The Midday Brief: May 26, 2010

Your afternoon reading:

• “But in his long career of bringing oil well blowouts under control, Mr. Campbell has usually employed a hands-on approach. Fires may have to be extinguished, wellhead equipment repaired, gunk removed. Then, he said, the well has to be told who’s boss: ‘I’m here, I’m touching you, I’m telling you you’re dead,’ is how he describes it. ‘You just don’t know it yet.’” — Expert Is Confident About Sealing Oil Well — New York Times

• “A spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission says the state has examined the Kaiser study on adult Medicaid expansion under the federal health law ‘and found that our basic assumptions are very close.’”— UPDATE: State spokeswoman says study 'erred' — Trail Blazers

• “Hank Skinner, who is on death row in Texas, had a simple request. Before the state took his life, he wanted to test DNA evidence from the crime scene that could prove he was wrongly convicted. Texas prosecutors, whose love for the death penalty is legendary, refused.” — In Death-Penalty Cases, Innocence Has to Matter — Time

• “For nearly 20 years, San Antonio lawyer W. James Jonas III was one of the more influential Republican lobbyists in Austin and Washington.” — A go-to guy now is going nowhere in Bexar jail cell — San Antonio Express-News

• “After the Indianapolis deal ended in 2007, there have been many rumors about efforts to get F1 back to the United States. Now it’s done, and the deal to set from 2012 to 2021.” — Formula One’s U.S. Return to Be in Austin — Formula One

• “Fifty-four-year-old John Alba died Tuesday evening. He was the 11th prisoner executed this year in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state. Another execution is set for next week.” — Suburban Dallas man executed for killing wife — Associated Press

New in The Texas Tribune:

• “In an ironic twist, states that have done the least to bring low-income residents onto state Medicaid rolls — including Texas — stand to benefit the most from federal health care reform, according to a report released this morning by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.” — TribBlog: Health Care Reform Could Cost TX Only $4.5 Billion?  

• “The state Division of Workers' Compensation has uncovered "tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary medical care" in the last several years, but its commissioner failed to sanction the doctors involved, a key former employee told members of the Sunset Advisory Commission on Tuesday night.” — Here Comes the Sun