Political blogs are lighting up over GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul walking out of an interview with CNN's Gloria Borger, who was pressing for answers about newsletters published under Paul's name in 1980s and '90s.

See The Week's take on it here.

Apparently, the newsletters contained comments about minorities and others that could, without much effort, be taken as bigoted or at least astoundingly ignorant.

Paul first tries to brush the questions off. It all happened long ago, he's talked about it all before, he didn't write them, he didn't read them and he has disavowed them.

Then Paul does what Paul does. He claims he's being picked on because he's the only virtuous man in Gomorrah and stalks off.

Given that the newsletters offered opinions about people Paul would be governing were he to be elected, questions about them are perfectly legitimate.

Even if they weren't, he needs to face the heat, not run from it, if he wants to be taken seriously.

Few political candidates have escaped questions about things that happened in the past, or never happened at all.

See Obama's birth certificate and religion, Herman Cain's alleged philandering, W. Bush's National Guard service, et. al., Bill Clinton's pot smoking, John Kerry's Vietnam service, etc., etc., etc.

Derek Todd, one of three finalists to be Galveston's next city manager, also is among four finalist for the same job in Holland, Mich., according to local news reports. Read the Holland Sentinel story here.

Galveston's city council plans Monday to interview Todd, a management consultant for the city of Greeley, Colo; Michael Kovacs, assistant city manager for Park City Municipal Corp., Utah; and Kenneth Williams, the city manager for Buda, Texas. The council could hire a new city manager at that meeting.

Read some background here.

Two Colorado State University researchers, who have for 20 years been forecasting in December what the next hurricane season would be like in June, July, August, etc., have apparently called it quits after having been wrong for 20 years.

So says The Ottawa Citizen anyway.

Some of my colleagues are rejoicing because the news means I'll have one less thing to carp and grumble about during Decembers to come.

We got off the December doom train sometime before 2007, according to this editorial I wrote back then. I had many problems with the winter hurricane forecast. One of which was that it came out in December, for goodness sake, a month or so after having just put a hurricane season to rest. Who wants to think about the next one that soon?

Another was that it was useless, or as the university researchers put it had "not shown real-time forecast skill," which is grant application jargon for useless.

We had not reported the December forecast for years. But everybody else did, which meant people would call asking why we hadn't. Some had grand conspiracy theories about how we were suppressing information about the inevitably "active" or "very active" hurricane season that was, what, just six short months away. It was loads of holiday fun.

Island icons Rudy & Paco and The Donut Shoppe, 4917 Broadway, got forks-up reviews last month in the Business and Travel section of USA Today. In fact, Galveston made the lead of the article about places business travelers like to eat.

The plugs came from Greg Newell of Saxotech, a Danish company that makes the excellent media management software we use at The Daily News. Greg is based in Tampa, but his job is to help simple minds comprehend sophisticated programs, so he's on the road a lot and in Galveston now and then.

And talk about synergy: When Greg first came to Galveston back in the summer of 2007 to help us launch the company's media management system, my wife, Laura Elder, included Rudy & Paco and The Donut Shoppe among her recommendations about where Greg, a dedicated foodie, ought to eat. He turned up the next day raving about the red snapper with raspberry chipotle sauce and lump crab meat. She and I tried it that night and it has been among my favorite dishes anywhere ever since; and the Bronco Burrito just speaks for itself.

And since The Daily News covers his expenses while he's in town: Glad you enjoyed it Greg.

What's your favorite Rudy and Paco dish and do you also love The Donut Shoppe?

Let's be honest. At least a few of you will be disappointed to learn the "ZOMBIES ON MAINLAND" warning flashed by a Texas Department of Transportation sign on the causeway this morning was a hoax. But apparently it was, so put the AR15 back in the vault and go to work.


Photo by Marissa Nuttall

While the sign did not indicate the presence of walking dead, it was proof that another type of pop-culture icon — a computer hacker — was at large in the county, according to a 2009 report from Austin.

Meanwhile, NBC news reported a similar hack-job in Houston last month.

Transportation department officials note that messing with their signs is a Class C misdameanor punishable by a $500 fine. And walking dead notwithstanding, pranking around along the freeway at night is a good way to become roadkill.

Then again, these reports could all be the product of a duped media dimwittedly buying the great zombie cover-up, in which case you'll want to visit this site.

And remember: Your best shot is a headshot.

Surfers last night began posting videos to YouTube purporting to show debris from the Flagship Hotel going into the Gulf of Mexico. My story in Wednesday's edition attempts to spell out the controversy.


Crews continute to demolish the Flagship Hotel in Galveston on Tuesday. Some surfers and bystanders said crews knocked glass and construction debris into the Gulf of Mexico. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

Bill Hill, a surfer who runs a real estate office in Galveston, said links to the videos had been sent to attorneys at the Texas General Land Office and that people here were waiting for people there to review the clips.

Moody Gardens apparently has canceled an outing planned for one of the penguins kept at its Aquarium Pyramid along Offatts Bayou.

Last year, a chinstrap penguin named Sweetpea stepped out to put her weather forecasting skills up against those of the legendary Pennsylvania groundhog Punxsutawney Phil.

Moody Gardens had announced a similar event for Wednesday, which is Groundhog Day, but cancelled it Tuesday because the weather was forecast to be too cold and wet.

Some chinstrap penguins hail from Antarctica, where at 2 p.m. Tuesday the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reported the temperature as -20 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service.

Could it be that penguins, like Snowbirds, lose their tolerance for the cold after living down South awhile?