An Austin firm wants to build a large luxury condo development on largely rural San Antonio Bay (in Texas) adjacent to the land where the last remaining wild flock of 250 highly endangered Whooping Cranes live.  These tallest birds in North America were down to perhaps 17 individuals before World War II.  In fact, those individuals were all discovered on this very place. It has taken decades of work and love by hundreds or thousands of people to bring the whoopers this far.  And now they could be at increased risk.

A few weeks ago I wrote a diary on this subject and asked for your help.  I'm asking again.

Once Whooping Cranes (grus americana) were on the brink of extinction, thought by some to be lost.  Like passenger pigeons, like the dodo.  Then in 1941 a man bought some isolated Texas land along San Antonio Bay in the Gulf of Mexico, so the story goes.  And as he was riding his marshy quiet land populated by alligators, white-tailed deer, and crab, he saw something tall and white.  Perhaps he thought they were Sandhill Cranes, a species not uncommon in that region, until realizing that these birds were truly snow-white, and almost five feet tall. (Whooping Cranes are the tallest birds in North America.)  If one had trumpeted
the haunting call that gives the species its name, perhaps he would have known instantly.

Because that man had discovered fifteen or sixteen very much non-extinct Whooping Cranes on his land.  These were all that remained of their kind.

Here, apparently, is the secret that gunman who shot up the Amish school had.  Here's what happened to Charles C. Roberts IV about 20 years ago, when he was about 12.

According to CNN his wife said he had molested someone, possibly one or more family members aged 3 or 4, when he was 12.  His family said they had no knowledge of that.  This would not be an unusual thing in a case of child molestations; most do not come to light, and he as a 12-year old had far more power to keep it hidden than a 3-year old would to bring it to light.  But he remembered it, and was apparently troubled enough to tell his wife about it.

Republican dirty tricks, state Democratic party incompetence, or both?  You decide.

The Texas District 18 State Senate seat has been held for years by Democrat-in-name-only Ken Armbrister.  He's most famous for a joke he won't deny making: "Why did God make women?  Because sheep can't type."  It's in a lot of women's studies textbooks.  Great.  Finally this year he steps down.

Two Democratic candidates start the primary race: Bret Baldwin, a business consultant from one end of the district, and Henry Boehm, Jr., a physician from the other end of the district.  Bret Baldwin is an actual Democrat; he has taken part in local Democratic activities, and while I don't know him well, I know that he is, like I said, an actual Democrat.  Boehm I had never heard of.  While trying to get a candidates forum together, I had to look for Boehm's contact information, using what every normal person uses--Google.  

Yesterday the Texas state legislation voted to raise their own retirement benefits.

They did so by raising the salaries of District Judges, to whose salaries legislative retirement benefits are pegged.  Giving a raise to hard-working underpaid judges doesn't seem objectionable to me; however, the increase in legislature benefits was not just an incidental result but an intentional one.  The legislature also raised the percentage of that pegged salary figure that they can get, from 2% to 2.3%.  Perhaps not a huge figure, but it's more than most other state employees will see in terms of pension increases.  (It's sure more than I will see.)

Richard Morrison appeared tonight at a meeting of the Victoria (Texas) Democrats Club.  Victoria is 120 miles from Houston, a semi-rural red county amid 15 other entirely-rural red counties.  After he announced that he was dropping out of the race, we contacted him to see if he wanted to cancel his planned appearance here--after all, it's a two-hour drive each way--but he would have none of it.  

When I say "trickle-down" politics, I mean way down, down to everyday interactions between faculty, administration, and students.  This is about politics on a micro level.  About one way that abuse of power reverberates throughout an organization and hurts people who don't deserve to be hurt.  I warn you, I am grieving.

I'm a college prof, and a faculty sponsor of our university chapter of the national honor society for our particular academic discipline.  Let's call it Rho Rho Rho.  Rho3 was instrumental in my getting into graduate school; when I was an undergrad, the R3 chapter on my own campus put on seminars about how to select, apply for, and gain admission to graduate school in my very competitive chosen field.  Without those seminars 20 years ago, I would have been literally clueless.  Without them, I would, I am absolutely certain, still be living in a hovel in L.A., unemployed, getting stoned and drinking beer with my increasingly-bitter friends.

This morning's "Topeka Capital Journal" has a front page story on Candidate Brownback.  While you may have to register, it's free.  The article presented Brownback in a light that disturbed me more than I had expected, not because the CJ is rah-rah about him, but because there are some things about him that may appeal to moderate people of faith.  In other words, some of the very folks who might otherwise move to a Democratic candidate when repelled by Bush.  

http://www.cjonline.com/stories/042405/loc_brownback.shtml

Testing the waters

Sam Brownback has been laying the groundwork for a possible White House run
By Tim Carpenter
Topeka Capital-Journal

Yes, it's another Schiavo diary.  Sort of.  

Today's Houston Chronicle story on the stink clinging to Tom DeLay is remarkable for a number of reasons.  First, because it exists; the Chron doesn't always do a first-rate job of covering DeLay's less savory antics, in my opinion, but here is a story that covers not just the antics, but the growing reaction to those antics.

The New York Times has a report this morning about a graduate student of education enamored of spanking students:

SYRACUSE, March 8 - As a substitute teacher in the public schools here, Scott McConnell says students are often annoyed that he does not let them goof off in class. Yet he was not prepared for the sixth grader who walked up to his desk in November, handed in an assignment, and then swore at him.

The profanity transported him back to his own days at Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Oklahoma in the 1980's, when there was a swift solution for wiseacres: the paddle.

"It was a footlong piece of wood, and hung on every classroom wall like a symbol, a strong Christian symbol," said Mr. McConnell, who is 26. "Nobody wanted that paddle to come down."

He said he had been a disruptive student, and routinely mouthed off until his fourth-grade teacher finally gave him three whacks to the backside. Physically, it did not hurt. But he felt humiliated and humbled.

"I never wanted that again," Mr. McConnell recalled. "It was good for me."

When I get discouraged about things like yesterday's treachery in the Senate, when I feel powerless and wonder what the hell one person like me in the middle of Republican nowhere can do to stop or even slow the corporate crushing of America, I stop and remember the heroes who have shown that one ordinary person can make a difference.  

Okay, I'm going to be as calm as I can about this, but I'm really distressed about it.  I've been reading comments on another diary about how Wal-Mart is evil (and I agree), and hence nobody should shop at Wal-Mart.  Go to Costco instead of Sam's.  Go to a co-op.  

These are good ideas.  We must vote with our dollars; it's imperative.  Long term, mutual self-help groups are a hugely useful idea.  What is distressing me is the lack of comprehension as to why a huge part of the country shops at Wal-Mart.  There's an airy, let-them-eat-cake vibe about the lofty recommendations to swear off WallyWorld.  While I don't want to make this a red state-blue state issue, I see a clear ignorance about how people outside big cities live, and why.

On Tuesday, almost 37% of Topeka, Kansas voters turned out to vote on a city ban which would have prohibited any legislation preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians, including hate crime legislation.  This ban would have made Topeka the only city with such an ordinance, which could not have been repealed for at least ten years due to Kansas law.

Almost 53% of voters cast their ballot against the ban, with about 47% voting for it.  

The ubiquitous Phelps clan of Westboro Baptist Church (they of "God Hates Fags" signage displayed at every opportunity in Topeka and elsewhere) got this initiative on the ballot through a petition drive.  Other religious groups such as Truth in Love Outreach (yes, irony is dead) also backed the ban.  They explain the ban's failure at the polls by pointing to confusing wording.  

AP reports research evidence that air pollution changes fetal chromosomes, below.

Quite an approach-avoidance conflict for the religious right, I'd say.