DMN INVESTIGATES

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.

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.

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Dallas-Fort Worth commuters have begun paying tolls in recent years because, they were told, tax dollars were too few to expand all the congested roadways and build new ones.

The Star-Telegram did a nice job this weekend showing how there has been, in fact, public money to spare. Since 1991, nearly $1 billion has been dedicated to projects that had "little to do with mobility," the newspaper reported.

Two examples: $16.1 million for the Battleship Texas restoration project on the Texas coast and $262 million spent on highway rest stops across the state, including one for $10 million off Interstate 35 with Wi-Fi connections (shown at right).

Who's to blame? Texas transportation officials say the federal government ties their hands by requiring spending on enhancement projects, as these are called, in order to get a much larger chunk of construction change. Once the money is here, state lawmakers then push to use it on pet projects, such as $2 million for a Houston fire museum.

Do you have thoughts on how government is deciding to spend these transportation dollars? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

Fair or not, we expect the best of the best of behavior from our police departments. Most officers deliver. Some don't, and when that happens, things get messy for everyone, as two stories over the weekend show:

1. An officer who Dallas police has tried previously to fire is in trouble yet again, The News' Tanya Eiserer reports. His problem seems to be stealing from others in his own ranks, but it makes you wonder about his work protecting the public.

2. Fort Worth chief Jeffrey Halstead's first four months at the helm included excessive-force allegations against his officers: the raid of a local gay bar that turned violent and the death of a mentally ill man who'd just been Tased. He tells the Star-Telegram that "we want to correct behavior" in the department.

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We're back after an extended break during the holidays. Let's ease into our familiar routines with a look at some of the interesting public-interest stories from the weekend:

1. If you're catching up on the recent rise in terror threats, The News published a nice takeout by The Washington Post exploring Al-Qaeda's re-emergence in Yemen. Yemen is the base of the imam who advised the Army psychiatrist behind the Fort Hood killings, as my colleague Brooks Egerton has blogged, and has apparent ties to the Nigerian who tried to blow up a plane bound for Detroit.

2. Much has been written about the economic wonders of the new Cowboys Stadium. The News' Jeff Mosier reminds us that in one instance what Jerry giveth Arlington, he taketh from Dallas. Fair Park had a "hollow feeling" as the annual Cotton Bowl football game was played out west for the first time Saturday. Makes you wonder what the economic losses were for Dallas?

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A decade ago, federal transportation officials hired Traffic.com to install high-tech sensors that measure freeway speeds and volume. The data can trigger traffic-jam alerts to electronic signs and other equipment.

But state and local governments can't post the alerts unless they pay the contractor a fee, The New York Times reports today, citing a non-yet-public audit by the U.S. Department of Transportation's inspector general.

Never mind that taxpayers have committed more than $50 million to the project.

The transportation department responded to the audit, according to Times, by citing "nine letters from members of Congress -- many of whom had received frequent campaign contributions from executives at Traffic.com -- who demanded, among other requests, that it skip a competitive bidding process and give more money to Traffic.com."

The story does not identify the politicians. It says Traffic.com, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Navteq, didn't respond to a request for comment.

In case you're wondering, yes, Traffic.com alerts do appear on dallasnews.com.

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Remember the little boy pictured at right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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No one expected change to come easily when legislators passed a series of initiatives to overhaul Child Protective Services back in 2005. News of late reminds us just how tough it may be.

1. You'll recall the headlines that brought the agency's investigative work back into question following the death of an Arlington toddler left in a hot car by his mother, who had a history of abuse and neglect. That case came after three other child deaths in the Houston area that prompted reviews from CPS headquarters.

Yesterday the Houston Chronicle's Terri Langford, a former colleague of ours here at The News, had a timely piece on how one of the biggest reforms hasn't been working: The hiring of former law enforcement officers to beef up CPS casework. Seems half of the new personnel has already quit in what appears to be a "culture shock" between social work and investigations.

One of those who left, now a police chief in a suburban Houston school district, described his experience like this: "I was a little disappointed. You were being supervised by someone with no law enforcement experience and you're supposed to be advising that person and they see you as a glorified caseworker."

2. On a completely different subject: How many cops does it take to escort Oprah Winfrey at the State Fair? More than I would have guessed, Scott Goldstein tells us on the Crime blog.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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."

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Child Protective Services is changing its tune regarding a neglect investigation that could have saved the life of Darrell Singleton (right) -- but didn't.

Yesterday, CPS spokesman Chris Van Deusen said that leaving a 1-year-old such as Darrell unsupervised all day in a home doesn't put the child at immediate risk of serious harm and thus is not a top-priority case for investigation.

Now he's just sent me an e-mail stating the opposite: "It is the agency position that allegations of pre-school children who are at home alone right now, or who are being left home alone regularly, constitutes an immediate threat to their health and safety, and those allegations require immediate investigation."

Another new position regards the May complaint about the welfare of Darrell and his two siblings, ages 5 and 6. Yesterday CPS said that someone who knew the children reported that they were being left home alone all day in Arlington while their mom, Keashia Matthews (right), worked in Bedford.

Van Deusen's new e-mail says: "The May intake we received did not allege that the children were currently in danger. The report was that one of the children said she had in the past been left with her siblings at home. There was no allegation that this was an ongoing practice or that children were currently home alone."

That's why CPS didn't consider this a top-priority case, the spokesman says.

What I still don't understand is why, regardless of whether this was Priority 1 or Priority 2, CPS closed the matter after mom arranged for day care. Consider:

1. Why is day care a solution if there was no ongoing problem?
2. Matthews had a known history of endangering other children and losing custody of them.
3. The May neglect complaint arose while CPS was investigating her for alleged physical abuse (later deemed unfounded, the agency says).
4. Why was Darrell in his mom's car all day in early September, dying, if she had day care?

I asked. They answered. And I still don't get it.

Yesterday my question was whether CPS alerted Arlington police in May that Keashia Matthews (right) was leaving her three little children -- ages 1, 5 and 6 -- home alone all day while she worked.

And as you can see in today's follow-up story, the answer is yes. But CPS didn't ask for police help, because it didn't think Matthews was putting the kids at risk of serious, immediate harm.

And so this woman, who had a history of neglecting other children and losing custody of them, never got charged with endangerment. That could have sent her to jail and given the three little kids some chance of finding a safer home.

Instead, CPS closed the books on the matter after she arranged for day care.

Now, of course, the youngest child, Darrell Singleton III (right), is dead, and mom has been charged with contributing to his demise by deliberately leaving him in a hot car.

Arlington police say they're now reviewing their actions to see whether they could have done more to prevent the death.

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Let's do this in chronological order:

1. In the mid-1990s, Keashia Matthews (right) left her first baby alone in a rancid apartment. Mom's mom takes custody of this child.

2. Keashia soon has another baby. Grandma takes this one, too. "She is not fit to be a mother," Grandma tells Dallas Morning News ace crime reporter Scott Goldstein.

3. Keashia has baby #3 in 2003. Child Protective Services is notified, and this girl goes into foster care. A judge sends her back home later that year.

4. Keashia has two more children.

5. In May of this year, CPS learns that Keashia is leaving the three youngest kids -- ages 1, 5 and 6 -- home alone while she works. "She ended up securing daycare for the children," CPS spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales tells reporter Goldstein. "That case was closed in June."

6. Early last month, Keashia's youngest dies under suspicious circumstances, as described by Arlington police. That's the dead baby pictured at right: Darrell Singleton. Mom now has been charged with injury to a child and is free on bond.

CPS's Web site says all of its neglect and abuse reports "must be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agency for possible criminal prosecution." And police must accompany CPS caseworkers who are responding to "reports of abuse/neglect that involve children who appear to face immediate risk of harm that could result in death or serious injury."

So were Arlington police notified of the neglect in May? If so, what happened? I've asked CPS and police spokespeople for answers. They say they're checking. Stay tuned.

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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.

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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.

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I aced college geography. But I wouldn't have been able to find Mbabane, Swaziland, on an African map before reading a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story about two Cowtown city council members who are traveling there this week at taxpayer expense.

The trip is part of Fort Worth's Sister Cities program, which sends a delegation to seven locales around the world to glad-hand and talk a little business. Fort Worth has provided about $350,000 in public funding toward this and usually pays the cost of a couple of elected officials to attend -- in this case, two to Swaziland at a cost of nearly $10,000.

The timing could not have been worse. Just last week, the council approved budget cuts and fee hikes for residents. One of the traveling council members insisted, "This is not about tourism. This is about AIDS in Africa and the significant issues that are faced in that part of the world. It is very important we have these exchanges."

The Sister Cities trip reminded me of other recent examples of big-ticket municipal travel -- Rowlett, Dallas and Mesquite. Leaves you wondering taxpayers believe they're getting a good value, or whether they'd like their neighborhood library open a few more hours.

Do you have tips to share about Sister Cities travel or other trips your local city officials are taking? Leave a comment or e-mail me.

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Hot Links today are all about capital punishment:

1. Charles Dean Hood (right) may well deserve to die for murdering two people in Plano. But I'd feel a whole lot better about killing killers if I knew they got a fair trial. And that's very much in doubt here. The latest: Texas' highest court said yesterday that it's too late for the defense to use evidence that the trial judge and Collin County's DA were, um, romantically entangled. Defense attorneys tried to work this angle earlier but lacked evidence -- the affair, like most, was secret. But now they have admissions from former DA Tom O'Connell (under Hood) and paramour Verla Sue Holland (below).

2. The appeals court decision comes at a particularly difficult time for Texas' image. I recently summarized three other ongoing capital punishment embarrassments, including two in which there's real doubt about a convicted man's guilt. In one of those cases, the defendant has already been executed.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Today's main Hot Link highlights another case that gives Texas' capital punishment system a bad name.

1. Longtime death row inmate Michael Toney (right) is free on bail, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The Texas attorney general's office, following Tarrant County prosecutors' admission that they withheld evidence, moved to dismiss charges that he killed three people in a 1985 Lake Worth bombing. Beyond that, you're not going to learn much from the Star-Telegram story. Click here for the definitive series on the Toney case, written in 2005 by my Dallas Morning News colleague Doug Swanson.

2. Other recent death penalty-related messes: The top judge of the state's top criminal court, Sharon Keller, is facing possible discipline because she closed her doors instead of waiting for a death row inmate's appeal. And a study commissioned by the state Forensic Science Commission cast serious doubt on the science used to convict -- and execute -- a man whose three children died in a fire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

Turmoil in the suburbs. A drug war near the Texas border. What's a politician to do?

1. Irving's power structure is under siege. The local icon, Texas Stadium, is turning into an eyesore. The Dallas Cowboys will soon be playing in Arlington, leaving behind controversy over their practice facility's collapse and the city's dubious role in inspecting it. Now comes a federal judge's ruling that the city's at-large system for electing the City Council is illegal, as reported today by Jeff Mosier and Katherine Leal Unmuth of The Dallas Morning News. Members of the all-white council said they thought things were working just fine. Hispanics are about 40 percent of the population -- the largest group in town.

2. The Los Angeles Times has a fascinating look today at possible ties between drug lords and elected officials in Mexico. Seems a recently elected member of Congress there, Julio Cesar Godoy, is now a fugitive. He has been linked to a narco gang that has killed at least 16 police officers in recent days. He is also a half-brother of Michoacan state's governor.

Do you have a tip about Irving? The Dallas Cowboys? 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Michael is dead. Farrah is dead. And I don't feel so good myself. But it's not the passing of two wacky celebrities that has me down in the dumps. It's today's Hottest Link:

1. Arlington police suspected Jason Farrington of fracturing his baby's skull in March. But they didn't think they had enough evidence to arrest him. Child Protective Services let Mom take baby home from the hospital after she promised Dad wouldn't live with them. Now 4-month-old Jayden Farrington is dead, Dallas Morning News ace crime reporter Steve Thompson reports. And Dad is finally in jail.

2. Also lost in the celebrity shuffle: There's growing evidence that a technology failure contributed to the commuter-train crash that killed nine people Monday in the nation's capital, The Washington Post reports. How safe are similar systems here?

Do you have a tip about CPS? Commuter trains? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the stories giving me chills on a hot Texas morning:

1. Another month, another mass-transit disaster: This latest one, which killed at least seven people in the nation's capital, was supposed to be impossible, The Washington Post reports. A computer should apply brakes automatically if trains get too close. Another mystery: The driver of the train that crashed had a clear line of sight but apparently never braked, either. Was she incapacitated? Using a cell phone, like the drivers I wrote about last month?

2. Another week, another higher-ed exec getting paid by taxpayers not to work: Tarrant County College Chancellor Leonardo de la Garza has quit with two years left on his contract -- but still will receive $700,000, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The story lacks much context; go to the Fort Worth Weekly for that. Last week, Elsa Murano quit as Texas A&M boss. Here's her deal, as reported yesterday by my colleague Holly Hacker: "She will be on leave for a year and keep her president's $425,000 salary, plus an additional $295,000, and she agreed not to sue. She plans to return as a professor, at a $260,000 salary."

Do you have a tip about mass transit? Higher ed? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

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

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

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

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

I recently got an email alerting me that I had some unclaimed money in an IRS account. Wow, that sounded too good to be true.

And, in fact, it was.

Turns out that my email is a perfect example of a modern scam called "phishing," which involves the criminal use of the Internet to try to gain access to sensitive information, such as credit card and social security numbers.

In this case, the fake IRS message attempted to trick unsuspecting victims, like me, into revealing personal information that could then be used to access the victims' financial accounts.

"This is a big topic," said Clay Sanford, an IRS spokesman in Dallas. Taxpayers have forwarded more than 33,000 of these scam e-mails to the IRS, he said, and there are more than 1,500 different schemes to date.

Here's a sign that the federal stimulus package is reaching into North Texas: Funding for local transportation projects.

In the latest installment of our Citizen Watchdog column, Jennifer LaFleur shows us a new online tool that we can use to keep track of the $2.2 billion in funding for new roads, bridges, bike paths and walking trails due to Texas.

The Texas Department of Transportation is operating the site. The information is organized by county. After clicking on a particular project, you can pull up a construction schedule, location map, funding breakdown and construction company in charge.

Jennifer used the TxDOT site to find that Harris County leads the state so far in the number of projects with 18. Tarrant County has the highest dollar amount, more than $1.2 billion.

Did you find the TxDOT site helpful? Did you spot an interesting trend? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Hope you had a good Memorial Day holiday. Let's catch up on a few of the public-interest stories in The Dallas Morning News and around the Web-o-sphere:

1. Remember the FBI's public corruption investigation involving affordable housing deals at Dallas City Hall? Nearly five years after it began, we may finally see the start of the long-awaited trial, Jason Trahan tell us. Unless former Mayor pro-tem Don Hill and his co-defendants decide to make last-minute plea deals.

2. Interesting story line in Jeff Mosier's profile of Arlington mayor Robert Cluck is that a predecessor, Richard Greene, isn't convinced the publicly subsidized Cowboys Stadium will bring the city the national profile it craves. Greene cites as evidence Rangers Ballpark, another recipient of taxpayer money.

3. Hundreds of airplane mechanics may have been improperly licensed during the last decade, raising safety concerns and questions about the Federal Aviation Administration's regulation, WFAA (Channel 8) reports. It is the latest installment in an ongoing investigation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Your car warranty is about to expire!!! So claim the automated phone calls that pester Americans by the millions and that a U.S. senator wants to stop.

2. Federal regulators accuse former Dallas Cowboys player Michael Kiselak, his Westlake firm and related parties of misleading investors, The Dallas Morning News' Eric Torbenson reports. An online bio says Kiselak also founded the Sports Business Network to help fellow ex-pro athletes.

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

Bad weather recently wreaked havoc on airline schedules in North Texas - not surprisingly, since some of the thunderstorms were accompanied by microbursts, which are downdrafts of 70 mph or more. Add to that at least 3.89 inches of rain, and you wind up with a bunch of delayed, hungry and tired passengers at the airport.

A couple of them wrote to me to complain about how American Airlines handled the weather. I'm aware of what bad weather does to airline schedules since I've had plans disrupted waiting for my husband - an American pilot - to get home.

So I made some calls. One reader was really happy with how things turned out. The other -- not so much.

Where did the money go? That's the big question left hanging by my recent story on the latest scandal to hit the surrogacy industry.

My piece focused on Tonya Collins, right, a Colleyville businesswoman accused of stealing millions from people who sought her help in becoming parents.

After it ran, I spoke to Deborah Haworth, who used to work for Collins and was a friend of hers since they were young. She told me she visited Collins and her seven children last Thanksgiving.

Haworth was impressed by the 4,400-square-foot home where Collins lived, the two new vehicles she bought, and private schools where she sent her children.

At the time, Haworth figured that Collins "must be signing up [new] parents to support her family." She began to doubt that once the scandal broke.

"Many times I sat down and thought, OK, where exactly is this money coming from?" Haworth said. "Never in a billion years would I think that she was just draining the trust accounts."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Non-profit groups around the nation have made questionable loans to their executives, an Internal Revenue Service investigation is finding.

IRS officials won't name targets. But they say they're focusing on loans over $100,000 -- and are troubled by "loans with no real terms for repayment or loans where there are terms for repayment but no follow-up if the repayment is not made."

The Dallas Morning News reported in January on a local arts exec who got a loan of more than $500,000: Jeremy Strick (right), who recently became director of the Nasher Sculpture Center.

The lender was his previous employer, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. A written contract required him to repay any balance when his employment ended.

But Strick -- who quit his MOCA job under pressure in December, as the museum's finances crumbled -- now says he didn't meet the contract's terms. "When I left, we changed that," he told me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. OK, the good news first: No one has been hurt since stadium lighting poles (like the one pictured here) started falling at Texas high schools. But the rest of this investigative report from Cox Newspapers is terrifying. Denton, Tarrant and Ellis counties are among those where tragedy nearly has struck. The steel poles have a common -- and unregulated -- manufacturing lineage.

2. Bedford resident Jan Tidwell, a reader of this blog, sent us a frantic post yesterday. The local power company wanted to chop down her old oak trees. Dallas Morning News reporter Sherry Jacobson and videographer Nathan Hunsinger hustled to craft these balanced looks at the situation. Is Oncor overzealous in cutting trees near power lines? Or are homeowners like Jan putting shade ahead of safety?

3. We've been trying to avoid the White House puppy story, reasoning that there were too many other reporters covering this trivia. But Dallas Morning News reporter Jeffrey Weiss changed our mind today with a look at the risks associated with the Obamas' North Texas-bred pooch.

News reporter Sarah Perry tells us that a "bridge over State Highway 114 near the Texas Motor Speedway could be closed for nearly two months for emergency repairs."

"The bridge on FM 156 was closed Wednesday after crews discovered a damaged beam on its underside, said Keith Nabors, a maintenance supervisor for TxDOT."

Bridge and roadway quality was thrust into the national spotlight when the I-35W bridge across the Mississippi River collapsed Aug. 1, 2007, killing 13. The collapse was caused by design flaws.

More than 1 in 4 of America's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

So take some time and check the bridges near where you live and drive on our new searchable database.

Do you see something interesting in the data? Send us an e-mail.

If you're new to the blog today, welcome. Here are some of today's interesting stories from The Dallas Morning News and around the Web:

1. Our 2006 "Road Hazards" investigation of Texas truck safety found that a fourth of the 953 drivers faulted in fatal crashes earlier this decade had been previously convicted or sentenced to deferred adjudication probation. Now the FBI has linked long-haul truckers to serial killings claiming 500 victims across the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reports. Grapevine police are pursuing one of the truckers.

2. Gas wells tapping into the Barnett Shale have grown by the thousands in D-FW's western counties. Proposed Senate Bill 686 would try to lessen safety risks for residents by letting energy companies run pipelines along state highways rather than through neighborhoods, the Star-Telegram reports.

3. Talk about sticker shock. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the federal bailout of the financial sector will be about $356 billion, nearly twice as much as previously stated.

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