AEW Capital Management LP had qualified as one of the 68 firms that could be tapped for making future real estate investments for the $22 billion Permanent School Fund.

But on Friday, the board plucked AEW from the list and approved only 67 eligible firms.

“As a public fund, we needed someone who could be a little bit more accurate,” said Board Member David Bradley, chairman of the Permanent School Fund committee.

“At a minimum, it was sloppy,” Bradley said. “At the worst, it was intentional.”

Disclosure forms submitted as part of AEW’s application indicated the firm had given gifts to Agosto and Nunez gifts, including football tickets, golf games and meals. Agosto and Nunez disputed that they had received the gifts; AEW subsequently amended its gift report.

Several board members abstained from the AEW vote, including Geraldine Miller. Her family’s company, Henry S. Miller Realty Services LLC, has a direct business relationship with AEW, according to a document submitted to the Texas Education Agency.

Shapiro, R-Plano, said she will run for reelection to her Texas Senate post she has held since 1993.

“I will adjust my U.S. Senate campaign based on the future resignation decision of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison,” Shapiro said in a statement. “On July 15, 2008, I became the first candidate in Texas to announce for the U.S. Senate. I knew it would be a long road.

“Sixteen months later, I am very pleased with the statewide team of supporters we have assembled and to have raised over a million dollars. We are excited and ready for 2012 or sooner.”

Hutchison has announced she will not seek reelection in 2012, should she not resign first to run in the GOP gubernatorial primary against incumbent Rick Perry.

Shapiro, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said she will file for reelection to Senate District 8 reelection on the first day of candidate filing, Dec. 3.

Earlier, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — who had expressed an interest in running for U.S. Senate, announced he will also seek reelection to his current job. With Dewhurst staying put, at least for now, Attorney General Greg Abbott has put on hold his plans to run for lieutenant governor.

Before being elected to the Texas Senate in 1992, Shapiro was a public school teacher and owner of a small advertising company.

But as we reported in today’s paper, he’s not Muslim — he’s Quaker.

Here’s some more information on his religious background, according to campaign spokesman Jason Stanford: Shami had a Muslim mother and father, a Catholic stepmother and a Jewish step-grandmother.

“He went to American Quaker schools in Palestine and identifies now as a Quaker,” Stanford said.

When asked whether he ever identified with another faith, Stanford said: “It’s not a big issue with him. I really think his religion is the American Dream.”

Maria Arredondo was among the attendees who is also one of Shami’s employees. Arredondo, a production supervisor, said it was optional for employees to attend and that she wanted to go to support her boss.

Houston resident Doris Cleveland said she’d heard about Shami through a friend who is helping with the campaign. And Anne Gillis, a member of the advisory committee for the Montgomery County Democratic Party (that’s the county where Shami, a resident of The Woodlands, lives), said she was familiar with Shami in part because she uses one of his products: a BioSilk hair de-frizzer.

Cleveland was among several attendees who said that if a candidate with a name like Barack Obama can be elected president, a candidate with the name Farouk Shami has a shot at being governor of Texas.

The video below shows the scene and features supporter Naser Alzer talking about how Shami might overcome his challenges.

In a red-carpeted white tent where his employees and friends were served popcorn and cotton candy, Shami said he’s an example of the American dream and that he is inspired by President Barack Obama.

Obama “did not let his strange name or unconventional upbringing stand in his way,” said Shami, who was interrupted at times with chants of “Farouk! Farouk! Farouk!”

Shami said that as governor, he would bring jobs to Texas, encourage organic farming and ranching, improve public schools, and help more Texans have access to health insurance.

Shami told the ethnically diverse crowd his life story: The immigrant born in what was then Palestine arrived in the United States with $71 and went on to become a U.S. citizen and the founder of a company that he said is now worth more than $1 billion. His company, Farouk Systems, makes CHI flat irons and hair dryers and BioSilk shampoos and conditioners.

He has said he’ll spend $10 million of his own money in the Democratic primary.

Robert Lee Thompson was set to die at 6 p.m. Prison officials said final preparations were underway.

The decision came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused Thompson’s final appeals, and a day after the state Board of Parsons of Paroles voted 5-2 to recommend that Perry commute Thompson’s sentence to life.

In a statement, Perry rejected that advice:

“After reviewing all of the facts in the case of … Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, I have decided to uphold the jury’s capital murder conviction and capital punishment for this heinous crime.

“There is no reason to set aside the capital murder conviction handed down by a Texas jury and upheld by numerous state and federal courts,” Perry said.

The case had marked the second time in two years that the parole board had recommended a commutation for a murderer who was convicted under Texas’ controversial law of parties, which allows accomplices to face the death penalty even if they did not actually kill.

Thompson, 34, was convicted of being an accomplice when the store clerk, 29, was gunned down. Thompson’s partner in crime, Sammy Butler, was sentenced to life in prison.

UPDATE: Baker said Hutchison will use the ad to discuss “how she’s fighting for Texas now in her efforts to defeat the goernment takeover of health care.”

These will be the first spots of the 2010 Republican primary for governor.

In the wake of her announcement that she will not resign her Senate seat before the March primary, Hutchison has placed robocalls to primary voters this week and launched a radio advertising campaign.

“How we as Texans treat the mansion sets a standard and sends a signal across our state regarding the inherent value of historic landmarks and preservation of our history,” said Mandy Dealey, society president. “The proposed addition would negatively impact the iconic and symbolic frontal view of the mansion.”

Dealey Herndon, project manager for the mansion restoration, called the group’s opposition regrettable but said she could not comment further until she sees an expected letter outlining the society’s position.

The addition is envisioned for the north side of the mansion, adding about 2,000 square feet of living space largely devoted to private quarters for the first family. Though final designs have not been completed, an enclosed walkway would connect the addition to the mansion.

The addition is sorely needed to address a shortage of living, office and storage space, Herndon said. A private fundraising campaign, which by last month had taken in more than $3.5 million, would pay for the addition.

Join the Statesman’s Gardner Selby and Jason Embry, and KUT 90.5 FM’s Ian Crawford in the Texas Political Parlor this week.

Perry’s campaign was quick to find fault.

The ad says, “She wrote the Texas sales tax deduction saving families $500 a year.” The sales-tax deduction (an effort to help states that don’t have state income taxes and thus can’t deduct those from their federal income taxes) was something that Hutchison worked on and advocated for years. She wrote a bill in 2003 to deduct sales taxes and worked on the issue with Texas Republicans in the U.S. House, who got it into legislation that was signed into law in 2004.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner notes that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid authored an amendment earlier this year to make the deduction permanent. Hutchison had a similar plan but put it aside to support Reid’s.

The legislation that Miner references has not made it into law. But the exemption that Hutchison pushed for has been law for several years.

The always-clever Jason Stanford will be handling press for Shami. Stanford managed Chris Bell’s campaign for governor in 2006 — a campaign that gave us lines such as, “Rick Perry couldn’t lead a silent prayer” and the “Bell on Wheels” bus tour.

Joel Coon will be Shami’s campaign manager. Coon managed the 2008 campaign of U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, who won a Mississippi seat in the U.S. House that was previously held by Republicans.

Walker said through White’s campaign that his wife, Susan, “and I have been long-time Democrats. Whenever we feel there is a chance to elect someone who shares our values we lend our support.”

Walker continued:

We met Bill White in Washington D.C. during Obama’s inauguration. We talked on various topics and decided that if he ran we would help. Texas needs good, honorable people in Congress. We also need good Democrats. Bill White is both.

Walker fans should forget about swaggering in on the concert because the gathering was limited to 50 people, White spokeswoman Katy Bacon said. An invitation posted here states that it costs $500, at minimum, to attend. The show’s hosts include Roy Spence, one of the founders of advertising giant GSD&M.

Kelly Fero, an adviser to Democratic U.S. Senate aspirant John Sharp, doesn’t sound like he’ll be eavesdropping. Fero said: “Jerry Jeff is an interesting choice for a campaign that keeps trying to persuade folks that their candidate represents the future.”

Otherwise Friday, White plans to attend a coffee at IBM in Austin before doing a noon interview with Evan Smith, ceo and editor in chief of The Texas Tribune, on the University of Texas campus; fetch details here.

White also plans to attend a 3 p.m meet-and-greet open to the public hosted by state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, at the Nuevo Leon restaurant on East Sixth Street.

In kindergarten: none. In grade 1: none. In U.S. government: none.

“You are truly not looking at the entire history of this state and accurately reflecting individuals who should be included,” Chavez told the State Board of Education. “Your government section has none, as if we don’t exist.”

In total, there are only 16 Latinos among the more than 160 historical figures who must be taught, she said, yet Latinos represent over 40 percent of the state’s population.

“This is no longer just about Cesar Chavez. This is about an entire community,” Norma Chavez said.

But Board Member Pat Hardy, a former social studies teacher herself, said aiming for a certain number of Latinos in the standards to mirror the size of the population would be arbitrary and not necessarily historically accurate.

“I contend that that is revisionist,” Hardy said.

Chavez retorted that the historical revisionism is on the other side by “neglecting the true reflection of our great state.”

Take a listen here:

Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder said the call was sent to Republican primary voters.

The lingering effects were evident Tuesday when the committee that oversees the school fund approved a pool of 68 qualified real estate investment managers, including the firm that claimed it provided gifts of meals, football tickets, golf games and more to Rick Agosto, D-San Antonio, and Rene Nunez, D-El Paso.

Committee Chairman David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said the gift reports from AEW Capital Management were “grossly inaccurate” and he offered an apology to Agosto and Nunez because the disclosure had cast them in a bad light.

“We can’t fix stupid,” Bradley said.