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Sports No. 1 seedGonzaga makes

an early exit fromNCAA tourney 1C

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Some 177 years after a violent divorcefrom Mexico, some unhappy Texansare again touting separation from themotherland, this time after a presi-dential election didn’t favor one ofthe reddest states in the country.

Perhaps it’s no surprise. Texas isthe only state that has twice triedbreakaways, experiencing the spoilsof victory in 1836 but the torment ofdefeat in 1865.

“Let each go her own way,” PeterMorrison, Hardin County’s Republi-can treasurer, wrote in a recent Tea

Party newsletter, calling those whovoted to re-elect President BarackObama “maggots.”Critics considerthat sentiment nothing but bravado.

Still, the state’s Republican lead-ers are in no mood to repair a frac-tured relationship with the federalgovernment.

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, has filed a bill designed tomove $1 billion worth of Texas-owned gold bars from the Federal Re-serve in New York to a Texas BullionDepository.

Gov. Rick Perry quickly expressed

Star-Telegram illustration/Mark HofferState politics

What if Texasreally did secede?By John HenrySpecial to the Star-Telegram

Pros and consPlentiful resources could be the differenceTexas is uniquely positioned to survive because ofresources and population. It has one-fourth of U.S. oilreserves and one-third of the natural gas. The state’sgross domestic product was $1.2 billion in 2011, whichwould make it the world’s 14th-biggest economy.

The challenges would be immenseThe uncertainties are overwhelming: How wouldTexas manage healthcare and Social Security? Howwould it retire its share of the national debt? Howwould it repay federal loan guarantees for infrastructure and transportation projects?

More on SECEDE, 15A

Vote now!Which Peeps diorama is the

sweetest? Votingends Monday

Star-Telegram.com

The construction fence isdown; the heavy equip-ment is gone.

After 2 1⁄2 years of con-struction — and severalyears of planning — workon the George W. BushPresidential Center on theedge of Southern Method-ist University is down tothe finishing touches.

Workers are busy ar-ranging exhibits, begin-ning the last phase of land-scaping and addressingother final details beforethe center, a tribute to the43rd president, is unveiledto an invitation-only audi-ence April 25 and to thegeneral public May 1.

“What was a dream fouryears ago is today a reality,”Mark Langdale, presidentof the George W. BushFoundation, has said.

The reality is a 226,560-square-foot center thathouses a library and a mu-seum, presidential ar-chives, a public policy in-stitute, the Bush founda-tion and a 15-acre park, allhonoring Bush’s two termsin office.

The red brick-and-

At Bush library,history setto unfold7 The center will beunveiled April 25 and willopen to the public May 1.

By Anna M. Tinsleyatinsley@star-telegram.com

More on LIBRARY, 4A

Weeks before Coloradoprison chief Tom Clem-ents was shot to death ex-ecution-style in the door-

way of his home — ashooting now linked to awhite supremacist laterkilled in a North Texasshootout — correctionsofficials shook up thesuspect’s prison gang, the211 Crew.

The Denver Post haslearned that Clements’

Department of Correc-tions staff divided a coregroup of 211 leaders by

transferring some to an-other correctional cen-ter, diluting their num-bers and strength.

“There was a group upthere, and [prison offi-cials] decided to break

them up,” said a correc-tions official who spokeon the condition of ano-

nymity.Now prison officials

and others are investigat-ing whether Clements’

Retaliation eyed as motive in killing of prison director7 Officials had recentlytried to undercut thesuspect’s gang.

By Kirk MitchellThe Denver Post Ebel Clements

Bud KennedyRacist prison gangs are a growing problem. 1B

More on COLORADO, 16A

Democrats’ budget survives ‘vote-a-rama’The Senate votes 50-49 toapprove a blueprint thatwould raise taxes on the richand trim spending. 5A

Fort Worth council setto OK police contractMembers say the deal is fairand modest and won’t significantly affect the general fund budget. 1B

For Bennigan’s, it’stime to begin againNostalgia is building for theIrish-themed casual eatery,which was left for dead in a2008 bankruptcy. 1D

A life in picturesThe Dallas Museum of Art isexamining the work of CindySherman, whose photosconvey depth and mystery. 1E

Inside

Fort Worth, Texas S U N D A Y , M A R C H 2 4 , 2 0 1 3 Star-Telegram.com

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Mwww.star-telegram.com Sunday, March 24, 2013 3D

I’ve had the ThinkTankPhoto Airport Commuterbackpack sitting aroundfor a while. And when I fi-nally got to test it out on atrip, I was thrilled.

I’ve tried a lot of back-packs, which claim theycan hold a lot of gear andnot be a strain on yourback, only to be disap-pointed.

The Airport Commuteris on the other end. I filledit up and it held up as ad-vertised and more.

I loaded it with a pair ofDSLR cameras, 3 lenses, aflash, extra batteries andmemory cards. In addition,I put a 15-inch MacBookpro and an iPad in separatecompartments along withchargers and lots of cablesand accessories.

If I organized it a littlebetter, I’m sure I couldhave added even more.

The harness straps arepadded and adjustable andinclude hardware to attachsmall accessories.

As with most Think-Tank products, a built-inraincoat is included alongwith lots of weatherproof-ing throughout the bag,which includes water-re-sistant material.

A medium-sized tripodor monopod can be at-tached to straps on the sideof the bag.

Other features include acable lock, business cardholder, water bottle pocketand many storage com-partments along with cellfoam dividers, which cre-ate endless possibilities.

According to Think-Tank, the bag is designedto meet “international car-ry-on size requirements,”which I can say I had noproblem with.

www.ThinkTankPhoto-.com, $199.75

For big soundThe X-mini capsule speak-

After a while, you forgetyou’re even wearing thegreat-sounding over-the-ear styled headphones,which pair up in secondsand have a flexible metallicheadband connecting apair of soft padded earcups.

One side has a few con-trol buttons for power, vol-ume, track skipping, pair-ing, an LED light and a mi-crophone for hands-freecalls.

Depending on your vol-ume level, expect about 10hours of play time out ofthe crisp-sounding head-phones or 11 hours of talktime.

www.subjekt.com$99.99

Just the right typeThe FAVI SmartStickWireless keyboard is pock-

et-sized and pairs withBluetooth devices to giveyou a standard keyboard inthe palm of your hand.

It’s designed with hotkeys, a laser pointer andother specific functions forthe Kindle Fire HD andother Android powereddevices, although I con-nected it to an iPad and itworked just fine.

If you’re not a fan of thevirtual keyboard, this is foryou since the backlit lettersand numbers are all whereyou’re used to from a stan-dard keyboard along withshift keys on both sides.

A small touchpad is alsobuilt-into the right side,which includes full mousecontrol, tap to click andscrolling.

www.favientertain-ment.com, $39.99

Carry on with one smart backpack7�Gadgets 7 Choices forbig sound in smallspeakers or sleekheadphones, too.

By Gregg EllmanSpecial to the Star-Telegram

The Airport Commuter backpack Think Tank

FAVI miniwireless keyboardFAVI

X-mini capsule speakers X-mini

SubjektheadphonesSubjekt

ers are one of those “wow”devices I come across nowand then.

Pocket-sized and por-table, as advertised, theyare far from small whenyou crank them up.

Each speaker measuresabout 2 inches in diameterby 1.5 inch high, but ex-pand to 2 inches when youtwist open each speaker.

Unless you use the Blu-etooth, the 3.5 mini audiojack connection cable thatcomes out the bottom of

each speaker is easy to ac-cess and easy to hide whennot in use.

For setup, just connectone speaker to your tablet,smartphone or any deviceplaying your audio, andthen connect a speaker tothe first.

Each speaker is magne-tized on the bottom, so youcan attach them togetherfor easy storage.

They come in many col-ors in three different set-ups; wired mono ($39) or

wired stereo ($59) choices(as tested) or a Bluetoothstereo system ($79).

It’s powered by a built-in rechargeable battery,which has a playback of upto 18 hours. A USB connec-tion is on each speaker forcharging (cable included).

www.x-mini.com

Loud and clearAnother choice for Blu-etooth sound is the futur-istic looking Subjekt PulseHeadphones.

woman said the weeklytravels aren’t affecting thecompany’s performance.

“Regardless of whereour executives are based,their work requires exten-sive travel visiting storesand distribution centers;meeting with current andpotential business part-ners across the U.S., Eu-rope and Asia; as well asexploring new develop-ments for possible expan-sion,” spokeswoman Kris-tin Hays said.

While most of the com-pany’s leaders are based inPlano, “it’s important thatleaders devote their timeand energy on transform-ing the company wherevertheir job responsibilitiesrequire them to be,” shesaid.

“Several of the peoplewho currently travel toPlano from other cities arein the process of setting uppermanent residence hereand are moving to the Dal-las area,” Hays said. “Withall the travel retail leadersdo, it doesn’t always makesense to uproot and relo-cate their families, movethem away from friendsand family to a new city —only to be gone traveling tovisit vendors, stores oroverseas.”

The company declinedto make the commutingexecutives available forcomment.

California FridaysThe merits of telecommut-ing and office face timehave been debated recentlyafter Yahoo CEO MarissaMayer ordered the staff towork in the office.

Being side by side withcolleagues fosters collabo-ration and improves work

“speed and quality,” JackieReses, Yahoo’s executivevice president of peopleand development, said in amemo to employees whenthe change was an-nounced.

The Penney executiveswho live in California oftenspend Fridays working inan office there after de-parting from Texas onThursdays, the sourcessaid.

Penney, with about1,100 locations, has officesin Texas, California andNew York, Hays said.

Remaining in Californiawas part of Johnson’sagreement to lead Penney.

He and his wife haveschool-age children anddecided it didn’t makesense to “uproot the familygiven his travel schedule,”Hays said. Johnson was re-cruited to Penney in 2011by billionaire investor BillAckman, whose PershingSquare Capital Manage-ment is the company’s big-gest shareholder, with an18 percent stake.

Penney’s human re-sources chief, Dan Walker,is also based in California,along with Vice PresidentSissie Twiggs and SeniorVice Presidents of Sourc-ing Amy Leonard and Don-na Isralsky, the sourcessaid.

Walker, Twiggs, Fay,Fisher, Laughrea and Mill-er have all worked at Apple,according to the sources,company announcements,public records and Linke-dIn profiles.

In a list emailed tospokeswomen, Penneydidn’t dispute the namesor the locations fromwhich the executives arecommuting.

DOPEsThe commuting slowssome decision-makingand has contributed to anadversarial relationship

between new executivesand long-standing em-ployees, the sources said.

Three people whoworked in the headquarterssaid the acronym DOPE —short for “dumb oldPenney employees” — hasbeen used in the office torefer to the company’slongtime workers.

Hays said she has neverheard of that term beingused.

“Their claim has nomerit, and it misrepresentsthe level of respect andsupport we provide to oneanother,” she said.

Johnson has cut morethan 20,000 jobs to reducecosts as his turnaroundstruggles to gain traction.Penney employed 159,000people as of January 2012,according to data compiledby Bloomberg.

Customers have beenalienated by marketingmissteps and a failed tran-sition away from sales andcoupons. Penney is bettingthat Johnson’s plan to turn

most stores into collec-tions of boutiques will fuela return to growth by res-onating with core shoppersand new customers.

Former CEO AllenQuestrom, who retiredfrom the retailer in 2004,

said this month that aturnaround won’t workunder Johnson and that thelonger the board waits tofire him, “the worse it’sgoing to get.”

The company saidMarch 12 that Johnson has

no plans to quit or resign.Gross said: “If you’re in

a turnaround, you wanteveryone in the trencheswith you at the same time.There’s no substitute forhaving boots on theground.”

PenneyContinued from 1D

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