The Playlist: Free Money

A state audit found that some beneficiaries of the governor's primary economic incentive program were selected outside of formal channels and were often not properly monitored, so we kick off this week's playlist with Patti Smith's "Free Money."

The easiest way to enjoy the playlist is to download Spotify, a free program. But even without it, you can still follow along. Here are the other selections for the week:

It was a big week for state audits. An audit of the University of North Texas' finances led to a recommendation that the school be required to pay the state back at least $75.6 million, inspiring the addition of "Pay It Back" by Elvis Costello.

At The Texas Tribune Festival, George P. Bush, the Republican nominee for land commissioner, declined to endorse his father, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, for president, so we added "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens. Also at the festival, House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said he's "awfully sick" of the drama between legislators and the University of Texas System Regents, which is why the next song is Waylon Jennings singing "Sick and Tired."

State and federal officials gave an El Paso hospital 23 days to fix its problems after patients were exposed to an employee with tuberculosis. We marked this on the playlist with the classic Van Morrison song "T.B. Sheets." In Brownsville, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, said the company's new launch site in the Rio Grande Valley may play a role in landing the first human on Mars, which gave us the opportunity to add David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

Texas' headway with high school graduation rates hasn't been matched by similar success in measures that track students’ college and career readiness, which has caused some to speculate that when it comes to getting a high school diploma, "It's Too Easy," which is also a song by the Dave Rawlings Machine. Then we have Art Garfunkel's "In Cars," since a new poll found that the primary mode of transportation for 91 percent of Texans.

The judge in Gov. Rick Perry's case ruled that Perry does not have to appear at an Oct. 13 court hearing, so we put Freddie King's "You Don't Have to Go" on the playlist. And finally, because they played it for us at our recent live TribCast, we close with the Jason Roberts Band singing "I Hear You Talkin'."

Enjoy!