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Even by legislative committee standards, this one was a mess. A couple hours in, Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, sat slumped in his chair in the Capitol committee room, moaning for an aspirin and suggesting they just throw the matter to the state auditor to figure out. Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, determined that he simply couldn't trust the data being presented to him. And Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, so befuddled by conflicting testimony, turned to a play on a Marvin Gaye song to express his bewilderment: "What's going on out there?" The lawmakers had come to Austin seeking answers after the Texas Youth Commission's independent ombudsman, Will Harrell, last week issued a sky-is-falling report that dozens of abuse and neglect cases appeared to have been closed over the past year without being properly investigated.... [read full story]
