• Test vote on unemployment extension bill today.
• Palin admits to making a run for the (Canadian) border for health care.
• So NOW Obama gets all mean to the insurance companies!

• City Council was told today that Austin faces a $30 million budget gap in the next year.
• Waco lawmaker suggests moving the governor to the Pease Mansion, as buying that property would cost much less than restoration for the current mansion is expected to cost.
• Legislation to accept the federal stimulus money for unemployment insurance passed in State Senate and moving to the House; Gov. Perry not happy.

Chief among the proposed amendments is a call for criticizing the theory of evolution by noting its weaknesses; another change would question the process of planet formation. Supporters of the amendment who are attending the debates in person include the Free Market Foundation and Focus on the Family, the latter group which is less known for its scientific acumen than its crusade against the gays. Various evolutionary "heavy-hitters," as Wired's Science blog calls them, are also in town to root for the opposing team. more ›

• Jerks who will never learn...and the taxpayers who will pay for them.
• Speaking of boatloads of money...
• Peanut Co. President pleads the Fifth.

Today the State Board of Education approved changes in the state science curriculum, removing any language on the "weaknesses" of evolution. Yesterday the textbook commission had voted 8-7 to defeat (barely) a proposed amendment requiring that state biology textbooks retain the phrase "strengths and weaknesses" on the subject of evolution. Texas has used such language in science texts for the past decade. Today's Board of Education vote is only tentative; the official vote is in March, but will likely bear the same result. The vote in March will affect our state's curriculum for the next 10 years. [DMN] more ›