Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The product of nearly three years of work, the new curriculum will affect the teaching of reading, writing and grammar in kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as the content of the state's high-stakes standardized tests. The 15-member board will take another vote on the plan today and then a final vote in May.

Yudof, who served as UT chancellor for six years, formally accepted the job of overseeing California's prestigious 10-campus system today after the board of regents voted unanimously in favor of his appointment. A search committee had recommended Yudof for the post March 20.

Yudof's unanimous appointment was approved by the board of regents a little more than a week after a search committee recommended him to succeed outgoing President Robert Dynes, who plans to leave by June. Dynes' nearly five-year tenure was cut short by revelations that he had secretly approved bonuses and other perks for top university executives.

Texas employers added 13,500 nonfarm jobs in February, according to preliminary data, compared with a monthly average of 17,600 new jobs in the second half of 2007. (Preliminary numbers are subject to revision.)

The plan put forth by TxDOT staff Thursday would set aside about $5 billion for adding new lanes and highways and $12 billion on repairing existing roads and bridges. Previous plans had called for the agency to spend about $17 billion for maintenance and none on local mobility projects.

Twenty-five percent of the state's population, or about 5.5 million people, are insured for a variety of reasons mainly because many people don't get health insurance at work and the cost of buying insurance on their own is prohibitive.

UTEP won approval for increases in the fall 2008 and fall 2009 semesters. The 2008 increase will raise total tuition and fee costs for a student taking 15 credit hours to $3,034 from the $2,884 that student would pay now. In 2009, this will climb by 4.95 percent to $3,184 a semester.

Plans to launch a low-cost health insurance plan aimed at small business workers got a boost Thursday when the Travis County Healthcare District board pledged $1.5 million to help cover thousands of uninsured Central Texans — contingent on others kicking in.

Regardless of how we got here, the clear and present danger that the virus in the housing, mortgage and credit markets is infecting the overall economy is too great to ignore. The Great Depression was worsened because the initial government reaction was wrong-headed. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spent an academic career learning how to avoid repeating those mistakes.

El Paso's economic output is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 3.4 percent in the next 20 years, compared with a national average rate of 2.7 percent a year as projected by Global Insight, a Boston-area economic forecast firm.

The relatives of Texas nursing home residents have discovered there's strength in numbers. Emboldened by a new state law, they've begun to organize more "family councils" at their nursing homes to advocate for better care.

The most important priority is developing the academic vocabulary of students, Shapleigh said, "and to not gather input (from Hispanic experts) at this very important junction puts at risk public education in the state of Texas."

A draft of the curriculum, released Wednesday, includes more than 150 literary works that Texas public school teachers should consider using for their courses. Only four of them reflect the Hispanic culture, a woefully low figure they fear will limit the exposure of the state's 4.7 million schoolchildren to cultural diversity.

Various financial and operational models are emerging. Settles said the new Houston model could be successful because it limits some cost by locating network transmitters on government-owned property. And by focusing on low-income areas, the plan is more politically acceptable and possibly open to future funding — either from government sources or private companies interested in boosting philanthropy.

Kaufman County authorities cite the state's new castle law in explaining why they haven't filed charges against a man who shot a boy walking near his house. But the law was never intended to cover such situations, its author says.

They are particularly concerned about a legal concept, called a "presumption," used in the law by legislators who appear not to have considered its potential consequences. Prosecutors say it could force juries to "presume" it was necessary to kill someone, even when other evidence casts that into serious doubt.

The executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is recommending approval of a Dallas company's license to dispose of radioactive uranium waste in Andrews County.

About half of the state legislatures nationwide are scrambling to plug gaps in their budgets, shot through by rapid declines in corporate and sales tax revenue, distressed housing markets and a national economy on the verge of a recession.

Last week's announcement by the EPA on tougher air quality standards for smog reveals values of very different state leaders who protect very different interests.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh has asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to halt his border fence policy and wait for the next president and Congress to come up with a new “comprehensive solution.”