  I review sum rule determinations of |V_us| employing hadronic tau decay data,
taking into account recent HFAG updates of exclusive tau branching fractions
and paying special attention to the impact of the slow convergence of the
relevant integrated D=2 OPE series and the potential role of contributions of
as-yet-unmeasured higher multiplicity modes to the strange inclusive spectral
distribution. In addition to conventional flavor-breaking sum rule
determinations, information obtainable from mixed tau-electroproduction sum
rules having much reduced OPE uncertainties, and from sum rules based on the
inclusive strange decay distribution alone, is also considered. Earlier
discrepancies with the expectations of 3-family unitarity are found to be
reduced, both the switch to D=2 OPE treatments favored by self-consistency
tests and the increase in the strange branching fractions playing a role in
this reduction.
