The Texas State Preservation Board has been asked to take down a plaque at the Capitol that asserts that slavery was not the underlying cause of the Civil War. More in the article below. State Representative Eric Johnson, D-Dallas, who also supports the removal, says that "I am confident that it will come down soon." He is probably right because, guess what? House Speaker Straus is a member of the Governing Board of the (supposedly) impartial State Preservation Board, an obvious conflict of interest. The proper thing for Speaker Straus to do is to recuse himself from any vote on the matter.