Former Rep. Dianne Delisi and Heather Vasek, who's been at the Texas Association for Health Care, are joining Delisi Communications, the lobby/PR/strategy firm run by Ted Delisi and Texas Highway Commissioner Deirdre Delisi.

John Howard Jr. leaves Vinson & Elkins to hang a shingle; his Clarendon Strategies will focus on environmental and energy policy.

Damon Withrow, formerly of the Public Utility Commission, is Xcel Energy's new regional government affairs guy. He's replacing Eric Woomer, who left Xcel to join Reliant. Michael Jewell left Direct Energy for Reliant. He and Woomer and Elizabeth Brock will do that firm's Texas lobbying.

Bob Cash will be the new director of the Texas Fair Trade Coalition. He's been chief of staff to Rep. Kevin Bailey, who lost his reelection bid last year. Cash was previously with the Texas AFL-CIO.

Harrison Keller — the education policy wonk for House Speaker Tom Craddick — is going back to the University of Texas, where he worked before jumping to state government.

Press Corp Moves: Karen Brooks is ditching print, leaving the Dallas Morning News for Austin's KXAN-TV, where she'll be "digital executive producer," overseeing content on their website and helping with other political coverage... John Moritz, the former Fort Worth Star-Telegram writer whose articles have graced Texas Weekly for the last few months, joins Quorum Report, where he'll write about energy and utilities and such... And the Houston Chronicle moves Matt Stiles from Houston to Austin for the session. He'll cover the local delegation and work on what newspapers call "projects" — stories that require more than a few hours of digging.

Speaker Craddick appointed Don Wood of Odessa to the board of the Employee Retirement System of Texas.

Deaths: J.L. Huffines, a Dallas car dealer, political player and former Texas A&M Regent. He was 85.