DMN INVESTIGATES

Gov. Rick Perry has had some bad luck recently when appointing prominent Dallasites to state posts. Two of them soon got themselves arrested on charges of misconduct around young people.

The latest mess involves businessman Lee William "Bill" McNutt III (right), whom Perry named Texas Commission on the Arts chair in December. McNutt has since been arrested for trespassing at Southern Methodist University, reports Lori Stahl of The Dallas Morning News.

SMU says it warned him to stay away in 2008 after getting "multiple student complaints against Mr. McNutt alleging behavior that violates University policy, such as offering alcohol to minors."

McNutt, 54, graduated from SMU and was founding president of its Young Alumni Association, a governor's press release said. He worked in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and the first President George Bush, according to the arts commission.

McNutt has resigned from the commission, The Daily Mustang is now reporting.

He's also a deacon at Highland Park Presbyterian Church.

The previous Perry-appointee mess involved Catherine Evans, a former Dallas County state district judge.

Perry named her Texas Youth Commission ombudsman in September. Several weeks later, she was charged with trying to smuggle a knife, a cellphone and prescription drugs into an East Texas TYC facility.

Please let me know if you get more information about what's going with either of these matters.

A recent Dallas Morning News article about missing-in-action real estate mogul/arts philanthropist Eric Brauss noted that he and his wife owned three German luxury cars worth over $300,000 each.

That was "an unfair depiction of a couple who lived modestly compared to their wealth," says Sara Marotto of Denton in a letter to the editor published today.

In that light, check out this video tour of Eric's home in Addison (right), which is now for sale. The original list price of $2.9 million has been cut to a cool $2,495,000.

Eric is listed as a million-dollar donor to the new performing arts center in Dallas and as associate producer of a low-budget slasher flick, The Dead Don't Scream (right).

Courts are now trying to sort out what went wrong with and what will become of the Brausses' real-estate empire, as The News' Gary Jacobson reported recently.

Where, I wondered Friday, is embattled Dallas real estate mogul and arts philanthropist Eric Brauss (right)?

Some commenters pointed toward Brazil. Now Dallas Morning News reporter Gary Jacobson is finding some evidence of that in court documents.

One filing in Dallas state court quotes a Nov. 17 email from Brauss as saying he was on a "very primitive tour in the Amazon rainforest."

And a Nov. 20 email from Brauss to one of his investors purportedly said: "Sorry I did not get back to you until now, but needed to wait for my lawyer's directions...Until we come to an agreement with you...I need to stay here in South America."

As The News reported last week, Brauss' Today Realty Advisors, which invested in hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of projects, has closed its Far North Dallas headquarters. In court, several investors seek restitution of what they allege are millions of dollars in diverted funds.

Gary's working on a longer story now. Among the questions he's trying to answer: Has Brauss already made good on his $1 million donation to the new performing arts center in Downtown Dallas?

Call me confused. Today's Hot Links show just how confused:

1. I used to think that the beautiful new complex rising up downtown (right) was called the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. That's what the group's Web site says, after all. But today I read Michael Granberry's story in The Dallas Morning News and learn that AT&T is paying to put its name on the thing -- and that the word "Dallas" is gone. What's the price tag? No one will say.

2. I used to think that DART's new Green Line was going to improve mobility downtown. But today I read Michael Lindenberger's story in The Dallas Morning News and learn that some trains are now sitting still for up to 10 minutes during rush hour.

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

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There are mixed results involving the attempts to spruce up the bronze cattle and cowboy sculptures at Pioneer Plaza.

The Texas Trees Foundation has now installed most of the lighting. Only the trail boss sculpture still needs to be illuminated.

"They're pole lights that light up the whole sculpture," said Janette Monear, executive director of Texas Trees Foundation. "It's beautiful. It's dramatic. It lights the sculpture and enhances the safety of the area."

The foundation also put out a bid for new bronze signs, but the cost was too steep at $52,000. So the group plans to re-bid, asking for signs out of a different material.

On the downside, rain foiled an attempt to shore up the footpaths with gravel. The fix worked for a few weeks, but the last storm washed much of the gravel down to the bottom of the sculpture site. In addition, an irrigation head opened, causing even more erosion and ruts, so footing is still uneven.

Some of the sculpture pedestals also are still unearthed, and it looks like it wouldn't take too much to cause them to topple. Fortunately, a bid to put in patterned concrete as a permanent solution to the erosion has been accepted. Work is expected to begin after Labor Day.

Despite promises last month to spruce up the bronze cattle and cowboy sculptures at Pioneer Plaza, it's still looking really shabby.

A recent tour of the second-most visited site in Dallas showed that the light was still broken and was topped with a milk crate and traffic cone. The trail was so eroded that wiring and sprinkler lines were exposed. Some of the sculpture pedestals looked dangerously unearthed. There was graffiti on the trash can. The water fountain was out of order. And cigarette butts and beer bottle tops peppered the ground.

Weirdly, there was also a pair of pants resting on the trail. You'd think someone would need those.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. More public servants in legal trouble: News broke late last night that two Dallas police officers are under criminal investigation for allegedly beating up a prisoner in the city's drunk tank, Tanya Eiserer reports. They were apparently caught on video, too.

2. Transportation officials blame the increase in wrong-way driving deaths on the Dallas North Tollway primarily on drunks behind the wheel, Scott Goldstein tells us. They're taking safety measures, but a MADD rep says it's not enough. What do you think?

3. The Texas Department of Transportation is a frequent whipping boy of residents and politicians frustrated over congestion and construction. Sometimes it's deserved, sometimes it's not. But Michael Lindenberger's story raises the question: What happens if the agency can't be rescued from closure?

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

The bronze cattle and cowboy sculptures at Pioneer Plaza are positioned to depict a cattle drive on the dusty trail. Unfortunately, spring rains have brought home some of the perils of the open range.

"The ground has become so seriously eroded that walking from the lower area up to the top alongside the cattle is now very dangerous. There is a spot where pipes have been exposed at the narrowest part of the path, and if someone were to slip/trip there, they would run the risk of impalement," reader John Anderson said.

In addition, an electrical box at the southwest corner of the pool also is a hazard, he said. Anderson asked for help in getting repairs done to the popular tourist site. "I haven't gotten a definitive response from anybody," he said.

Before everyone breaks for Memorial Day, let's take a look at a few of the public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. Carla Ranger -- the popular, watchdogging Dallas ISD board member -- learned this week that she would lose her job at the Dallas County Community College District after two decades of service. The Dallas Observer's Robert Wilonsky asks the right question: Why? Her bosses aren't talking. But she is. She blogged that she was given no warning, that it "appears someone has ordered my removal" and that "it smells of politics."

2. State lawmakers are bogging down as they try to reform eminent-domain laws allowing property seizures for, among other things, economic development, Marcus Funk reports.

3. The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts -- the shimmering new home to the opera, ballet and theater shows -- may not get a $1.7 million public subsidy as soon as it hoped, City Hall reporter Rudy Bush blogs. Question: Does the center need the subsidy at all, given the city's budget woes?

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

Today we launch a regular feature that spotlights officials who won't talk.

Dallas Museum of Art boss Bonnie Pitman (right) is our first subject. She has refused for months to answer basic financial questions about the King Tut exhibit, which closed yesterday. It fell far short of attendance projections, as Dallas Morning News reporter Michael Granberry reported.

The News had to file a series of formal records demands just to get the taxpayer-subsidized DMA to claim that it and the city of Dallas would lose no money on the deal.

But the museum won't let us see any records to back that up. Why? Pitman and her staff say they promised the exhibit's for-profit organizers absolute confidentiality, as I reported yesterday. Museum officials say they can't even tell us how many people saw Tut for free.

Pitman initially said she'd do an interview for Granberry's story but backed out at the last minute. Too busy, her PR lady said.

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

1. Oh, wait. Hold on. Looks as though the government has reconsidered and decided it will investigate the collapse of the Cowboys indoor practice facility that injured about a dozen people and left one coach paralyzed permanently. The agency conducting the review still isn't saying much to Brandon Formby and Brooks Egerton.

2. You see this? The much-hyped King Tut exhibit has drawn only 600,000 visitors, considerably below hopes of 1 million. The Dallas Museum of Art blames the attendance on the economy, Michael Granberry writes. I don't remember other major entertainment attractions, like sporting events, having such problems.

3. The Texas House is tightening ethics rules -- targeting lobbyists and political-action committees -- and directing state auditors to oversee how federal stimulus dollars are spent, Emily Ramshaw reports.

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

Here are a couple of public-interest stories from around the Web-o-sphere:

1. Dallas' venerable Majestic Theatre is in deep trouble, Channel 8 reports. DSM Management Group is punting control back to the city at a time when the overall economy stinks and the Majestic is about to face new competition from the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.

2. Worried about those bus/train drivers who love their cell phones too much? Massachusetts is cracking down after a trolley operator who was texting his sweetheart injured nearly 50 people in a crash. Should DART follow suit?

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

Office Depot is taking issue with last week's post about a series of state investigations into whether it overcharged government agencies, including here in Texas.

Spokesman Jason Shockley said that auditors in certain states didn't understand its pricing structure and arrived at mistaken conclusions. In some cases, public institutions continued to accept Office Depot bids for new supply contracts.

I followed up with officials who performed the state audits. They told me that they stood by their findings.