Karen Handel

​For days now Nancy Brinker has said, over and over, that Karen Handel -- the one-time gubernatorial candidate from Georgia and Palin pal -- had nothing to do with Susan G. Komen for the Cure's decision to cut its funding to Planned Parenthood. Handel, who's Komen's senior vice-president for public policy, didn't say anything. Till now, when she says: I'm out.

The Associated Press has gotten its hands on her adios missive, in which the abortion foe writes that she is "deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it. I openly acknowledge my role in the matter and continue to believe our decision was the best one for Komen's future and the women we serve." So, that, as they say, is that.

Well, not quite: Late yesterday we got word that several groups -- including reps from MoveOn.org, CREDO Action and UltraViolet -- are congregating at Komen's LBJ HQ at noon today to drop off "petitions signed by nearly 850,000 people demanding that Komen not let anti-choice extremists get in the way of funding life-saving breast health care services for women." Will we be there? Why, yes.

Update at noon: Below is a statement from MoveOn.org concerning Handel's resignation and the reason for today's still-scheduled protest.More >>

Congressman Ralph Hall, the Republican from Rockwall

​Allow us to re-introduce you to the octogenarian congressman who's currently perched atop the catbird seat in the oversight hearings every fracker in America is watching with bated breath. His name is Ralph Hall. He's the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. One of its subcommittees, on which he is the senior member, is Energy and Environment. That's some big medicine right about now.

He's from Rockwall, where he served as a county judge and practiced law for years. He's the oldest serving member of either House of Congress: Hall turns 89 in May. Until 2004, he was a lifelong Democrat and a founder of the moderate Blue Dogs. This cycle, the oil and gas industry was his second largest campaign contributor. Unfair Park asked for an interview, but was told he didn't have time.

Hall and the Republicans on the subcommittee spent much of the week caning the EPA over a study that sent shock waves through the energy industry: the detection of groundwater contamination in Wyoming they believe is directly linked to hydraulic fracturing. Residents in Pavilion had been griping about hydrocarbon-flavored water for years. EPA was compelled to investigate. What it found was scary as hell. Sampling of deep observation wells found benzene -- that nasty stuff that gives you cancer sure as yer born -- at 50 times the acceptable level for drinking water. They ruled out the surface pits into which Encana dumped its pollutant-laced produced water. To be sure, it had already contaminated ground water that way (the company has been providing residents with safe drinking water for some time now), but not at these depths. There weren't really any other ways to account for the presence of benzene that deep.

The industry and GOP lawmakers sprang into action, blasting the study and its sampling methods. Inexorably, it led to this week's oversight hearing, from which Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox was unceremoniously ejected because he tried to tape it. Just by perusing the witness list on the first day, you could tell it had little to do with science, and everything to do with undermining it.

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Nancy Brinker's among those interviewed in director Léa Pool's documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc., based on the book of the same name

​Amidst all the ruckus, resignations and double-talking over Susan G. Komen for the Cure's politically charged move to pull its breast-cancer screening funding from Planned Parenthood, you should also be aware: Dallas-based Komen's actually the subject of a documentary that opens in Canada today that takes a very dim view of Nancy Brinker's efforts to turn the foundation into a corporation fueled by a shiny pink PR campaign. As John Anderson wrote in his Variety review in September, when director Léa Pool's Pink Ribbons, Inc. (based on Samantha King's 2008 book) debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival:

Along with such commentators as author and cancer survivor Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickled and Dimed), Dr. Susan Love, Nancy Brinker of Susan G. Komen for the Cure (which has funneled $1.9 billion into fighting breast cancer and, as several people ask, for what?), the film also turns the spotlight over to ordinary cancer victims, one of whom puts the public-relations spin into very clear perspective. "The message," she says, "is that if you just try really hard, you can beat it. Just try really hard." Those who die, she adds, "weren't trying very hard."

Right now there are no U.S. screenings or release dates scheduled. This morning I asked Jennifer Mair, a publicist for the National Film Board of Canada based out of Toronto, if this week's uproar surrounding the LBJ Freeway-HQ'd Komen has changed their distribution plans. She says the film will be released in the U.S. through New York-based First Run Features. I spoke to someone there this morning, and, no, there are no firm dates for U.S. release. Not yet. "But it's coming up -- later this year, spring or early summer." The trailer's below.

Update at 10:15 a.m.: Komen just issued this statement apologizing for "recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives." It also says it "will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities."

Update at 10:45 a.m.: Also, this just in -- a statement from Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the daughter of the late Texas governor Ann Richards. It's below, but says, in short: "We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers."More >>

​A few moments ago, Jason Roberts tweeted: "Exploring a run for Congress. With redistricting up in the air, it's going to be an incredibly short campaign for the primary." As long as we've been covering his doings, I've never known the Better Block-er to be ... silly, let's say. Nevertheless, I called with a simple, professional question: "Are you effing serious?"

Yes, he said. Absolutely. Emphasis, though, on the "exploring" part. For now.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with redistricting going the way it is," he says. "It'll be a short campaign, and, if nothing else, it'll be a great chance to bring the things we've been focusing on -- urban revitalization, multiimodalism, repairing communities block by block -- to a larger stage."More >>

As you know by now, locally based Susan G. Komen for the Cure has cut off its funding to Planned Parenthood, meaning it'll no longer help pay for mammograms for women who can't afford them; why, there's Nancy Brinker herself above, attempting to explain Komen's "new granting strategies" concerning its breast-health grants. (Which no one's buying.) The loss is somewhere around $600,000 annually, thanks in large part to a Florida congressman's investigation into Planned Parenthood. Komen says it has a rule about funding groups under investigation. But till now the question's been: What rule, and since when?

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg picks up the story this morning, using several named and unnamed sources to recount how and when this happened and the resulting fall-out when Komen put a Sarah Palin pal in charge of public policy:

Komen, the marketing juggernaut that brought the world the ubiquitous pink ribbon campaign, says it cut-off Planned Parenthood because of a newly adopted foundation rule prohibiting it from funding any group that is under formal investigation by a government body. (Planned Parenthood is being investigated by Rep. Cliff Stearns, an anti-abortion Florida Republican, who says he is trying to learn if the group spent public money to provide abortions.)

But three sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process told me that the rule was adopted in order to create an excuse to cut-off Planned Parenthood. (Komen gives out grants to roughly 2,000 organizations, and the new "no-investigations" rule applies to only one so far.) The decision to create a rule that would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, according to these sources, was driven by the organization's new senior vice-president for public policy, Karen Handel, a former gubernatorial candidate from Georgia who is staunchly anti-abortion and who has said that since she is "pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood." (The Komen grants to Planned Parenthood did not pay for abortion or contraception services, only cancer detection, according to all parties involved.) I've tried to reach Handel for comment, and will update this post if I speak with her.

The decision, made in December, caused an uproar inside Komen. Three sources told me that the organization's top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood.

Read the whole thing here.

Photo by Leslie Minora

This is what transparency looks like.

​Quick test: When you think Craig James, what comes to mind?

A. SMU and New England Patriots football player and long-time sports announcer.
B. Texan, father, husband.
C. Who the hell is Craig James?
D. Senate candidate and taxpayer.

You're right! And today, James took his "plethora of experience" to "Real Street" (it's like Main Street, but more transparent) at Sammy's Barbeque in, yes, Uptown, where he announced that he would release his past five years' worth of tax records. No, he had not yet filed his campaign personal finance disclosure firm, but he said he'll get to that soon. After all, he just announced his candidacy last month. In the meantime, he's jumping right ahead to his personal docs. And he calls upon his competitors for Kay Bailey Hutchison's Texas Senate seat to do the same.

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​Left a message this morning for Paula Blackmon, chief of staff to Mayor Mike Rawlings, to talk about his decision to pull out of a long-scheduled meet-and-greet with the citizens tonight at Kiest Park on Hampton. It's been on our schedule for a month, and just Monday morning he (or someone, Blackmon, whatever) posted to his Facebook page the reminder: "Due to limited space anyone interested in attending the community meeting tomorrow at Kiest Recreation Center please be sure to RSVP by 12 noon today." Except: Last night, Rawlings used his Facebook page to back out of the event, writing:

I would like to thank everyone who is planning to attend tomorrow evening's community meeting for Districts 1 and 3. It is important for residents to have the opportunity to engage in a productive open dialogue with city staff and their elected officials. Due to unexpected circumstances, I will not be present. However, Councilwoman Delia D. Jasso, Councilman Scott Griggs, and city staff will be present to address city services and neighborhood concerns.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. My goal is to maintain open communication with constituents and would like the opportunity to meet with you in a more intimate setting. In order to do this, please feel free to email dates and times to my staff of when your neighborhood association or crime watch group meets.

Those "unexpected circumstances": a protest planned for tonight, led, in part, by Daniel Cates, the Texas regional coordinator for GetEQUAL and a Huffington Post contributor who wrote last night that "Mayor Mike Rawlings has spent the last few days in an unsuccessful effort to appease his city's LGBT population" after refusing last week to sign the Freedom to Marry pledge to which some 80 other big-city mayors attached their names. Blackmon told the Dallas Voice late yesterday that a protest would be a distraction from what people really want to talk about -- potholes and loose dogs -- and that "he just does not want to put them through that, so he plans to meet with them on a more individual basis."

Blackmon tells Unfair Park this morning she and the mayor didn't want folks attending the meeting tonight walking through "a demonstration line," and "in the meantime we're putting together a meeting with people in the [LGBT community] who know the issues."More >>

Greg Abbott to feds: Oh hell no.

​Given Texas's dicey history with electoral rights, the Obama Administration has expressed concern in recent months about the state's new Voter ID law, which requires voters to bring government-issued identification to the polls. So the state, naturally, is suing to put the new and allegedly discriminatory law into action. Like, now.

Texas passed its Voter ID law last May, joining a host of states whose legislatures have been cracking down on "voter fraud" -- the act of dead and unregistered and illegal-immigrant and otherwise nefarious voters who, if you believe the fear-mongering that accompanied much of the rhetoric in support of the bills, are conspiring to steal our nation's elections.

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If you see this man around town, be warned: He wants you to take you back to Tulsa.

​Saw a piece outta Tulsa yesterday that said Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr.'s in town trying to convince Dallas companies to move to his patch of God's country. And, sure enough, when he called me back last night around 9 he was at dinner at Truluck's on McKinney. First thing I asked him: Wouldn't it be easier just to send everyone iPhones? "That sounds a little over-the-top to me," said the oil-and-gas man two years into his first term. "I'm all about the personal communication, going up to someone and saying, 'This is what I can do for you.'"

Bartlett, son of the late Oklahoma governor who, from the looks of this video, seems like a pretty go-along, get-along kinda guy, has made this trip before; this is his second such hunting expedition since taking office. And he knows Dallas well enough: Bartlett went to grad school at SMU, and his daughter spent many years on the Hilltop.  And, yeah, he knows Oklahoma has one thing Texas doesn't: a state income tax. But, insists the mayor: "It's relatively small, and Texas has higher property taxes." So there.

"It's a very competitive world, certainly in business recruitment," says Bartlett, who has yet to find any takers. "But it takes a while. I don't think we can out-Dallas Dallas or out-Texas Texas. But we do have a tremendous amount of things to offer, and I think we look at what our capabilities are and what our assets are and act accordingly. When I was growing up I used to hear about how Tulsa has the capability of being a smaller version of Dallas. And I think that never materialized, but it did show our attitude -- not being arrogant, but being aggressively smart, being entrepreneurial. That's how Dallas is perceived and how we are perceived."More >>

​Back in November U.S. District Judges Orlando Garcia and Xavier Rodriguez down in San Antonio drew up new congressional and state House and Senate maps, since they so hated the ones submitted by the Texas Legislature. The judges claimed the state willfully ignored the state's growing Hispanic population, and their new map created Congressional District 33, which MALDEF quite liked, saying the DFW newcomer "contains a plurality of Latino population and is likely to grow into a Latino opportunity district over the next decade." To which Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said: Um, no. The U.S. Supreme Court agrees, kind of.

Moments ago the Supremes handed down this 13-page ruling that sends the mapmakers back to the lower courts, saying the district judges had no good reason for doing that they done. And they point to District 33 as their chief example:

The court's order suggests that it may have intentionally drawn District 33 as a "minority coalition opportunity district" in which the court expected two different minoritygroups to band together to form an electoral majority. The order is somewhat ambiguous on this point -- some portions suggest that the court deliberately designed such a district, other parts suggest that it drew the district solely as a response to population growth in the area. Compare id., at 146-147 ("Because much of the growth that occurred in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex was attributable to minorities, the new district 33 was drawn as a minority coalition opportunity district"), with id., at 144 ("The Court has nowhere expressly sought toincrease the performance of any opportunity district above benchmark"). If the District Court did set out to create a minority coalition district, rather than drawing a district that simply reflected population growth, it had no basis for doing so.

The ruling doesn't demand the state use the originally submitted maps. But Clarence Thomas would have: In a separate opinion attached to this morning's doc, he writes that "although Texas' new plans are being chalenged on the grounds that they violate the Federal Constitution and §2 of the Voting Rights Act, they have not yet been found to violate any law."

Update at 10:47 a.m.: Abbott's office just dispatched a statement from the Texas AG, which is below.More >>