Enlarge Ben Philpott

Rick Perry in Derry, N.H., on Sept. 30, 2011

In the Texas press corps, the natives are getting restless.

Despite longstanding relationships with the Texas governor and his staff, their requests to interview Rick Perry — anywhere, at any time — about his presidential bid have largely been ignored. Out on the campaign trail, they, and the national press, for that matter, get next to no access. No sit-down interviews. No casual chats in the back of a campaign bus. There’s been just one press gaggle in recent memory.

One of Perry’s chief advisers effectively confirmed the trend at a campaign stop in Iowa, telling The Texas Tribune frankly: “We’re only doing local press.”

Veteran Dallas Morning News political reporter Wayne Slater said Perry’s antics bear little resemblance to the presidential campaign of another Texas governor, George W. Bush, “who remained somewhat accessible to the Texas media even as he ran in 2000.”

But it should come as no surprise that the Texas media is in Perry’s rear view mirror — it’s his tried and true campaign strategy. In Sasha Issenberg’s e-book “Rick Perry and His Eggheads,” he writes about how the content analysis Perry’s strategists did during his 2006 gubernatorial race proved that on-the-ground press in far-flung communities was far better than what came out of the capitol press corps.

Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger says the Texas press corps shouldn’t take it personally. “He has a limited amount of time to do these interviews, between grassroots events, political events, fundraisers,” she says. “You guys know him pretty well, Texans know his record. It takes a lot of time to introduce him to the rest of the nation.”

Indeed, repeated requests from the Tribune, the Morning News, WFAA-TV and other Texas outlets have been ignored since Perry announced his presidential bid, despite the governor's one-on-one interviews with a local radio station in Des Moines, Iowa, and an ABC affiliate in Las Vegas.

And while Perry has done some limited, and relatively controlled, press with mainstream outlets — he was interviewed by Time in September and Parade this month — he has largely favored the conservative press.

In August and September he gave exclusive interviews to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, FoxNews host Sean Hannity and Newsmax.tv, a right-leaning news organization.

At the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. on Oct. 7, Slater asked for an interview and was told the governor was too busy. That same day, Perry interviewed with the Christian Broadcast Network.

The next week, on the day of Perry’s jobs speech in Pittsburgh, Pa., the local Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asked if the governor would sit for an interview. He declined — instead heading across town to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, a conservative paper owned by Richard Mellon Scaife.

Whatever his media strategy, it appears to be working, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. A study released this week indicates Perry has received more news coverage — and more of it positive — than any of his presidential opponents.

Enlarge Bob Daemmrich

UT Board of Regents Chairman Gene Powell asks the Board to support Chancellor Dr. Franciso Cigarroa at their Austin meeting on May 12, 2011.

Though it was created out of controversy, this week’s day-long meeting of the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence, and Transparency — its second — was largely a calm affair. It still managed to stoke some fires, however.

The meeting focused on “governance” with invited testimony from the chairmen of the board of regents from each university system as well as two former regents.

Perhaps most interestingly, a recurring theme questioned the status quo of the boards that govern higher education. Specifically, are they due for more restrictive conflict-of-interest policies?

A set of proposals for changing higher education put forward by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, recently provoked significant backlash. Both the Texas A&M University System and the University of Texas System have regents serving on the TPPF board.

Gov. Rick Perry instructed regents to implement TPPF's proposals, and Texas A&M's regents went along. Because TPPF has a stated higher education agenda, a number of participants in the committee are now asking whether regents on the think tank's board can ethically make decisions on behalf of the university system, which occasionally might call for a different direction.

In his public testimony, Gordon Appleman, a member of a coalition organized to resist the TPPF reforms, as well as a prominent Fort Worth lawyer and alumnus of UT-Austin, made the case using UT System regent Brenda Pejovich, who is a TPPF board member, as his example.

“The TPPF and its collaborators have and continue actively to criticize the UT System and its institutions and advocate positions in clear conflict with the University administration,” Appleman said, arguing that this dual loyalty constituted a “breach of duty.”

When committee co-chair Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, put the question of conflicts of interest directly to UT System Regents Chair Gene Powell, he didn’t go for it.

In fact, it was the one of the only points in his testimony when Powell directly refuted the premise of her questioning. The other was when he refused to cough up the name of the person who recommended Rick O’Donnell, a TPPF fellow that Powell hired to serve as an adviser (O'Donnell instantly sparked controversy, and only lasted 49 days before being terminated). Later, Zaffirini said that she had received different answers from her sources: that it was the governor, TPPF board member Jeff Sandefer, their staffs, or some combination of those people.  

The rest of Powell’s testimony — like that of all the other chairs throughout the day — was marked by agreement. To a system, they all said they had tossed aside the TPPF’s specific proposals and moved on.

Initially Powell was tentative on the question of conflicts. “I can’t say it’s a conflict of interest. I’m not an attorney,” he said. As Zaffirini continued to press him, he cautioned that reaching such a conclusion could infringe on regents’ right to free speech. “Is it wrong to be a Rotarian?” he asked. “I would say the TPPF is like any other organization.”

In public testimony, former UT System Chancellor Bill Cunningham, now a UT professor, acknowledged that many previous regents had had significant political ties, though he noted, “The great regents were largely independent from the governor, from their political party, and from all other outside forces that might have an impact on the University of Texas.”

All the regent chairs, Powell included, expressed support for a more strenuous vetting of regents by the Texas Senate. And when asked by co-chair Dan Branch, R-Dallas, they also appeared open to reconsidering the length of their six-year terms and even the size of their boards.

Before leaving, committee member Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, observed that much had been said about TPPF throughout the day. “There’s lots of think tanks out there that maybe even disproportionately influence lawmakers, different boards that govern our state agencies,” she said.

While she said lawmakers need to reflect on the issue, she also thanked think tanks “just to the right of center and just to the left of center” for inspiring the in-depth policy conversations like the seven-hour discussion the committee had just endured.

Some of that “kumbaya” feeling didn’t last.

Shortly after the hearing, conservative blogger Michael Quinn Sullivan, attacked Kenny Jastrow, a major UT booster who had testified along similar lines as Appleman.

“The apologists for higher education bloat were apparently interested in how they can loot their institutions and taxpayers. They found their man,” Sullivan wrote on his blog. Jastrow wasn't immediately available for comment.

In some ways, the public testimony and Sullivan’s response seemed to return to the tone of the spring, when the controversy was roiling and there were daily allegations of misconduct from both sides of the discussion.

It was a reminder that, though things have been calm in recent months, the flames haven’t gone out — and they could flare up at any moment.

Enlarge Marjorie Kamys Cotera

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-Alamo Heights, in January 2011.

The House's interim charges are out, starting with instructions to everyone to consider ways to improve the state's manufacturing capability and increase the "transparency, accountability, and efficiency" in state government.

House Speaker Joe Straus' t0-do list for the House committees will turn into reports and then legislation for the 2013 Legislature. It'll also keep lawmakers and interested parties busy from now until that session stars in 15 months. The Senate's full list isn't out yet, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst did issue the first of his charges this week, saying Senators should study the impact of the record-breaking drought on power generation, agriculture and the economy, and also how to improve Texas' response to wildfires. He'll issue the rest of his interim assignments later.

Among the charges: 

Straus calls on the Higher Education committee, which spent much of the regular session distracted by a controversy about the productivity of the state's universities and the value of academic research, to examine the impact of university research on the economy and identify ways to further capitalize on it through commercialization. He also asks that the effectiveness of the programs the state uses to fund research be reviewed.

For Public Education, the charges notably don't include a study of the school finance system, which is currently the subject of litigation. However lawmakers are directed to monitor the state’s new student assessment system, evaluate charter schools, and determine ways to boost parent and community involvement.

The Appropriations committee will analyze ways to reduce the state's debt, study the financing and delivery of long-term Medicaid services, examine the infrastructure and funding for mental health services and review campus construction processes. The Redistricting committee will take a close look at the State Board of Education districts and determine if the size of the board needs to change.

The Ways & Means committee will check out the tax structure, including a a review of the franchise tax. Additionally, members will find ways to maximize revenue on tobacco taxes and make sure that appraisal district operations are uniform across the state.

Voter ID legislation that passed last session is still pending approval from the U.S. Department of Justice. In the meantime, the Elections committee will take a look at the benefits and risks of using mobile voting stations and attempt to come up with clearer definitions of residency, especially for college students. The Homeland Security committee will go over the security on college and public school campuses while they also look into the extent of interstate coordination of intelligence sharing and the implementation of the state's driver's license improvement plan.

Additionally, lawmakers in other committees are asked to monitor the implementation of federal health reforms, review the status of the state’s strip club fee and its collections to date, evaluate state and federal efforts to protect the border and study the potential benefits of purchasing health insurance across state lines.

Unsurprisingly, lawmakers will also be looking at the statewide response to the drought, which some experts say could still be around by the time legislators return to the Capitol.

The full list of charges is available on the House's website.

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Our insiders are watching their governor closely, and half of the people who've been watching him the longest — and professionally, at that — say he's not doing as well in the presidential campaign as they expected. Another 45 percent say he's doing about like they expected.

That said, they're not writing him off: 37 percent say he'll rebound from his recent round of low poll numbers and that same number say it's too early to tell how this is going to come out.

Most of the insiders didn't flunk Gov. Rick Perry on his latest debate performance; only 11 percent gave him an "F" after his appearance in Las Vegas. About one in four gave him an "A" or a "B", and a third gave him a "C", but most gave him a passing grade.

A strong majority think Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, with 20 percent saying it will be Perry. Most think the GOP's vice presidential candidate will be someone other than the nine people who've been gathering for these debates; among the presidential candidates, Herman Cain is the one the insiders say has the best shot at second chair.

The verbatim answers, as always, are attached. Here's a sampling:

Is the governor's presidential campaign going as you expected?

• "I expected him to crater."

• "Faster rise and a faster fall that I thought, but he's at about the same place in the end as I would have predicted - middle of the pack but with a possibility of breaking out."

• "Great to start (his support was artificially high) and now the pundits are calling him dead. He will be one of the final two Republican candidates."

• "Texas bravado doesn't play well north of the Red River."

• "Amateur hour. This is why Perry never debated in the first place. Unless he is scripted, he is awful on the stump. Given how many opportunities Perry has fumbled, you might as well label him the Tony Romo candidate."

• "The national media tear down on some well documented issues in TX should have been expected. However, the falling out with the right for immigration and his terrible responses to attacks have been surprising."

Gov. Perry's poll numbers have been sinking. Will his campaign rebound or is he out of the running?

• "We forget that the rest of the country has higher standards from time to time. Look at graduation rates in high school and in college. He has to win South Carolina and he may not have the money even with his $17 million."

• "Lots of time left. When Cain deflates Perry will rise. The right has no where else to go."

• "He may be able to rebound, but he has to learn to take a punch."

• "It. Is. Early."

• "The Republican field is dominated by meteoric ascents and descents of flavors of the month - Trump, Bachmann, Perry, and now Cain. The steady as you go candidates Romney and Paul will be the last ones standing, and the only reason Paul will be around is because of his feverish base that captures tea party and occupy Wall Street frustrations."

• "Everyone now knows he cannot possibly stand on the same stage and hold his own against Obama. GOP sees the presidency in sight, and they will nominate someone who can win. That is not Perry. Because of his money, however, he stands the best chance of being the last man standing against Romney."

How would you grade Perry's performance in the latest debate?

• "If he would have left Romney alone I'd give him a B. he simply can't spar with Romney. It's painful to watch."

• "I think I was clipping my toe nails when that was going on."

• "D-He's improving."

• "He is improving. He needs to look happier. I believe he was in pain and on medication for at least one of the debates in which he did badly."

• "There were flashes of the old RP we know here in TX."

• "Appeared too angry. Clearly Romney got to him and it showed in Perry's facial expressions."

Who do you think will get the GOP nomination for president?

• "Are R primary voters repelled or scared away by platforms that include euthanizing hospitalized patients w/out insurance, frying Mexicans on electric fences, and competing over best death penalty scores?"

• "Perry will win if and only if he unites the conservatives behind him and against Romney."

• "Still Romney's race to lose."

• "Whoever is the Non-Romney candidate"

• "I can tell you it will not be Huntsman, Bachman, Paul, Gingrich, or Santorum. And who is Gary Johnson?"

• "Only two people can get this nomination, and about 70% of Republicans don't want it to be Mitt Romney."

Who do you think will be the vice presidential nominee?

• "Marco Rubio"

• "Rubio or Jindal or Pawlenty or Christie, in that order. I don't think anyone on your list is in the top 5."

• "Marco Rubio"

• "Perry would be a good VP choice but he will probably piss Romney off so much that he will go somewhere else."

• "For Perry: Bob McDonnell, Susana Martinez or Paul Ryan; For Romney: Marco Rubio or Chris Christie"

• "Marco Rubio"

Our thanks to this week's participants: Our thanks to this week's participants: Gene Acuna, Cathie Adams, Clyde Alexander, Jay Arnold, Louis Bacarisse, Charles Bailey, Tom Banning, Reggie Bashur, Walt Baum, Dave Beckwith, Rebecca Bernhardt, Andrew Biar, Allen Blakemore, Tom Blanton, Hugh Brady, Steve Bresnen, Chris Britton, Andy Brown, Terri Burke, Lydia Camarillo, Marc Campos, Snapper Carr, William Chapman, George Cofer, Rick Cofer, Lawrence Collins, Harold Cook, Kevin Cooper, Hector De Leon, June Deadrick, Tom Duffy, Richard Dyer, Alan Erwin, Jon Fisher, Terry Frakes, Bruce Gibson, Scott Gilmore, Thomas Graham, John Greytok, Wayne Hamilton, Bill Hammond, Sandy Haverlah, Adam Haynes, Jim Henson, Ken Hodges, Shanna Igo, Deborah Ingersoll, Richie Jackson, Cal Jillson, Jason Johnson, Mark Jones, Robert Kepple, Richard Khouri, Tom Kleinworth, Kenneth Kramer, Sandy Kress, Nick Lampson, Pete Laney, Dick Lavine, James LeBas, Donald Lee, Luke Legate, Leslie Lemon, Richard Levy, Ruben Longoria, Homero Lucero, Vilma Luna, Matt Mackowiak, Luke Marchant, Matt Matthews, Dan McClung, Parker McCollough, Kurt Meacham, Robert Miller, Lynn Moak, Bee Moorhead, Craig Murphy, Keir Murray, Keats Norfleet, Pat Nugent, Sylvia Nugent, Todd Olsen, Nef Partida, Gardner Pate, Tom Phillips, Wayne Pierce, Kraege Polan, Jerry Polinard, Jay Propes, Ted Melina Raab, Bill Ratliff, Tim Reeves, Carl Richie, Kim Ross, Jason Sabo, Luis Saenz, Mark Sanders, Andy Sansom, Jim Sartwelle, Stan Schlueter, Bruce Scott, Dan Shelley, Christopher Shields, Dee Simpson, Ed Small, Martha Smiley, Todd Smith, Larry Soward, Dennis Speight, Tom Spilman, Jason Stanford, Bob Strauser, Colin Strother, Leslie Sullivan, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Sherry Sylvester, Russ Tidwell, Trent Townsend, Trey Trainor, Ware Wendell, Ken Whalen, Darren Whitehurst, Michael Wilt, Seth Winick, Lee Woods, Peck Young, Angelo Zottarelli.

Enlarge Bob Daemmrich

Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, votes to table an amendment by Sen. Wendy Davis (not shown) on SB8 an education bill that gives school administrators added powers to lower teacher pay and establish furloughs. The bill tentatively passed, 18-12 on June 6, 2011.

Collin County's Republican primary for the state Senate is going to be interesting. Scott O'Grady will have a fundraiser hosted by state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas next month. He's also countering Rep. Ken Paxton's long list of endorsees with one of his own, including some big names: Roger Staubach, Ross Perot Sr., Trevor Rees-Jones, Jan Collmer, Erle Nye, Vance Miller, and Vic Lattimore. O'Grady and Paxton are after the GOP nomination for Sen. Florence Shapiro's seat. Staci Rubin and Dr. Paul Rubin are also on O'Grady's list; that's Shapiro's daughter and son-in-law. Barring sunspots, the winner in March will be the next senator.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is scooting the chairs around in his U.S. Senate campaign office. Jim Bognet will become a special adviser, working on strategy and policy. Longtime Dewhurst associate Buddy Barfield will return as campaign manager in Bognet's old spot. Kevin Moomaw returns to work on grassroots organization, and David Beckwith, a veteran at media and messaging, is back for that job.

Republican Jon Cole wants a rematch with Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, in HD-67. Cole, a Plano attorney, lost narrowly in 2008 and threatened to run again in 2010 before deciding against it. He won't be alone: Jeff Leach of Plano will also be in that primary. He's also a lawyer, and he was student body president when he was at Baylor.

San Antonio Democrat Tina Torres will challenge freshman Rep. John Garza, a Republican, in HD-117. It's a family thing: Her dad, Pete Torres Jr., was a city council member in the 1960s and her mom, Yolanda Torres, served on the State Board of Education.

Add Republican Mano DeAyala to the list of candidates for Beverly Woolley's seat in the Texas House. Woolley announced this summer that she won't seek re-election. DeAyala, an attorney born in Houston to Cuban parents, says he raised $100,000 for the race at his inaugural event. Pam Holm, a former Houston City Council member, and Mike Schofield, a former aide to Gov. Rick Perry, have already said they'll also be after the GOP nomination.

Texans for Fiscal Responsibility added Larry Taylor to its list. The state representative from Friendswood is running for Mike Jackson's Senate seat (Jackson is running for Congress). They added Rep. Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills, one of several Republicans trying to win the right to run against Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, next year (Rep Mark Shelton, R-Fort Worth is another, in what is becoming an endorsements battle). And Rep. Charles Schwertner, the Georgetown Republican who hopes to succeed Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan. Schwertner also picked up an endorsement from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association PAC.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform endorsed Rep. Barbara Nash, R-Arlington, for reelection.

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Thanks to the passage of lawsuit reforms, medical care is now more readily available in many Texas communities. For many patients, this change has been life-altering; for some, life-saving.

George Rodriguez walks today thanks to tort reform. Newly established Corpus Christi neurosurgeon Matthew Alexander urgently operated on Rodriguez’ spinal abscess, relieving the pressure on his spinal cord and sparing him life in a wheelchair. Without the state’s lawsuit reforms, Dr. Alexander wouldn’t have relocated to Texas and Mr. Rodriguez would have been deprived access to emergency neurosurgery in Corpus Christi.

Cancer survivor Ruby Collins credits newly minted Brownwood urologist Daniel Alstatt with saving her life. Dr. Alstatt says he wouldn’t have moved there were it not for tort reform.

Andrya Burciaga of McAllen, a complex patient with diabetes and hypertension, is a first-time mother, thanks in part to the expertise of obstetrician/fertility specialist Dr. Javier Cardenas. Again, if not for the passage of the reforms, Dr. Cardenas says he absolutely would not have returned to his hometown to practice medicine nor taken problem pregnancies such as Ms. Burciaga’s.

Because of reforms, more patients across Texas are getting the care they need when they need it.

Eight years ago, Texas was in the throes of an epidemic of lawsuit abuse. High numbers of meritless lawsuits, combined with excessive awards, caused doctors’ medical liability rates to double within just four years. Non-profit nursing homes saw their rates jump 900 percent within that same time frame, while hospitals saw liability costs increase as much as 5 percent in one year. Roughly one in four doctors was sued every year, while the vast majority of these suits and claims were closed without payment.

Good doctors, pushed to the financial brink, stopped taking emergency calls out of fear it would make them vulnerable to a lawsuit. Thirteen physician liability carriers left the state. Some 9,000 physicians were non-renewed by their carrier, putting them in jeopardy of losing their hospital privileges. The number of newly licensed Texas physicians fell to its lowest level in a decade.  In 2004, Texas experienced the greatest decline in direct patient care physicians per capita in twenty years.

In response to this crisis, the Texas Alliance for Patient Access supported and the Legislature passed sweeping medical lawsuit reforms in 2003. The lynchpin of the reforms was a cap on “pain and suffering” awards. This cap struck a balance: It assured those injured by a medical mishap that they would be reasonably compensated while allowing conscientious doctors to find affordable liability coverage so that they could continue to serve their patients.

Since then, liability rates have plummeted nearly 50 percent, and good doctors have flocked to Texas in record numbers. Nursing homes and hospitals are again fully operational.

Today, many counties that lacked an orthopedic surgeon, an emergency medicine physician or a cardiologist now have one. The number of obstetricians practicing in rural Texas has grown four times faster than the state’s rural population. For the first time in memory, the Christus Health System — with hospitals, long-term care facilities, and clinics in more than 60 Texas cities — has no openings for obstetricians. (Disclosure: Christus Health System is a corporate supporter of The Texas Tribune.)

Twenty-nine counties that saw a net loss of physicians pre-reform registered a net gain post-reform. Those “losers turned gainers” include Potter and Jefferson counties, which lost 26 and 15 doctors, respectively.

All of these new physicians translate into 6 million more doctor visits annually for Texans who are sick or injured.

Since 2007, Texas has consistently licensed 60 percent more new doctors each year than occurred in the years predating tort reform. According to the most current data from the Department of Health and Human Services (2003-2008), Texas ranks 10th nationally in percentage growth of patient care physicians per capita, up from 23rd just five years earlier.

This physician growth is driven by something other than population. Survey after survey confirms that doctors new to Texas cite our liability climate as important in their decision to practice here. By any objective measurement, the accelerated growth of new doctors, in-state active doctors, high-risk specialists and doctors who provide direct patient care per capita all exceed pre-reform levels.

Nothing in the law prohibits lawyers from taking cases. Patients harmed due to medical negligence can still collect fair compensation. Only the non-economic damages are capped and that at $250,000 to $750,000, depending upon the variety of defendants in the suit. That means no cap on damages for lost wages or past, present and future medical costs.

Trial lawyers will argue that they can’t afford to take cases now that there is a “pain and suffering” cap of $250,000.  And yet claims data from the Texas Department of Insurance reveal that since 1993, on average 500 cases are settled each year against doctors for $250,000 or less.

More doctors delivering more care are good for patients.

Howard Marcus, an internist at Austin Regional Clinic, is the chairman of Texas Alliance For Patient Access, a statewide coalition of health care providers that supported the passage of the state’s 2003 medical liability reforms.

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In 2006, Dr. Howard Marcus wrote that Texas’ 2003 tort reform statute sparked an “amazing turnaround” in which doctors came to Texas in droves, instead of leaving the state as they had before. He was doubly wrong. Texas neither lost doctors before 2003 nor gained them especially quickly in subsequent years. In fact, according to statistics published by the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS), the supply of active, direct patient care (DPC) doctors per capita grew faster from 1996 to 2002 than at any time after 2003. If the pre-reform growth rate had simply continued, Texas would have 7 more DPC doctors per 100,000 residents than it does today.

Not only did pre-reform Texas outpace post-reform Texas; in the post-reform period Texas fell farther behind the average US state.  In 2002, Texas had 61 fewer DPC physicians per 100,000 residents than the average state.  In 2010, Texas lagged the average state by a whopping 76.5 doctors per 100,000 residents, according to data published by the American Medical Association (AMA).  Texas’ downward slide is also accelerating, meaning that Texas is falling behind the average state both farther and faster each year. 

These statistics are public and well known. They can be found at TDSHS’s website and in a report Public Citizen published earlier this year.  In view of this, it is shameful that Dr. Marcus, his colleagues at the Texas Alliance for Patient Access, and Republican politicians continue to mislead.  They are blatantly exploiting the ignorance of people who have better things to do than read up on the number of doctors in the State.

Dr. Marcus and his accomplices know about TDSHS’s numbers, but have ignored them in all prior public statements I’ve found. They want to give glowing reports, so they focus on the number of new licenses granted by the Texas Medical Board (TMB) instead. TMB’s count of new licenses is misleading, however, because it ignores the number of doctors who leave the state, retire, die, or stop seeing patients for other reasons. Suppose 100 calves were born into a herd of cattle that also lost 250 adult animals because of the heat and drought. The rancher who owned the herd would say he was down 150 head. Dr. Marcus and his buddies would say the herd grew by 100.

Dr. Marcus also gives tort reform credit for every doctor who showed up at Texas’ doorstep after the tort reform statute took effect. He ignores the fact that new doctors entered the State every year before 2003, and that many more would have come in later years in the absence of tort reform. It is easy to net out the historical growth rate, but that would make the 2003 statute seem less successful, so Dr. Marcus doesn’t do it.

The 2003 statute did have two demonstrable effects. First, it made doctors, hospitals and malpractice insurers millions of dollars richer by devaluing the claims of injured patients. Various sources report that premiums for liability coverage fell by half, and a study by a research group to which I belong finds that, after 2003, the number of dollars flowing to patients declined by more than 70 percent. This is a straightforward redistribution of wealth from malpractice victims to the proponents of tort reform.  Second, the statute put many contingent fee lawyers out of business.  If you’ve tried to find a lawyer to handle a med mal claim, you’ll have discovered this truth first-hand. 

In my opinion, these were the only effects the 2003 statute could reasonably have been predicted to have. They were also the effects, I believe, that the statute’s proponents — including Dr. Marcus, Gov. Rick Perry and other Republicans — wanted.  Everything else, such as the promised improvements in access to health care and reductions in health care costs, was cotton candy spun to win Texans’ votes and hide the proponents’ self-interest.

I doubt that this column or anything else will persuade Dr. Marcus to change his tune. Every day brings fresh evidence that the leaders of America’s medical profession will say anything and everything to avoid liability for medical errors, regardless of the truth. On October 15, 2011, Dr. Robert M. Wah, the AMA’s chairman, published a letter in the New York Times claiming that “medical liability reform provides a solid solution for reducing the federal deficit.”  I’m surprised he didn’t add that it cures baldness, colds and rheumatism too.

Charles M. Silver is the Roy W. and Eugenia C. McDonald Endowed Chair of Civil Procedure at the University of Texas Law School

Residents who live near fracking sites have been concerned about the quality of their water supplies after the procedure takes place. Now, adjacent to the biggest shale field discovered in Texas, the Eagle Ford formation, well owners are anxious about the very existence of a water supply. Those who live nearby the fracking sites report that their wells and filters fill up with sand, an element used in the drilling process, every few days. And since fracking requires millions of gallons of water, residents near Eagle Ford worry that without any rainfall, their underground supplies will be sucked dry.

Heated debate between congressional candidates Lloyd Doggett and Joaquin Castro may soon become moot, as the redistricting maps that spurred on a contest between them are under review in court and subject to being redrawn. Doggett is the current holder of the District 25 seat but chose to run in the recently drawn District 35 which runs from Austin to San Antonio. The maps, which have been disputed by minority groups, have yet to be finalized. Proposed maps would allow Doggett and Castro to run in separate districts, although the San Antonio based panel of judges has given no indication that it would accept the plaintiffs maps.

Another effect of this year’s record drought is a blooming of algae reported to be the worst to hit the Gulf Coast in over ten years. Called a red tide, the algae thrive in warm, salty water. The lack of rainfall this year made conditions ripe for the phenomenon, which is being blamed for killing fish and affecting the Texas coast from Galveston to South Padre.

The fiscal year that ended in September saw record deportations of immigrants, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. With numbers reaching nearly 400,000, the agency reported that over half the number of individuals deported had been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor. Authorities also reported that two-thirds of the deportees had recently crossed the border or were repeated crossers.

Surprising some onlookers, the superintendent of the McAllen ISD announced a program that will put an iPad in the hands of every student in his district. James Ponce made the announcement to a packed house in a school library, detailing the rollout of the program. The first phase is set to begin next year with the purchase of more than 5000 iPads and 425 iPod touches. Eventually, the district expects to provide each of its 25,000 students with a device, giving Internet access to kids who might not currently have it.

Controversy over content in a new State of the Bay report has left its publication in doubt. Researchers have been outspoken in their criticism of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s decision to modify a scientific report written on sea level rise by a Rice University oceanographer. John Anderson, who was commissioned by the Houston Advanced Research Center to provide the analysis, was critical of the commission’s attempt to edit his report and agreed to have the chapter removed from the report. But two of the editors from the center say the report will be incomplete and insufficient for residents and authorities in planning for the future of Galveston Bay.

The first non-engineer appointed to head the Texas Department of Transportation was denied a salary higher than the statutory maximum. Gov. Rick Perry rejected the written request from the Transportation Commission to allow the new executive director, Phil Wilson, to receive $381,000 in compensation, nearly double what his predecessor made. The Transportation Commission’s request comes on the heels of a salary study of comparable private sector jobs. But Perry stressed the need to conform to the legislated maximum for the job-$292,500, in light of the state’s current fiscal and budget situation.

When Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price opened her latest bank statement, she got a surprise. More than $900 had been debited from the campaign account fraudulently with a fake debit card and checks. The mayor has filed a report with police and Wal-Mart has been asked for surveillance footage, since the debit card was used at two of their stores.

Some of this was done a few weeks ago, but the announcement is now official: Gov. Rick Perry named Jeff Boyd chief of staff and David Morales general counsel. He also named Allison Castle communications director, Josh Havens deputy press secretary, and Jonathan Hurst director of Budget, Planning and Policy. Boyd most recently served as general counsel for the Governor’s Office. Morales was deputy first assistant to Attorney General Greg Abbott. Castle, Havens and Hurst were working — with different titles — where they're working now.

Phillip Martin joins Progress Texas and the Texas Research Institute as research and policy director. He joins Matt Glazer there; the two once worked at the Democratic Burnt Orange Report together. Martin also worked as chief of staff Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston.

The governor has been making appointments between road trips. He appointed:

• Jeff Austin III of Tyler to the Texas Transportation Commission. Austin is vice chairman of Austin Bank and Texas NA.

• Jason Kevin Patteson of Austin as director of the Office of State-Federal Relations. Patteson is an attorney and special counsel on federal initiatives for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

• Terry Hazell of Georgetown chair of the Texas Emerging Technology Advisory Committee. Hazell is director of RampCorp at Texas State University. Perry also named 13 members to the committee, including Susan “Sue” Georgen-Saad of Austin, a certified public accountant and chief financial officer of Cenoplex; Thomas Halbouty of Southlake, corporate vice president, chief information officer and chief technology officer at Pioneer Natural Resources; former Rep. Judy Hawley of Portland, a retired business developer for Advanced Acoustic Concepts; Randal “Randy” Hill of Baird, a NASCAR team owner and president and CEO of Randy Hill Racing; David Miller of Lubbock, COO of Flat Wireless, and former vice chancellor of Research and Commercialization for the Texas Tech University System; Ofer Molad of Bellaire, president and CEO of Persys Medical. He is credited with innovating modern military medical technology by commercializing products such as the “Israeli Bandage,” used during operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom; Richard Schoephoerster of El Paso, dean of the University of Texas at El Paso College of Engineering; John Schrock of McAllen, president and CEO of Lifetime Investments; Wesley Terrell of Richardson, an attorney for AT&T; Jaye Thompson of The Woodlands, senior vice president of Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs for Opexa Therapeutics; Richard Williams of Richardson, director of strategy and mergers and acquisitions for Energy Future Holdings; Robert “Bob” Wright II of Dallas, an attorney and consultant for Executives in Action.