BEST NEWS EVER

Texas A&M University scientists gave a big thumbs up to barbecued beef brisket, saying the mainstay of he-man Texas cuisine is loaded with the same type of healthy fat found in olive or canola oil.

The high level of monosaturated fat found in brisket — up to 50 percent — comes from feeding cattle corn in a feedlot setting, AgriLife meat scientist Stephen Smith said. The more corn a steer eats, the higher the percentage of the good fat. Olive and canola oils contain up to 80 percent monosaturated fat.

— Houston Chronicle

THE MODEL

Some businessmen have expressed serious reservations about elected appraisal boards. “The direct popular election of those responsible for establishing the taxable value of property will not protect the public interest,” said John Kennedy of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association to the committee “The principal public interest that must be protected in order to have a constitutional and equitable property tax system is, there must be professional, impartial, equitable appraisal for property tax system ...

“Our members conduct business throughout the country, and they tell us that the property tax system we have here in Texas is a model for the rest of the country ... And they would rather do property tax business here in Texas than any place else, because they get more professional appraisal and a fairer shake at establishing what is the true market value of their property.”

— DallasBlog.com

GOURMET MEALS

In the recent global boom the availability of plentiful, cheap food was generally taken for granted. But now much of the recent progress is being threatened by expensive food. As with oil, the rising prices are fueled in part by speculators. And like oil, expensive staples are swiftly upsetting business plans, sparking inflation, causing political instability and inflicting widespread economic pain.

The United Nations’ World Food Program says that hunger has reached a crisis level in all the 121 poorest countries it has recently surveyed. The rising prices have been fueled mostly by a long-term, steady increase in demand. People in developing countries, particularly India and China, have been eating more—and eating better—than ever before.

— Newsweek

MONEY WOES

More than a quarter of Americans suffer daily pain, a condition that costs the U.S. about $60 billion a year in lost productivity. And how often you’re in pain depends largely on the size of your paycheck.

Americans in households making less than $30,000 a year spend nearly 20% of their lives in moderate to severe pain, compared with less than 8% of people in households earning above $100,000, according to a landmark study on how Americans experience in pain. The findings also found that participants who hadn’t finished high school reported feeling twice the amount of pain as college graduates. “To a significant extent, pain does separate the classes,” says Princeton economist Alan Krueger, who co-authored the study.

— Texas Monthly Senior Executive Editor Paul Burka

DRUG COUNSELING

It is estimated that about 70 percent of the U.S. prison population committed a drug- or alcohol-related crime. California’s San Quentin State Prison is part of a unique and innovative response that aims not only to reduce drug-related crimes, but to reduce in-prison drug and alcohol abuse, the significant costs of prison addiction treatment programs and recidivism.

A first-of-its-kind program, Addiction Counselors Training turns prisoners into certified drug and alcohol counselors. The 18-month curriculum of intensive classes and a 4,000-hour internship within the prison are led and overseen by volunteer treatment professionals and professors.

These classes ready the trainees for certification by the California Association of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Counselors. In June 2007, nine out of 11 men from the first group passed the CAADAC test, a much higher percentage than the national rate.

— Governing.com’s “Idea Center”

TRANSFORMING SAN ANTONIO by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. Judge chronicles the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to the four cornerstones of the city’s new economy: AT&T Center, PGA Village, extension of the River Walk and the new Toyota plant. A how-it-was-done primer on big-city economic development. Trinity Press.

LONE STAR LAWMEN by Robert M. Utley. Former chief historian of the National Park Service, Utley scoured the archives of the Texas Rangers for this very readable, warts-and-all account of what has happened to the Ranger force since they stepped down off their horses and took to automobiles. Oxford University Press.

SQUEEZED: HOW COSTS FOR INSURING FAMILIES ARE OUTPACING INCOME study by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center, located at the University of Minnesota. Points out that the amount employees pay for family health coverage increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while family policyholders’ income increased just 3 percent over the same period. Lots of related data. Robert Woods Johnson Foundation

BRANDING TEXAS: PERFORMING CULTURE IN THE LONE STAR STATE by Leigh Clemons. A look at the various venues in which “Texanness” is performed. The author argues that Texas-centric plays, films, historical sites, battle reenactments, mueums and television shows have created a Texan identity that has become a brand, sold to the public and manipulated for political purposes. University of Texas Press.

TEXAS RATTLESNAKE ROUNDUPS by Clark E. Adams and John K. Thomas. Tracks the strange popularity of the community events and civic fundraisers that center around rattlesnake hunting, handling, sacking, racing, milking and skinning, from the perspective of both participants and opponents. In recent years, commercial rattlesnake trade in Texas has become more controversial, and roundups have declined. Texas A & M Press.

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