DMN INVESTIGATES

Did I read that right? A 45-year-old Dallas businessman with 14 convictions? Living free, with luxury cars and a plane, recruiting investors?

The Securities and Exchange Commission identifies the guy as Alan Todd May and is suing him, alleging that his Prosper Oil & Gas is a Ponzi scheme.

Prosper's Web site includes lots of pretty pictures of drilling rigs. DMN reporter Eric Torbenson says the company started up after May was released from prison in 2007.

May made the news at least once before: While locked up for credit card fraud and parole violations, he was suspected of using a jail pay phone to set up "bogus trade shows in Houston, Austin, Dallas and Denver and getting people to mail him entry fees," the Houston Chronicle reported in 1995.

We get complaints pretty much every day about utility bills and power companies. So do legislators, the Public Utility Commission and, of course, the utilities themselves.

Now one of the biggies, Oncor, is asking the PUC for independent testing of the accuracy of its new smart meters (right), Dallas Morning News reporter Eric Torbenson says.

State Sen. Troy Fraser, chair of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, recently responded to complaints about the meters by asking that their installation be halted. He also urged the PUC to suspend the monthly fee consumers pay for the meters until independent testing is conducted.

Oncor, in its letter to the PUC, says the meters are accurate and blames an unusually cold winter for higher bills.

The DMN didn't do much today with high-flying Dallas real estate agent Nicky Sheets' guilty plea in a big tax evasion case. So here's some help with the back story.

About a year ago, former DMN reporter Gretel Kovach did perhaps the definitive take on Sheets, his star Realtor wife, Eleanor Mowery Sheets (right), and their long history of financial troubles.

Among my favorite details in the D Magazine piece: The trustee in one of their bankruptcy cases details "what he considered the 'most notorious' example of a pattern of shifting assets to avoid payment: Nicky flew his lawyer in a twin engine plane owned by Nicky's JNS Investments to Odessa for a hearing, where he argued that he was just Eleanor's penniless underling." A creditor's lawyer heard about it and went after the plane, "but by the time he had tracked it from a recently vacated hangar at Dallas Love Field to the Addison airfield, it had been repossessed" by someone else.

Eleanor's Web site, before it was taken down, praised her hubby's tax acumen this way:

"Nicky creates the aggressive marketing strategies for our business with an enormous foresight into new trends and technologies. He has a great capacity for staying ahead of the industry and is the creator of many of the formative business transactions we do -- getting people together I'd never have thought of, doing land trades and arranging beneficial tax solutions for buyers and sellers."

The IRS recently tried unsuccessfully to auction the couple's North Dallas home. The "property appraisal and liquidation specialist" was listed as Mary Beth Justice. Her Austin workplace was targeted -- a day after the auction, coincidentally -- by suicide pilot Joe Stack.

A recent brush with catastrophe at DISD's Samuell High School didn't teach several principals elsewhere in town any lessons.

After Samuell students fleeing a blaze found an exit chained shut, local fire officials performed surprise inspections on 31 public high schools. Eight were caught locking fire exits, reports The Dallas Morning News' Diane Rado.

Michael Hinojosa, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District, said he was "livid" about the findings and ordered principals to obey the fire code. But what are officials going to do about the crime concerns that led principals to lock doors in the first place?

The eight high schools cited for violations were:

* A. Maceo Smith
* Carter
* Kimball
* Molina
* Pinkston
* Roosevelt
* Skyline
* South Oak Cliff

Please let me know if you get more information about what's going.

The New York Times has a fascinating background piece today on the tax law that software engineer Andrew Joseph Stack III (right) blasted in his suicide note.

The 1986 legislation started as a favor to IBM and "made it extremely difficult for information technology professionals to work as self-employed individuals, forcing most to become company employees," The Times reported. "Many software engineers and other such professionals say that the law denies them the opportunity to become wealthy entrepreneurs and that it makes it harder to increase and refine their skills, eventually diminishing their income."

Joe Stack, in the note he posted online before flying a plane into IRS offices in Austin yesterday, said those who wrote the law "could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave."

A little over a week ago, I was blogging about safety issues at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines.

Now my investigative reporting colleague in Washington, Dave Michaels, is breaking a story about similar problems at Fort Worth-based American.

"Federal regulators have failed to correct mounting and long-standing maintenance deficiencies at American Airlines despite receiving detailed complaints about the carrier's problems," Dave writes, citing a report due to be released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation's inspector general.

The Federal Aviation Administration responded by saying it has been working with American to "elevate its maintenance practices" and was strengthening its oversight of other carriers.

FAA officials proposed a $2.9 million fine Wednesday against American Eagle for flying inadequately repaired planes, The Dallas Morning News' Eric Torbenson reported.

AA and Southwest say they're proud of their safety records.

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.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

Southwest says safety is its top priority.

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.

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

Until the IRS talks, we're left wondering.

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

The answer is yes.

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

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

A new report Tuesday reiterates what anyone who drives by the Trinity River in Dallas and inhales already knows: It's icky. Filled-with-junk-from-sewage-treatment-plants icky.

The News' Randy Lee Loftis reminds us in his story that this is merely the latest dinging the Trinity has taken.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality -- an agency frequently accused of having a light touch -- previously deemed the river unsafe for extended human contact because of a high level of pollutants.

Not the kind of assessments Dallas city leaders want to hear as they seek to develop the Trinity into a business and recreation destination.

These images all come from The Meadville Tribune in northwest Pennsylvania, where the latest failure occurred.

At right is what the facility looked like when under construction in 2008.

Below are scenes from Wednesday's collapse.

The company that built the Dallas Cowboys' failed practice facility (right) has suffered another collapse of one of its large tentlike structures.

This one's at a fairgrounds in northwest Pennsylvania, reports a little paper there called The Meadville Tribune. And fortunately, no one was hurt -- unlike here, where one Cowboys staffer was permanently paralyzed below the waist, another suffered a broken neck without paralysis, and 10 others were injured less seriously.

Last fall, a federal agency blamed the Cowboys collapse on a long series of design failures and warned that many similar tent-like structures remain in use around the world. "All of those buildings, the National Institute of Standards and Technology said, need to be checked for similar problems," we reported in October.

A judge in Philadelphia previously blamed a third collapse there on design errors by the same company: Canada-based Cover-All Building Systems and its U.S. subsidiary, Summit Structures. It has denied wrongdoing and insisted its buildings are safe.

The Philadelphia collapse occurred after a heavy snow in early 2003, as did the latest Pennsylvania collapse. Last year's disaster in Irving occurred during a thunderstorm.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

For $2,000 in cash, Fernando Hernandez promised he could keep his colleagues at IRS from launching one of those dreaded audits.

That bribe now has him staring down a maximum prison sentence of 15 years and $250,000 fine, as part of a plea deal he reached this week.

Any time a public official like this is involved in bribes, I'm interested. But authorities were a tad vague in court records and a press release on a few details. Now I'm even more curious.

They say the case involves just one bribe, way back in 2005, but had Hernandez had solicited others? They don't reveal his job at the IRS or describe the "U.S. taxpayer" who paid the $2,000. And they write that the case "is being investigated" by four federal agencies, so is there more to come?

I emailed U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Kathy Colvin about those points late yesterday. As I wait to hear back from her, I wondered whether any of you in blogosphere could fill in these blanks?

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

News doesn't necessarily slow to a crawl during the holiday season. So let's continue catching up on more of the interesting items that published during New Year's week:

1. Politically connected Texas billionaire Allen Stanford may be in trouble with the feds over an alleged Ponzi scheme. But U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions of Dallas, shown at right, still loves him. Sessions said so in an email. It's not the first time in recent months that Sessions has shown himself loyal to campaign contributors.

2. Deporting immigrants who commit crimes is one thing. Enforcing penalties after they illegally re-enter the U.S. is a more complicated matter, The News' Jason Trahan reported.

3. We've highlighted the investigation into the Dallas police's methods of classifying -- or not classifying -- some crimes, leading to a rosier crime rate. News beat writers Steve Thompson and Tanya Eiserer updated their fine work with a story showing that the department will change the way it handles car burglaries.

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

Today's a waking nightmare for the Texas officials who are paid to keep dangerous folks locked up:

1. Catherine Evans (right), a former state district judge in Dallas County, faces a felony charge of trying to smuggle a knife and other contraband into a Texas Youth Commission facility, reports Christy Hoppe of The Dallas Morning News. That's embarrassing all by itself. It's made worse by the fact that Gov. Rick Perry recently named Evans TYC ombudsman -- a job in which she was supposed to make sure that juveniles in state lockups were kept safe from harm. Evans has resigned and could not be reached for comment Monday. Why do we need an ombudsman? Well, the agency has a history of physical and sexual abuse scandals, as The News showed in a 2007 series of investigative reports.

2. Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr. (right), a repeatedly convicted child rapist, used a smuggled gun Monday to overpower state prison guards and escape in southeast Texas, The Associated Press reports. TDCJ has a wanted poster up on its Web site but no information today about where Comeaux is or how he got the gun, prisons spokeswoman Michelle Lyons tells me.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

My co-worker Holly Hacker recently introduced me to a terrific do-it-yourself reporting tool called Institutions Whose Degrees are Illegal to Use in Texas. It's maintained by the state's higher education board and contains a long list of unaccredited schools, diploma mills and more.

Holly used the list most recently for a story about Carrie Gordon, who is mayor of the little Dallas suburb of Balch Springs and a Dallas city planner. She likes to call herself Dr. Gordon, though her degree comes from a defunct correspondence school on the state list.

Previously, Holly wrote about Juanita Wallace (right), a local NAACP leader who recently lost a run for Dallas school board. She likes to call herself Dr. Wallace, citing a degree from a still functioning school on the state list -- Madison University.

Using degrees from such places is a crime if it helps you obtain any financial benefit "or gain a position in government with authority over another person, regardless of whether the actor receives compensation for the position," the state says. These ladies have not been charged with wrongdoing.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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:

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.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

Let's play a little game. Pretend I'm a famous columnist who covers pro sports. My boss is running for governor. In all my spare time, on my own personal stationery, I start asking the teams I write about to give money to the boss' re-election campaign.

Now let's look at some facts. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission chairman Jose Cuevas is asking owners of the bars and restaurants he regulates to donate to Gov. Rick Perry's re-election campaign, reports The Dallas Morning News' Wayne Slater.

The solicitations are legal. They don't name Cuevas, a Midland restaurant owner, as TABC chairman (although he admits the obvious: recipients recognize his name). The Perry campaign says there's no problem.

Having trouble reading the four words under the TABC logo pictured above? They are service, courtesy, integrity and accountability.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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.

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

With this morning's Hot Links, we wonder about the behavior of men with guns:

1. Attention family-violence victims in Dallas: Was Mickey East (right) the detective assigned to your case? Did he work it or just stash the file in his garage? That's the question raised by Dallas Morning News reporter Tanya Eiserer's story today. East has been put on auto-pound duty while officials reassess more than 2,000 cases. This mess comes close on the heels of another massive DPD review -- of crime reports the police labeled unfounded without investigating. That probe followed an investigation by Tanya and colleague Steve Thompson into car-burglary claims that were ignored.

2. How tight is security at U.S. airports? An American Airlines passenger flying from San Antonio to Thailand via Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has been arrested while changing planes in Japan. Seems he had a loaded handgun in his bag, the Japan Times reports. U.S. Transportation Security Administration officials say that the security breach occurred in San Antonio and that they're investigating.

Do you have a tip about Mickey East? The Transportation Security Administration? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

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."

In fact, as today's stories remind us, we've got a ways to go until these big news events conclude.

1. As a now-convicted Don Hill wonders why jurors and God did not "give us this one," I wondered when the other public official enmeshed in the FBI's bribery investigation will go on trial. The News' Gromer Jeffers Jr. happened to report today that the judge is asking about possible courts dates for State Rep. Terri Hodge (shown at right). Meanwhile, it appears some are already trying to undercut her 2010 re-election opponent. Their argument: He's too educated.

2. On the list of people who can consistently strike fear into Child Protective Services, state Sen. Jane Nelson has got to be near the very top. She has long led reform efforts targeting the agency. Now she is questioning whether four recent deaths of children while under CPS' watch, including that of an Arlington toddler, is a broader pattern, report The News' Brooks Egerton and Scott Goldstein.

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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.

What a tangled web they weave in making money:

1. Maria Refugia Camarillo (right) gets to spend the next 44 months of her golden years in federal prison, a judge decided yesterday. The 72-year-old Fort Worth grandma arranged sham marriages for up to $12,000 apiece between many members of her extended family and green-card seeking immigrants. More details are in a Justice Department news release issued when she pleaded guilty in July.

2. Lubbock lawyer Kevin Glasheen stands to make millions representing 12 former prisoners who have been exonerated by DNA evidence and are seeking compensation from the state. But now, The Dallas Morning News' Jennifer Emily reports, one of the Dallas exonerees has hired a different lawyer to sue Glasheen. Lawyer 2 alleges that Lawyer 1 did no legal work and shouldn't collect a $1 million fee. Glasheen denies the claim.

3. Reza Saleh made about $8.6 million by trading on advance knowledge of Dell's purchase of Perot Systems, federal regulators alleged yesterday. Saleh's employer, according to The News' Victor Godinez: Parkcentral Capital Management, an affiliate of Perot Investments.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

Passions are running hot in the debate over carbon monoxide euthanasia at the Garland animal shelter and I want to make sure that the things I've written are clear.

So, I thought I better make some points:
1. The state does not require inspections of carbon monoxide chambers. The state does require annual inspections of shelters for larger cities. They just don't run any tests on the chambers while they are there.
2. The fact that Garland does not have outside inspections of its carbon monoxide chamber, does not mean that it does not allow overall inspections.
3. Current animal shelter workers may have had nothing to do with the incidents that occurred two years ago. In addition, there have been some discipline actions in regards to mistakes with euthanasia. These are personnel matters and not open to the public.

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.

While researching the practices of the Garland Animal Shelter for a story, I was interested to find that there are no state-required inspections of shelter-run carbon monoxide chambers. That means Texas also doesn't track which animal shelters use carbon monoxide for euthanasia.

Garland is self-insured, so no outside insurance companies are inspecting the city's chamber either.

Officials over the shelter say the carbon monoxide that is in use is actually less dangerous than chlorine chemicals which are used at the water treatment plant.

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.

Today's Hot Links look at how the tables have turned on two former representatives of the Texas legal system.

1. Was he trying to make the Guinness Book of World Records? Michael Meissner (right) worked for 17 small-town police agencies in 18 years, The Dallas Morning News reports today. Now he's jailed, facing child-porn and organized crime charges in Dallas and Tarrant counties. He worked most recently for a town in Central Texas, but it's hard to understand how that was possible. WFAA-TV (Channel 8) reported two years ago that Meissner lost his peace officer's license in 2003, used a phony college degree and had an arrest record.

2. Former Dallas municipal court Judge Tiffany Lewis (right) pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing tens of thousands of dollars while working as a private lawyer in a Tarrant County probate case, reports The News' Tanya Eiserer. Lewis was sentenced to 60 days in jail and 10 years of probation. The State Bar of Texas took away her law license in 2005.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

Several readers wrote to Problem Solver concerned that the Garland Animal Services Department was operating without an advisory board, as required by state law.

"I am grateful for any attention you can give to the conditions at this shelter," one reader wrote.

I have volunteered with various animal rescue groups for 15 years, and I have to say I had a hard time finding information about the four-person Garland Animal Services Advisory Board. It was not listed with the other boards on the City of Garland's Web site. Rescue groups in Garland were not familiar with the board. And requests for applications to apply to the board were met with blank stares.

Agendas were not posted publicly and no meeting minutes were available, according to an answer to a Texas Open Records Act request for the material. "The supervisor has informed this office that the Animal Services Advisory Board does not maintain minutes from their meetings," wrote Assistant City Attorney Mark G. Mann.

But that's all getting ready to change.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

All of the questions in today's two Hot Links have the same short answer. Read on:

1. This is 2009, right? And entering a suspect's bail info in one Dallas County computer doesn't get it into other computers? And a man (Ezequiel Moreno, right) accused of sexually abusing a teen and plotting her kidnapping can get out of jail because the computers aren't connected, as my colleagues Scott Goldstein and Jennifer Emily report today? And Dallas County commissioners want to cut spending on criminal justice?

2. Do shrinking newspaper budgets make it easier for government officials to hide what goes on in courtrooms, as The New York Times reports today? Does a bear poop in the woods?

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So many questions, so little time. A few of our favorite new ones arise in today's two Hot Links:

1. There is increasing support for the idea that the state of Texas executed an innocent man, reports Christy Hoppe of The Dallas Morning News' Austin bureau. Cameron Todd Willingham (right, in a photo being held by a cousin), of the North Texas town of Corsicana, was convicted of killing his three young children in a fire. He insisted that he was innocent but was put to death in 2004. A new study commissioned by the state Forensic Science Commission concludes that a fire marshal who investigated the deaths "seems to be wholly without any realistic understanding of fires and how fire injuries are created." The Chicago Tribune has been dogging this case for some time; click here for more detailed coverage.

2. Southwest Airlines' maintenance practices are facing new scrutiny from the FAA, reports Eric Torbenson of The News. This time the issue is whether the Dallas-based airline used unauthorized parts when repairing older Boeing 737s. Still no word on why a football-sized hole opened up during a Southwest flight last month.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

Two Dallas Cowboys employees who were seriously injured in the collapse of the team's practice facility are filing suit this morning against several companies involved in building or renovating the massive tent-like structure.

Click here for a full report.

Scouting aide Rich Behm (above right) and special teams coach Joe DeCamillis (below right) accuse all the defendants of negligence and two of conspiracy -- of knowing at least two years ago that the facility was unsafe and covering it up.

The prominent Dallas trial lawyer Frank Branson represents both Behm, who is permanently paralyzed below the waist, and DeCamillis, who suffered a broken neck but escaped paralysis.

Today's Hot Links are swerving all over the road:

1. In January of last year, Dallas Plan Commission member Neil Emmons wrote Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert (right) a letter. He urged him to push for disclosure requirements for local lobbyists, as my colleagues Jason Trahan and Gromer Jeffers Jr. reported Sunday. Leppert wouldn't talk for that story. But today, lo and behold, with the City Hall corruption trial grinding on, he is proposing some reforms.

2. Here's the sound of another nail being banged into a box that looks a lot like Paul Quinn College's coffin: Dallas Morning News reporter Holly Hacker explains that the region's only historically black college has lost its accreditation appeal.

3. Why are all those baby bones lying around outside a mobile home in southern Tarrant County? The trailer sits on a street -- I'm not making this up -- called Tranquility Circle.

Do you have a tip about local lobbyists? Paul Quinn College? Baby bones? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

Why is the RISD boss gone? What is the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas going to do with a priest who got in trouble as a stockbroker? Read Today's Hot Links:

1. The Richardson school district is back in session today. And David Simmons (pictured at right) is being paid $300,000 not to be superintendent any more, as Dallas Morning News reporter Jeff Weiss explains. Why? School board members suggest that the payoff is the most efficient way to get rid of Simmons, who quit Aug. 3. And why did they want him out, given that the district has a balanced budget and four straight years of "recognized" status? They aren't giving much of an explanation.

2. Securities regulators told William Warnky last week not to work as a stockbroker because he defrauded a former client and disregarded an order to repay him $50,000. What will become of Warnky's other career as a priest? We're waiting to hear from Dallas Episcopal Bishop James Stanton or his No. 2, Bishop Suffragan Paul Lambert.

Do you have a tip about RISD? David Simmons? The Episcopal Diocese of Dallas? William Warnky? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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."

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

Several 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.

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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.

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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.

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

The folks in University Park thought the Texas Open Meetings Act would let them speak about controversial plans to renovate their public pool at Curtis Park.

University Park's attorney, Robert Dillard, read the law differently. He advised the City Council to block residents from addressing the issue when it came up during a meeting Tuesday because doing so may be a violation. That's after they had waited an hour for their turn.

Needless to say, the residents were confused by the city's logic. So were experts interviewed by The News' Lori Stahl, whose story today quotes them as saying the Open Meetings Act allowed residents to have their say.

"There is absolutely no basis for the city attorney's advice that allowing these comments would have been a violation" of the law, one expert told Lori.

Dillard, incidentally, wouldn't talk about not letting the residents talk.

There's a lot in the news today. Let's start exploring what's out there:

1. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is saying "mistakes were made" in the controversial raid on a Fort Worth gay bar after an internal report rips agents, The News' Scott Goldstein reports. However, the report seems to tiptoe around one of the biggest complaints -- allegations of excessive force. One patron, you may recall, sustained a brain injury in the incident, which sparked protests and national news coverage.

2. Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller remains on the witness stand in the City Hall bribery trial, which you can follow on Jason Trahan's live blog. In testimony yesterday, she described defendant Don Hill as an official bristling at ethics reforms. Other interesting nugget: Developer and Miller supporter Brian Potashnik fed her negative information about his employee-turned-rival James R. "Bill" Fisher, yet she said she was in the dark about similar unflattering details regarding him.

3. Beyond Dallas, we have a series of ethics scandals making news: a NASA official who steered millions to a consulting client, resignation calls for University of Illinois trustees and a House Democrat who got sweet deals on loans.

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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.

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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.

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

That's probably a trio of topics you wouldn't have expected to see in a headline. Let's read on:

1. Good news, bad news at the Dallas City Hall bribery trial, The News' Jason Trahan tells us. If you're Don Hill: You probably look more favorable to jurors after you were heard doubting the ethics of your co-defendant, D'Angelo Lee, on phone conversations secretly taped by the FBI. If you're Lee: Your co-defendant is heard doubting your ethics on phone conversations secretly taped by the FBI.

2. Supporters of the federal stimulus package said it was a chance to make $65 billion in repairs to crumbling, aging bridges. Want to guess where I'm headed next after that set-up? The Associated Press found that nearly half of the ones slated for funding are in good shape and wouldn't have qualified for money in normal circumstances. Best use of the stimulus?

3. This isn't our typical watchdog story to highlight: Lewisville High School cheerleaders had illegal drugs, such as Ecstasy, at a weekend clinic, KXAS (NBC-5) reports. As school district officials investigate, they should ask this of themselves: When was the last time they tested cheerleaders for drug use? District policy allows it, and athletes have been subjected to it after reports of steroid abuse.

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

We have updates on some stories that have been in the news in the last few months -- and been the subject of our blogging:

1. The legendary football coach at Mesquite High School who pawned more than $100,000 in school equipment agreed to plead guilty late last week if the felony charges against him were reduced, The News' Matthew Haag reports. Questions still remain, though: Like why didn't the school board get to the bottom of this sooner? And why isn't the district's auditor digging deeper to root out other hints of financial fraud?

2. Did your schools see an improvement in the latest TAKS tests? Mine did. But don't forget this: The grading got easier this year, as some kids who failed were counted as having passed, The News' Holly K. Hacker explains.

3. We're learning a major narrative of the upcoming trial of the state's highest criminal court judge, Sharon Keller. She was the one who closed her office before a death-row inmate could file a last-minute appeal, ensuring his execution. The narrative: Did computer crashes really delay the inmate's lawyers from completing paperwork sooner? Keller is trying to raise those doubts, the Austin American-Statesman tells us.

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

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

Use social-networking media to get your news? Follow the blog or me on Twitter, or join our Facebook group.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today's stories of public interest feature a constable in trouble for policy violations and a state lawmaker in trouble for alleged criminal wrongdoing.

1. Dallas County administrators are starting to take action against constables who violated policy by doing work outside their precincts to boost their statistics, helping them lobbying for more staff. The News' Kevin Krause reports that constables -- such as Jaime Cortes, who did this most frequently -- will lose a total of 31 positions. The taxpayer savings: $1.7 million.

2. A grand jury indicted South Texas state Rep. Kino Flores on allegations he didn't disclose sources of income, real estate deals and gifts, including one from a lobbyist, the Associated Press reported.

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

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

We have key developments in several stories that we've tracked here -- from Dallas County constable contracts to document destruction in Irving to Fort Worth police action.

1. Dallas County commissioners decided to consider instituting policies to control towing contracts of vehicles by law enforcement agencies under their control. The News' Kevin Krause has been telling us about two constables who have an arrangement with a troubled businessman that includes no oversight.

2. The Irving City Council will hear details today about how the staff there retains planning and inspection documents, an issue that arose after the Dallas Cowboys' indoor practice facility collapsed months ago. Some building records had been destroyed, as The News' Brandon Formby first reported. City councilwoman Beth Van Duyne has called for an investigation.

3. Sensing distrust in the gay community, the Fort Worth City Council requested an independent federal investigation into last month's police raid at a gay bar that turned violent. Meanwhile, newly released records show the supervisor for one of the raid's officers had previously warned that he had "a history of poor decisions and bad judgment," The News' Scott Farwell reports.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two stories from The Dallas Morning News are shining a light in corners I didn't even know existed. And a third nearly made me lose my breakfast.

1. Dallas County's tax office holds secret hearings at which you can gain title to a vehicle with no evidence of ownership, Kevin Krause reports today. A big beneficiary of the process is County Commissioner John Wiley Price, a car collector.

2. Children as young as 10 are on Texas' public sex-offender registry, Diane Jennings reported in Sunday's paper. Other states will put kids as young as 7 on the lists. Diane did a great job of showing the lifelong consequences to everyone in a family in which two boys molested their sister.

3. Can someone tell me how children could be locked up and starving in a Dallas motel bathroom without someone in the outside world noticing? Scott Goldstein reports on a horror story that unraveled only when one of the parents sought police aid.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

Today's Hot Links have breaking news on the Rainbow Lounge raid and Mark Cuban.

1. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission boss Alan Steen says his agents committed "clear violations" of policy during the controversial recent gay-bar raid in Fort Worth, the Dallas Voice reports. The agents' supervisor has retired amid an internal investigation. Meanwhile, KXAS-TV has obtained the Fort Worth police report on the Rainbow Lounge incident, which ended with one patron seriously injured and calls for a federal investigation. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has posted police radio traffic from the raid on its site.

2. This just in: A judge has dismissed the insider-trading lawsuit that federal regulators filed against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

Change is coming to the Dallas North Tollway and to the criminal courts, as today's Hot Links show.

1. The North Texas Tollway Authority is taking new steps to warn wrong-way drivers, Dallas Morning News transportation writer Michael Lindenberger reports. Read Michael's blog for more discussion about whether the blame for recent crashes lies entirely with drunken drivers or also with tollway design.

2. The recent Supreme Court decision requiring lab analysts to testify in court about their findings is a huge boost for crime suspects, The Washington Post reports. "This is the biggest case for the defense since Miranda," a defense lawyer tells the paper. Legal-minded readers, are you seeing any local impact yet?

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

If you're on Twitter, follow our blog at DMNInvestigates. You can also check us out on Facebook.

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

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

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

There are flies in the ointment of some Texas crime-catching innovations, as today's Hot Links show.

1. We all know canines can help track escaped prisoners. But can they correctly ID crime suspects? There are growing questions about the only dog handler in Texas who does scent-identification lineups, the Victoria Advocate reports. A faulty dog ID recently sent a South Texas man to jail for a rape he didn't commit. Some judges have now barred the handler -- Fort Bend County Deputy Sheriff Keith Pikett -- from testifying.

2. Gov. Rick Perry gave sheriffs $2 million to install Webcams on the Mexican border. But few arrests and drug busts have resulted, an El Paso Times investigation shows.

Do you have a tip about dogs or dog handlers? Drugs? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know. Or join the conversation by commenting below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today's Hot Links touch on books, religion and traffic.

1. Who are the Texas textbook advisers saying that Thurgood Marshall and Cesar Chavez are not major figures in U.S. history? One is a Massachusetts evangelical named Peter Marshall, whose Web site would be happy to sell you books, DVDs and more. The other is a North Texas evangelical named David Barton, whose Web site would be happy to sell you books, DVDs and more.

2. Most of America lives in major metro areas. But we urbanites and suburbanites aren't getting our fair share of federal transportation stimulus money, a New York Times analysis suggests.

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

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

The right to spend, and the right to bear arms: These are the Hot Links of the day.

1. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn uses more taxpayer dollars on travel than any of his colleagues. The Texas Republican says the Politico.com report was "a little bit of a cheap shot," according to WFAA-TV/Channel 8.

2. Should students have the right to carry concealed weapons on college campuses? Is Texas going to give the gun lobby its big break on this issue? The Wall Street Journal has an interesting national roundup today.

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

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

Litigation over the Dallas Cowboys practice facility collapse is about to begin.

Rich Behm (right), the most seriously injured victim, has hired high-profile Dallas lawyer Frank Branson. Branson, in turn, asked a Dallas County court late last month to order a pre-litigation deposition of Nathan Stobbe, president of facility builder Summit Structures and its parent, Cover-All Building Systems.

Court records show that the attorney also asked for all of the Canada-based company's documents related to the tent-like facility, which came crashing down during a thunderstorm May 2.

Judge Sally Montgomery has taken no action on the petition, and no lawsuit has been filed. But Branson told me today that Stobbe had already submitted to questioning voluntarily. Branson said he had received some documents, too.

"The defendants at this time seem to be cooperating," he said. "I'd like to get this case up and running as smoothly as possible for everybody's sake."

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

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

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

"What mayhem on the ship!" she wrote.