The National Transportation safety Board (NTSB) today urged the Federal Aviation Administration to immediately ban a landing procedure used by Southwest Airlines pilots in a landing accident that killed a 6-year-old boy at Chicago Midway Airport last year.  

The NTSB investigation into that flight accident found that the pilots used an on-board laptop performance computer to calculate expected landing performance.  Info entered into the computer included expected landing runway, wind speed and direction, airplane gross weight at toughdown and reported runway braking actions.  The computer calculated the stopping margin at between 30 and 560 feet.

Both calculations were made on the assumption engine thrust reversers were deployed at touchdown.  However, flight records show they were no deployed until 18-seconds after touchdown.  At that point there was less than 1000 feet of usable runway.

The FAA does permit thrust reverser credit for calculating en-route operational landing distances for some transport category aircraft like the 737-700, but not the 737-300 series.  If the thrust reverser credit had not been allowed for the Southwest Flight the comuter would have indicated a safe landing was not possible.N

Pump prices pushed upward as last week's decreases proved to be short lived, according to the AAA Texas' Weekend Gas Watch.

The statewide average price for a gallon of regular self serve is $2.280 a gallon — up a penny since last week. Dallas has the highest average on the list at $2.303 a gallon — up a penny. Corpus Christi has the lowest average at $2.173 — about the same as last week.  Fort Worth stands at $2.294 which is a long way from last years September high of $3. 

"Retail gasoline prices have moved higher against a backdrop of increased crude oil prices," said Rose Rougeau, spokesperson for AAA Texas. "A year ago, crude oil traded at $49 a barrel and gas prices averaged $1.792 — 49 cents lower than the current average of $2.283. This week, crude hovers around $66 a barrel."

Did you know that selling information about cell phone use is illegal in Texas? Well, it is.  However that hasn't stopped some Web sites from offering to sell just such information.  Now, the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, is going after them.

Most such Web sites will charge from $50 to $200 for records for the past 30-days.  These records are often of interest to businesses and suspicous spouces or even parents fearful of what their children are doing.  Many of the sites represent that such purchases are legal.  The AG says they are not legal.

To halt the business practices and to prevent the further spread of these Web sites, the Attorney General’s investigation demands information from several dozen pirate Web companies illegally claiming to have access to private cell phone records for a price. The results of the investigation will determine what legal action may be warranted.

Attorney General Abbott’s investigation will also focus on liabilities against those who conduct transactions that open consumers to possible dangers, including possible victims whose information may have fallen into the wrong hands. Some cell phone users, for example, may seek anonymity because they are protecting themselves from an abusive ex-spouse or a person stalking them. There are also concerns about the release of phone records of officers’ who work undercover.

To prevent such abuses, Attorney General Abbott urges consumers to contact their cell phone companies to find out if any party has requested their cell phone records. Otherwise, consumers may have no way of knowing if their privacy has been breached. Consumers may also request a unique password-protected account through their cell phone companies to prevent others from accessing these records.

By Trey Garrison

It's out nationally and with a local spin for the state of Texas - a report on the "widening income gap" between the rich and poor, in which Texas is the worst offender behind New York.

The study comes from a well-meaning but admittedly progressive think tank, and it's a clarion call for the sort of social remedies those folks often advocate. The study blames a number of factors, including "long periods of high unemployment, globalization, the loss of manufacturing jobs and the expansion of low-wage service jobs."

But I'm not so sure. Not about any of this.

For starters, let's look at what a "widening income gap" is. I'm going to use simple, round numbers for my illustration because, well, I'm not that bright when it comes to math, but I can cipher out the basic stuff.

You got Mr. Smith making $20,000.

You got Ms. Jones making $200,000.

That's a starting income gap of - wait, let me use a calculator - $180,000.

Let's say that both of their salaries grow by 10 percent over the course of a year.

So Mr. Smith is now making $22,000. And Ms. Jones is making $220,000.

Both are doing demonstrably better. But now the income gap is $198,000.

The gap has widened dramatically, even as they both experienced growth in salary. So gap growth isn't exactly a bad thing.

But of course, the study found that people on the top end of average earnings had incomes that grew at a faster percentage rate than people in the middle and on the low end. They found that, adjusted for inflation, over the last 20 years:

• Incomes of the poorest 20 percent of families nationally grew by an average of $2,660, or 19 percent
• Incomes of families in the middle fifth percentile saw their incomes rise 28 percent, or $10,218
• Incomes of the richest fifth of families grew by $45,100, or nearly 59 percent

So everyone is doing better, on average, even if at different rates.

This is bad news?

And I guess I'm not surprised that the rich get richer quicker, because unless they're particularly thick-headed, rich people will keep doing the kind of things that got them rich in the first place. (Not that the people in the top 20 percent in the first year are necessarily the same people in the top 20 percent two decades later - income mobility says otherwise - but we're talking averages.)

In the end, is income equality something we should be striving for at all? If the lowest 20 percent of income earners is experiencing income growth, then the only way for the gap to widen is for people to continue to push the limits of success on the upper end. That's a bad thing? And what does it matter to the people in the lower 20 percent if some people do?

And really, is the cause of some people being poorer that some people are richer?

I ran a marathon last year. Didn't do that great - insert stardard injury excuse here - but I finished. I don't think my performance was impeded by the way the elite runners ran it. I don't think I'd do better if they were forced to start later, or wear leg weights. If anything, I'll do better next year if I work some of their training techniques into my running. This may or may not have anything to do with the income gap study - I just like mentioning that I ran a marathon.

DallasBlog would like to welcome David McNabb as its High School sports Blogger.  For 40 years David had played in and written about high school sports in the Lone Star State.  He has written for the Dallas News, Dave Campbell's Texas Football, and a variety of other publications and may be the stat's top expert on high school sports.  So whatever your sport or school stay in touch with David McNabb.  We are darn proud to have him. (Today McNabb talks about great HS Football coaches who made it big, and those on their way)

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My good friend Glenn Hunter at the Dallas Business Journal reports that The Donald may be looking at Dallas for a new project called Trump Tower Dallas. Trump was cagey on details, but we can rest assured that whatever the project is - should it materialize - it will be marked by the same quiet taste and dignity that is the New York developer's signature.

The daily is reporting the none-too-surprising news that almost half the Dallas City Council may (or may not) consider challenging Mayor Laura Miller in 2007. Sorry but this is about as surprising as finding that your U.S. senator would one day like to be president.

Paul BremerThe cities of Dallas and Fort Worth may have their differences over some things but more and more they are doing things together.  Today, for example, the Dallas Council on World Affairs and the Fort Worth Council on World Affairs will become the World Affairs Council of Dallas and Fort Worth.  In the future most speakers coming to the Council will address gatherings in both Fort Worth and Dallas.  Today, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, former administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, will speak in both Dallas at a Noon luncheon at the Fairmount Hotel and this evening at TCU in Fort Worth.

The Council, which has offices in both Dallas and Fort Worth, has long been widely recognized as one of the region’s most important civic causes. Last year, in fact, the Dallas Council was honored as the finest mid-sized council in the U.S. by the World Affairs Councils of America. Having grown by almost 1,000% in the past four years, the council now has more than 1,500 members and a staff of 13.

In addition to presenting programs, the Council manages the Dallas and Fort Worth Councils for International Visitors, which are sponsored by the Department of State. The Council also takes education directly into public and private schools, providing highly praised educational programs that in the past year alone instructed more than 15,000 North Texas students in world affairs.

The non-profit, nonpartisan Council was established in 1951 in Dallas and in 1961 in Fort Worth to educate citizens on crucial issues of international affairs and foreign policy.  To learn about upcoming programs and obtain membership information go to www.dfwworld.org

Strayhorn relies on Democratic contributions to fuel her campaign as an Independent candidate for Governor.

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Chris BellIt appears that Democrat Chris Bell thinks the people of Texas are opposed to vouchers and wants everyone to know up front where he stands. 

"Let me say right up front that I oppose vouchers. I’ve always opposed vouchers and I will always oppose vouchers. Texas won’t have the best public schools in the country if we’re raiding their funding to send kids to private schools." 

Of course, it may be he wants Texas teachers to know that Carole Strayhorn has taken big money from pro-voucher advocates while opposing vouchers to gain an endorsement from the Texas State Teachers Association. Without teachers Democratic campaigns are a non-starter but that group recently endorsed Strayhorn giving her a huge boost on the way to November.  Bell to teachers:  You cannot trust Carole but you can trust me.