kimblr.com

Chelsea Clinton made a brief appearance and gave an even briefer speech Friday evening at the State Democratic Convention. She said she was at the convention “to give a big Texas-size ’thank you’ to everyone who worked for my mom.” The majority of her speech was a continuation on the pleas for unity theme.
The first night of the Texas Democratic Convention proper opened with the sounds of smooth jazz and closed with calls for party unity. From the invocation on, it became clear that this was more peace talks than it was a political rally and that the speakers were desperately trying to remind everyone that they were one big happy family.
“It’s not about me, it’s about we,” said Boyd Richie, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.
Richie continually stressed the accomplishments of the party over the last two years and tried to bring the rank and file back into the “Big Tent.”
Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were invited to speak at the convention, although neither attended. However, each camp sent a representative.
Clinton sent her daughter Chelsea who, over the last year and a half, has become a widely used spokeswoman with a specialty on health care. Obama’s campaign sent the governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, to speak.
Kaine is widely speculated to be on Obama’s short list of vice presidential candidates. His home state of Virginia is also viewed as a key swing state for the Democrats’ fall strategy.
In a six-minute speech, Chelsea Clinton relayed a message that many had been expecting for days. “My mom’s going to make a speech tomorrow giving her support to Obama,” she said. She continued on to say on her mother’s behalf that “she wants to make it clear that we are going to unite our party and win in November.”

hcnonline.com

Thousands of dogs will join their owners this Saturday, May 17, for the chance to break a world record and raise money for service dogs.
The Mighty Texas Dog Walk will hold its 10th annual event, with the goal of breaking the Guinness World Record for most dogs walked at once.
The event has won the world record twice, but now they must try to regain their crown from British challengers.
Dogs and their owners will start at the Congress Avenue bridge and make their to the State Capitol building and then along Lady Bird Lake.
The other goal is to raise money for the Texas Hearing and Service Dogs’ Assistance to Military Personnel program, which trains service dogs for those injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The event starts at 10:30, and you can register online or call (512) 891-9090.
To Email is Required. A valid email address is required.
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keyetv.com

"It’s still early," said Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY yesterday. "I mean, everybody is so focused on where we are right now — I guess I remember that, in June of 1992, that’s when Bill really wrapped up the nomination — the middle of June, after the California primary."
Then- Gov. Bill Clinton literally did not secure enough delegates through the primary and caucus process until the California primary, June 2, 1992.
But he had sewn up the nomination long before then.
Months before then.
Moreover, the first real contest that year was on February 18, 1992. (No one competed in the Iowa caucuses since Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was a candidate that year) The first real contest this year, the Iowa caucus, was January 3, 2008. So you’d also expect that race to last later in the calendar — it started more than a month and a half later.
But regardless of that, here are some key dates for that 1992 race that indicate how misleading this argument is.
February 18, 1992 — Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass., wins New Hampshire primary. A scandal-plagued Gov. Bill Clinton comes in second.
February 20, 1992 — San Diego Union-Tribune headline: "Tsongas got most votes, but Clinton says he won".
February 25, 1992 — Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., wins the South Dakota primary.
March 3, 1992 — Clinton wins Georgia. Tsongas wins Maryland. Harkin wins Minnesota and Idaho. Former California governor Jerry Brown wins Colorado. Still all very much up for grabs.
March 5, 1992 — With no money, Kerrey ends his campaign. "We were ready to go full throttle," Kerrey says, "but unfortunately we ran out of gas."
March 7, 1992 — Clinton wins South Carolina.
Harkin announces he will drop out.
March 10, 1992 — Clinton cleans up on Super Tuesday, winning Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas. Tsongas wins Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

blogs.abcnews.com

Get ready for the wedding season. Kicking off the spring-summer bridal wave is first daughter and former party-girl-turned-author Jenna Bush. The first twin is getting married this weekend in Crawford, Texas, at the Bush family ranch.
Miss Bush will wear an Oscar De La Renta gown, a favorite designer of her mother, first lady Laura. It’s rumored that her dress is made of organza, with some embroidery and beading.
For her “house party” of 14 as they say in Texas, designer Lela Rose has made silk crinkle chiffon cocktail-length dresses in a rainbow of colors to match the colors of Texas wildflowers. Each dress is unique in design — some halter, others strapless, all adorned with silk flowers and a sash. Rose, a Texas native, says it’s common to see more color in southern weddings than what you would conventionally see on the East Coast.
However, not all brides have the luxury of getting hitched while their dad is president. But most brides would agree that planning a wedding is time-consuming and overwhelming. What bride doesn’t need at least some help when it comes to looking her very best on her big day?
Even celebrities who are used to being in the spotlight need help with their hair and makeup when it’s their turn to walk down the aisle. Celebrity makeup artist Nicole Williams has worked with performers Mary J. Blige and L’il Kim, who need to look their very best at every hour on stage.

abcnews.go.com

No, it’s not a dance craze. Contago is a condition of supply and demand, essentially a fancy word to say that prices for items, typically commodities, are cheaper now than they would be at some point down the line.
Anything that¿s sold in the futures market can be in a case of contango. Futures are exactly that: a contract to buy an item or asset at a price in the future. This is the case with oil, with traders buying and selling contracts to acquire a barrel of oil in months down the line. When a market is in contango, spot prices, or the price of a commodity if you were to buy it right now, are lower than forward prices.
Why is that important? Well, it usually tells you the supply of a given commodity is plentiful (since, according to Economics 101, a large supply usually leads to cheap prices).
Incidentally, if you think contango is a mouthful, its opposite condition is known by the equally tongue-tying term backwardation.
IRVING, Texas, May 05, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) —-ExxonMobil announced today it is committing more than $100 million to complete development and testing of an improved natural gas treating technology which could make carbon capture and storage more affordable and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The company plans to build a commercial demonstration plant near LaBarge, Wyoming, where it will use ExxonMobil’s Controlled Freeze Zone(TM) technology, known as CFZ(TM). CFZ(TM) is a single-step cryogenic separation process that freezes out and then melts the carbon dioxide and removes other components including hydrogen sulfide, which is found in so-called sour gas. If successful, the process will reduce the cost of carbon dioxide removal from produced natural gas.
“This technology will assist in the development of additional gas resources to meet the world’s growing demand for energy and facilitate the application of carbon capture and storage, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mark Albers, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM).

foxbusiness.com

The system consists of three sequential holding pens and a “Bud box” from which cattle enter a double alley, then move into a single alley. From there, they move on to the single-animal scale and then the squeeze chute. Workers can sort the cattle into multiple pens after they exit the squeeze chute.
The system has center-opening hydraulic gates on both ends of the single-animal scale. That feature reduces labor and stress on animals and workers during weighing because the center-opening gates allow only one animal through at a time. Traditional roll gates take awhile to move across an opening, which occasionally can allow more than one animal through at a time.

cattlenetwork.com

Early voting for the March 4 primaries will begin today at 12 locations across the county, and leaders for both major parties expect a larger-than-normal turnout.
With hype mounting around the presidential nominations, the primaries are expected to bring large crowds to the voting booths, especially on the Democratic side, officials said.
Many expect the tight race between Democratic candidates Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York to fuel high voter turnout for the party’s primary, even in the Republican- ruled county.
And with the Republican nomination all but decided, voter turnout isn’t expected to eclipse record highs that the party was expecting months ago, said Dianne Edmondson, the Denton County Republi­can Party chairwoman.
“It will draw the numbers down a little,” Edmondson said.
“But it’s up to the [local] candidates to get their people out.”
While the Republican presidential race lacks some luster, the local Republican ballot is highlighted with six contested races, including four winner-takes-all races, where the winners will have no opponent in November.
“The primary is very important, because in some of these races there isn’t going to be a general election contest,” Edmondson said.
In local races, no Democrats face opposition in the primary.
Neil Durrance, the Denton County Democratic Party chairman, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Tempted by Texas’ open primaries, some Republicans have contemplated voting in the Democratic primary to help influence the presidential vote, Edmondson said. However, she has discouraged voters from doing that because of the races on the Republican ballot.
“There are still some important races to vote on,” she said.
 DAN X. McGRAW can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is dmcgraw@dentonrc.com .
Today marks the beginning of early voting for the March 4 primary. Here is a list of candidates in the contested races, and the proposed referendums. (I) denotes the incumbent.
State senator, District 63
 Craig Estes (I)
393 District Court judge
 Lee Ann Breading
County commissioner Precinct 1
 Cynthia White (I)
Constable Precinct 2
 Michael Truitt (I)
Constable Precinct 4
 John Hatzenbuhler (I)
Constable Precinct 5
 Ken Jannereth (I)
Referendum 1: Federal, state and local officials should be required to enforce U.S. immigration laws in order to secure our borders.
Referendum 2: The Texas Legislature should make it a priority to protect the integrity of our election process by enacting legislation that requires voters to provide valid photo identification in order to cast a ballot in any and all elections conducted in the state of Texas.
Referendum 3: Every governmental body in Texas should be required to limit any annual increase in its budget and spending to the combined increase of population and inflation unless it first gets voter approval to exceed the allowed annual growth or in the case of an official state of emergency.

dentonrc.com

SAN ANTONIO, Feb 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — TXCO Resources Inc. (Nasdaq:TXCO) today reported record sales volumes and drilling activity for 2007 and updated its current operations. Highlights include:
– A 36 percent increase in combined oil and gas sales from theprior year.
– A record 87 wells begun.
– Nine drilling rigs currently operating.
Net oil and gas sales volumes for 2007 were an estimated 7.97 bcfe, a 36 percent increase from 5.85 bcfe in 2006. Oil sales for the year totaled 974,394 barrels, up 23 percent from 791,425 barrels in the prior year. The Company’s 2007 production mix was 73 percent oil and 27 percent natural gas. For 2007, TXCO spudded or re-entered a record 87 wells, up from 58 wells during 2006.
TXCO Estimated Yearly and Quarterly Sales Volumes* ———————————————————————- % AnnualAnnual%4Q3Q %4Q chg. 2007 2006 chg. 2007 2007 chg. 20064Q07 / 4Q06 ———–=========================================================== Natural Gas / mmcf2,1251,104 +92% 607 652-7% 240 +153% ———————————————————————- Oil /bbls974,394 791,425 +23% 294,809 287,504+3% 203,697 +45% ———————————————————————- ———————————————————————-Natural Gas Equivalent mmcfe 7,9715,852 +36%2,3762,377 -1,462 +63% ———————————————————————- Oil Equivalent boe 1,328,494 975,364 +36% 396,024 396,164 - 243,615 +63% ———————————————————————- *Unaudited mmcf=million cubic feet, bbls=barrels, boe=barrels of oil equivalent ———————————————————————-
TXCO’s sales from the prolific Glen Rose Porosity oil play were 704,891 barrels, or 1,931 bopd, up from 683,285 barrels, or 1,872 bopd, in 2006. Fourth-quarter 2007 Porosity sales totaled 212,762 barrels, or 2,313 bopd, a 20 percent increase from the final quarter of 2006 and 3 percent above third-quarter 2007 results.
Overall fourth-quarter field activity and sales levels declined from the previous quarter, consistent with the Company’s seasonal activity slowdown due to the annual hunting season drilling moratorium on certain Maverick Basin leases.
Currently, TXCO has nine rigs operating, including seven on its core Maverick Basin acreage, one in the East Texas Fort Trinidad Field, and one in Oklahoma.
In the San Miguel oil sands pilot, the Company currently is drilling the second horizontal well as it converts its initial pilot to a Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) process. The SAGD well pair is being drilled in between the existing cyclic steam wells, which will be converted to temperature-monitoring wells. A second 25 mmBtu steam generator is scheduled for delivery this month, doubling steam generation capacity on the pilot.
Drilling will begin shortly on a second oil sands pilot that will utilize the Fracture-Assisted Steamflood Technology (FAST) technique, proven by Conoco in years past. The wells will be drilled on a schedule consistent with expected deliveries of two new 50 mmBtu steam generators in the second quarter.
In the Maverick Basin’s Pearsall gas play, the Company continues to evaluate production from the initial vertical completion of the Glass Ranch B 1-77 (100 percent working interest). Placed on production in late December at 2 mmcfd, through early February the well was flowing at approximately 1.8 mmcfd. TXCO expects to complete its first multi-stage frac, on the Cage 26-2 H (50% WI) horizontal well, shortly. Originally completed in December, the 3,000-foot lateral is currently being cleared of debris left in the wellbore prior to the five-stage fracturing treatment. Earlier this week, TXCO spudded an additional horizontal Pearsall well, the Comanche 34-1H (38% WI), under its revised joint venture agreement with EnCana USA.
Regarding the Glen Rose Porosity oil play, the time frame for the comprehensive reservoir optimization study started by Schlumberger in late 2007 has been extended and is now expected to be completed in April. After reviewing initial study results, Schlumberger has concluded the reservoir is more complex than Schlumberger originally anticipated and will take at least two additional months to develop the simulation programs targeted by their review.
In the East Texas Fort Trinidad Field, drilling has begun on a second horizontal well, the Forrest 3H (100% WI), targeting the Glen Rose B shoal. In January, TXCO completed its first horizontal B shoal well, the Forrest 2H (100% WI), offsetting a 1960s-era vertical well that had produced 8 bcf. The new horizontal well currently is producing 350 mcfd, 47 bcpd and 240 barrels per day of water. The well is expected to produce at progressively higher rates as it recovers the 38,300 barrels of water lost to the reservoir while drilling.
“We enter 2008 with record activity,” said CEO James E. Sigmon. “TXCO is moving ahead with each of our primary growth catalysts - the San Miguel oil sands project, the Pearsall shale gas resource play, the Fort Trinidad gas shoals in East Texas and the Glen Rose Porosity oil zone. We’re confident we will achieve continuing growth in sales, proved reserves and higher shareholder value in 2008 as we move ahead with our record capital program.”
TXCO’s target date to announce 2007 earnings and year-end reserves is March 10, 2008, and it will hold a conference call following the release. Conference call details will be announced later.
About TXCO Resources
TXCO Resources, formerly The Exploration Company, is an independent oil and gas enterprise with interests in the Maverick Basin, the onshore Gulf Coast region and the Marfa Basin of Texas, and the Midcontinent region of western Oklahoma. It has a consistent record of long-term growth in its proved oil and gas reserves, leasehold acreage position, production and cash flow through its established exploration and development programs. TXCO’s business strategy is to build shareholder value by acquiring undeveloped mineral interests and internally developing a multi-year drilling inventory through the use of advanced technologies, such as 3-D seismic and horizontal drilling. It accounts for its oil and gas operations under the successful efforts method of accounting and trades its common stock on Nasdaq’s Global Select Market under the symbol “TXCO.”
Statements in this press release that are not historical, including statements regarding TXCO’s or management’s intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations, representations, projections, estimations, plans or predictions of the future, are forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include those relating to oil and gas prices, capital expenditures, production levels, well test results, drilling plans, including the timing, number and cost of wells to be drilled, projects and expected response, and establishment of reserves. It is important to note that actual results may differ materially from the results predicted in any such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty, including without limitation, the costs of exploring and developing new oil and natural gas reserves, the price for which such reserves can be sold, environmental concerns affecting the drilling of oil and natural gas wells, as well as general market conditions, competition and pricing. More information about potential factors that could affect the Company’s operating and financial results is included in TXCO’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2006, and its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2007. These and all previously filed documents are on file at the Securities and Exchange Commission and can be viewed on TXCO’s Web site at www.txco.com. Copies are available without charge, upon request from the Company.
TXCO Resources, San Antonio Investors: Roberto R. Thomae, 210-496-5300, ext. 214 bthomae@txco.com or Media: Paul Hart, 210-496-5300, ext. 264 pdhart@txco.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008

foxbusiness.com

BIG SPRING, Texas — The mayor of Big Spring, Texas, said four people were hurt in an explosion that rocked an oil refinery Monday morning.
It shook buildings miles away.
A spokesman for the refinery’s owner, Alon USA, said all of the workers have been accounted for.
He said one worker was hurt, but Mayor Russ McEwen put that number at four and said one of the workers was sent to a burn unit.
The company said the fire that was sparked by the blast is under control.
It sent black smoke billowing into the sky and shut down area schools and an interstate highway.
There was no immediate word on what caused the explosion.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

wdsu.com