What exactly is in the water flowing through Buffalo Bayou in Houston? Or maybe I need to ask what kind of routines are high-school cheerleaders in Houston doing?

Seems Texas State Representative Al Edwards of Houston has a problem with the routines cheerleaders in Houston are performing. He has introduced a bill in the Texas Legislature that would reduce the funds high schools receive if they allow their cheerleading squads to perform overly suggestive lunges and inside-hitch pyramids. "It's just too sexually oriented, you know, the way they're shaking their behinds and going on, breaking it down," Edwards explained.

An article by Bryan Curtis in Slate Magazine alerted me to this legislation and also provided an interesting history of cheerleading and a look at where it is heading.

While we are talking about new bills, let me remind you about Senate Bill 7 introduced by Senator Walter Boasso. The Times-Picayune, along with other media outlets and the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). The bill itself is nineteen pages while the digest, the part where the legislative workers try to put it into English for us non-lawyer types, is six pages, but the media wants to chop it down to two paragraphs.

Let me take my stab at chopping it down to size since I have read articles and have read Sen. Boasso's first pamphlet about it, as well as heard him speak about it.

First off, the bill only makes one change that affects teachers currently within the system. When they officially retire, they cannot come back to work the next day. They have to wait one year before they can teach within the La. public school system again.

What this does is allow younger teachers the opportunity to move up in the system. A school can only have one math department head. If that person "retires" and then returns to work the next day, that doesn't give any of the other math teachers an opportunity to move into that position.

If you are going to retire, than by all means, retire. Let someone else take your place. That is the idea of retirement. It is not a method of trying to draw two paychecks for the same job.

Now the bill will effect any new teachers hired after June 30, 2005.

• Their employee contribution rate will raise to 8.25% from the current 8%.
• Their retirement compensation will be based off of their highest five years of consecutive employeement (helps prevent milking the system).
• DROP will not be an option (no one can prove at the present time that the DROP program is working). There is 30 years to reinstate it once it can be proven that it works as promised.
• Retirement eligibility rules will increase to age 60 with tens of service.
• Interest rate on contribution refunds will be given out at 3% as opposed to none currently.
• The same one year break between retirement and rejoining the system as existing teachers.

The other facets of the bill regard the makeup of the superboard that will oversee the investment managers chosen to manage the combined funds of TRSL and the La. State Employee Retirement System (LASERS). Currently the bill has university presidents recommending three non-profit and three for-profit corporations experienced in fund management and investments. When mentioned at the briefing given to the St. Bernard Educators Association Monday afternoon, that was one of the biggest complaints that I heard, so I'm sure it will be looked at and possibly revised before it goes to a vote on the Senate floor.

I'm in the process of working with Sen. Boasso to put together a multimedia presentation that will fully explain the reasoning behind the bill and why it is so important to the members of TRSL & LASERS and to the taxpayers of Louisiana.

In the meantime, please download this PDF handout that gives a lot of insight into the bill and will help you understand why it is needed. If you agree that SB7 needs to be passed, I urge to contact not only your state senator, but also your state representative. The bill will need to be agreed upon by both chambers to pass and become law.

Can't go without mentioning the death of Pope John Paul II. The 264th successor to St. Peter, the first Bishop of Rome.

There are countless news articles about how a pope is declared dead and the procedures about how a pope is elected. Here are two lectures by Professor Thomas F. X. Noble, the Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute and Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.

One discusses "How to Elect a Pope" and the other "Papal Elections: Then and Now". They are available free of charge as MP3's or you can read a transcript. Highly recommended reading.