Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst named his five conferees who'll sit down with House negotiators to work out the budget.Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, will lead a group that includes Republican Sens. Kip Averitt of Waco and Robert Duncan of Lubbock, and Democrats John Whitmire of Houston and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo.

Including a board we've never heard of....Gov. Rick Perry named four people to the Texas Credit Union Commission: Gary Janacek of Temple, president and CEO of Scott & White Employees Credit Union, who will chair the commission; Thomas Butler of Deer Park, president of Centrifuge Services and Diesel Fuel Maintenance Services; Pete Snow, a private invester in Texarkana who lost a House race to Rep. Stephen Frost, D-Atlanta, last year; and Barbara Sheffield of Sugar Land, president and CEO of Members Choice Credit Union and the only re-appointee in the bunch. For director spots Lower Neches Valley Authority, Perry named Steven McReynolds of Port Neches, president of Groves Equipment Rental Co.; Sue Cleveland of Kountze, president of Cleveco Construction Co.; Kathleen Thea Jackson of Beaumont, public affairs manager for Exxon Mobil Corp.; and Woodville Mayor Jimmie Ruth Cooley. Jeff Austin III, vice chairman of Austin Bank in Tyler, is Perry's pick for a slot on the Northeast Texas Regional Mobility Authority. The governor reappointed four members of the State Board of Nurse Examiners: Deborah Bell, a financial advisor from Abilene; Dr. Blanca Rosa Garcia, an RN and a professor at the Department of Registered Nurse Education at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi; Beverly Nutall of Bryan, an LVN who works at University Pediatrics Association; and Dr. Linda Rounds, an associate professor at the UTMB School of Nursing at Galveston. Nothing against the practitioners, but we had no idea there was a Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists. There is, and Gov. Perry named three folks to it: Y. Lynn Clark of Dallas, principal geoscientist with LCA Environmental, Inc. and president of Pertect Detectors, Inc.; Glenn Lowenstein of Houston, president and senior project manager of Terrain Solutions, Inc.; and Kimberley Robinson Phillips, a Houston lawyer and the only reappointee of the three.

And now, Speaker Tom Craddick has named the House's five conferees who'll sit down with Senators to negotiate a budget.Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, will head the House delegation. He'll go in with Republicans Dan Gattis of Georgetown and Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, and with Democrats Vilma Luna of Corpus Christi and Sylvester Turner of Houston. Before the conferees were named, the House voted down an attempt by Rep. Jose Menendez, R-San Antonio, to "instruct" the negotiators to hold their ground on a teacher pay raise in the budget. That wasn't even close, dropping on a 94 to 51 vote.