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.

Paul Burka’s blog takes note of what ails the Republican Party these days. He is spot on.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/patrick-bill-would-place-restrictions-use-mifepristone-tma-has-reservations

While declining to discuss the merits of legislation under consideration in the Texas Legislature that would restrict abortions in the state, Burka takes dead aim at the narrow-mindedness that continues to drive the GOP political machine.

As the Texas Monthly writer notes, Texas Republicans – just like their brethren all across the nation – have forgotten about the message of the 2012 national election. It is that the Grand Old Party is out of touch with a changing nation.

That’s likely as true in Texas as it is elsewhere.

Texas Democrats keep talking bravely about the state becoming competitive once again, with Democrats challenging Republicans for political supremacy. That day well may be coming, but it won’t arrive just yet. But it’s going to happen, as the state’s demographic makeup is changing almost daily.

For now, though, Republicans are calling the shots in the Legislature, with their large majority in both legislative houses, their hold on every statewide elected office in sight and their continuing success at the ballot box among voters who keep electing and re-electing GOP candidates over superior Democratic challengers. One example: Republican Sharon Keller’s victory in November over Democratic challenger Keith Hampton in the race for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals presiding judge.

Burka explains Senate Bill 97 this way: “It requires physicians to personally administer the two-drug cocktail (Mefipristone) that induces a medical abortion, which must be taken 24 hours apart, and to see the patient for a follow-up appointment within 14 days. The bill also requires physicians performing abortions to put existing verbal agreements with back-up physicians into written contracts, so that the state can track the names of doctors with hospital privileges that are willing to treat abortion patients in emergency situations.”

I always thought Republicans opposed Big Brother legislation. Have they changed their tune?

Politico reports that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have the frostiest POTUS-Speaker relationship in memory.

They used to speak well of each other publicly. Not any longer.

The looming federal budget crisis known as “sequestration” has created strains that are threatening to unhinge the government, or at least significant portions of it.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/the-obama-boehner-odd-couple-break-up-88217.html?hp=t1_3

Who’s to blame? And should these two men be drinking buddies?

The recent gold standard for this kind of “bromance” rests with the legacy of Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill. They would say some very mean things about each other in public. But when no one was looking, they would laugh if off. Legend has it that the two Irishmen would sip an adult beverage at an undisclosed location – before preparing for the next day’s battle.

That’s not happening now.

I’ve read that Boehner in “real life” is a pretty affable guy. But when faced with the constant threat of rebellion among members of the tea party wing of his Republican House members, he has to put on a different face publicly. Thus, it might said that we’re seeing an “inauthentic” House speaker.

As for President Obama, I’ll defer to a friend of mine, who’s a leading educator in Amarillo and an avowed Democrat. He told me once over lunch that Obama’s problem is that he isn’t a dealmaker in the mold of a legendary Texan, the late President Lyndon Johnson. LBJ had a knack for cajoling his fellow Democratic colleagues and browbeating balky Republicans. But he somehow managed to maintain bipartisan friendships. Obama’s not wired that way, according to my friend. He keeps fairly close counsel and doesn’t rely too heavily on the advice of outsiders.

And therein might lie the basis for the Obama-Boehner rift that at this moment has gotten in the way of a deal being struck to avoid the massive automatic budget cuts that might threaten the nation’s economic well-being.

Come on, guys. Make up and strike a deal.

The former half-term Alaska governor, Sarah “Barracuda” Palin says DC politicians need to stop the hysterics – all the while declaring that the U.S. government is “stockpiling bullets” in case of civil unrest.

The 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee is talking, of course, about the sequestration of funds that’s about to be activated come Friday, if the White House and Congress fail to come up with a budget deficit-reduction solution on their own.

I’m a bit slow on the uptake at times, so I don’t quite get how Palin can make either statement with a straight face. But she did, I guess, while posting it on her Facebook page. Then again, maybe she was laughing the whole time she typed this message to her adoring fans.

Here’s the link I saw on Palin. Take a look at it. Someone will have to tell me what I don’t understand about this person’s idiotic pronouncements. While we’re at it, someone also can tell me why anyone would take this individual seriously.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/sarah-palin-were-finished-88166.html?hp=l2

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/editorials/article/EDITORIAL-Beaumont-needs-candidates-for-City-4310917.php

My old home folks in Beaumont are facing a problem. That city’s governing council is faced with the prospect of all the incumbents being “re-elected” this spring without opposition.

As the editorial attached to this blog suggests, that would be a step backward. I couldn’t possibly agree more.

I’ve gotten under officeholders’ skin many times over the years by suggesting that no matter how good a job they do, they deserve to be challenged. That’s as true in the Panhandle as it is in my old haunts on the Gulf Coast.

Amarillo’s commission goes up for election every year in the same manner as the Beaumont council. All seats are contested at the same time. The Beaumont election reform is a fairly new development, while Amarillo has doing it this way for quite some time. The idea is to promote greater participation, to draw more candidates into the arena. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

In 2011, Amarillo drew a huge field of challengers for the city’s five commission seats. Part of the attraction was that three incumbents chose not to seek re-election, creating three essentially “open” seats. I’ll have to acknowledge that most of the candidates were, um, quite underwhelming. But the point really is that they were willing to step up and have their voices heard. For that I congratulate them.

I hope the Beaumont municipal race attracts challengers to that city’s council. I’ve been away too long to gauge how well the City Council is doing its job. But they all need to be tested, challenged and questioned if they seek the voters’ endorsement for another term.

Precisely the same thing should be said about Amarillo’s city commissioners.

Our democratic system works better that way.

I cannot fathom a more difficult circumstance than the one that greeted Chuck Hagel as he was sworn in as secretary of defense.

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/285165-hagel-sworn-in-as-defense-secretary

Except, perhaps, unless the nation was involved in a worldwide shooting war …

Hagel, after weeks of pummeling by his former Republicans friends in the Senate, finally won confirmation Tuesday in a 58-41 vote in the Senate. He took over quickly from Leon Panetta, who is now – probably as these words are written – enjoying the rest of his life immensely at  his home near Monterey Bay, Calif.

The former Republican senator from Nebraska, whom President Obama picked to run the Pentagon, is now facing the dreaded “sequestration” of funds to run his massive agency. Hagel is set to meet today with DoD employees to lay out his vision for how he intends to implement the president’s defense policy. But he’ll do so while bearing the tremendous burden of figuring out how it’ll work with the mandatory reductions in spending that the sequestration law will impose.

Hagel made history by becoming the first former enlisted man to lead the Pentagon. His combat as an Army infantryman in Vietnam was harrowing enough on his own. Now he’s facing this latest battle.

Welcome back to public life, Mr. Secretary.