U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is making what some Rio Grande Valley lawmen say is a bogus claim about the status of border security.

I must stipulate that Cornyn is a Republican and the law enforcement officers are Democratic sheriffs. So, one must understand the politics involved.

Cornyn said recently that a South Texas rancher has told him that as many as 300 people are crossing the Rio Grande River illegally every night. He won’t identify the name of the individual making the claim, but does say he’s a friend of the senator’s. The Dallas Morning News, though, reports that sheriffs along the border scoff at Cornyn’s assertion, saying that such a mass migration across the border would produce 110,000 illegal crossings annually, which they say is more than double the estimated number of people estimated by the federal government who elude capture every year.

Zapata County Sheriff Alonzo Lopez, one of the Democratic lawmen who say Cornyn is making this stuff up, said: “We would be acting on that if it were true. We never hear about large amounts of people crossing ’cause it’s not happening.”

Sure enough, the sheriffs have their political turf to protect. They can’t acknowledge this kind of massive breach along the border for fear of creating election-year issues for opponents to use against them. However, Cornyn also has some worries awaiting him, particularly if the tea party wing of the GOP mounts a challenge against him in the 2014 Republican primary. Cornyn wouldn’t be the first member of either the Senate or the House to embellish something for political effect, to give himself a straw man to knock down just to demonstrate his toughness on a particular hot-button issue.

And the way Cornyn’s been acting in recent years, by swinging far to the right to avoid that kind of political ambush, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to learn that he, too, is telling a tall tale.

Here’s an idea, senator: Tell the world who’s feeding you this intelligence and let that individual answer the questions directly.

This just in: Researchers have “functionally cured” a 2-year-old toddler of the virus that causes AIDS.

Who’s next? Perhaps it will be the adult who’s battled the virus for years, maybe decades, and who’s been living with the faint hope that a cure is on the horizon.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/03/health/hiv-toddler-cured/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

The toddler, a Mississippi girl, is the first child cured of the virus that causes AIDS. Some observers are calling it a “game changer” in the three-decade-long fight against AIDS.

Remember when the disease was thought to be exclusive to gay men who got the virus through sexual contact? Many Americans scorned these patients, vilified them publicly. But since the first case was reported in 1982, the disease has spread its tentacles across the entire spectrum of the world’s population.

In 2004, I was privileged to attend the International Conference on AIDS in Bangkok, where I learned this stunning fact about HIV: The most vulnerable demographic group, the folks most likely to get the disease, were the wives of promiscuous men. Our group of journalists traveled from Thailand to Cambodia and to India, where we studied the impact the AIDS virus was having on people in that part of the world.

I learned in India about an outreach to long-haul truck drivers that is intended to educate them on the dangers of contracting HIV when they come in contact with prostitutes or other women while they are traveling through the country. That outreach includes extremely graphic material handed out at truck stops that shows what happens to certain human body parts when they are infected with sexually transmitted diseases.

The Mississippi toddler contracted HIV after being born to a mother who received no prenatal care and who, herself, had the virus. The findings about this stunning “functional cure” demonstrates just how the disease has progressed across our own population.

Let’s hope the little girl’s cure is a game changer.

http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2013-03-02/statewide-property-tax-idea-floated

If I were wearing a hat at the moment, I’d take it off and tip it to state Sen. Bob Duncan, R-Lubbock, who’s taken a courageous step toward making the state system of school financing more fair and equitable.

He’s going to file a bill to create a statewide property tax to pay for public schools, replacing the local property taxes that homeowners and business owners have to pay.

I’m wondering now if the Legislature is going to seek to stop this idea from becoming law by proposing a constitutional amendment to require a vote of all Texans before if becomes law. Can’t happen? Yes it can. Legislators did that very thing back in the late 1980s to prevent a state income tax from occurring in Texas.

Duncan’s idea would almost resemble a state income tax in that it would be applied across the state. One of Duncan’s West Texas colleagues, state Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, told my pal Enrique Rangel he doesn’t believe Duncan can muster the support in the Legislature for a statewide property tax, which also would require a constitutional amendment. Thus, Duncan needs two-thirds of all legislators to sign on … just to put the issue on the ballot this November.

What’s interesting – to me, at least – as that this idea comes from a West Texas Republican. Duncan has never been associated with the more radical wing – the tea party wing – of the GOP. He’s a centrist, moderate, clear-thinking, legally trained lawmaker who routinely rises to the top of lists that identify legislative superstars.

But what also is clear is that the mish-mash system of school financing has to be retooled into something that makes sense. State courts keep ruling this property tax system to be in violation of the Texas Constitution. It isn’t fair to so-called “property poor” school districts. They lack the funds to provide a quality education to their students; Amarillo and Canyon, sadly, fall into that category of school districts that suffers under the current system.

If nothing else, Duncan’s proposal is going to put a lot of legislators on the record either in support or opposed to the idea of overhauling the state school finance system. I’ll be waiting with bated breath to see what his Panhandle colleagues decide.

I was in San Antonio recently and learned something about Texas’s second-largest city.

The city’s governing council works virtually for free, just like the Amarillo City Commission. San Antonio, with a population of about 1.4 million inhabitants, pays its city council members something $20 per meeting, plus reimburses them for whatever expenses they incur on behalf of the city.

Then I learned of some discussion in the Alamo City to provide at least a more livable stipend for those who serve the public. The issue on the table wouldn’t amount to an exorbitant salary that would enable these folks to quit their day jobs, but it at least would reward them for the grief they have to endure from angry constituents.

The San Antonio Express-News editorial board favors boosting the pay for council members. It noted in an editorial that, according to the Pew Charitable Trust, “Houston pays council members $55,700 yearly; Dallas, $37,500; and Austin, $63,000. Mayors typically earn more.”

Such a discussion hasn’t ever really been raised seriously in Amarillo, where we seem proud of the fact that we pay our commissioners 10 bucks per meeting and pay them back for expenses.

But the announcement the other day that only one candidate – other than the five incumbents – has filed for the May election makes me wonder: Isn’t it time at least to begin discussing the idea of paying these folks a little more for their time and service?

I keep thinking a little bit of cash might provide some incentive for those who think they can do a better job of setting policy for our city.

An amazing thing has just transpired in the upcoming election for Amarillo City Commission.

Only one candidate filed to run against any of the five incumbents whose names will be on the ballot. Just one single individual.

Why the amazement? I would have thought many candidates might be stampeding to City Hall to file, given all the noise about some of the commission’s decisions in the past couple of years.

Silly me.

http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2013-03-01/hopefuls-file-near-deadline

The lone candidate is 32-year-old Terry Van Baughman, who’s filed to run against Mayor Paul Harpole. Good for Van Baughman, who I don’t know but who he is but he is to be commended for standing up for his view of good city government, which I hope we’ll learn more about as the campaign unfolds.

The other four commission members, though, are getting a free ride back into office for another two years. It puzzles me a bit, though, to understand why.

It’s not that commissioners have done a bad job the past two years. I think they’ve done well, but some of the decisions they’ve made have caused some teeth-gnashing among the vocal minority of residents who complain about seemingly everything.

* The commission enacted a ban on the use of handheld cellphones while driving their motor vehicles. Some folks have been circulating petitions trying to get the matter put to a vote.

* Commissioners decided to expand the deployment of red-light cameras at intersections around the city, another decision that has cause grief among the complainers.

* The city allowed tax abatements to businesses that were relocating in the downtown district, most notably a Toot ‘N Totum convenience store that’s under construction. That decision fueled complaints among other business owners ticked off that they don’t get that kind of break on their property taxes.

* The city is moving ahead with plans to redevelop downtown, even though there’s been painfully slow movement on any tangible construction projects. Yes, the Potter County Courthouse complex has reopened – and it looks nice; but that’s a county project.

I’ve long argued for competitive local races. And this year should have produced plenty of them at City Hall. The 2011 municipal race did feature a lot of folks running, but many of them were drawn by the absence of three incumbents seeking re-election to the City Commission.

This year, it seems the task of unseating incumbent commission members is too daunting, even for the gripers among us.

Congratulations to the commissioners who have no one facing them. As for the Harpole-Van Baugham race for mayor, let’s hope it sheds plenty of light on both men seeking to become the city’s titular head of government.

University of Texas System regents are being scrutinized carefully for what many contend is “micromanagement” of the system’s flagship campus, UT-Austin.

Oh, how this reminds me a bit of a dust-up that occurred many years ago at a much smaller university system. It stunk then and I sense that a smell coming from this latest university system kerfuffle.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/01/lawmakers-prepare-review-university-management-ut/

The UT board of regents, most of them appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, is under the microscope for the way it is treating UT-Austin President Bill Powers, who recently was honored on the state Senate floor by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for being an agent of “reform.” Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, is suggesting his committee is going to look long and hard at Powers’s relationship with the regents, and he certainly should, given the UT System’s place in the higher ed hierarchy in Texas. “This sort of thing comes up, and we find other systems with glitches and upheavals occasionally,” he told the Texas Tribune, “but right now, it’s the University of Texas.”

State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said that micromanagement was “absolutely” occurring at UT. “I’ve heard that there are some regents who are still skipping over the chancellor and over the president to go directly to deans or other personnel and issue directives,” she said. “I thought lessons had been learned, but obviously not.”

Not long after I arrived in Texas back in 1984, the Lamar University System – which by the way no longer exists – got entangled in a serious meddling matter with Lamar Chancellor C.Robert Kemble. If memory serves, many on the board didn’t like Kemble’s management style. They nitpicked his every move on the Beaumont campus. Kemble eventually resigned the Lamar chancellorship and the board installed the man they wanted, Lamar grad George McLaughlin.

McLaughlin was a nice enough guy, but was was academically unqualified for the job – in my view. He lacked the level of hands-on classroom experience I thought at the time would be necessary for the job as chancellor.

The point here is that university politics can poison the academic environment at any institution of higher learning. It did for a time at Lamar, which eventually surrendered its system status and was rolled into the Texas University System, along with schools such as Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin University.

“I believe in reform. I know Bill Powers believes in reform,” said Dewhurst on the Senate floor. “That’s why I’m particularly troubled when I see UT regents going around this man and this administration.”

This fight can get real nasty in a big hurry. The individuals in charge would do well to take stock of the stakes involved.

Reason and a semblance of sanity may be returning to the Texas Legislature – or at least to a key state Senate committee.

The Texas Senate Education Committee has recommended returning $1.5 billion to the state’s education fund, which would return some of the money that’s been slashed from public education during the past two legislative sessions.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/02/28/senators-add-15-billion-public-education-budget/

The panel’s recommendation restores $40 million for pre-kindergarten programs and $20 million for the Virtual School Network.

Understand that this by no means a guaranteed restoration of the money. It has to be approved by the full Senate, by the House of Representatives and signed by Gov. Rick Perry, who’s made a lot of political hay in recent years by decrying what he calls “waste” in government.

But the money should be restored because it is – to coin a phrase popular among liberals – an “investment” in the state’s future.

The state’s 5 million public school students deserve support from our elected representatives. Does more money guarantee that those children will get a better education? Of course not. The quality of their education depends on the quality of their teachers, the involvement of their parents, their physical health, whether they get enough to eat and a long list of other ancillary factors.

Texas, though, cannot continue to cut education because it cannot find expenses to cut in the vast array of other programs. Legislators and their watchdogs can find plenty of waste throughout the state budget.

I do not intend to suggest that public education should be immune from careful scrutiny. I do intend to say out front that public education needs some level of protection against willy-nilly budget slashers.

Our formerly esteemed leadership in Washington, D.C., just isn’t getting what’s happening out here in Flyover Country.

Those automatic budget cuts are about to kick in and the impact will be real.

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=866857

New Mexico, with a federal work force that is roughly twice the national statewide average, is going to see a significant job reduction once the reductions are ordered and carried out.

At this point, it no longer matters to me who’s to blame for this sequestration mess, which wasn’t supposed to happen back in 2011 when the budget law was enacted by Congress and signed by President Obama. What does annoy me to no end is the insistence by politicians and many in the media who keep blaming one side or the other on the failure to find a way to reduce the budget deficit. This clearly is a shared screw-up.

What has to happen now is for the bickering parties to set aside what got us here and for them to work out a solution to clean up the mess they’ve created. But everyone keeps standing on “principle,” which is code for cowering in fear of their respective political bases.

Democrats don’t want to touch Medicare or Social Security because it would offend the elderly who support them; Republicans don’t want to raise taxes on the rich, because that would offend those traditionally Republican voters. I believe the president has staked out the more defensible position, which is to reduce the deficit with a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. But he shouldn’t keep heaping all the blame on the other side when he, too, deserves to take the heat.

Frankly, I’ve had it up to here.

Effective governing requires compromise, which is not a four-letter word. We send these folks to D.C. to do our bidding. The last set of polls I saw said quite clearly that we want them to settle this matter. Is anyone listening?

West Texas A&M University students seem to favor a rule that would allow them to pack heat on campus.

The school’s student government association has been conducting an online “poll” to gauge students’ attitudes about concealed handgun carry and have learned that to date about 67 of respondents favor the idea.

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=866687

But before the WT student group plows ahead, it’s good to remember something: They don’t run the place; administrators and faculty members do … and they all answer to a governing Texas A&M University System board of regents, which likely will have to sign off on any such notion.

Personally, I believe allowing students to carry guns under their jackets or in their purses is a nutty notion. But that’s just me.

At another level, though, I’m impressed that the WT Student Government Association is taking a keen interest in an issue that exploded on the national scene last December when a madman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 first-graders and six teachers before killing himself.

The WT student senate is expected to make a recommendation soon to the administration, the A&M regents and to the area’s legislative delegation on its findings. My hunch is that all the parties – with the possible exception of WT administrators – would be receptive to allowing students to carry guns on campus.

I’m hoping they all give this idea some careful thought and deliberation before moving forward on what well might be a knee-jerk reaction to a grievous national tragedy.

Now that I’m no longer housebound by the weather, I’ve been getting out a bit and hearing one four-letter word on everyone’s lips: snow.

We had a historic storm blow in over us late Sunday and all day Monday. Nineteen inches of it fell, just a fraction of an inch short of the all-time recorded measurement.

But allow me these two quick observations as we (hopefully) are heading into spring and awaiting all the uncertainty that season brings to the High Plains.

* The snowfall did little to alleviate the drought over the long term. Weather experts suggest we need a lot more moisture over a long period of time to get ourselves out of drought conditions. I did hear the National Weather Service chief meteorologist for the region, Jose Garcia, say that the moisture has lessened the fire danger over the short term and it likely will keep the soil moist for a good while. The drought, though, persists. Given that my wife and I do enjoy stormy weather, I am hoping at this moment that spring, which is just three weeks away, will deliver some heavy rainfall … and even some thunder and lightning.

* Amarillo snowplow crews employ an odd method of clearing the snow. I drove down Arden Road this morning en route to a lunch appointment downtown. The street was clear and dry, with snow plowed into a median in the middle of the street. When I returned home after lunch I watched the trucks knocking the snow median down on Arden, spreading it all over the street. The immediate result created slushy – and slippery – street conditions. Then it dawned on me: The crews were knocking the snow piles down to allow it to melt more quickly on the pavement. I just hope the snow melts before the temperature drops below freezing tonight, creating even more hazardous driving conditions once the sun sets. Those folks do know what they’re doing, yes?

We talk often in the Panhandle about the weather, about how it changes quickly. I’ve heard more than one person say in the past two days how they wish summer would arrive.

My answer to all those pleas: Settle down. My mid-August, you’ll be crying the blues over the heat and hoping that the cold weather arrives in a hurry.

Live in the moment. Or, as my mom told me often: Don’t wish your life away.