DMN INVESTIGATES

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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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."

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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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The financial news coming out of Dallas County's public hospital last fall left an impression that money was tight.

Parkland Memorial eliminated 200 jobs and laid off 100 workers. Employees who remained only received modest merit raises, and top officials volunteered not to take any. And the hospital increased residents' taxes to pay for a new $1.2 billion campus.

That impression sure seems wrong today. The News' Sherry Jacobson reports that 27 of Parkland's executives received bonuses over the holidays -- presumably the same ones who'd months earlier declined merit raises. These bonuses ranged between 19 percent and 31 percent per person, and totaled nearly $2 million.

I should warn you against calling these bonuses. Incentive is the preferred noun, Parkland's board chairwoman says. That's because the executives met job-performance goals -- like reducing the hospital's hideously long emergency room waits, blamed in the death of one man in 2008.

To those improvements, I'm sure everyone will say, "Job well done." But will everyone agree with bonuses incentives that are worth -- as the chart I posted on the jump shows -- more than some people make in a year?

Do you have thoughts on the executive pay? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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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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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?

Remember the little boy pictured at right?

His name was Darrell "Tre" Singleton III. On a hot day in September, his mom left him in a vehicle while she worked. She apparently did this deliberately. He was a little over a year old, and he roasted to death.

Child Protective Services had known for a long time about problems with the mom, Keashia Matthews (below). She lost custody in the 1990s of her first two kids because of abuse and neglect. And a few months before Darrell died, CPS determined that she had been leaving him and two young sisters home alone.

Matthews promised to get day care. The case was closed. Didn't work out too well, did it?

So CPS set out to review its handling of the matter. I've been asking about results since October. "Nothing yet" has been the standard reply.

Today spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales acknowledged that the review was done but refused to discuss the findings.

"Any issues identified in reviews are handled internally," she told me in an e-mail. "If there are any policy changes as a result of the review of the case, I'll certainly let you now."

I asked Marissa to explain what right she had under state law to withhold this information. That was a couple of hours ago. I'm still waiting for an answer.

Matthews remains free on bond. The initial injury-to-a-child charge against her has been changed to murder.

She has told Channel 8 that a person who was supposed to pick up her son never showed up. "I never expected him to be there all day," she said.

Military prosecutors want a formal psychiatric review of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan (right) to determine whether he can stand trial for the Fort Hood massacre, we learned late last night.

Read our story for some preliminary discussion of the Army's possible motives.

We're working on a follow-up story now. Do you have questions you'd like to see asked and answered? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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The air near a North Texas natural gas drilling operation had over five times more benzene than the state considers safe for short-term exposure, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports today.

A Texas Commission on Environmental Quality official told the paper that the level "is the equivalent of a person sniffing a can of gasoline." Benzene can cause leukemia and other disorders.

The air sample was taken near a tank that collects drilling byproducts. The tank was described as being seven miles west of the tiny Denton County town of DISH (right) -- near the Denton-Wise county line, in other words, and a few miles north of the Tarrant County border.

DISH commissioned its own tests and posted results on its Web site.

TCEQ says it doesn't know how widespread the problem is and wants to do more tests. Drilling has become quite common in the Barnett Shale gas field, sometimes very near homes.

Drilling companies say they support more testing. Some have questioned whether their wells emit hydrocarbon vapors.

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

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Channel 4 has a truly sad story up about a North Texas boy who killed himself recently after classmates teased him about facial scars and a hearing problem.

Hunter Layland (right) was 15 and a freshman at Cleburne High School, where he played on the football team. The scars were the result of a car accident when he was a toddler.

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young people. And bullying significantly increases the likelihood that a child will think about committing suicide, federal researchers say.

Are schools doing enough to deal with bullies? Are parents? Send me an e-mail if you have a tip. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Federal officials took some responsibility yesterday for widespread public anger over the distribution of swine flu vaccine.

"Whether we meant to or not, I think we led expectations of availability to be higher than they have been," said Anne Schuchat (right), who heads the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "And so that, I think, can lead to frustration."

Schuchat testified before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which reported her acknowledgment in a news release.

Committee chairman Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said the CDC initially "estimated that almost half the U.S. population would be in a priority group to receive the vaccine. However, an advisory group also generated a secondary and more limited list of those who were most at risk in case vaccine availability fell short of what was planned.

"This is exactly what happened, but states, counties, and cities were allowed to target whatever population they chose for vaccination. This has led to understandable public frustration and anger, mixed with confusion over just who should get vaccinated.... I worry that we are undermining confidence, generally, in the public health system, and that people most at risk are not only not getting the vaccine but have stopped trying."

The New York Times covered the hearing but barely touched on this issue.

Dallas County's health department is trying a new vaccine-distribution strategy with pharmacies, The Dallas Morning News' Jeffrey Weiss reports today.

Do you have a tip about swine flu and the vaccine? 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.

Here it is mid-November, and the state health department's Web site still doesn't say which private health-care providers have received swine flu vaccine. See the "Vaccine Locations" section on this page? There's no link -- just the words "Coming Soon."

Coming soon? Now that about 22 million people have gotten sick around the country and 3,900 have died?

The Dallas Morning News got tired of waiting for the state to provide data. So reporter Jeffrey Weiss wrote an open-records request for vaccine shipment information. What resulted is our own searchable database of providers in the Dallas area who are supposed to have the shots and mist. Check it out.

Do you have a tip about swine flu? The Department of State Health Services? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Here are the numbers of swine flu vaccine doses that state health officials have allocated to Dallas-area counties, per 100 residents:

Dallas County: 8.3
Rockwall County: 7.5
Tarrant County: 6.5
Collin County: 5.6
Kaufman County: 5.1
Denton County: 4.6
Ellis County: 4.6
Parker County: 3.2
Wise County: 2.9
Johnson County: 2.0

Dallas County's rate is also higher than that of major urban counties elsewhere in the state:

Travis County (Austin): 7.7
Harris County (Houston): 7.1
Bexar County (San Antonio): 6.1

The allocation figures only cover shipments to private health-care providers. They have received the vast majority of vaccine in Texas.

Want to check my math or look up another county's allocation? Click on the "Doses by County" link on this Department of State Health Services site. Then look up the county population total on the U.S. Census site.

State health officials say they consider several factors when allocating vaccine, including its current scarcity, providers' requests and the need for geographic balance.

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

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You're a high-risk patient. You need a swine flu vaccine. Your doctor has none. Where can you get help?

We're hearing this anguished question over and over again. The Texas Department of State Health Services knows the answer -- and isn't sharing it.

Its Web site has the obligatory FAQ section, but this question isn't on the list.

Another section of the site is labeled "H1N1 vaccine distribution," with categories for allocations by county, to local health departments and to private providers. But there are no links -- only the words "coming soon."

Early this morning, my colleague Jeff Weiss asked state health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams: "Why does the state not post on its Web site the names of every provider that you've ordered vaccine shipped to and the amount of vaccine that you have had shipped there to date?"

Her only responses:
* "We are working on a county-by-county list of totals. Hopefully we will be able to post those numbers soon."
* "Providers receiving vaccine at this point are getting amounts to serve their own patients. They are reaching out to their own high-risk patients and are quickly exhausting their supplies, which are limited right now due to national production."

So all most people know is what we've been able to figure out so far: Dallas County's health department is having a mass clinic tomorrow, aimed at high-risk people without insurance. And Farmers Branch entrepreneur Jeff Vitt (right) is selling vaccines for $20 a pop to anyone who walks through his door.

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:

The Associated Press has a good national roundup story out on low-risk people getting the swine flu vaccine.

"Public health officials don't want to be vaccine police. Many don't turn anyone away who wants the vaccine, though some locations are tougher than others," the AP reports.

The Tarrant County Health Department today is turning away people (right) who aren't in the high-risk groups, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Meanwhile, check out the comments on my swine-flu post from earlier today. Many people clearly are extremely frustrated with how vaccine distribution has been handled.

Flu Shots of America clinic owner Jeff Vitt tells The Dallas Morning News that he has received 11,570 doses of swine flu vaccine. That's more than the Dallas County Health Department has.

And Vitt's clinic (right) has been vaccinating anybody willing to pay $20 -- not just those in highest-risk groups who are supposed to be first in line. They are, according to the Centers for Disease Control, "pregnant women, people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age, health care and emergency medical services personnel with direct patient contact, children 6 months through 4 years of age, and children 5 through 18 years of age who have chronic medical conditions."

The state health department says it is investigating. Vitt says he has done nothing wrong.

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

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There were no clear procedures for monitoring a North Texas soldier who was known to be unraveling mentally before he allegedly killed five colleagues at a counseling center in Iraq, according to a new military report.

Sgt. John Russell is accused of the deadliest soldier-vs.-soldier attack in the six-year war.

His father, Wilburn Russell of Sherman (right), told The Dallas Morning News back in May that macho military culture inhibits men from seeking help: "If a guy actually goes to the clinic and asks for help, they think of him as a wimp, and he's got something wrong with him and try to get rid of him."

But the military report also notes: "There is no clear procedure ... for managing soldiers identified as 'at risk' for suicide or the proper way to conduct suicide watch."

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

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Here is a look at some of the interesting public-interest stories from over the weekend:

1. Frisco officials worry that expansion of Exide Technologies' battery recycling plant could increase lead pollution, The News' Matthew Haag and Valerie Wigglesworth report. As it now stands, lead emissions from the plant (shown right) make Collin County "one of only 18 counties nationwide not expected to meet new, more stringent air-quality standards." Exide has told the state that production increases won't raise emissions.

2. The investigation into two Dallas County constables gets weirder. Last week, Dallas County Judge Jim Foster ordered records seized from one of the two, Jaime Cortes. But, wait: Those must be returned after a judge sided with Cortes, who argued Foster lacked authority to take the materials.

3. The Catholic Diocese of Dallas is paying out $4.65 million to five more abuse victims, The News' Sam Hodges tells us.

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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.

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.

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The liberal Center for American Progress is calling out Texas lawmakers who voted against the $819 billion stimulus in January - and are now asking the Obama administration for $3 billion in stimulus funds to bolster the budget of NASA, a major Texas employer.

This comes on the heels of a September audit that questioned the use of federal tax dollars by another Texan who scorned the stimulus: Gov. Rick Perry. The federal audit found that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission under Perry had billed the Medicaid program for nearly $300,000 in care and prescription drugs it shouldn't have given legal and illegal immigrants.

Public Citizen's lawsuit against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, filed Tuesday in Travis County District Court, cites arguments identical to those that the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed in a 2007 federal case.

That case was Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. Public Citizen also added some twists to reflect Texas law.

"We just took a page out of Massachusetts v. EPA, said Tom "Smitty" Smith, Public Citizen's Texas director.

In brief, the suit says the law requires Texas regulators to take action to curb any harmful emissions, including carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases -- harmful, the argument goes, because global warming brings a host of problems for human and ecological health.

The TCEQ has declined to do so, and Gov. Rick Perry, who appoints the state agency's commissioners, strongly opposes regulating CO2.

TCEQ Chairman Bryan Shaw, Ph.D., issued a statement in response to Public Citizen's suit. Here it is, in full:

"The science on global warming is far from settled. Neither Congress nor the EPA have been able to promulgate final rules on greenhouse gas regulation. What is certain is that if done incorrectly, CO2 regulations will impose great costs on Texas, without any guarantee of a measurable environmental benefit. Reducing CO2 in Texas will do nothing to lower CO2 globally, but will have the effect of sending U.S. jobs to China and India."

President Obama has vowed to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud as part of a proposed overhaul of the nation's health care system. A federal report released on Wednesday identified yet another area where investigators should start digging.

The report from the federal Government Accountability Office identified possibly widespread fraud in Texas and other states involving purchases of controlled substances under Medicaid, the federal-state medical program for the poor. Among the interesting Texas tidbits was a case of "doctor shopping" by a Medicaid beneficiary who used prescriptions from more than 70 doctors to obtain 4,700 pills of Vicodin from 40 pharmacies.

In our recent "Cost of Care" series on why health care is so expensive in North Texas, I touched on fraud in the home health industry. Medicare and Medicaid are lucrative targets for fraudsters. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General recently reported that state Medicaid fraud control units across the country recovered $1.3 billion in fiscal 2008.

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.

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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The EPA said Wednesday it will conduct an administrative review of the controversial standard for ozone that the agency, under the previous president, adopted in 2008.

Translation: The Obama administration thinks its predecessor dropped the ball on the air pollutant that aflicts the most Americans -- residents of Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas' other big metro areas included.

The 2008 standard allows no more than 75 parts per billion of ozone, which cooks up when the sun heats industrial and vehicle emissions, in the air you breathe. That was lower than the previous standard from 1997, which allowed no more than 80 ppb (actually, 85, with rounding of the numbers.)

That might look like a significant step forward for clean air, and that's how the Bush administration portrayed it. The problem, however, was that the EPA's external science advisors, recruited mostly from universities and private research groups, unanimously said anything more than 60-70 ppb would endanger public health.

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.

Do you have a tip about doctor discipline? The Texas Medical Board? Other professional disciplinary issues? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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Sometimes the best stuff in The Dallas Morning News is in the briefs. Read on through today's Regional Roundup for three of my favorites:

1. Remember Lori Bailey (top right)? She used to be in the paper all the time as Dallas FBI office spokeswoman. Now she's gone -- and on probation for DWI after a wrong-way crash on the Dallas North Tollway.

2. Remember Jose Merced? Probably not. He's the Santeria priest who sued the city of Euless over its ban on sacrificing goats (lower right) and other critters. And he has won a major round in his freedom-of-religion court case.

3. Someone's going to have a doozy of a time explaining how this happened: An Eagle Mountain Elementary School third-grader slipped out of school on a bathroom break, found an unlocked employee's van with the keys inside and went on a five-mile joyride.

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

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Three readers wrote to Problem Solver asking if something could be done about the fact that animals are euthanized at the Garland shelter with carbon monoxide gas.

Roughly one-third of all animals leave alive from the Garland shelter each year. That average is similar to the national shelter average, but poor when compared to neighboring Plano's live placement rate of 80 percent.

I requested an interview with Garland Animal Services manager Diana Oats but was referred to the city's public information office. I then filed a Texas Open Records Act request for data involving the shelter's advisory board, as well as the shelter's operations and budget during the past three years.

For the thousands of animals that are euthanized each year, shelter staff estimates that carbon monoxide gas is used between 60 percent and 70 percent of the time. Lethal injection is used for puppies or kittens under four months old and for dogs or cats with obvious respiratory distress, according to Jason Chessher, deputy director of Garland's health department.

When new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson came to Dallas this spring on a getting-to-know-you trip, she signaled that she had problems with the way Texas was handling air pollution permits. Today the EPA showed that it's serious about demanding some Texas reforms.

The agency said it was nixing three Texas permitting programs. The ones in the crosshairs deal with permits for industrial facilities. Basically, the EPA says the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hasn't been doing enough to make sure companies don't dress up major changes to their plants, which trigger much more intense regulatory scrutiny, as minor ones that get less attention. Aspects of Texas' programs don't meet the requirements of the federal Clean Air Act, the EPA said.

In a statement, TCEQ Executive Director Mark Vickery said the programs the EPA targeted "have proven to be extremely successful in the reduction of air emissions in Texas." Vickery said he'll work to resolve the differences, but he also poked the federal agency by saying that "our environment is too important to be a casualty of the bureaucratic process."

Difficult questions about pregnancy linger in my mind from the weekend papers, even though the newsprint's already on the recycling pile:

1. Why does Texas lead the nation in repeat teen pregnancy? Bob Garrett of The Dallas Morning News' Austin bureau looked at several factors in Monday's paper. Among them: Only Utah and the Lone Star State require state-funded clinics to get parents' consent before giving their teens birth control. And Utah at least tells young people on a state Web site to go to Planned Parenthood if they don't want to involve their parents.

2. Have you ever thought about what you'd do if you were pregnant and knew the baby was doomed? Over the past two Sundays, my colleagues Lee Hancock and Sonya Hebert traced one family's journey in words, photos and video. If thus stuff doesn't haunt you, have someone check your pulse.

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

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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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Today's Hot Links focus on some lurking dangers:

1. A new study raises questions about the promotional campaign for a cervical cancer vaccine that Gov. Rick Perry unsuccessfully tried to mandate for Texas girls. Gardasil manufacturer Merck funded messages by medical groups that "did not address the full complexity of the issues surrounding the vaccine and did not provide balanced recommendations on risks and benefits," the study says. It was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

2. Lake-wrecking zebra mussels are emerging in North Texas, WFAA-TV (Channel 8) reports. What is to be done about these little pests, which can clog public water-supply pipes?

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

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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.

Several interesting items from the weekend. The first three we'll bring you have a trend in common: peculiar financial transactions involving public officials.

1. What is going on in the offices of Dallas County constables Jamie Cortes and Derick Evans? The News' Kevin Krause brings us another in an increasing list of stories on their activities, which always seem to involve vehicles or a towing company they're employing.

2. Dallas' Mexican consulate office is under investigation for financial improprieties, The News' Alfredo Corchado tells us. Similar allegations arose a few months ago. Trend or coincidence?

3. Tarrant County College trustee Robyn Medina Winnett was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting, the Star-Telegram reports. It's the latest unflattering headline for TCC's administration.

4. Haven't heard from former U.S. House Majority Leader and Texas' own Dick Armey in a while. Talking Points Memo's Muckraker blog explores how Armey's lobbying firm apparently received blowback from his advocacy group's role in organizing health-care protests.

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

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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.

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

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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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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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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.

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."

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.

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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.

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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.

I reported last month that after getting a congressional skewering, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a clumsily named arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was planning another look at possible health effects of Midlothian's industrial air pollution.

The ATSDR says it began that effort on Monday. Researchers from the University of North Texas will be calling a random sample of Midlothian residents. From those, the agency is looking for 100 people to agree to longer interviews next week.

The goal is to get the public's suggestions in advance on how the federal agency and the Texas state health department should conduct the new air pollution review. That in itself is a shift from past practice. Another change: ATSDR officials at first said the health of local animals wasn't relevant to looking at local pollution. This time, animals will play a role.

Today's Hot Links are about two things you cannot escape in life: death and databases.

1. Here's the most interesting proposal I've heard in a while: a a national database of undiagnosed diseases. The idea was inspired by the mysterious death of a suburban Austin boy named Charles August "Cal" Long, the Austin American-Statesman reports. It summarizes the goal this way: "doctors and scientists could describe symptoms, exchange information and compile data that could be used to solve medical mysteries." Two Texas legislators recently introduced a bill in Congress -- Rep. Michael Burgess, who is a physician from North Texas, and Rep. John Carter of Central Texas, who long ago lost one of his own children to an unknown disease.

2. The Social Security Administration is not only paying benefits to the dead, it's also denying aid to living folks who are misclassified as deceased. Here's the inspector general's report on which McClatchy Newspapers based its story.

Do you have a tip about death, or databases, or another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

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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.

You'd better run for your life if you can, because here come today's Hot Links:

1. Another day, another long high-speed chase: This morning a woman eluded Dallas-area police officers for almost two hours. Yesterday a man did it for about 90 minutes. Dallas police themselves stayed out of the way -- their tight restrictions on speeding got even tighter last year after an officer racing to a disturbance without lights or siren killed a 10-year-old boy named Cole Berardi (lower right). Dallas County constable Michael Gothard explained in The Dallas Morning News today why he still believes in risky pursuits: "If everybody quits chasing people, then everybody's just going to run."

2. The latest reason to fear Veterans Affairs hospitals: A doctor who treated prostate cancer patients delivered faulty radiation implants in 92 of 116 cases, The New York Times reports. This comes right on the heels of the scandal over dirty colonoscopy equipment, which apparently infected patients with AIDS and hepatitis. Here's a full report from the VA's inspector general.

Do you have a tip about police policy? VA hospitals? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

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A number of grassroots groups are out to scuttle the application of John Hall, a former top Texas environmental official, to be regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. That's because Hall has been working as a lobbyist for more than a decade, representing big petrochemical companies, Waste Management, and other firms that frequently clash with anti-pollution activists.

The opponents contend that Hall -- who has made as much as $9 million as a lobbyist since 1998 -- is hopelessly conflicted out of running the EPA in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico. They also weren't thrilled with his tenure as chairman of the old Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, predecessor of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, from 1991-95.

They plan a press conference Tuesday morning outside the EPA's regional office in downtown Dallas.

Hall defends his performance in state office and his work as a lobbyist. He says he has scrupulously avoided conflicts of interest.

With a new crew in the White House and running the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal folks are talking tough about how Texas regulates emissions from big industrial plants.

They've suggested that they might take away Texas' authority to manage federal air pollution permits -- unlikely, based on history, but still a pretty effective attention-getter.

Environmental groups are generally delighted; Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Commission on Environmental Regulation, not so much.

You can read more in my story from today's printed edition.

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.

Here are a couple of stories about schools and rules that caught my eye in The Dallas Morning News this morning:

1. "Severe testing irregularities" mean that hundreds of Dallas middle-schoolers must retake the state math exam, The Dallas Morning News' Tawnell Hobbs reports. A preliminary report suggests that students are not to blame. I can't help but recall The News' 2007 investigation showing that cheating was widespread on the TAKS test. At the time, state regulators insisted otherwise.

2. Trainers say high school football coaches should ease up on twice-daily summertime practices to keep from killing students, The Dallas Morning News' Terrence Stutz and Brian Davis report. Need a reminder of how deadly the heat can be? Read this News investigative report about a Dallas high school student who died of heatstroke after a single practice in August 2004.

Do you have a tip about cheating? Football practice? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

Here's a look at some of today's top public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. Air traffic warnings about potential bird strikes are vague and of little help to pilots as presently handled, Texas' own Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger testified Tuesday. That's worrisome, because data previously analyzed by The News shows D/FW International Airport is among the top five in the U.S. reporting plane collisions with wildlife.

2. An expert told The News the smallish earthquakes jarring western DFW could be the result of gas drilling, prompting a dismissal from the industry. The Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy says worries over the tremors may be overblown. Yet officials in Johnson County's Cleburne have decided to do their own analysis. As more tremors are reported overnight, I wonder whether the U.S. Geological Survey will start investigating.

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.

Here's a look at some of the public-interest stories in The Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. The interesting part of Matthew Haag's story on the felony indictment of Mesquite's legendary ex-football coach is that school board initially declined a year ago to prosecute. Instead, they opted to let the coach retire "due to health problems." Then the board expressed surprise upon learning the severity of the charges stemming from him pawning more than $100,000 in district equipment.

What message is the board sending to its other employees? Why didn't it act when the allegations were first brought to its attention?

2. As a soon-to-be father, stories about day cares catch my attention. The Star-Telegram is reporting this morning that a worker at a Grapevine center was arrested on suspicion of fondling a youngster there. I checked the center's licensing history and found that it had fired a worker in the last year after a child was injured.

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

As the total number of confirmed swine flu cases continues to rise, Irving resident Kay Brooks wonders whether restaurant workers and food handlers are being checked for the disease.

"I have not heard this particular issue addressed. I trust that our local health departments have some plans in the works?" she asks.

The short answer is no. There are no new inspections or rules being created specific to H1N1, better known as swine flu.

Industry folks say that's because food workers are already cautioned to wash their hands and are told not to report to work if they suffer from "diarrhea, vomiting, contagious illness, severe acne, boils, certain skin conditions, jaundice, etc."

"It would be the standard advice regardless of what illness is involved. Employees need to practice good hygiene and stay home if they're sick. But nothing special for H1N1 flu," said Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

So far, none of the roughly 700 cases of swine flu in Texas were contracted in a restaurant setting. The Texas Restaurant Association credits safety requirements already in place.

"It's a huge part of their business. It's not necessarily swine flu related, but they [restaurants] are subject to high sanitation standards," said Wendy Saari, spokeswoman for the association.

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

1. I'm a few days behind in posting this unbelievable child-safety story. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that despite the FDA's claim that a chemical in baby bottles is safe, agency e-mails show regulators "relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol A's risks, track legislation to ban it and even monitor press coverage."

2. The U.S. Department of Education is reviewing gender-bias complaints that boys sports get a disproportionate amount of good equipment and facilities at Colleyville Heritage High School, the Star-Telegram reports.

3. Are you trying to make sense of the federal legislation designed to crackdown on credit-card companies and provide consumers relief? The New York Times has a helpful primer.

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 few public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. Information = immunity for airline workers who report safety violations. But government regulators have tolerated "inconsistent use" and "potential abuse" of the reporting program, The Dallas Morning News' Dave Michaels writes. His story is based on a federal safety audit that began after a Texas mechanic checking on an oil leak was sucked into a jet engine.

2. Abuse of mentally disabled people at the Corpus Christi State School was far worse than state officials claimed, records obtained by Dallas Morning News investigative reporter Emily Ramshaw show.

3. I see Dallas smokers toss their butts on the ground every day, and it drives me nuts. But is San Francisco's new plan -- a 33 cents-per-pack trash tax -- the way to go?

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

State lawmakers moved one step closer today toward slashing funding for the state's high school steroids testing program.

The action comes months after 29,000 tests found 11 violators. Critics called the program, budgeted for $6 million in its first two years, expensive and wasteful. Gov. Rick Perry suggested it should be scaled back.

Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano told The Associated Press that lawmakers didn't want to stop testing all together: "I think it's such an issue nationally. To say we tried it for just two years and then trash it would not have sent a good message."

Texas is one of three states nationally with such a program. It came to fruition after a Dallas Morning News series by Gregg Jones and Gary Jacobson, The Secret Edge, found steroid use had trickled down to high schools.

As parents or athletes, do you think this is a good move?

In this installment of the Citizen Watchdog column, Jennifer LaFleur walks us through using a state online database to examine the backgrounds of dentists.

The Texas State Board of Dental Examiners' database lets you see whether the dentist has an active license or has faced disciplinary action. You can't get specifics on the punishment, but there is enough to get you started.

Jennifer reminds us of one caveat when using the database:

In 2005, the Texas state auditor found gaps in the TSBDE's processes for disciplining licensees and found the agency was not always enforcing sanctions against licensees. It also found problems with the agency's procedures for doing criminal background checks of licensees.

The agency, for what it is worth, also was subject to critical audits in 2002, 2000 and 1997.

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

1. Have you heard the one about the two judges standing in a courtroom office? The first said he wanted a chat. The second said the first wanted to throw down. Next thing you know, a bunch of investigators and attorneys are called in to sort it out. It's no joke, Kevin Krause reports.

2. An Austin outpatient clinic improperly charged veterans for treating trauma from sexual assaults they had in the military, The New York Times reports. The Veteran Affairs Department was supposed to provide free care.

3. We have blogged about state lawmakers trying to strip date-of-birth information on government employees -- an important tool for conducting accurate background checks -- from the Texas Public Information Act. The concern, they say, is preventing identity theft.

If DOBs were really a culprit, then why would the Texas Department of Public Safety have sold the same information for $50 million last year to country clubs, pizza delivery companies and driving schools, as Ryan McNeill tells us.

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

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a few days ago that schools with suspected cases of swine flu -- or whatever we're supposed to call it -- shut down for up to two weeks. More than 700 schools in 24 states took it to heart, including Fort Worth and Lewisville ISDs.

Today, the acting head of the agency, Richard Besser, reversed course: "Anyone who closed their school based on our recommendation, we no longer feel that closure is warranted."

Besser said swine flu's symptoms are milder than first thought, so schools should close only if so many teachers and students are sick that it is impossible to operate. "The big focus now is on identifying children who are ill," he said, and asking parents to keep them home for at least seven days, according to Bloomberg News.

Meanwhile, the Texas health department says hospital ERs are overcrowding with people who "may have nothing more than seasonal allergies or mild colds," according to the Associated Press. Swine flu symptoms, the state is emphasizing, are a fever above 101 degrees, cough and sore throat.

Wonder why they would've panicked?

UPDATE: Texas health officials confirmed this afternoon the first death of a Texas resident with swine flu, a woman who lived in Cameron County, home to Brownsville. She had "chronic, underlying health conditions," the state said.

Here are a few public-interest stories catching our eye in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. I said it in yesterday's Hot Links, and I'll say it again: Swine-flu news coverage needs more perspective. Every kind of flu kills. Today's gold star for combating hysteria goes to this report in the Los Angeles Times.

2. Dallas Morning News reporter Tanya Eiserer dug out the outrage story of the day: A police officer who was branded a liar, fired and banned from testifying got his job back and went right on testifying. Now an untold number of court cases may be ruined.

3. Federal transportation officials are finally ordering a national review of bus safety. This comes after a series of deadly accidents, including one blamed on a retread tire that killed 17 religious pilgrims near Dallas.

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

There is no bigger story right now than swine flu. With that in mind, I've compiled some online resources that you can use to stay informed.

I'll try to update this as I find other tools. If I missed something, send me an email, and I'll add it to the list.

1. The World Health Organization has a helpful Web site. The highlights include FAQs on such topics as contracting swine flu, tips for treating it and food safety measures. You can check the flu's stage in the pandemic alert chart, download audio and print press briefings, and sign up for RSS feeds.

2. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has its own FAQs, counts U.S. cases and posts travel advisories. You can download podcasts and guides for treating sick children, pregnant women and airline passengers. And if you love Twitter, you can follow the CDC's tweets.

3. In Texas, the Department of State Health Services dedicates a page, which includes the latest press releases. Dallas County, Tarrant County and Collin County are tracking the number of local cases.

4. The Association of Health Care Journalists has links to video of government hearings and downloadable transcripts of officials' testimony. Other links are available only to members.

5. Last but not least, DallasNews.com has a survival guide with additional tools, Web links, Twitter pages and archives of news stories.

Wisconsin's governor is expected to sign a bill that would require day-care providers to equip vehicles with alarm systems to help prevent drivers from leaving behind children.

The bill -- approved by state lawmakers yesterday despite industry objection -- follows the hyperthermia death of a 4-month-old boy left alone in a van for four hours. The charge for failing to install alarms would be a misdemeanor, the Associated Press reported.

We've had our share of cases like these in North Texas. I think back to a 2006 case that Brooks Egerton and I covered: Four-year-old Jacob Fox, above, who was forgotten in a van and died in 104-degree heat.

All of this had me wondering: Was Wisconsin onto a novel idea that Texas should consider?

Presently Texas does not require day cares to equip vehicles with such alarms, a spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services told me. Leaving children under age 7 in a vehicle for longer than five minutes is a Class C misdemeanor, unless they have someone 14 or older with them.

What do you think: Smart idea for Texas children? Or bureaucratic haggle for day cares?

Here are a few public-interest stories catching our eye in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. I understand why people are concerned about swine flu. But how about a little perspective? Other kinds of influenza kill tens of thousands of people around the U.S. every year, as this government report reminds us.

2. No Child Left Behind, the law that Dallas' W touted so highly, isn't closing the achievement gap between whites and minorities, The New York Times reports.

3. Texas appears ready to join many other states in protecting reporters who protect their sources, writes Dallas Morning News reporter Terrence Stutz.

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

With ozone season kicking off Friday, it's time for a review of how North Texas is doing on knocking smog out of the skies. ("Smog," by the way, is a non-technical but apt word for the gunk in the air. In most places, including Dallas-Fort Worth, ozone is the main component of smog, so many people swap the terms in casual usage.)

The main problem is that there's no one right way to measure progress against smog. The official version says Dallas-Fort Worth is making pretty good progress. The American Lung Association, in its 10th annual State of the Air report being released Wednesday, finds things getting worse.

As is so often the case, both versions of reality arise from the same raw data. It's just shaken and stirred with different goals in mind.

Are you a laid-off worker searching for your next job? Are you a college student wondering about your future career?

Economic statistics -- largely pessimistic these days -- may hold clues to which industries are prime for job creation in Texas. Our latest installment of Citizen Watchdog column by Jennifer LaFleur (right) finds that health and education are two with such opportunities.

Jennifer recommends two resources: The College Board, a nonprofit association of colleges, universities and other educational institutions, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Do you have a suggestion for a Citizen Watchdog column? Send us an e-mail.

Here are a few public-interest stories catching our eye in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. Can Dr. Alfred Gilman make Texas' cancer-research dreams come true? Dallas Morning News science expert Sue Goetinck Ambrose says he's quitting as dean of UT Southwestern's medical school in hopes that he can. But funding is a huge question mark, as Sue recently showed.

2. Big corporations that questioned whether fossil-fuel emissions contributed to global warming ignored their own scientific advisers, The New York Times reports.

3. URGENT! Can we get an investigative reporter to check this out? Seriously, this Austin American-Statesman headline is the funniest thing I've seen in a newspaper for a while:

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

Here are a few public-interest stories catching our eye in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. One item stands out in the Associated Press' report on manufacturers releasing pharmaceuticals into U.S. rivers and lakes that often supply our drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency doesn't require the companies to report when they do this. Last year, AP first reported trace amounts of drugs were found in drinking water, including here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

2. Credit-card companies are attracting a lot of attention from Washington. And not the good kind. The Obama administration is planning a crackdown on companies that it says deceive some Americans into paying "extraordinarily high" interest rates. This comes as Congress mulls a credit card "bill of rights" that would require greater disclosure of terms, Reuters reports.

3. The nation's patchwork food safety system makes it difficult to quickly pinpoint causes of outbreaks like the kinds that have struck peanuts and pistachios this year, experts tell The New York Times. A major cause: Each state investigates and inspects differently. "It's a huge challenge," said an associate commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration.

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

Here are a few public-interest stories catching our eye in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. News reporter Katherine Leal Unmuth's story about inadequate teacher training asks two big policy questions. We'll discuss one here: Who should be most responsible for vetting prospective teachers' academic credentials -- the Texas Education Agency or local schools doing the hiring?

2. Still nervous about eating peanuts and pistachios? In light of recent salmonella outbreaks, a new study by an ex-FDA official recommends an overhaul the nation's food-safety system, The Washington Post reports. The pitch: standardize basic safety rules, improve coordination by streamlining inspectors at all levels under one parent agency, and spend $350 million over five years on underfunded states and cities.

3. The state estimates that about 3 percent of Texas nursing homes have no sprinkler systems, or lack sufficient ones, to prevent fires. A House bill by state Rep. Carol Kent of Dallas would add $3 million in funding for fixing the safety hazards, Robert Garrett of The News' Austin bureau reports. But, we wonder, how are the nursing homes still operating?

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

I made my monthly trip from East Dallas to Plano the other day -- time for a Costco run. Going there always makes me think of heroin.

Next door to Costco on Central Expressway is a trailer park where, in 1997, I went searching for the mother of a seventh-grade overdose victim named Victor Garcia (right).

That was when we first started hearing about drug dealers' brilliant marketing strategy of mixing heroin with sleeping pill ingredients and calling it something cool. Back then it was chiva. Now, of course, it is cheese.

Today it sounds like heroin has killed two more young people in North Texas. That puts the total since 2005 at around three dozen.

Is anybody besides low-level dealers ever going to be punished? There have been a few bigger fish charged, but not many.

Here are some of today's interesting stories from The Dallas Morning News and around the Web to help your water cooler conversation:

1. Is your wallboard making you sick? There are growing complaints about fumes from Chinese drywall, which began pouring into this country after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, the Associated Press reports. Government agencies are investigating, lawsuits are flying in the Southeast, and some national politicians want to ban the stuff. Is there a problem in North Texas?

2. Dallas is not alone in charging drivers a fee for crashing their cars. Other cash-strapped local governments are trying this and even wilder ways to raise money, The New York Times reports. Would you believe a "streetlight user fee?" Know any other charges we ought to check out?

3. State employees who care for Texans with profound disabilities are working huge amounts of overtime, costing taxpayers millions and possibly endangering patients. That's the conclusion of Dallas Morning News database editor Ryan McNeill and investigative reporter Emily Ramshaw.

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

Here are some of today's interesting stories from The Dallas Morning News and around the Web to help your water cooler conversation:

1. The state health department levied its largest fine ever, $14.6 million, against the company running the West Texas peanut plant blamed in part for this year's salmonella outbreak. This comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that infection rates for five food-borne illnesses, including salmonella, have increased at rates exceeding national goals.

2. Congressional earmarks are as controversial a subject as it gets in Washington. The Star-Telegram finds some local legislators consider them radioactive, while others see them as a way to deliver for North Texas.

3. Another public servant is in legal trouble: The feds arrested an ex-Texas Department of Public Safety trooper on civil-rights violations after an indictment alleged he stole from Latino motorists during traffic stops in the Kingsville area.

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

Here are some of today's interesting stories from The Dallas Morning News and around the Web to help your water cooler conversation:

1. News environmental writer Randy Lee Loftis has a complete report on an item we blogged yesterday: a state panel's permit renewal for TXI's cement plant in Midlothian. Meanwhile, the Texas Senate tentatively approved a clean-air bill.

2. Texas' own, Lance Armstrong, is again fending off accusations by France's anti-doping agency. Doctors said the legendary cyclist violated testing rules but did not find he used performance-enhancing drugs. He said he did nothing wrong.

3. The News' Editorial Board opposes legislation to remove state workers' date-of-birth information from Texas' open-records law. We've blogged about how this will limit government accountability and fail to address ID theft concerns, lawmakers' stated purpose for the bill.

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

The Obama administration is calling for tougher food-sanitation standards, as the second-largest U.S. pistachio processor recalls its entire 2008 crop. Tests had found salmonella contamination, and an inspection revealed gaps in food-handling measures, The New York Times reported.

It is the year's second major food scare. Nine deaths and 600 illnesses led to a massive recall of peanuts, including those processed in West Texas. The Associated Press reported "dead rodents, feces and feathers" had been found in a crawl space above a production area at a Plainview plant.

Obama's pledge comes after two decades of decreasing inspections by the Food and Drug Administration. Meanwhile, annual food-borne outbreaks more than doubled in the past decade.

"You get what you pay for," a former FDA official told The News. "If we bail out banks and don't bail out the FDA, we are going to continue to have these crises."