Political People and Their Moves
Robert McTeer, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, will retire by the end of the year. The former head of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, McTeer took the A&M job almost two years ago. The board of regents will meet in a few weeks to talk about what's next.
Patricia Hayes is moving from the Texas Education Agency to the Texas State University System, where she'll be vice chancellor for governmental relations and educational policy. At TEA, she was running the P-16 program that coordinates public schools with higher education, running kids smoothly from preschool — the P — through the fourth year of college — the 16th year of a standard education.
Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin picked Jennifer Ahrens as that agency's "health care provider ombudsman." She's currently an associate commissioner at TDI. She'll replace Audrey Selden, senior associate commissioner of the consumer protection division there.
Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, signed on with the Austin law firm of Azarmehr & Associates, which does immigration law. They've also got offices in New York City and Monterrey.
Rene Lara is leaving the Texas Federation of Teachers for colder climes: He's on his way to a similar job with Education Minnesota, an outfit formed when two large teacher groups in that state merged, including the one affiliated with the AFL-CIO. TFT hasn't hired a replacement yet.
Dan Finch, who has been the public affairs director at the Harris County Medical Society, joins the government affairs shop at the Texas Medical Association. He's the replacement for Yvonne Barton, who's now at Abbott Laboratories.
Press corps moves: The forthcoming shrinkage of The Dallas Morning News will take out a veteran state reporter. Austin Bureau reporter Pete Slover says he's taking the paper's buyout and is looking at options. He's still got an active State Bar card, and might do some lawyering after 20 years of newspapering. The News has said it wants 85 of about 500 news positions emptied by the buyout by September 15. It doesn't appear that other reporters in the paper's Austin bureau will be affected.
Kristi Willis, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, plead guilty to stealing $168,000 from his campaign and was ordered to pay him back and spend 30 days in jail. She's already paid back money taken from former Texas House candidate Andy Brown and the Capitol Area Democratic Woman, as well as some of what she took from Doggett. If she does that, some community service, and four years of probation, the court agreed to remove the conviction from her record.
Deaths: Former state Rep. Jack Vowell, R-El Paso, after a long illness. Vowell was for a long time the Legislature's leading voice on health and human service issues. He attained a rare level of trust with his colleagues: He could (and regularly did) carry the vote on health and human service legislation just by telling his fellow House members that he'd looked it over and all was well. Vowell, who left office in 1994, was 79.