Edwards, Hutchinson: Expect VA announcement soon

In the strongest signal yet that a decision on the future of the Waco Veterans Affairs Hospital could be just days away, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said they have been asked to plan a major announcement that could expand the mission of the embattled hospital.

The VA has been considering plans to downsize, close or improve the hospital since June 2003, and the Texas lawmakers signaled Thursday night that the long wait could be nearing an end.

“I think it’s fair and realistic to say it’s going to be positive,” Edwards told the Tribune-Herald editorial board Thursday.—by Dan Genz, Waco Tribune-Herald

Seeing the seediness, and celebrating it

Ever since the great suburban exodus of the postwar years, American cities have experienced varying degrees of panic about their identities. One result is that more and more cities have taken on many of the qualities of suburbs to survive. Meanwhile, the once-smooth surface of suburbia has cracked open, revealing a dark underbelly that once seemed to be the exclusive realm of the city.



The new Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit is a radical rejoinder to this seismic shift. Housed in an abandoned car dealership on a barren strip of Woodward Avenue, it fits loosely into a decades-long effort to restore energy to an area that was abandoned during the white flight of the 1970s.—by Nicolai Ouroussoff, New York Times

Kudos to Baylor's Daniel Sepulveda

Baylor senior punter Daniel Sepulveda, a Ray Guy Award finalist, was named the special teams player of the year on the coaches’ All-Big 12 football team that was announced Tuesday.

Sepulveda had a school-record 46.48-yard average that ranks first in the country, while the Bears are third in the nation in net punting at 39.01.—from Waco Tribune-Herald

With Downtown Waco on hold, other leaders must take up the torch

City of Waco officials will be looking to find an outside entity to market downtown using city funding, and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce has emerged as a candidate. The chamber plans soon to present a proposal to the city of Waco to take on the downtown marketing contract, president Jim Vaughan said.—by J.B. Smith, Waco Tribune-Herald

Mike Luckovich on Bush Presidential Library

—by Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Half a billion for library?

New York Daily News Washington Bureau Chief says the President hopes to raise $500 million to build his library and a thinnk tank at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Quoting one Bush source: "You can't ask people in Dallas for $20 million until they can be sure the library won't be in Waco."

We'll see.