Tiny Medicaid Rounding Errors Could Be Costly to Repair

When federal auditors analyzed the Department of Aging and Disability Services’ Medicaid payments to nursing home providers in June, they found 11 mistakes — pennies worth of rounding errors that amounted to 53 cents.

Now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants the state to fix the minor payment problem, at a cost of up to $1.2 million to Texas taxpayers. 

Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission, said what CMS is attempting to do — ensure federal dollars are properly spent in the joint state-federal Medicaid program — makes complete sense. The agency has hired outside contractors, called Payment Error Rate Measurement reviewers, to analyze overpayments and underpayments.

“I don’t think anybody takes issue with the overarching goal,” Goodman said.

The problem, Goodman said, is that the federal government insists that payments be accurate down to the penny — while Texas’ payment calculation system relies on some limited rounding. The Texas Medicaid & Healthcare Partnership has estimated it would take between 5,000 and 10,000 hours of work to overhaul the current payment system, to the tune of between $575,000 and $1.15 million.

Texas officials say it’s ridiculous to expend countless hours and resources to “literally track pennies” in the $25 billion-per-year state Medicaid program. They appealed each of the 11 errors — six for a combined overpayment of 86 cents, and five for a combined underpayment of 33 cents — to both the PERM reviewers and to CMS, to no avail.

“In addition to the time and money that has already been spent on this, the automation costs to address these pricing errors may be very expensive and the return on investment … may never be realized,” the state wrote in one of its failed appeals. “Texas does not think that this is a prudent use of public funds (state and federal).”

CMS’s ruling was blunt: Texas’ system violates federal law. “There is a difference in payment between what the state paid and what the state should have paid,” CMS stated in its decision denying the appeal. Federal Medicaid officials did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Under the ruling, HHSC must have a solution in place to remedy the payment errors by September 2013. But agency officials have yet to make a request for funding to the Legislative Budget Board or the governor’s office, saying they are unlikely to get approval in tight fiscal times, and with such a poor return on investment.

In the meantime, HHSC officials can’t even pay the federal government what it is owed — roughly half of the 53-cent overpayment — because CMS’s reimbursement form doesn’t allow for amounts under $1. 

Goodman said the agency is hoping enough states will take issue with these tiny cost discrepancies that the federal government will establish some threshold for reporting and rectifying pricing errors.

“The concept is very good,” Goodman said. “But because there’s no minimum threshold, we spend all this time tracking and appealing and going over errors that are so small that we can’t even reimburse CMS directly.”

The Chairman is Out

Steve Munisteri, campaigning for Texas GOP chairman at the party convention in Dallas.
Steve Munisteri, campaigning for Texas GOP chairman at the party convention in Dallas.

The chairman of the Republican Party of Texas says he won't be home before Election Day.

Steve Munisteri said he voted with an absentee ballot because he'll be in Austin until after the election and won't spend a minute in Harris County, where he's a registered voter. In fact, he took part in a campaign mailer for Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston, telling voters he had already voted and urging them to do the same, either by absentee ballot or in early voting starting next week.

That prompted a question, since absentee voting has some particular rules. This is from the Harris County Clerk’s website:

You may vote early by-mail if you are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:

- Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;

- Sick or disabled;

- 65 years of age or older on Election Day;

- or Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.

Munisteri is under 65, healthy and not in jail.

“Oh, it’s because I’m not going to be in the county during the voting period,” Munisteri said. Asked if that means he won’t be in Harris County from Monday through the Friday before the Election, he said that’s right, that he’ll be in Travis County that entire time.

Early voting starts on Monday, October 22 and runs through the close of business on Friday, November 2. Election Day is November 6.

If you need to talk to the chairman, he’ll be in Austin.

Texas Weekly Hot List — With Campaign Finance Totals

The Hotlist remains relatively static as we enter early voting (it begins on Monday and runs though Friday, Nov. 2), but this week, we've gathered the latest campaign finance numbers from the top candidates on the list. Some of the differences are surprising; for instance, in the CD-14 race to replace U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, Democrat Nick Lampson has almost eight times as much money as Republican Randy Weber, who had an expensive primary and now faces a tough general election.

Some of the numbers don't tell the whole story; in the other competitive congressional race on the ballot — CD-23 — third parties are spending as fast as the candidates.

We begin with the Hotlist itself, followed by a sortable table of the money reported raised, spent and held by the candidates as of the latest reports.

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A note about the table: federal candidate totals are current as of the October quarterly and monthly filing, representing all campaign finance activity in this cycle up to Sept. 30. State candidate totals come from the 30-day reports, and reflect contributions and expenditures since the mid-year state filing.

DistrictCandidateContributions in last filing periodExpenditures in last filing periodCash on Hand
CD-14 Randy Weber (R) $755,790 $933,373 $55,040
CD-14 Nick Lampson (D) $969,350 $547,482 $421,518
CD-23 Francisco Quico Canseco (R) $2,196,297 $1,305,347 $1,095,079
CD-23 Pete Gallego (D) $1,324,517 $1,155,641 $114,876
HD-102 Stefani Carter (R) $112,821 $109,543 $66,777
HD-102 Rich Hancock (D) $27,245 $4,925 $7,380
HD-105 Linda Harper-Brown (R) $123,450 $68,244 $87,997
HD-105 Rosemary Robbins (D) $24,688 $37,000 $30,584
HD-107 Kenneth Sheets (R) $280,355 $96,777 $146,778
HD-107 Robert Miklos (D) $74,020 $56,401 $24,707
HD-114 Jason Villalba (R) $172,886 $147,326 $42,612
HD-114 Carol Kent (D) $121,236 $89,824 $132,748
HD-117 John V. Garza (R) $52,560 $72,670 $62,372
HD-117 Philip Cortez (D) $48,015 $44,610 $18,621
HD-134 Sarah Davis (R) $332,120 $99,583 $232,384
HD-134 Ann Johnson (D) $217,347 $103,700 $263,302
HD-136 Tony Dale (R) $112,274 $22,799 $82,854
HD-136 Matt Stillwell (D) $61,061 $20,843 $8,632
HD-144 David Pineda (R) $77,358 $49,461 $33,428
HD-144 Mary Ann Perez (D) $104,940 $30,082 $107,729
HD-149 Dianne Williams (R) $134,990 $56,342 $74,222
HD-149 Hubert Vo (D) $38,665 $27,632 $48,768
HD-23 Wayne Faircloth (R) $92,890 $46,816 $43,089
HD-23 Craig Eiland (D) $134,052 $80,923 $101,420
HD-34 Connie Scott (R) $125,430 $68,349 $255,629
HD-34 Abel Herrero (D) $69,723 $49,667 $25,656
HD-41 Miriam Martinez (R) $6,500 $8,455 $0
HD-41 Robert Bobby Guerra (D) $36,563 $34,689 $15,476
HD-43 J.M. Lozano (R) $260,590 $185,422 $89,771
HD-43 Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles (D) $46,170 $23,973 $11,585
HD-45 Jason Issac (R) $128,502 $44,596 $69,919
HD-45 John Adams (D) $48,021 $25,801 $32,241
HD-54 Jimmie Don Aycock (R) $123,819 $89,701 $153,065
HD-54 Claudia Brown (D) $4,424 $4,709 $4,424
HD-78 Dee Margo (R) $40,485 $18,019 $43,222
HD-78 Joe Moody (D) $73,755 $48,372 $21,859
SD-10 Mark Shelton (R) $606,856 $153,205 $566,825
SD-10 Wendy Davis (D) $843,879 $346,466 $1,537,784
SD-19 Michael Berlanga (R) $17,409 $9,876 $1,678
SD-19 Carlos Uresti (D) $104,999 $86,131 $90,753
SD-20 Raul Torres (R) $94,761 $60,448 $12,713
SD-20 Juan Chuy Hinojosa (D) $167,620 $219,859 $424,309

Inside Intelligence: The Political Environment

This week marks a return to our periodic pre-election "mood" questions, wherein we ask the insiders how they feel about the national and state economies, about important issues, and about the general direction of the state and the nation.

Economic issues dominate the list of most important problems facing the country, with the economy, federal spending/national debt, and unemployment/jobs all in the top five. Education led the state list of problems chosen by the insiders, followed by water supply and state budget cuts.

Both the country and the state are on the wrong track, according to a majority of the insiders, though they're a little more pessimistic about the country than about Texas. That said, 50 percent think the U.S. economy is "somewhat better off" than it was a year ago, and 54 percent say the same about the state economy. Some — 5 percent on the national question, 13 percent on the state question — say the economy is "a lot better off." Most of the rest say things are about the same as a year ago, economically speaking.

Finally, we asked for their take on the troubles in the national economy: 50 percent say the worst is over, while 32 percent say the worst is yet to come.

The insiders were talkative this week, and we've included their verbatim comments in the attached document. A sampling follows:

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What would you say is the most important problem facing this country today?

• "Without improving the way the process of making sausage works, nothing else can improve meaningfully."

• "Not just income inequality, but the combination of that and the current system of political contributions/cronyism."

• "Spending, debt and burdensome tax systems at all levels of government."

• "It starts and ends with the economy. If there are no jobs and no economic growth, addressing the other major issues we face as a country is just wishing because there will be no tax dollars to help pay for solutions."

• "Actually lack of sleep, but it wasn't on the list."

• "The seemingly irreversible growth of demographic elements permanently dependent on government is the primary threat to the nation's long-term survival."

• "It's the economy stupid. Always has been. Always will be."

• "If we get education right, our brainpower will help us solve most of the others."

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What would you say is the most important problem facing the state of Texas today?

• "Ensuring a business friendly climate--educated workforce, adequate water supply, affordable and plentiful electricity, infrastructure that can serve the needs of the state, and reasonable/predictable environmental regulation."

• "I replied with "taxes," but only because I couldn't specifically reply with "school finance.""

• "A better educated adult population makes all these other issues potentially solvable."

• "Infrastructure funding- water & transportation are at the top."

• "The true answer is infrastructure...which includes transportation, water, energy, and education. These 4 issues will decide whether the Texas we know today will exist tomorrow."

• "One cannot reasonably choose just one. Education and water are the biggies that need immediate attention and action!"

• "Health care spending, especially Medicaid, CHIP and Dual Eligible coverage is unsustainable and is already crowding out spending on education, criminal justice and transportation."

• "Texas is blessed in many ways but an abundance of water is not one of them.  Growing population, a semi-arid climate, and an overly zealous property rights position on water spells big problems looming."

• "We certainly have great infrastructure needs; but if we do not produce an educated workforce, we will have a 3rd world economy--with or without that infrastructure."

• "There will come a time where the state can no-longer import an educated workforce and we can no-longer afford to support the uneducated."

• "I like how you conflated political corruption with political leadership. Time saver!"

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Thinking about the country, do you think that things are headed in the right direction, or do you think that things are headed off on the wrong track?

• "The world still hates us and we're a joke to the terrorists, Russians, and Chinese; domestically we're sputtering along with no meaningful job growth.  Recipe for disaster."

• "No one is leading in either party."

• "Seriously?  We've been above 8% unemployment for years, we have no leadership nationally, and the Middle East is in disarray."

• "Obama has us on the wrong, wrong track."

• "As long as both parties refuse to work together and compromise, this country will continue on its course to nowhere."

• "But in ways that Romney would make worse, not better."

• "What track?  The wheels fell of years ago."

Compared to a year ago, would you say that the national economy is a lot better off, somewhat better off, about the same, somewhat worse off, or a lot worse off?

• "Fewer jobs to be had, fewer folks looking for jobs, debt continues to increase (both personal and govt), etc."

• "If there's any significant difference in the economic landscape from a year ago, I sure don't see it."

• "Government rules and regulations are bankrupting America. We must learn from the failed policies of the past that created the same abysmal failures. Obama wants more of the same, but more QEs are NOT the right direction."

• "Unemployment is only dropping because people are stopping their job search.  We need a change."

• "Obama is slowly digging us out of a huge hole left by the Bushies.  Too bad there's not a Congress that will help."

• "We are one catastrophe away from a 2008 replay."

• "Pols looking for people to blame and not solutions."

• "But economic instability in the EU is still the undraped shoe."

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Thinking about the state of Texas, do you think that things are headed in the right direction, or do you think that things are headed off on the wrong track?

• "We are delusional about the sustainability of underfunding education and basic infrastructure.  It's all going to come back to bite us."

• "I chose don't know because neither of the other two options fit. Texas is doing some things really well, but closing its eyes to some real problems. Texas is handling its short-term issues very well. It is ignoring long-term issues - infrastructure for roads, water, etc."

• "We have statewide "leaders" who cater to primary voters and who think that vouchers, TSA groping and sanctuary cities are the most important issues facing the state.  It's time our leaders started filtering the masses and deal with the serious issues our state faces in a serious way."

• "Right track economically. Wrong track on some other important issues (like education). You can have both."

• "It's all falling into disrepair - school, roads, water.  Low taxes and less regulation are not the answer."

• "Texas is on the right track, but for only one reason:  oil & gas.  Take that out of the equation, and we're no better than the rest of the country."

• "It is not a coincidence that the Texas economy is markedly better than the rest of the country. Generations of investments in human capital and a world-class infrastructure brought us to this place.  Ironically, those who tout our prosperity the loudest are the same folks who are now hell bent on ensuring that future generations won't receive such an inheritance from us.    Shame on the shortsighted.  They will be the ruin of this great state."

• "Failure to educate our people, especially Latinos; engineered collapse of public education, accelerated by Patrick and vouchers; crushing public health challenges, esp. for Latinos."

• "You can't cut cut cut and expect a good outcome"

Compared to a year ago, would you say that the Texas economy is a lot better off, somewhat better off, about the same, somewhat worse off, or a lot worse off?

• "Growing and importing a demographic that infrastructure cannot accommodate"

• "A big thank you to the oil and gas industry and Texas being lucky enough to have these shale deposits."

• "We are better than the rest of the country, but oil and gas money can mask a lot of problems."

• "Thanks to the luck of what is three miles underground.  Otherwise we'd be Mississippi."

• "Low tax states are typically the first out of a recession."

• "Every elected official should thank the companies exploring the Eagle Ford."

• "Lots of people moving here, and escaping other parts of the country, tells a story inconvenient for you Texas-haters."

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Thinking about the condition of the national economy, do you think the worst is over or is the worst yet to come?

• "Ask me again on Nov. 7."

• "Depends on EU, China"

• "The DEBT is killing us. We cannot continue to print money and expect the future to be bright."

• "Outcome in November will determine if we're headed over that Fiscal Cliff"

• "Sooner or later, the bill comes due."

• "It depends on Europe, whether Obama is re-elected, and whether he finds the strength to use the bully pulpit to cow the House Republicans into something approaching rationality."

• "European and Chinese economies will be key to ensuring that the US does not slide back into recession"

• "But Congress jacking around with the fiscal cliff is going to freak out the financial markets with increasing ferocity the closer we get to the end of the year."

Our thanks to this week's participants: Gene Acuna, Cathie Adams, Brandon Aghamalian, Jenny Aghamalian, Victor Alcorta, Clyde Alexander, George Allen, David Anthony, Jay Arnold, Louis Bacarisse, Tom Banning, Mike Barnett, Walt Baum, Dave Beckwith, Amy Beneski, Rebecca Bernhardt, Andrew Biar, Allen Blakemore, Tom Blanton, Chris Britton, Jay Brown, Blaine Bull, Kerry Cammack, Marc Campos, Thure Cannon, Snapper Carr, William Chapman, Elna Christopher, James Clark, Rick Cofer, John Colyandro, Harold Cook, Beth Cubriel, Randy Cubriel, Denise Davis, Hector De Leon, Eva De Luna-Castro, June Deadrick, Nora Del Bosque, Tom Duffy, David Dunn, Richard Dyer, Jeff Eller, Jack Erskine, John Esparza, Jon Fisher, Rebecca Flores, Wil Galloway, Neftali Garcia, Norman Garza, Dominic Giarratani, Bruce Gibson, Stephanie Gibson, Scott Gilmore, Kinnan Golemon, Daniel Gonzalez, Jim Grace, John Greytok, Jack Gullahorn, Clint Hackney, Wayne Hamilton, Bill Hammond, Adam Haynes, John Heasley, Ken Hodges, Steve Holzheauser, Billy Howe, Laura Huffman, Shanna Igo, Richie Jackson, Cal Jillson, Jason Johnson, Bill Jones, Mark Jones, Robert Jones, Lisa Kaufman, Robert Kepple, Richard Khouri, Tom Kleinworth, Ramey Ko, Dale Laine, Pete Laney, Dick Lavine, James LeBas, Donald Lee, Luke Legate, Myra Leo, Richard Levy, Elizabeth Lippincott, Ruben Longoria, Homero Lucero, Vilma Luna, Matt Mackowiak, Phillip Martin, Dan McClung, Scott McCown, Debra Medina, Robert Miller, Bee Moorhead, Mike Moses, Craig Murphy, Keir Murray, Pat Nugent, Nef Partida, Gardner Pate, Robert Peeler, Jerry Philips, Tom Phillips, Wayne Pierce, Richard Pineda, John Pitts, Allen Place, Royce Poinsett, Kraege Polan, Jay Pritchard, Jay Propes, Ted Melina Raab, Bill Ratliff, Tim Reeves, Kim Ross, Jason Sabo, Mark Sanders, Andy Sansom, Jim Sartwelle, Stan Schlueter, Bruce Scott, Robert Scott, Steve Scurlock, Ben Sebree, Bradford Shields, Jason Skaggs, Ed Small, Martha Smiley, Todd Smith, Larry Soward, Dennis Speight, Jason Stanford, Keith Strama, Bob Strauser, Colin Strother, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Sherry Sylvester, Jay Thompson, Russ Tidwell, Trey Trainor, Ware Wendell, Ken Whalen, Darren Whitehurst, Woody Widrow, Christopher Williston, Seth Winick, Alex Winslow, Lee Woods, Peck Young, Angelo Zottarelli.

The Calendar

Friday, Oct. 19:

  • U.S. Senate debate between Ted Cruz and Paul Sadler; KERA Studios, Dallas (7 p.m.)
  • House Higher Education Committee hearing (9 a.m.)

Tuesday, Oct. 23:

  • Fundraiser for House candidate John Adams; Camp Lucy (6-8 p.m.)

Wednesday, Oct. 24:

  • House State Affairs Committee hearing (10 a.m.)
  • House County Affairs Committee hearing (9 a.m.)
  • Fundraiser for Rep. Tan Parker; Flower Mound (5:30-7:30 p.m.)
  • Fundraiser for Rep. Rodney Ellis; Rice Lofts, Houston (5-7 p.m.)
  • Fundraiser for Sen. Robert Duncan; Stephen F. Austin Hotel, Austin (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)
  • Fundraiser for House candidate Cecil Bell Jr.; Austin Club (4:30-6:30 p.m.)

Thursday, Oct. 25:

  • Fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant; Reata Restaurant, Fort Worth (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)
  • Fundraiser for House candidate Matt Stillwell; Austin (6-7:30 p.m.)

Guest Column: Tests Breed Schools for Scandal

No one really expected public schools in border towns such as El Paso to do well on under No Child Left Behind. Their tax base is too small to educate so many poor kids, many of whom don’t speak English when they begin school. Despite what we say about closing the achievement gap, the system is set up for kids in El Paso to fail. So when the test scores rose in El Paso, schools got more money from Washington, and superintendant Lorenzo Garcia took $56,000 in bonuses and began bragging about “the Bowie model,” named after a large high school with the kind of predominantly poorer, immigrant student body that usually fails standardized tests.  It was the miracle testing advocates had been waiting for.

Folks in El Paso had a different name for what happened: “los desaparecidos,” or the disappeared. Turns out Garcia and several co-conspirators kept hundreds of kids out of school in the 10th grade so they couldn’t take the tests that counted under No Child Left Behind. They held back some 9th graders and skipped others to the 11th grade. Truant officers visited some at-risk kids and told them they were better off not coming to school. Others were encouraged to drop out and get their GED. 

This is the worst testing scandal to come along under the high-stakes testing regime that rules our schools, but we have no right to act surprised in Texas. What happened in El Paso is not an aberration but an inevitable consequence of high-stakes standardized testing, and it’s been happening here for more than a decade.  A former Texas governor might have made No Child Left Behind the law of the land once he got to the White House, but back here that bill is best understood as a Freudian slip. We’ve been leaving children behind when Texas officials made the 10th-grade standardized test the sole measure of how the state rated high schools under the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.

Dr. Linda McNeil of Rice University first noticed this phenomenon almost a decade ago when she noticed that every year about 70,000 kids were disappearing between the 9th and 10th grades. Statewide, 30% of the kids who start Texas high schools don’t finish, and most of those leave before the 10th grade.

“The high number of dropouts under this system are not unintended consequences or accidental side effects of the system,” wrote Dr. McNeil. “They are the result of the system when it is working as it is intended. In fact the system only works, that is, only produces rising scores on the state’s standardized tests, when these losses occur.”

High-stakes testing is a product of the dot-com era when we all bought Enron stock and named business schools after Ken Lay. That, says McNeil, is where we went wrong with education reform.

“To adopt a single-indicator system to measure a complex enterprise, whether an energy trading company or the state’s public schools, is to invite the temptation to hype that indicator, to do anything to keep it propped up, to make sure it carries an image of success,” wrote Dr. McNeil. “One way Enron kept its stock price high was to carry its losses on a separate set of ledgers.”

Put simply, Texas keeps at-risk kids from taking high-stakes tests for the same reason Enron hid debt in offshore shell corporations—for the money. The problem with this system is there is no bankruptcy protection for the 30% of the population that grows up without a high school diploma, unless you count our prison system.

Rick Perry’s Texas Education Agency cleared Garcia of similar accusations in 2010, but the FBI wasn’t as kind. Their investigation resulted in big fines and a 3.5-year prison sentence for Garcia. If there’s any real justice, he should have to help his fellow inmates get their GEDs. But why should we make an example of him? If we don’t stop high-stakes testing, we’re all to blame. 

 

The Week in the Rearview Mirror

After enduring a week of scrutiny following the release of a lengthy report detailing doping charges against him, Lance Armstrong announced that he is stepping down as chairman of his cancer foundation, Livestrong. Armstrong will remain on Livestrong’s board but will turn over the chairmanship to Jeff Garvey, now the vice chairman, who’s been around since the creation of the foundation in 1997. Garvey will take over strategic planning and fill in for Armstrong in meetings and appearances. Armstrong said in a statement that he did not want to distract from the mission of Livestrong.

The Food and Drug Administration has given the biotechnology firm Celltex Therapeutics Corp. 15 days to correct deficiencies in its operations, with the threat of injunction or seizure. The Sugar Land company banks and grows stem cells harvested from prospective patients, and performed adult stem cell therapy on Gov. Rick Perry's back last year. After an inspection earlier this year, the FDA cited numerous infractions at the company and is now asking the firm for plans to fix those problems. Company president David Eller disputed the FDA’s authority to regulate the firm’s product as a biological drug rather than a chemically synthesized drug.

Drawing attention to the process in which their agency reviews and funds grants, the eight principal scientific reviewers of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas all resigned from the agency. Chief scientist Dr. Alfred Gilman resigned from the agency in May and has criticized the approval of an $18 million commercialization grant to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center after setting aside scientific grant proposals. The agency was formed in 2007 and was authorized to sell bonds over the course of 10 years to raise and allocate $3 billion on its mission to distribute research funds. Now it faces a possible restructuring of its rules in the upcoming legislative session.

A moderator of two controversial Reddit forums was revealed to be a married, 49-year-old Arlington computer programmer. Michael Brutsch was outed as the person posting to the site as Violentacrez, who created and moderated objectionable pages on the social news website. Two of the pages, Jailbait and Creepshots, which allegedly shared pictures of underage girls, have since been taken down, and Brutsch was fired from his job over the weekend. First Cash Financial Services, a publicly traded pawn and payday lawn chain, confirmed that it had severed ties with Brutsch due to his online activities.

TransCanada is finding unlikely opposition to the 1,179-mile pipeline it plans to use to transport Canadian tar sands to South Texas refineries: Texas landowners. The company has angered residents by having courts condemn parcels of land for which it couldn’t get easements. It has also refused to use local workers and won’t guarantee that its product will remain in the country. Landowners claim that TransCanada is not offering them a fair price for the use of their land and have even allowed outside activists to protest on their property. TransCanada points to the hundreds of agreements it has already reached with landowners in Texas, and says opposition to the pipeline is just a sign of the times.

Jasper’s first black chief of police has filed a discrimination lawsuit after he was fired in June. The town has been embroiled in turmoil since his appointment in early 2011. An opposition group successfully removed three black City Council members who supported his appointment, and they were replaced with white members. An effort to remove the white mayor was not successful. The police chief, Rodney Pearson, claims that the all-white City Council and mayor harassed him and leaked confidential information about him. He filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission in April and was fired two months later. His civil lawsuit claims that city officials violated his civil rights and asks for damages.

A conference in El Paso is bringing border officials together with security equipment manufacturers whose technology may help prevent so-called friendly fire accidents in the future. Border patrol agents face challenges in communicating with one another in remote areas, where they can’t pick up a signal for cell phones or two-way radios. Vendors are hawking updated technology used by the U.S. military that would allow agents to distinguish between suspects and each other. Infrared cameras can give officers details on what they’re looking at and can see up to two miles, day or night. Body patches can be worn by officials and spotted by the cameras, signaling them that friendly forces are in the area.

The League of United Latin American Citizens has filed a lawsuit accusing Harris County of violating the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and voters’ constitutional rights. The charges against the county stem from the group’s assertion that the tax assessor-collector’s office deliberately rejected and purged minority voters disproportionately from its rolls from 2009 to 2012. It also claims that the county failed to right the wrongs from a previously settled lawsuit that the Democratic Party filed.

Political People and their Moves

Deaths: Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, of liver disease more than five years after receiving a liver transplant. The 22-year state legislator and former firefighter was 62. He was best known as a stalwart Democrat — the legislator so determined to block a voter ID bill in 2007 that he recovered from his liver transplant in a room next to the Senate chamber, where he could be counted against the bill if it was brought up for a vote. He was still at it to the end: Check his sentiments on public school vouchers at the top of Quotes of the Week.

Gallegos remains on the ballot and if voters reelect him in that overwhelmingly Democratic district, the governor will call a special election to replace him. Gallegos will be memorialized and buried this weekend, but quiet jockeying for his seat has already begun. State Rep. Carol Alvarado and former Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia are among the names mentioned and that list could grow after the mourning is over and politics becomes more seemly.

There is a Republican on the ballot: R.W. Bray, driving out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina was the only opponent signed up against the incumbent.

Arrested: Former state Rep. and current deputy inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Jack Stick, for driving while intoxicated. "Although I appreciate the caution exercised by the officer, I am confident blood test results and other evidence will vindicate me," he said in a statement.

Quotes of the Week

Fuck vouchers.

The late Sen. Mario Gallegos, on his deathbed, to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst

Remember one of the things about Ken Armbrister: He's been in the legislature since 1983, and from time to time his hearing gets impaired.

Gov. Rick Perry, after Armbrister told an interviewer — and an audience — that Perry told him he'll seek reelection in 2014

A friend of mine experienced in these matters told me this is the way it always works when you put a large amount of money on the table. The vultures lie low for a couple years, figuring out how the system works. Then they come in for the feast. The M.D. Anderson grant was the first course of that feast.

Dr. Alfred Gilman, former president of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, in the Houston Chronicle

We will not allow atheist groups from outside of the state of Texas to use menacing and misleading intimidation tactics to try to bully schools to bow down at the altar of secular beliefs.

Attorney General Greg Abbott, announcing the state's intention to join a lawsuit to allow cheerleaders to use religious banners at public school football games

If they don’t get to 55, it’s a show of sheer ineptitude.

Republican political consultant Eric Bearse, on House Democrats, who now number 48, in the Dallas Morning News

Obviously, we did not stem fraud in any form or fashion.

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, on the state's Medicaid dental and orthodontic investigations

Jesus should not be a prop for any campaign.

Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, urging U.S. Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco, R-San Antonio, to stop invoking Christ against his Democratic opponent in the CD-23 campaign