North Texas lawmaker campaigns to unseat current speaker
Ed Sterling

A USTIN - When the Texas Legislature convenes Jan. 9, the

150 members of

the Texas House of Representatives must choose who among them will preside as speaker.

Incumbent Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, will need 76 votes — 50 percent of 150, plus one - to retain his office.

But Craddick will have competition this time from fellow Republican state Rep. Brian McCall of Plano.

McCall says he and other state representatives are ready for a change in leadership and he believes he has the votes to unseat Craddick.

The House’s composition is 81 Republicans and 69 Democrats. Without a largescale switch of allegiance among Republicans to his camp, McCall will have to convince many Democrats to back him. Craddick, 63, was

elected speaker in January 2003 after serving 34 years as a House member. He was reelected speaker in 2005. McCall, 48, has served in the House since 1991. President Ford honored in death

Gov. Rick Perry on Dec. 27 ordered all flags to be flown at half- staff in memory and in honor of the life and public service of former President Gerald R. Ford.

Ford, 93, died Dec. 26.

“President Ford was a calming, dignified voice of leadership during a turbulent time in the history of our country,” Perry said. “His tenure as president was extraordinary and his lifetime of public service to our country in the United States Navy and in Congress was admirable and worthy of the respect of all Americans.”

The governor’s directive applies to all U.S. and state flags under the control of the state. Flags will be at halfstaff on the state C a p i t o l Building and on flag displays in the Capitol Complex, and upon all public b u i l d i n g s , grounds, and f a c i l i t i e s throughout the state for 30 days.

P e r r y encouraged all Texans to fly flags at halfstaff for the same length of time as a sign of respect.

Perry also ordered Texas flags to half-staff on Dec. 29 in honor of Scottie Stevenson, daughter-in-law of Gov. Coke Stevenson. She served as Texas’ first lady after Gov. Stevenson’s wife died and when her husband, Gov. Stevenson’s son, was deployed to the Pacific during World War II. TEA clears schools after

audit

The Texas Education Agency closed investigations into possible TAKS testing irregularities at 592 Texas schools when no evidence of wrongdoing was found.

The agency said an analysis by Caveon Test Security earlier this year flagged 700 schools as having “data anomalies” during the 2005 testing period.

A school was flagged by Caveon if the firm’s review found an aberrant or unusual response pattern, a large score gain, a statistically unusual number of erasures or very similar test responses, such as correctly answering hard questions while missing easy questions.

The Commissioner’s Task Force on Test Integrity concluded that security audits and on-site investigations found no evidence of action that violated the state’s extensive test security system at 592 schools.

Three of the 700 schools flagged for their 2005 test results have since closed. Cases are still open for 105 schools. Sierra Club joins coal lawsuit

Power companies are moving quickly on plans to build coal-fired plants in Texas to meet growing demand for power and to reduce the state’s reliance on expensive natural gas to produce electricity.

According to a Reuters news agency report, the Sierra Club has intervened in a lawsuit to slow the permitting process for as many as 18 coal-fired power plants in Texas.

The suit, aimed mainly at plans by Dallas-based TXU Corp. to invest $10 billion to build 11 pulverized coalburning units in the next few years, seeks to overturn an

executive order issued last year by Gov. Perry that accelerates the process to obtain an air permit in Texas.

The State Office of Administrative Hearings has scheduled a Feb. 21 hearing to consider six air permits for identical coal units to be built at TXU sites in north Texas. Former AG now out of prison

Dan Morales, who served two terms as Texas attorney general, has been released from federal prison in Texarkana.

Morales began serving a sentence in 2003 after he was convicted of fraud related to payment of attorney fees in the state’s $17 billion lawsuit against cigarette makers.

Morales has transferred to a halfway house in the San Antonio area. The full report is available online at window.state.tx.us. Ed Sterling is director of member services for the Texas Press Association in Austin.