DMN INVESTIGATES

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.

Last week's fire at Dallas' Samuell High School exposed the "fairly common" practice of chaining school exit doors, The DMN's Diane Rado reports today. Her main source: the State Fire Marshal's Office.

Principals, it seems, are creating firetraps in the name of preventing crime.

A chained door at Samuell temporarily trapped people who were trying to evacuate Thursday, though no one was hurt. The DISD Blog gave one teacher's scary account of the mess.

A Samuell official says the door was chained because locking it from the outside didn't provide sufficient security. Students inside would open the door, sometimes allowing weapons into the school.

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Different types of concerns are on residents' minds in two different suburbs:

1. Arlington's mayor and council members have reaped free tickets and food at the city's luxury suite at publicly subsidized Cowboys Stadium, the Star-Telegram reports. The market value of the "perk of the office," as one leader called it, is around $400,000. Some observers fear this creates a conflict of interest.

2. In Frisco, residents living near a battery-recycling plant continue to worry that their health is at risk. The News' Valerie Wigglesworth and Matthew Haag cite study results from 15 years ago that found 45 children had "lead levels that today are linked to myriad health issues, from learning disabilities to behavior problems to brain damage."

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Tad A. Camp is a former sheriff's deputy, private investigator, non-profit official and entrepreneur. He'll tell you about that in his online biography.

What Camp fails to mention in his biography is that he left law enforcement after being accused of beating his wife. Luckily The News' Steve Thompson filled in information gaps for us.

The omissions matter because Camp is seeking publicity for his newest business. He wants to speed missing-child cases by letting parents proactively store and share information about their little ones that could be used in the event of something terrible.

Donna Norris -- the mother of Amber Hagerman (right), the Arlington girl whose abduction and slaying inspired the Amber Alert system -- is one of his business partners. She said Camp disclosed his past to her, "and I'm OK with that ... It's just a shame that someone has to bring it up, because all we're about is saving children's lives."

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.

Authorities captured prison escapee Arcade Joseph Comeaux Jr. (right) this morning in Houston, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons says.

Comeaux, 49, a child rapist who's spent much of his adult life behind bars, reportedly was armed with two pistols when captured.

Last week, he used a smuggled pistol to overpower prison officers who were moving him between units.

"TDCJ officials are conducting a thorough review of the incident and have taken the immediate action of placing the Estelle Unit on lockdown," Lyons writes. "All individuals entering and exiting the facility are required to undergo a pat-search, and additionally, a walk-through metal detector has been installed."

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Texas has no shortage of amazing criminal justice stories. Here's the latest to hit my radar screen: State law says it's OK to show pornography to children -- as long as they're your children and the stuff is otherwise legal (no kiddie porn, in other words).

Now a Panhandle prosecutor wants the Texas attorney general's office to check his reading of the penal code section on showing harmful material to minors. An AG's spokesman said the matter is under review and declined further comment.

Randall County District Attorney James Farren's request grew out of a divorced Dallas-area woman's experience. Her three grade-school-aged daughters were living with their dad earlier this year when he allegedly got liquored up late one night and showed two of them porn on his computer. They later told a counselor, who alerted authorities. Amarillo police investigated, found the girls believable and sought advice from the DA's office before proceeding.

Farren concluded that that his hands were tied. No search warrant ever got issued, so there's been no independent look at evidence.

"We have to convince the Legislature to review this issue," Farren told me.

State Sen. Bob Deuell, a Republican from Greenville, said he will push for change in the next legislative session.

"It's not going to be an easy issue," he warned. Why? There will be talk that the state is trying to dictate what parents can teach their children.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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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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In today's Hot Links, Dallas-area TV stations show public employees endangering schoolkids on roadways.

1. Channel 8 obtained dash-cam video of a Dallas police response that sped through active school zones and past school buses. Doesn't Chief David Kunkle's strict speeding policy apply here?

2. Channel 11 reported that a Dallas County Schools bus driver lost a mentally disabled child for about two hours. Happy ending: The Oak Cliff boy apparently was asleep on the bus the whole time. Do drivers not check all their seats at the end of a route? What if this had happened in hotter weather?

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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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Dallas Episcopal Bishop James Stanton (right) confirmed today that he has suspended a priest-stockbroker who, as I reported Sunday, owes an ex-parishioner/ex-client $50,000 for securities fraud.

Stanton said he was unaware of what I discovered late yesterday: A Dallas judge put the Rev. William Warnky (below right) on 10 years of probation in 2006 for contempt of court after he failed to pay about $50,000 in child support to his second wife.

Warnky should have disclosed this to Dallas Episcopal Diocese leaders, the bishop said.

"Mercy," he added. "That is a very serious matter."

This spring, the Texas attorney general's office sought to jail Warnky because of continuing child-support failures. The judge let him stay on probation. Warnky has been making payments since, the AG's office said.

The priest declined to comment today. He led services Sunday at his church, Good Samaritan, which is a few blocks south of White Rock Lake. Stanton said his suspension from ministry took effect Monday.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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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."

How did these guys get from Point A to Point B? That's the theme of this morning's Hot Links:

1. Last year, Susan Hyde lost her paramedic's certification and her kids because she subjected them to dozens of medical treatments they apparently didn't need. This year, Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachie hired her as a patient care assistant, according to Dallas Morning News reporter Jon Nielsen. How and why did this happen? Hospital officials won't say. One possibility is that a background check focused only on criminal records -- and Hyde doesn't have one.

2. Addison-based Debt Relief USA said it could help you with your bills. Then it filed for bankruptcy, The News' Pamela Yip reports. Click here for updates on that case and a lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general. Also note that the Addison company is not affiliated with a New Jersey one that operates the Web site www.debtreliefusa.org. (I confused the two earlier.)

Do you have a tip about background checks? Bankruptcy? Another subject? Send me an e-mail and let me know.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Today we have another update on the Coppell seller of test-prep software that consumers have been complaining about and that two arms of state government are checking into.

Here's what I've learned: SAT and ACT Prep Center co-owner John Joseph Stuart (right) is a registered sex offender. He was convicted of sexually exploiting a child in Arizona six years ago.

State law requires offenders to tell authorities where they live and work. Stuart apparently did fine on the first requirement -- he disclosed his address to police in the Dallas suburb of Cedar Hill, where he owns a home.

But he didn't tell the cops about the prep center, which shares a parking lot with a day care center and is around the corner from Coppell Middle School West. He said he was self-employed as a housing remodeler.

Stuart, who is 32, didn't respond to my messages this week. His wife told me to call their attorney, who didn't respond to a message either.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. A sports development without public financing? Minor league baseball near downtown Dallas? That's what these guys say. The site was once considered for the new Cowboys stadium, which is now going up in Arlington. Last we heard, development was not exactly booming in that area. Or at Dallas' Victory project.

2. I like wine just fine. But I'm not so sure about the Texas Legislature's priorities. Lawmakers can't seem to pass a bill requiring pharmaceutical companies to report the gifts they give to health care providers, Dallas Morning News investigative reporter Emily Ramshaw reports. But they are suspending rules and fast-tracking a bill that would allow BYOB at restaurants. Here's the official analysis of S.B. 2523.

3. When illegal immigrants go to jail in the United States, what happens to their children? Some are being adopted by citizens, The New York Times reports.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Do you let your child sleep in bed with you? The state recommends you stop. More than 80 kids died between November and March -- by suffocating under bedding or clothes, by an adult rolling on top of them, or by falling between the bed and a wall, the Houston Chronicle reports.

2. Taxpayers shouldn't fund state employees' personal use of government vehicles, state Rep. Terri Hodge of Dallas says. She estimates such usage at four state agencies cost a combined $3.8 million in one year, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

3. We've been blogging steadily about legislative efforts that would curtail government accountability by making private state workers' date-of-birth information. Supporters say they're trying to prevent ID theft. But the legislation does nothing to prevent cases like this one reported by The News' Katherine Leal Unmuth.

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

Hope you've had a good start to the weekend. Here are some of today's interesting stories in The Dallas Morning News:

1. AIG's public skewering over its post-bailout bonuses isn't deterring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both plan to pay more than $210 million in incentives to its workers. They were given more than $60 billion-with-a-B in government aid after loan defaults hammered them. U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley said: "It's an insult that bonuses were made with an infusion of cash from taxpayers."

2. The Texas Education Agency is investigating the severe paddling that sent a Lincoln High student to the doctor with multiple bruises and welts. Dallas ISD police didn't push a criminal case nor did administrators give the state a heads-up. A TEA official said: "It seems that this has been mishandled since the beginning."

3. Another public servant is in legal trouble. A judge granted a protective order against a Dallas police spokesman whose wife accuses him of abusing her son and threatening to kill her. "I'm going to find that family violence has occurred," the judge said.

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

Some of today's interesting stories in The Dallas Morning News to help your water cooler conversation:

1. Dallas ISD is mum on why its police force dropped an investigation in the severe paddling of a Lincoln High student. The DA's office, though, is talking. "We never heard back from them," said Terri Moore, Craig Watkins' second-in-command. Decide for yourself whether DISD made the right call.

2. One public servant is in legal trouble. A state judge in El Paso allegedly bartered with defendants: His help for their money or sex. The feds arrested him at his home Thursday.

3. Our Austin bureau has a full report on an item we blogged yesterday: The Texas Senate's approval of a bill to use to $12 million to beef up the foster care system. Dallas Sen. John Carona recently adopted two foster kids and backed the plan, "I've seen what these children are put through."

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

There's a long list of state agencies that can't seem to do their jobs well, as our recent "State of Neglect" series made clear. Texas' foster care system might just be a case study.

The timeline of trouble began in 2003, when The News' Doug Swanson found problems in state's financial oversight of homes for emotionally disturbed foster kids. The comptroller followed up and called in 2004 for an overhaul the entire system because of abuse and neglect cases that her staff uncovered.

Yet the problems persisted. Foster kids kept dying. The feds fined Texas $4 million because caseworkers fell way short of a benchmark for making regular visiting state wards.

Today the newest legislative fix-it won approval in the Senate. The bill by Sen. Jane Nelson of Flower Mound would provide up to $12 million in an attempt to improve the state's monitoring of foster kids. The reform heads to the House.

"Sadly," Nelson said of foster kids, "many of them are falling into lives of despair and, in many cases, homelessness. We need to better support these children and the families who provide their care."

Two state senators think the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission could beef up warnings to parents about recalls of child products.

The feds send out news releases just fine, the two say, but little other action happens. The people who need the information most don't get it. The dangerous toys and equipment stay in circulation. And, as a result, an average of 100 kids die annually.

So Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and Sen. Judith Zaffirini are shepherding legislation that would require licensed Texas day cares to certify they read all recall bulletins and remove the unsafe products or repair them.

Their bill, along with a companion in the House, would also mandate that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services broaden inspections to search for tainted products still in use at day cares.

Do you think the state should fill the feds' vacuum? Or is this an unfunded mandate for day cares and DFPS?