WHAT’S YOUR BEEF?

The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of cloned meat in the U.S., having determined that products from cloned cattle, pigs and goats are as safe to eat as meat from their naturally reproduced brethren. That makes advocates happy: Cloning enables the livestock industry to do in a fraction of the time what breeders have been doing throughout history, narrowing the gene pool to its most desirable genes. Cloned-animal products aren’t on store shelves yet — the industry won’t begin selling them for at least a few months, after a government-recommended “transition period” — but when they finally do appear in supermarkets you may not even notice, because they won’t be labeled.

— TIME magazine

DRUG TESTING

“I would require an information booklet be given to each prospective drug customer, detailing the potential harm of the drug he/she wishes to buy. The booklets would contain information about smoking marijuana as opposed to ingesting in other forms. They would also convey such information as marijuana’s ability to affect depth perception, thereby rendering driving dangerous. The purchaser would only be permitted to purchase his drug of choice if he passed an exam on the subject.”

— Texas Tech School of Law criminal justice professor Arnold Loewy in an column written for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in February after he moderated a debate between High Times magazine editor Steve Hager and former Drug Enforcement Administration leader Bob Stutman.

REPORT CARD GRADE: B+

“(Texas’) conservative revenue-estimating processes have resulted in sizable surpluses in recent years, although a 2006 decision to pick up more of the tab for school finance is putting considerable strain on the state’s general fund. Texas will get a better sense of its fiscal outlook this spring, when receipts from a new business tax — expected to bring in $3 billion more than the tax it replaced — will come in for the first time.” — Report from the Pew Charitable Trusts on state budget practices (Texas lawmakers earned a B+)

GUN CONTROL? FUGETABOUDIT!

Four out of every 10 Americans own a gun. And nearly three out of four believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to have a firearm. Recent Gallup polls show that only 38 percent of Americans think the most important way to combat gun violence is through stricter gun laws; 58 percent believe more should be done to enforce current laws instead. More than two-thirds oppose an outright ban on handguns. Perhaps that’s why, despite the steady toll of gunshot violence, it’s been nearly 15 years since there has been a significant push for gun legislation on the federal level.

— U.S. News & World Report

DOUBLE STANDARD

Does Wall Street underrate Main Street? A complex system of credit ratings and insurance policies that Wall Street uses to set prices for municipal bonds makes borrowing needlessly expensive for many localities, some officials say. States and cities rarely dishonor their debts. The bonds they sell to investors are generally tax-free and much safer than those issued by corporations. But some officials complain that ratings firms assign municipal borrowers low credit scores compared with corporations. Taxpayers ultimately pay the price, the officials say, in the form of higher fees and interest costs on public debt. — The New York Times

WHAT’S PLAN C?

The Bush administration has scaled back plans to quickly build a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border, delaying completion of the first phase of the project by at least three years and shifting away from a network of tower-mounted sensors and surveillance gear. Technical problems discovered in a 28-mile pilot project south of Tucson prompted the change in plans, Department of Homeland Security officials told a House subcommittee. Problems included Boeing’s use of inappropriate commercial software, designed for use by police dispatchers, to integrate data related to illicit border-crossings. Boeing has already been paid $20.6 million for the pilot project.

— The Washington Post

TWENTIETH-CENTURY TEXAS: A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY, Co-edited by John W. Storey and Mary L. Kelley presents a series of 15 essays covering Indians, Mexican Americans, African Americans, women, religion, war on the home-front, music, literature, film, art, sports, philanthropy, education, the environment, and science and technology in twentieth-century Texas. University of North Texas Press.

GOING TO TEXAS: FIVE CENTURIES OF TEXAS MAPS offers highlights from the Marty and Yana Davis Map Collection at Sul Ross State University to illustrate the history of the Lone Star State through color plates of 64 historic Texas maps and includes ten original essays written by noted historians. Published by The Center for Texas Studies at TCU.

Mavericks: A Gallery of Texas Characters by Gene Fowler. Writer examines a gallery of Texas eccentrics from the worlds of oil, ranching, real estate, politics, rodeo, metaphysics, showbiz, art, and folklore. Featured mavericks run the demographic gamut from inspirational connoisseurs quirkiness to creative con artists and carnival oddities. Published by University of Texas Press.

BOB BULLOCK: Godod Bless Texas by Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson. Two journalists provide a colorful biographical account of one of Texas’ most multi-colored politicians. A good read about an interesting fellow. University of Texas Press.

CODE RED: AN Economist explains how to revive the healthcare system without destroying it by David Dranove. The title says it all. Princeton University Press.

STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES FOR HEALTHCARE SURGE DURING EMERGENCIES by the California Department of Public Health. The state agency comes up with a 1,900-page plan to ration health care in the event of a massive catastrophe, shifting the focus from individual care to population-based care and possibly leaving the elderly and sick out of luck. Find the summary online at www.cdph.ca.gov.

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