The new deputy executive director at the Teacher Retirement System is Brian Guthrie, until recently the number two guy in Gov. Rick Perry's office of budget, planning and policy. That came on a 5-4 vote, with some teacher groups nervous about the Guv's influence at the retirement fund for educators.

The Texas Observer has a new editor: Bob Moser, a writer and editor for The Nation and former editor of the Independent Weekly, will take over next month. He's the replacement for Jake Bernstein, who left for a reporting job with New York-based Pro Publica.

Bob Strauser is retiring from Baker Botts, but not from lobbying. He's opening a legislative consulting shop of his own. Strauser says he'll share offices with former Sen. Buster Brown starting next month.

The latest escapee from the Pink Building is Royce Poinsett, general counsel to House Speaker Tom Craddick. He's going to the McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore law firm, joining their lobby practice.

David Dunn is the founding executive director of the Texas Charter School Association. He's got a lot of history in Texas, but was most recently chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Anne Dunkelberg of the Center for Public Policy Priorities won this year's distinguished public service award from the alumni association at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs. She's a 1988 grad.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, is getting this year's National Distinguished Advocacy Award from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. That national group picks one state lawmaker for the award every year.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed former Houston Oiler Matthew Cody Carlson of Austin to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Physical Fitness. Carlson is now a private investor.

Perry named Bob Barnes of Granbury (formerly of Odessa, where he ran for state office) to the board of the Texas Mutual Insurance Co. Barnes has a real estate and management company and is a former CEO of Schlotzsky's Ltd.

He named three to the State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners: Dr. James Michael Lunsford of Katy; Dr. Joe Martin Jr., a podiatrist with the Scott and White Clinic of College Station; and James Michael Miller of Aledo, a retired Fort Worth police supervisor.

Speaker Craddick reappointed Kathleen Hartnett White to the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan Advisory Board. She's a former Texas Commissioner on Environmental Quality who now works at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based think tank.

Deaths: U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders of Dallas, a one-time U.S. Senate candidate and three-term Texas state representative who presided over long and contentious lawsuits desegregating the Dallas public schools and overhauling state schools for mentally disabled Texans. He was 83.