Magazine Editor Takes Day Off Work: Either Tim is enjoying spring break with his family or this is happening. Either way, he’s not here today, and I owe some people some favors, so I’m in charge of Leading Off today. I could take this opportunity to repay some of the really wonderful compliments Tim has given me over the last couple months, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll tell you what I think Tim would think of the day’s news. (For example: Tim would be pretty skeptical about some of my choices in this first item. He would say he isn’t sure “this bit has legs” and he would find grammatical errors.)
Justice Department Blocks Texas Law on Photo ID for Voting: Even though the state’s own data showed that Hispanic voters were 46.5 percent to 120 percent more likely to lack such identification than were non-Hispanics, Rick Perry argued that there was “no valid reason” for rejecting the law. Either way, the new measure isn’t likely to have a big impact on the May elections. (Tim would probably think this is a good thing, since he thinks registered voters should be able to vote.)
Gingrich Might Ask Perry to Run as Vice President: There’s virtually no chance Newt Gingrich will get the Republican nomination, and both camps deny the rumors anyway, but for the possibility of Zac bringing back his Perry posts alone, I really hope this happens. (Tim would agree that more of the Perry comics would be good for web traffic, but then he would make a crack about Zac not being able to handle all the compliments those posts get him. Secretly, Tim just wishes Zac would ask him for input before the posts went up every now and again, because he (Tim) feels like he’s got some really good ideas for where to take the Perry thing, but he’s never had a good chance to mention those ideas to Zac, and he doesn’t want it to be awkward or anything. So, yeah…)
Pollution in the Air Is Killing People: On the other side of the paywall, the DMN has a story about how microscopic bits of soot, chemicals, and pulverized dust common in the air around North Texas lead to more strokes and heart attacks. (Tim might say something here about the folks at A.H. Belo expecting consumers to pay to read about how pollution is bad for our health, or about how this seems kind of obvious — too obvious for the amount of attention the paper gave it, perhaps. But then he’d admit that the research is kind of alarming.)
Police Report Describes AA Flight Attendant as “Combative”: There isn’t much we hadn’t heard already in the recently released police reports stemming from an incident on Friday in which an American Airlines flight attendant took to the public-address system with some alarming ramblings about the plane crashing. (Tim would point out that this is a sad, bizarre story of someone not taking proper medication. He would also point out that during the struggle to get the flight attendant off the plane, she apparently kicked one of the other flight attendants in the abdomen so hard that she (the woman kicked) had to go to the hospital for her injuries.)
