Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Many of Bush's Republican allies were pointedly silent Monday as the president and Paulson tried to avert a larger financial meltdown. Democrats, on the other hand, pressed their advantage, arguing that the administration is more responsive to a crisis that hits Wall Street than one that hits Main Street.

Enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program increased over last month by some 24,000 youngsters, to about 382,000 – the highest level in three years.

Gov. Rick Perry called the tightened federal air quality standards announced Wednesday an arbitrary "moving target" that stand to especially punish Texas and its economy.

Texas insurers were virtually untouched by the slowing economy in 2007 as they recorded one of their most profitable years of the decade, prompting new calls for tougher state action on homeowner rates.

The goal of keeping more kids in school and bringing more dropouts back to school to get a diploma is a laudable and necessary one. Designing ways to do that clearly is not easy. Still, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it.

What does Almand think the United States should do? He said it should shift out of its military role in Iraq and begin an urgent diplomatic role. It should redeploy troops out. It should call on the international community to assist Iraq. Redeploying would force the country, and its military, to find its own footing and defend against internal threats.

Democracy works best when we can imagine a better tomorrow. Well imagine this -- a beautiful riverside park, right on the Rio Grande, nestled in the Pass of the North, on the very spot where Asarco is today.

Monday the high court will again hear arguments regarding how we treat accused criminals in the Lone Star State. This time the focus isn't on death row, but on an earlier stage of the justice system.

Doctors who charge an annual fee to patients in exchange for customized care including house calls are drawing the ire of some health insurance companies. United Healthcare confirmed it is dropping four local doctors from its network in April because the company disapproves of their so-called "concierge medicine" model.

Jeff Plowman, co-founder of Austin Biofuels and treasurer of the Biodiesel Coalition of Texas, said the group is in "shock and disarray" over the TxLED rule. Skyrocketing costs for common feedstocks like soybean and cottonseed oil have also impacted the industry causing at least three of Texas' 10 plants to halt production, shrinking supplies. And Plowman stressed that the federal government didn't direct the TCEQ to include biodiesel in its diesel regulations.

The State Board of Education may be just weeks away from approving a new English and language arts curriculum. Board member Mary Helen Berlanga says proposed curriculum doesn't address helping non-English-speaking students and African-American students.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency tightened the nationwide limit on ozone, or smog, Wednesday, but the decision pleased neither medical experts who wanted stronger action nor industry officials who wanted no change.

Some companies are paying workers to lose weight. Memorial Hermann Healthcare System was among the first. It runs a program dubbed Leaner Weigh that pays $10 for every pound that enrolled employees take off and keep off.

Too many Texans live in a fractured healthcare system that excludes them and that they can't afford. And today, the Texas counties on the U.S.-Mexico border represent the most challenged health care system in the United States.

A lawsuit over an Amazon fishing trip, which was canceled in 2006, should be a fish tale and not a political whopper, Speaker Tom Craddick and Austin lobbyist Bill Messer are arguing in a court document.

Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn should follow the lead of presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain and denounce the anti-Catholic remarks made by San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, the communications director for the Texas Democratic Party said Tuesday.

Now that 4.2 million of us have voted in the all-eyes-on-Texas primaries, what did we learn about our state? The data pouring in from the March 4 contests is about as rich as we've seen since the 1994 Ann Richards-George W. Bush governor's race, when Texas politics started tilting Republican. Hidden amid all of last week's numbers is a narrative about who we are – and who we are becoming.

Texas' strong economy and record-low unemployment last year prompted more dollars than needed to flow into the unemployment compensation trust fund, Perry said in a Monday statement, "which is why I'm directing the state to bring that tax to a screeching halt for this year."

The plan includes broad priorities of better preparing students for college and the work force by encouraging them to take college courses while in high school, helping students prone to dropping out and redesigning troubled high schools. It does not explicitly address vouchers but includes language that suggests they could be on the table.

To date, nearly 900 private schools in Texas are accredited through various agencies. The exact number of unincorporated private schools is unknown. A Houston Chronicle analysis of National Center for Education Statistics and state data identified around 600, with nearly 300 in the Houston area. But Jimmy Ames, coordinator for the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission, which oversees approved accrediting agencies in the state, said he believes any list is incomplete.