Thanks to the Houston Press' Richard Connelly and to the Houston Chronicle's Rick Casey, who have written on Texas Watchdog's recent effort to get salary records from the airport authority. The airport has said releasing such records could compromise passengers' security, and they've asked the feds to keep the records in the dark.

The Press's Hair Balls blog post imagines a conversation among would-be terrorists:

Those wily Al-Qaeda plotters: "Look, Yusef, how incredibly overpaid these Houston bureaucrats are. Surely they will be spending their time buying luxury goods, leaving their aviation facilities vulnerable to attack!"

The Chronicle's Casey also calls for openness:

The city of Houston should review its policy. ... Even if the TSA provides legal cover for secrecy, that doesn’t mean local governments should take advantage of it.

Otherwise, given the powers provided to the government under the “Patriot Act,” fear of terrorism will mean that our government gets to know more about us while we get to know less about our government.

And what used to be called the Texas Freedom of Information Act could be resurrected as the Fear of Information Act.