logging a 10% victory over McCain in George W. Bush’s home state of Texas.

The results of the Weekly Reader Presidential Election Poll are in, and Barack Obama won the poll of US K-12 students. One interesting tidbit is that Obama won the great state of Texas by a ten percent margin over McCain, which may point to a profound political shift here in the years to come.

Science blog Effect Measure asks the important question, “Why would any sane person put a Level 4 biodefense lab in Galveston?” Fortunately for us all, the lab is still under construction and not operational – so we don’t have to worry about an Ebola outbreak during the Ike cleanup – but certainly millions of dollars have been wasted. One would think Homeland Security and the UT System could find a drier and less populated location in Texas. I’ll nominate Lubbock.

In other Ike-related news, the Galveston County Sherrif’s department decided not to evacuate the county jail, although it was expected that the entire island would be covered by Ike’s storm surge. Considering the outcry after New Orleans prisoners died in their cells after Katrina, this is a pretty brazen decision. But the Lone Star State has never been known for its compassion toward prisoners.