Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The memorandum obtained by NPT contains a list of suggested bid specifications drawn up by Jaime Rubinstein on Jan. 24, the date of an executive session of the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso board. One of Rubinstein's bid specs states flatly that Aliviane's program "will be the only approach considered."

I’ve been visiting some of the people who have been most affected by the subprime mortgage debacle. It’s a largely bewildered, frightened group that includes people like Dorothy Levey, a 79-year-old widow who sits alone inside the small house she has lived in for 41 years, afraid to answer the telephone or the door.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has joined border mayors and lawmakers in the push to get an enhanced driver’s license pilot program started to ease congestion at land ports on the Texas-Mexico border.

A Thanksgiving prayer from Indiana children's author Samuel F. Pugh.

Today, El Paso is at a crossroads. Whether ASARCO reopens will define our community for the next generation. We will brand ourselves either as a polluted city dependent on 19th century industry, or a clean city on the move in a 21st century economy.

AAA Auto Club predicted 38.7 million Americans would make Thanksgiving pilgrimages of 50 miles or more during the holiday period — including 31.2 million who will drive to their destinations.

Situated between mountain ranges and undergoing steady growth, Ciudad Juarez suffers a long-standing air pollution problem. Commercial trucks, city buses, personal automobiles, brick kilns, and unpaved roads all contribute to the degradation of the air shed.

In 1985, nearly 2,000 University of Texas students marched from the Austin campus to the Capitol steps, shouting and waving signs in protest. All because tuition was set to soar – from $4 to $12 per credit hour. The higher price translates to $280 for a full semester in today's dollars. And today's undergraduates? They pay about $4,000 for that same semester.

It's a commentary on the wisdom of the expenditure that the state refused to budget its own border security dollars on what is largely a symbolic political stunt.

Incarcerated teenagers in the Texas Youth Commission system are getting pepper-sprayed by guards when they refuse to follow routine orders and while on suicide watch, not just when they pose a threat, a Travis County court was told Monday.

The state auditor found cronyism in the awarding of lucrative consulting contracts by the Texas Education Agency but said there was insufficient evidence to present to a prosecutor.

There is recent news that the tuition deregulation law is about to dig even deeper into thousands of family budgets. The law, enacted in 2003 to help offset cuts in higher education appropriations, was demanded by House Speaker Tom Craddick, who forced Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and the Senate to accept it in late-session deliberations over the state budget.

State officials claimed to be caught by surprise by the TYC scandal last winter. If the delays in reforming the agency lead to more problems, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

Just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents.

Here’s an amazing fact—not one Texas city reaches the national average in people with health insurance. Not a single one—not Dallas, Houston or even Austin. Why is that?

Texas high school graduates are far less prepared for college-level courses than their counterparts across the nation – with nearly half of college freshmen in Texas needing remediation – according to a state panel appointed by Gov. Rick Perry.

While the traditional economic outlook is bleak, the green economy is taking shape, bringing with it the promise of well-paying manufacturing jobs; of management and sales opportunities with huge growth potential and lots of niche positions for enterprising students and job seekers looking for alternative careers.

At one level, what Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney are doing here is engaging in time-honored scare tactics. For generations, conservatives have denounced every attempt to ensure that Americans receive needed health care, from Medicare to S-chip, as “socialized medicine.”

Now that the children's hospital bond initiative has been approved by El Paso voters, the work will begin on making it a reality. "We want to exceed El Pasoans' expectations for Thomason and the children's hospital," Thomason CEO Jim Valenti said.

Well, he may have been prepared for defeat, but, the Boys of Company E had no choice. They too knew that to attempt the crossing was suicidal, but they were brave, they were Chicanos and, yes, they loved their United States of America enough to sacrifice their lives.