The Midday Brief: April 23, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• “I think the claim that White pioneered contingency fees is an overreach. It would be more accurate to say that White was a partner in a law firm that pioneered the use of contingency fees in commercial litigation. There’s a big difference between commercial litigation and personal injury litigation. In commercial litigation, both sides enjoy wealth and power. White wasn’t chasing ambulances.” — Did Bill White pioneer contigency fees? — BurkaBlog

• “Obama asked the San Antonio Republican, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, if he had any recommendations for the job. According to a Cornyn spokesman, the senator told the president "he thought it would be presumptuous to suggest any names because he believes that is the President's prerogative." — Obama calls Cornyn to discuss Supreme Court vacancy — Texas on the Potomac

• “The numbers are sobering: More than 60 percent of pregnancies among young adults ages 18 to 29 in Bexar County are unplanned — a fact that translates into a whole litany of social and economic woes, from poorer outcomes for children to increased poverty among the parents.” — Unplanned pregnancies 'epidemic' — San Antonio Express-News

•“The Texas Forensic Science Commission today voted to expand the size of a subcommittee investigating the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for setting a fire that killed his three daughters.” — Forensic Science Commission expands Willingham subcommittee — Postcards

New in The Texas Tribune:

• “We've started to get calls — one here, one there; more a trickle than a flood — from chagrined teachers around Texas who've discovered that when they Google themselves, the first thing that comes up is their salary information in our database of public employee pay. And they don't much like it. They think we've somehow violated their privacy or, worse, put them at risk of harm to life and limb. Not surprisingly, they want to us to remove them from the database immediately.” —T-Squared: Why We Publish Government Employee Salaries

• “For a certain kind of animal — i.e., the Policy Wonk — this is a gift: Sunset reports on insurance and utility regulators and on the capital city's transportation authority hit the internet this morning.” — TribBlog: 13 Months of Sunset