I never thought the road from San Angelo to Austin would become weathered from my tires, but I’m afraid to report it is. I knew this morning I had been in San Angelo too long when the lady at the starbucks knew me by name, the grandpa with his grandkid remembered me and when I walked out, I said hi to the newspaper man’s son. That ended up being the most exciting adventure of the day.

The rest of the day consisted of another several hours of hearings with very little accomplished.

However, an interesting incident did happen at Friday’s hearing. While Dan Jessop was at the 14 day hearing for his son who was born in Austin 2 weeks ago, CPS brought out pictures of Warren Jeffs with two of his child brides. They submitted these pics as evidence that Dan’s home is not a safe environment, since his sister was one of the brides. The pictures showed this 14 year old girl standing with Jeffs and in another picture she was kissing him. What shocked me the most from this is immediately following the hearing, court workers came out with copies of the pictures and knocked on all of our live trucks to deliver them. They GAVE us pics of an underage girl, in CPS custody for our news reports. The lady even told me to show the pic on Nancy Grace when I was on again. Considering we are not allowed to show pictures of children in CPS custody, I was a little surprised to be handed photos of a girl the state is alleging to be a victim of child sex abuse.

I thought it was a little strange, you?

My life has been so entrenched in covering the FLDS case that I’m starting to get confused as to what relates to politics and what doesn’t. My conclusion is: it is all politics. CPS is a state agency that reports to the governor. The governor also established a committee to oversee parental complaints about CPS. And, despite the “Department” (that’s how they refer to CPS in all of the status hearings) now being involved in the biggest child custody case in U.S. history, that committee hasn’t met in more than 6 months.

If you want to learn more about FLDS, I encourage you to check out some of the books written about the sect. Remember to take everything with a grain of a salt and many of the sources in these books may have extreme or sensational stories that aren’t applicable to all members. However, as this is all happening here in Texas and will most likely be a subject in the upcoming legislative session, you may be interested in getting some background information.

Stay tuned. There is a lot more to happen in this investigation.

Apparently, all the “liberal media and bloggers” have jumped on the rasmussen reports of Cornyn and Noriega in a tight race for Senate. So, the Cornyn camp is now appealing to voters to buck up and pitch in some cash to help him debunk the “myths.”

Here’s a snippet from the e-mail I received:

Please contribute $10, $25 or $50 to help debunk the myths our opponent and his liberal allies are trying to tell about Senator Cornyn.

The facts are clear, the extreme left is energized and unscrupulous, and our opponent is shamelessly aligned with them and will say and do anything it takes to gain much needed relevance and resources.

Your contribution of $10, $25 or $50 will go a long way towards setting the record straight. It will also send a loud and clear message to national Democrats that Texans won’t fall for their dirty tricks, deceit and deviousness.

***If you would rather receive some cash than give it out, see a Cornyn post below that offers $250 bucks for knocking on a few doors.

I’m not going to say I told you so because I think most of us assumed that John Edwards was waiting for just the right moment to throw his support behind the man he believes could name him second in command if he gets the nomination. In case you missed it, John Edwards officially endorsed Barack Obama this afternoon because, he says, Obama is willing to fight poverty.

On another note, Lou Dobbs made a couple of good points tonight. The democrats kept saying over and over they didn’t want a brokered convention and yet, that is exactly what is happening. They are allowing superdelegates to determine the candidate because neither Obama nor Hillary have the number of committed delegates needed to secure the nomination. Dobbs was saying the Democratic party is breaking some of its own rules while it strictly adhered to other rules that threw out the Florida and Michigan votes…states that could have taken this primary in a much different direction. What happens next is anybody’s guess but fine, I will say I told you so on this one.

So, Obama is already starting to concentrate on the states that will play an important role in November, but is he declaring victory too early? We’re certainly not seeing Hillary waving any flags of concession and if some speculators are right, she may get Florida and Michigan counted after all. If that happens, will there be an upset? It depends on which conspiracy theorist you speak with.

I just got a letter from Cornyn’s campaign about a May 18th walk intended to help raise money for Republicans. He sent a letter to former Secretary of State and now Texas Republican Victory 2008 chair, Roger Williams. Apparently, Cornyn is now offering his loyal followers a little incentive to do some campaigning for him.

Read the letter below:

Roger, Thank you so much for taking the initiative to organize a statewide walk on May 17th. As I have told you before, if Republicans work hard and work together over the next 6 months, we will be celebrating victories up and down the ballot in November. Your effort to start working early on a true neighbor to neighbor campaign is vital to combat an energized Democratic base. As you continue to organize walkers, please let people know that anyone who knocks on 60 doors will be entered into a raffle. I will give $250 to 5 different people who walk at least 60 doors for Victory (if they knock on a 120 doors, they can enter their name twice).

Thanks for all you do, I need a first rate Victory operation to win and I have no doubt that is what you are building.

See you on the trail.

John

Not to steal Klum’s trademark phrase, but that pretty much sums up what Randi Shade is telling Jennifer Kim this morning. Shade beat Kim by a 2 to 1 margin in last night’s city council race and will take over place three at good ole’ city hall. Is this good news for Austin? It depends on how you look at it. Burnt Orange Report says Shade is pro-development, pro toll-road all the way… but many people I’ve spoken with say Shade is more approachable than Kim. From personal experience, I can say Shade tends to remember names a little better than Kim. When they were both here for the KXAN debate, Kim asked my name as if she had never met me (I’ve interviewed her several times and spoke with her for about 20 minutes at a party once). Shade, on the other hand, had never met me but not only knew my name but also the work I’ve done and important stories I have covered. That certainly doesn’t play a part in my opinions of the candidates, but it did assuage my bruised ego a bit.

That’s right, folks. Its time to get out there and choose your city council candidates. This should be an interesting day, especially for place 3. Any bets on who will take home the gold?

And, just so there is no excuse–here is a list of the places where you can vote.
Precinct #, Name of Location, Physical Address

151    Winn Elementary School      3500 Susquehanna Lane Austin
152    Maplewood Elementary School     3808 Maplewood Avenue Austin
153    Woodcliff Baptist Church     11015 Dessau Road Austin
154    Bluebonnet Trail Elementary School     11316 Farmhaven Road Austin
156    Virginia Brown Recreation Center    7500 Blessing Avenue Austin
160    YMCA North Park Branch      9616 North Lamar Boulevard Austin
161    Lanier High School     1201 Payton Gin Road Austin
163    Cook Elementary School     1511 Cripple Creek Road Austin
164    Barrington Elementary School      400 Cooper Drive Austin
203    Combined @ 206 TCESD#2 Education Bldg.      201-B East Pecan Street Pflugerville
205    Camden Huntingdon Apartments     12349 Metric Boulevard Austin
207    YMCA Northwest Branch     5807 McNeil Road Austin
208    Triumphant Love Lutheran Church     9508 Great Hills Trail Austin
210    O. Henry Middle School     2610 West 10th Street Austin
211    Walnut Creek Elementary School     401 West Braker Lane Austin
213    Graham Elementary School     11211 Tom Adams Drive Austin
214    Bryker Woods Elementary School     3309 Kerbey Lane Austin
215    Wells Branch Community Center      2106 Klattenhoff Drive Austin
216    Combined @ 215 Wells Branch Community Center     2106 Klattenhoff Drive Austin
218    ACC Northridge Campus     11928 Stonehollow Drive Austin
220    Fire Station # 31     5507 FM 2222 Austin
224    Timmerman Elementary School     700 West Pecan Street Pflugerville
225    Combined @ 217 Wells Branch MUD Rec. Center      3000 Shoreline Drive Austin
227    Spring Hill Elementary School     600 South Heatherwilde Boulevard Pflugerville
228    Pure Austin Fitness - NEW     4210 West Braker Lane Austin
231    Combined @ 271 Doss Elementary School     7005 Northledge Drive Austin
235    McCallum High School     5600 Sunshine Drive Austin
236    Rosedale Elementary School     2117 West 49th Street Austin
237    Highland Park Baptist Church     5206 Balcones Drive Austin
238    Murchison Middle School      3700 North Hills Drive Austin
239    Gullett Elementary School     6310 Treadwell Boulevard Austin
240    Highland Park Elementary School 4900 Fairview Drive Austin
241    Brentwood Elementary School 6700 Arroyo Seco Austin

The place 3 race only got saltier as Jennifer Kim and Randi Shade battled it out in front of our cameras today for KXAN’s city council debate.

You can check it out on our website soon.

I’ll also post some clips here as soon as they are up. Let’s just the say the words “bold-faced lie” and “throw some punches” were used liberally.

CNN has projected Obama the winner…. it looks like this race is far from over…

The Democratic National Party is now trying to wage a campaign against McCain since it seems their candidates are too busy waging war on each other.