Reflections on today's news

• Jon and Kate Gosselin rank at the very top of the list of people I'm tired of reading about, right above the Carrie Prejean. They clutter the news space that should be devoted to more important items. When will their 15 minutes be over? I have never seen their television show. I don't care to ever see their TV show. I'm not the least bit curious about their TV show or their twins or their sextuplets. Just get them out of here.
• I know the world's focus is on the protests in Iran, but what's really scaring me, especially since the news in Iran is keeping it off the radar screens, is what North Korea is up to.
• I'm expecting the relationship between the city of Dallas and DART to cool a little bit today when the DART staff makes its recommendations to its board of directors on a second downtown light rail line. The city favors the proposal designated as "B4B," because it would serve the proposed convention center hotel. However, I'm hoping and actually predicting the staff will recommend "B4" because it is the most cost-effective of the four proposed and is far enough south that it is out of the way of the other downtown lines.
• One of China's finest directors, Zhang Yimou, apparently plans to film a remake of an American classic and one of my all-time favorite movies. Although he has directed such marvelous films as Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qui Ju and House of Flying Daggers, the director may be remembered the most as the person who designed the opening and closing ceremonies of last year's Olympics in Beijing. According to the report, Zang plans to call his remake of the Coen Brothers classic San Qiang Pai An Jing Qi, which roughly translates as The Stunning Case of the Three Gun Shots.
• Why would Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt, a persistent critic of the city's plan to build a convention center hotel, vote in favor of a proposal to sell the bonds needed to build the dang thing? She explains it all here, but I for those who want the Reader's Digest version, she says it's because (1) the people voted for the hotel and (2) new procedures are in place to protect taxpayers.
• According to this report, Texas "needs to address the severe lack of physicians, registered nurses, and other providers in order to enhance access to medical care throughout its population." So what does Gov. Hair do to address this problem? Just what you would expect from this buffoon: He vetoes HB 3485, thus preventing hospitals in rural counties with less than 50,000 residents from hiring doctors. Today 114 of the 254 counties in the state are medically underserved, including 27 in West Texas that do not have even a single physician.
• Of course, we might not have the worst nut case in our governor's mansion. In fact, the race is probably not even close.