Talk from the left comes to TexasAir America -- the liberal radio network started by comic Al Franken and others -- is signing up its second station in Texas and giving a forum to Democratic gubernatorial explorer Chris Bell at the same time. Corpus Christi has the only Texas radio station that's airing Air America's programming (though it's also on satellite radio), and an Austin station is signing up. Franken will do his show from the State Theater in Austin, and Bell, a former congressman from Houston who's formally considering a race for Guv in 2006, will be a guest there for 30 minutes.

Ratliff, Seales, Rodriguez, appointments, and Jerry HallFormer Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage Award "for a distinguished career as a courageous bipartisan leader." The announcement from the Kennedy Library cited him for fighting a "principled action" against redistricting plans backed by his fellow Republicans, for his work on school finance and education and for "maintaining an inclusive style of governing in an era of sharp partisan politics." He'll receive the award in May. Terri Seales, who'd been at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, signs on as legal council to Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams. There's a new name at Gov. Rick Perry's campaign office: Alfredo Rodriguez has been hired as political director. he recently worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee, but he's a Texan and worked on congressional campaigns for U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, state Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, and Ramsey Farley, who ran against U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, in 2002. Appointments: Gov. Perry named Keith Morrow of Southlake, the CIO at 7-Eleven, to the Texas Department of Information Resources... He named Maceo Dailey Jr. of El Paso and Cynthia Comparin of Dallas to Humanities Texas. He's the director of African American Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso and teaches history. She is the founder, president and CEO of Animato Technologies... The Guv reappointed Robert Rowling of Dallas as a regent of the University of Texas System. He's the chairman of Omni Hotels... Deaths: Jerry Hall, who became a political and media consultant but never really overcame an almost genetic tendency to think and act and tell stories like a journalist, at age 78. Hall, an aide to former Gov. Preston Smith and over the years, to a wide array of politicians and officeholders from Ben Barnes to John Montford, spent his last years holding court from his front porch in Austin for a steady stream of friends and visitors from the press corps, the lobby and the political world.

Now that we have an authentic crystal ball in our offices (honest), we can write stuff like this:State District Judge Olen Underwood has told friends and the governor's office that he'll step down from one of his two posts, and the man in waiting for that open job is state Rep. Ruben Hope, R-Conroe, who is also the head of the House Republican Caucus. Underwood, a one-time star center at UT Austin who went on to become a professional football player (NY Giants, Houston Oilers, Denver Broncos) before taking up the law, is the presiding judge of the state's second judicial administrative district. He's apparently keeping that job, which would allow him to serve as a visiting judge while also handling administrative duties for the region. He's also the judge in the 284th district court. That's the gig he's apparently giving up and that Hope is hoping to get, through a gubernatorial appointment. Nothing is official -- Underwood is still hearing cases and Hope is still voting on legislation. But if everything falls into place, former state Rep. Bob Rabuck, the Conroe Republican who was replaced by Hope, told his local paper he'll run for the seat, as did Brandon Creighton, a lawyer and former Senate staffer who ran against Hope in the GOP primary 2002 and got a respectable 44.4 percent of the vote. Rabuck, an orthodontist, served in the House for eight years before deciding not to seek reelection in 1998. And so far, the triggering resignation, appointment, resignation, and election proclamation haven't happened. Sidebar: Hope beat Rep. Joe Nixon, R-Houston, in the contest for head of the GOP caucus, and two years ago beat Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, for the post. Miller is currently the vice chairman.