Top Reads, Feb. 19: Patrick allegedly hires undocumented workers / UT Chancellor buzz / Abbott welcomes Nugent in Denton

The Dallas Morning News interviewed a man who claims to have been knowingly hired by state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, as an undocumented worker for a sports bar that Patrick had owned. Patrick is considered a top candidate for the lieutenant governor’s race.
“State Sen. Dan Patrick, who says Texas leaders must ‘stop the invasion’ from Mexico, went along with a decision to hire at least four unauthorized immigrants as cooks and dishwashers at his sports bar in the mid-1980s, according to a Houston-area man who says he was one of them.”

Gov. Rick Perry is pushing to have Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Kyle Janek take the open spot of University of Texas System Chancellor, anonymous sources have told the Texas Tribune.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, on his campaign trail to become governor of Texas, said on the day he appeared with Ted Nugent that he didn’t know about some of the rocker’s controversial remarks.
“When asked about checking the background of those joining him on the trail, Abbott said: ‘I can’t read everything,’” Paul Weber with the Associated Press reports.