News of Texas women

Southwest U.S. women makes national headlines occasionally. That has been the case with the "polygamist sect cases." On Monday, May 19, the parents of children taken into the custody of the State of Texas will begin to make their cases in a series of court hearings in five Tom Green County (San Angelo) court rooms, according to examiner.com. The parents of the 463 children in foster care will learn how they can regain custody of their children. There is still a great deal of missing information. Results of all the DNA testing, for example are still "two to four weeks away." The article further points out,

So far, 168 mothers and 69 fathers have been identified in court documents, though DNA test results are two to four weeks away.

More than 100 children still have not been matched with mothers . . . the case, which began with a raid on April 3, has been marked by confusion since the beginning.

Child Protective Services has complained that women and children have given different names and lied about ages. The agency has also struggled with identification of children and women because many have similar names, and some of the young women, who don't wear makeup and braid their hair, look much younger than their actual age.

As many as two dozen of the girls held in custody may be adults; authorities are still trying determine their actual ages.

NASA officials to meet today in Houston -- Commander Peggy Whitson was a record-making NASA astronaut now rehabbing after months of weightlessness and a recent very rough Russian Suyoz landing. The flawed landing made by three astronauts last month in Russia has NASA worried. And they have to decide what to do in response to it today. There is to be a news conference no earlier than 3:00 PM Central time to announce next steps with NASA's STS-124 mission to the International Space Station. A mission launch date is expected. An exclusive story in the Orlando Sentinel discusses many of the change possibilities within what will be discussed. It will no-doubtedly be broadcast on NASA-TV. To quote from ITWire:

NASA managers are meeting Monday, May 19, 2008, for a Joint Prgram (JP) Flight Readiness Review (FRR) of the space shuttle Discovery and the STS-124 mission. During the FRR meeting, it is being reported, that the health and status of the Soyuz capsule currently docked at the International Space Station will be discussed.

A FRR meeting consists of all officials directly responsible for preparing a space shuttle for an upcoming STS mission. These people look into all issues and concerns for the mission, in this case STS-124, and conclude whether to stick by the current launch schedule or postpone for one problem or various specific reasons.

. . . The space shuttle Discovery and the crew of STS-124 are currently scheduled to take off on a construction mission to the space station at 5:02 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), on May 31, 2008.

More on mothers and children -- And, of course, my two favorite BLUE bloggers have stayed on the job here in Texas. Bluebloggin's "bosskitty" posts thoroughly and thoughtfully on Appeasement; and also writes in an interesting and compassionate manner about tragedy in Burma and China (includes terrific photographs). In a much lighter vein Bluedaze, TXsharon, always does a roundup of the best blog posts from the Texas Progressive Alliance. Her most recent does not disappoint. To quote:

WhosPlayin notes that along with many more Republicans, Michael Burgess (TX-26) voted AGAINST supporting Mothers Day.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

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