Cecile Richards will be the next president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the national arm of that group.Richards, daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, founded the Texas Freedom Network and worked in a variety of campaigns and organizations in Texas before moving to Washington. She worked for U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and most recently headed America Votes. She'll take over at Planned Parenthood in mid-February.

Williams, Thomas, Sanders, Black, Holford, Richards, Calvert, Midkiff, Donisi, Strother, and WelchGov. Rick Perry appointed Rick Williams, a Nederland lawyer and the head of that city's economic development corporation, to the 279th District Court, replacing the late Tom Mulvaney. Williams already filed to run for that, as a Republican; he'll face Democrat Randy Shelton at the ballot box in November. The governor named Nancy Thomas of Dallas to the 160th District Court. She's a private practice lawyer now, but used to be an associate judge in Dallas county's district courts. Mark Sanders doesn't work for the State of Texas anymore -- he quit last week to work full-time on Carole Keeton Strayhorn's campaign for governor. That's been expected for a while; he says he's been burning vacation time up to now. Gov. Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, left state employ to work full-time for that campaign a few weeks ago. Along the way, each campaign accused the other of using people on the state payroll to do campaign work. Wil Holford, still at the comptroller's office, moves into a new TITLE: special assistant for communications. Cecile Richards will be the next president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the national arm of that group. Richards, daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, founded the Texas Freedom Network and worked in a variety of campaigns and organizations in Texas before moving to Washington. She worked for U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and most recently headed America Votes. She'll take over at Planned Parenthood in mid-February. Raif Calvert starts later this month in the lobby shop at the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas. Calvert has been working for the Texas Medical Association for the last few years; before that, he worked for Texas Attorneys General Greg Abbott and John Cornyn. Sabrina Midkiff got promoted to chief lobbyist, er, governmental relations officer, for the UT Health Science Center in Houston. She's been on fulltime staff there for almost a year. John Donisi, an Austin lawyer and lobster, moved to Drenner & Golden Stuart Wolff from Bickerstaff, Heath. He'll working on local stuff in Austin and also on state issues in the Pink Building. Political consultant Colin Strother is moving back to Austin from Laredo. He'll keep working for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and for Texas House candidate Mercurio Martinez Jr., but will also join Rindy Miller Media as veep. If you heard the rumor that Matt Welch is leaving Texans for Lawsuit Reform, there's a nuance: He'll leave their payroll in April but will stay on as a consultant, still based in Austin.

Ashley Smith is leaving his post at the University of Texas System for a new job with Houston-based Stewart Information Services Corp. Smith, a former Republican House member from Houston, has been the UT System's vice chancellor for governmental relations and policy -- he's their point guy on state government -- for three years.He's returning to Houston to be executive vice president and general counsel of Stewart and its better-known subsidiaries, Stewart Title Guaranty Co. and Stewart Title Co. Just which company will be announced Tuesday. Smith has been commuting between Houston -- where his wife lives and works -- and Austin, where his UT desk is, for the whole time he's had the current job. Smith said that while UT looks for his permanent replacement, Steven Collins will hold the post. Before he joined UT, Collins was the Texas House's parliamentarian and the head of the Texas Legislative Council. But officials with the UT System say no decision has been made about either the interim or the permanent replacement for Smith. Collins will remain in his current post while they're making up their minds.

Anthony Sadberry, a former member of the Texas Lottery Commission, is the agency's new acting executive director.The board didn't name him the permanent guy, but also didn't put term limits on him. Sadberry was appointed to the commission in 1993 by then-Gov. Ann Richards, and stuck around until 2001. Gary Grief, who's been filling in as ED, will return to his deputy ED job. Sadberry replaces Reagan Greer, who left after the agency got caught advertising falsely inflated jackpots.