as before on Elm Street, even better than before, with a lovely patio); Bolsa Restaurant in Oak Cliff near (but not in) the Bishop Arts District; and Screen Door at the far east end of the up-and-coming arts district near downtown.

Read the extended entry for brief detail about each....

A willingness to take on tough challenges clearly runs through the Raggio family. Many longtime Dallasites know the name Louise Raggio, who as a young lawyer in the 1950s took on the establishment and spent decades winning significant rights for women, who in Texas at the time had virtually no property rights and needed their husband's signature to conduct nearly all manner of business.

(Check out our editorial for Monday commemorating Louise Raggio on her 90th birthday

Now her son, Grier Raggio, is scaling a political mountain of his own. He's decided to challenge U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions next year for his congressional seat. It's a tough assignment. Republican Sessions represents a North Dallas-based district that includes the Park cities and hasn't been seriously challenged in recent elections. (He beat Democrat Eric Roberson 57 percent to 41 percent last year.)

But Raggio, a well respected family law lawyer, will work hard. He's a graduate of Harvard College and active in a variety of civic and Democratic party causes. His wife is Judge Lorraine Raggio of the 162nd Civil District Court. Neither Grier nor his mother has ever been known to shrink from a challenge....

Lack of foresight forced us to change our Memorial Day vacation plans, and I'm glad it did. Camping at Benbrook didn't pan out; all parks were booked solid by the time we thought to think about reservations. So we pursued another longstanding goal instead: Checking out the Bush and LBJ libraries in College Station and Austin, respectively - in our beloved 17-foot Casita travel trailer, of course.

These are the third and fourth notches in our presidential libraries belt. (There are 12 presidential libraries in 10 states; we'd like to see them all.) We've seen enough now to be able to offer reasonable critiques. Here's hoping the gurus behind the Bush 43 library-to-be are spending a lot of time assessing what works and what doesn't at these other properties as they put together plans for the library at SMU.

For a list of suggestions, read on in the extended entry....

Interesting story this morning about the political movement around the Waxman bill in Congress designed to help shape the nation's energy and environmental policies. The article by Dave Michaels here describes a number of concessions being made to various industries when it comes to regulating greenhouse emissions - except not to the oil industry.

We published an editorial earlier this week detailing our thoughts about the Waxman bill. We praised the bill as a good conversation starter and noted which provisions we thought made the most sense. We also highlighted our disappointment about the lack of any mention of nuclear, however, and noted other concerns about the bill's lack of specificity.

Well, the specificity seems to be emerging and some of it is troubling....