Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Increases In Wait Times Are Longer For Those Needing Immediate Care; Women, Blacks, And Hispanics Wait Longer, But Self-Pay Patients Wait No Longer Than Those With Insurance

The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs’ true effectiveness, a new analysis has found.

As many as 27,000 Americans may have died in 2006 because they did not have health insurance, a new study estimates.

As leaders in Washington turn their attention to efforts to avert a looming downturn, many economists suggest that it may already be too late to change the course of the economy over the first half of the year, if not longer.

With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008.

National health spending soared above $2 trillion for the first time in 2006 and has nearly doubled in the last decade, amounting to an average of $7,000 a person, the government reported on Monday.

Organizers of the 1st Annual McCANALenburg Classic Competitive Bike Race and Community Bike Ride say the event was a great success on many levels.

More than 150 people of all ages participated, including some from Monterrey, Mexico. Some were regular cyclists, while others had not ridden a bike for ten years or more.

When top lottery officials last winter announced the introduction of a $50 scratch-off game — the priciest lottery ticket in the nation — they said they hoped to appeal to a particular type of player: The affluent.

As it turns out, the $50 game, called $130 Million Spectacular, has fared best in middle-income neighborhoods, according to six months of sales data analyzed by the San Antonio Express-News.

During election season, sometimes we forget that life is a gift. Here are a few New Year’s resolutions that a friend gave to us.

We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.

One thing that’s striking from this report is that over the 26 years the income estimates span, the only significant gains for the bottom two quintiles, and most of the gains for the middle quintile, took place during the Clinton years. The empirical fact is that over the past generation the only good years for lower and middle income families were when a Democrat was in the White House.

Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes is expected to meet with representatives of the Institute for Creation Research today to discuss, among other things, his suggestion that the group offer a degree in creation studies instead.

Why would anybody support Bushonomics? After all, the public is very unhappy with the state of the economy, for good reason. The “Bush boom,” such as it was, bypassed most Americans — median family income, adjusted for inflation, has stagnated in the Bush years, and so have the real earnings of the typical worker.

He is at the heart of a great culture war in Texas – and the nation, credited with bringing us prosperity and blamed for abusing our resources. How should we deal with this stranger among us?

Some say instant games take particular advantage of the most vulnerable members of society, including the poor and members of minority groups. “Scratch-off tickets are to the lottery what crack is to cocaine,” said State Senator Eliot Shapleigh, a Democrat who represents El Paso.

Although the issue might appear to affect only the El Paso region, the implications run across Texas, contends state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, one of Asarco's fiercest critics.

A faint but refreshing climate change swept Austin this month when Speaker Tom Craddick announced formation of a new committee on Electric Generation Capacity and Environmental Effects.

Fortunately, we here in Texas recognize the enormous sacrifice that our country's servicemembers make every day they put on their uniform. In return, the Texas Legislature has worked hard to ensure that that state provides opportunities for these heroes to achieve the highest level of education that they desire.

The old soldier, so tall and straight that even his shock of white hair seemed to stand at attention, greeted each war-weary veteran and every apprehensive recruit with a firm handshake and his heartfelt thanks for their service and sacrifice.

The mayors of five of Texas' largest cities have a bright idea — compact fluorescent light bulbs — and they launched a campaign Friday to make Texans more aware of the energy-saving device.

Texas is dealing with a backlog of applications for welfare programs, including food stamps, because not enough workers know how to process cases in the state's new social services computer system.