Lethal injection is the preferred method of execution in Texas. The cocktail of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride is considered a more humane way to kill a person than the firing squad, gas chamber or electric chair.
The chair hasn't been used in Texas since 1964. Tell that to Ric Williamson, head of the Texas Transportation Commission, who has found himself in the hot seat in front of lawmakers more than once this session.
On Tuesday, the House Appro-priations Committee grilled Will-iamson about the Trans Texas Corridor and the Cintra-Zachary partnership, which would build roads and collect tolls for 50 years. Under this agreement, the state would be penalized for building any "competing" roads that draw traffic away from the Corridor. The committee also brought up concerns about paving over wide swaths of land and a state auditor's report that portrayed TTC accounting as vague at best.
Williamson, a former Repub-lican state representative from Weatherford, isn't on the best of terms with Dallas Republican John Carona. The Senate transportation chair has called for Gov. Rick Perry not to reappoint Williamson to a second term.
Carona held a special public hearing all day Thursday, where busloads of citizens lined up to contribute spoken and written testimony about toll roads and ownership of the Corridor.
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Five states still designate lethal hydrogen cyanide gas as a lawful means of execution, and was brought to notoriety by the German Nazis, who used carbon monoxide to smother thousands of people at a time in concentration camps. Which brings me to the Texas Youth Commission.
Like a canary in a mine, commission head Dwight Harris was the first to go down. He resigned Feb. 23 amid charges of institutionalized molestation and cover-up, primarily at a West Texas facility.
Not quite like the Catholic Church, but enough to goad Senate members into an unusual Wednesday evening session, where they called for removal of TYC board and top management, an audit of the commission and replacement of top brass. On Thursday, lawmakers and officials discussed the future of the commission from behind closed doors. This morning a special committee will convene to recommend what course of action Gov. Perry should take.
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The last person to be executed by firing squad in the United States was in Utah in 1996. On Wednesday afternoon, Albert Hawkins, the appointed head of the Health and Human Services Commission, appeared before the Senate equivalent, the nominations committee, which gives the thumbs up or thumbs down to appointees.
In early February, Gov. Perry re-appointed Hawkins to a second five-year term as commission head. Hawkins is responsible for the health department, family and protective services, aging and disability services and assistive and rehabilitative services. For any problem related to Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program, food stamps, family violence services, refugee services or disaster assistance, the buck stops at Hawkins.
"That job is the worst job in the entire state," said Ken Armbrister, Gov. Perry's legislative director.
For about two hours on Wednesday, Hawkins stared down twin barrels loaded with inquiries about the HPV vaccine and CHIP. Hawkins's agency would be in charge of evaluating and administering Gov. Perry's executive order mandating the HPV vaccine for all public middle school girls in Texas.
Hawkins also oversaw the inking of an $899 million contract with a coalition of corporations to privatize part of CHIP in 2005. In 2007, the contract was reduced by about 40 percent ($358 million) due to gross incompetence on the part of the corporations.
"It is my personal observation that this agency is the functional equivalent of FEMA," said Eliot Shapleigh, a Democratic senator from El Paso.
Be that as it may, it's doubtful that the senators will deny Hawkins a second term. After all, mandating the HPV vaccine wasn't his idea, and as Hawkins told the senators Wednesday, the CHIP privatization deal was conceived under considerable pressure from legislators during a time of huge state deficit. Hawkins also reminded the committee that he did accomplish a radical reorganization of HHS, during which 12 agencies were amalgamated into five.
The committee hearing ended with a reprieve for Hawkins. The senators landed no major shots. Either their aim was off or they sighted a different target, slightly bigger than Hawkins and with arguably better hair.
Whatever the case, the break between hearings will allow Hawkins to find satisfactory answers to the questions. Perhaps his appointer will do something to make the senators feel less inclined to pull the trigger on his man.
I wouldn't rest easy if I were Hawkins, though. After all, Texas is the state that executes the most inmates, some of them not quite guilty. Posthumous DNA testing doesn't do much good for the person exonerated.
Brendel is a journalism graduate student.
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