FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM: It's pretty safe to say Fox & Friends didn't make any new friends Wednesday at the Texas Education Agency. The agency put out a statement about noon, trying to clear up "inaccuracies" it said the Fox News show had broadcast that morning. Among them was the idea that Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Independence Day and Veterans Day would be removed from textbooks, the news release said.

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SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS: The grit, oils and chemicals that stream off of parking lots built above the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone are supposed to be captured in man-made basins to stop them from seeping into and contaminating San Antonio's water supply. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't.

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DALLAS MORNING NEWS: State Board of Education members resumed their volatile debate over social studies standards Wednesday as the panel neared its first vote on what Texas students will be taught in U.S. history, government and other classes over the next decade. The board postponed the consideration of several U.S. history proposals expected to divide members, working instead on a long list of amendments to the curriculum standards for other social studies subjects written by teams of teachers and academics.

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DALLAS MORNING NEWS: A Denison man with 35 years of law enforcement experience was named ombudsman Wednesday for the Texas Youth Commission, a job vacant for four months after Gov. Rick Perry's previous appointee was indicted. Perry selected John Moore as the independent watchdog for the rights of children in state custody. Reporting directly to the governor, the post was created by the Legislature after accounts of sexual and physical abuse at the juvenile lockups in 2007.

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DALLAS MORNING NEWS: A legislative hearing suddenly gave way Wednesday to second-guessing of Bill White's fiscal management of Houston, and a swift rebuttal from the Democratic nominee for governor. A longtime critic testified that during White's six years as mayor, Houston masked an operating deficit by issuing hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of pension bonds.

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FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM: The Senate vote Wednesday approving a bill extending numerous tax breaks included a provision important to Texas that continues the deductibility of state sales taxes on income tax returns for another year. The Senate vote was 62-36. Both Republican Texas senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, voted against the bill.

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FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM: A team of university researchers has concluded there's likely a link between a series of small earthquakes at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and an injection well used to get rid of wastewater from natural gas drilling. Chesapeake Energy, which owns the injection well in question, disputed that conclusion.

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HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Mayor Annise Parker cast doubt Wednesday on whether the Metropolitan Transit Authority has the money to pay for two planned light-rail lines that proponents say are critical to the success of the agency's plans. Parker said members of her transition team have “drilled down” into Metro's finances and she now feels comfortable only with the funding plans of three rail lines: the East End, North and Southeast. Construction on those lines is under way.

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HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Mayor Annise Parker raised the possibility of furloughs and layoffs for city employees for the first time Wednesday, saying the city's dire budget outlook will require City Council to consider all available options for closing roughly $110 million in budget gaps during the next two years. The key to the negotiations, Parker indicated, could be the willingness of the city's police, fire and municipal employee unions to offer concessions, such as forgoing salary increases.

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AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: The actual debate over social studies curriculum standards at the State Board of Education on Wednesday could not compete with the sideshow. A gaggle of television cameras, including several from Fox News and its affiliates, jammed into the meeting room to chronicle the Texas Textbook War, as the news network dubbed it.

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AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: Some of the Republicans on the State Board of Education were quite enamored Wednesday with the Fox News crew that showed up at their meeting. At one point, board member David Bradley handed cookies to the Fox crew, ignoring the rest of the folks at the press table. Other conservative board members could hardly contain their excitement that Fox was there.

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AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who during his 2009 campaign pledged to push for a bond election this year on an urban rail system, said Wednesday he no longer supports a November 2010 rail vote because too many important questions remain unanswered. The City Council's six other members quickly took the same position, effectively ending the chance that voters this year will be asked to approve an electric light rail or streetcar system. Leffingwell and other council members, however, said they support the idea of urban passenger rail and left open the possibility that a rail bond election could occur in 2011.

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