Briefy around Texas

Poultry leader paid $9,000 for Perry, aides to travel to promote waiver request:

AUSTIN (AP) - An East Texas poultry producer, who wants a waiver of federal ethanol mandates, paid more than $9,000 in airfare for Gov. Rick Perry and three aides to attend a June 24 news conference in Washington to promote the waiver, according to newspaper reports.

Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim also donated $25,000 to Perry's political committee about a month after the waiver request was made. Furthermore, Pilgrim donated $25,000 to Texas Comptroller Susan Combs 11 days before Perry filed the waiver request. Perry's letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson was copied to Combs, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reported in Wednesday's editions. The newspaper cited the contributions included in campaign finance reports released Tuesday.

Pilgrim is co-founder of Pilgrim's Pride Corp. of Pittsburg, the nation's largest chicken producer. Pilgrim's aides did not respond to a request for comment.

The newspaper reported Pilgrim met with Perry in March and six days later donated $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association, a group chaired by Perry. The donation, given March 31, also helped pave the way for Pilgrim to address nine Republican governors during a closed-door energy conference in Grapevine to explain his belief that ethanol production is increasing feed costs for poultry and livestock producers.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, who also supported the waiver request, did not report receiving any money from Pilgrim.

Family reaches settlement in pledge's death:

HOUSTON (AP) - The family of a University of Texas student who died of alcohol poisoning after a fraternity bingedrinking party said Tuesday they had reached a $4.2 million settlement of a lawsuit against a fraternity.

The family of Jack Phoummarath sued the Lambda Phi Epsilon national and Austin chapters and some individual members following the 18-year-old's death. His body was found Dec. 10, 2005, in a garage apartment behind the fraternity house.

Part of the proceeds from the settlement were used to create an educational video, titled Enough is Enough, and a scholarship in Phoummarath's memory, family members said.

"Slowly, we're accepting the fact that he's gone. We want to prevent other deaths. That's why we wanted to develop this video," Phoummarath's sister, Marion, said in a story in Tuesday's online edition of the Houston Chronicle.

The video is geared for teens and young adults to educate them on the dangers of hazing and binge drinking. Together with UT officials, the family is establishing an $8,000 to $10,000 annual scholarship in Phoummarath's memory. Scholarship recipients will be required to attend a binge-drinking awareness program.

Houstonians pay tribute to Michael DeBakey:

HOUSTON (AP) - Houstonians who filed past pioneering heart surgeon Michael DeBakey's body, lying in repose in Houston City Hall on Tuesday, said it was a fitting tribute to see him dressed in his familiar uniform: surgical scrubs and cap and white coat.

"I thought that was very neat. It's who he was," said Donna Roth, an attorney and one of the many people who filed past De- Bakey's coffin to say goodbye.

Patients who said they benefited from the cardiovascular surgical techniques he helped create, as well as many of Houston's social and political elite and others who simply wanted to pay their respects filed past his flag-draped coffin.

Officials said it is the first time a Houstonian has been given the honor of lying in repose at City Hall. DeBakey's family reque

DeBakey died of natural causes Friday at the age of 99. His funeral is Wednesday.

Inside City Hall, DeBakey's coffin was flanked by two U.S. Army soldiers as well as a third honor guard who was a member of the medical community. Doctors, surgeons and other hospital staff took turns by the side of De- Bakey's body as an honorary honor guard member. DeBakey served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

In addition to his scrubs and coat, DeBakey also wore his glasses and clasped a small crystal cross in his hands.

DeBakey's family requested he be dressed in his scrubs and white coat, said Kimberlee Barbour, a spokeswoman for Baylor College of Medicine, where DeBakey had a long and storied career.

DeBakey's wife, Katrin, and his daughter Olga greeted visitors who filed past the surgeon's coffin.

Among those who paid their respects was fellow heart surgeon and once longtime rival Denton Cooley.

The falling out between the two men in the 1960s led to one of medicine's best-known rivalries.

Cooley said he was saddened by DeBakey's death and reflected on their once fierce rivalry.

"It had its positive and negative effects. The positive outweighed the negative," he said. "Competition makes for real progress. We were both active competitors."