Val Perkins joins the lobby shop at Gardere Wynne Sewell and will work out of the Houston and Austin offices of the firm, where he'll also continue an administrative law practice. He was most recently with the Coats Rose firm.

After General Motors announced it made $1.3 billion in the second quarter, Ed Whitacre Jr., the San Antonio exec hired to run the company after the government took it over last year, said he plans to leave at the end of the month. Whitacre's the former head of AT&T and of the board of regents at Texas Tech University.

Dallas residential real estate legend Ebby Halliday endorsed Stefani Carter for the Texas House; Carter's the Republican challenging freshman Rep. Carol Kent, in HD-102.

This one slipped by while we were on break: Marina Garcia Marmolejo is President Obama's choice for the federal court seat left open by Samuel Kent's resignation (he quit after pleading guilty to sexually harassing two female assistants). She's from San Antonio and works in the Reid Davis law firm and is a former assistant U.S. attorney.

The president isn't the only out-of-stater dragging the sack in Texas: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, is having a fundraiser at the home of Lisa Luby Ryan and Jay Ryan in Dallas next weekend. It's $100 a head minimum.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Victor Negrón Jr. of San Antonio as judge of the 438th District Court. Negron is an attorney and a former judge.The Guv also appointed Marc Brown of Houston as judge of the 180th District Court. Brown heads the grand jury division of the Harris County District Attorney's office.

Deaths: Monsignor Fred Bomar of Austin, former chaplain of the Texas House and the Texas Senate and more recently, the pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Church. He was 75.