Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Fixing the scandal-racked Texas Youth Commission could cost state taxpayers as much as $100 million during the next two years, an initial cost tally disclosed Wednesday. The figure is 20 percent of the agency's two-year budget of $500 million.

With a $14.3 billion surplus, what would Jesus do about Frew? Throughout the Bible, from Ecclesiastes to Matthew, it teaches us to defend those who are defenseless. Instead, in an 8-6 vote, 7 Republicans and 1 Democrat voted to rob Peter to pay poorer Paul, all to keep tax cuts tucked away for the wealthy.

The House voted Tuesday to add 100,000 low-income youngsters to the rolls of the Children's Health Insurance Program, a big potential step toward rolling back cuts that have divided lawmakers for years and caused political headaches for Republican leaders.

A Western drought that began in 1999 has continued after the respite of a couple of wet years that now feel like a cruel tease. But this time people in the driest states are not just scanning the skies and hoping for rescue.

A political committee funded by homebuilder Bob Perry contributed $16,000 to help Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht pay his legal bills as the court was preparing to hear arguments in a case against the company.

As a result of the financial problems, the state-backed program created to help residents obtain housing that is safe and affordable in many cases is providing neither.

In two short months, Gov. Rick Perry has gone from proposing that the state sell the lottery to cure cancer and expand health insurance to defending his right to even issue an executive order. He is the incredible shrinking governor.

Thank goodness our criminal justice system officially rejects punishing the children of lawbreakers. This means that Americans should not support policies that harm the children of illegal immigrants. After all, they are children.

Tired of hearing complaints from agencies that they've been backlogged by requests to copy or even just take a quick look at public documents, a state lawmaker wants to charge people extra for multiple and lengthy information requests.

Absolutely the last person the Republican leadership ever wants to hear from is William Wayne Justice, the 87-year-old federal judge who has made a long career of forcing state government to be responsible — at a cost of billions of taxpayer dollars.

A new federal rule intended to keep illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid has instead shut out tens of thousands of United States citizens who have had difficulty complying with requirements to show ... documents proving their citizenship.

As expected Thursday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee started asking questions about a series of deaths at the Lubbock State School. In the hot seat: the commissioner of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services.

A pending lawsuit expected to cost the state millions — perhaps billions — of dollars threatens to prevent lawmakers from spending more on a range of services, the Senate's chief budget-writer said Tuesday.

The Texas Senate has taken an important first step by voting unanimously to overhaul the management of TYC through a conservator, but even that move does not go far enough

A major shake-up is needed within the state agency to counter the unhealthy culture that has developed.

ll of the Legislature's careful preparations to put away billions in surplus funds could blow up when an IOU for as much as $5 billion comes due this year.

Investigators deployed across the state this week will confront hundreds of sexual abuse allegations against guards from every Texas Youth Commission prison, documents released to The Dallas Morning News show

As 71 law enforcement officers fanned out to Texas Youth Commission facilities Tuesday, state leaders started blaming each other for why a sex scandal in the state's youth prisons was allowed to grow unchecked for two years.

Four area mayors accuse Houston Mayor Bill White of overstepping his authority with his plan to reach beyond his city limits to negotiate voluntary reductions in carcinogenic benzene emissions at plants from Texas City to Baytown.

684 ... complaints were logged statewide ... at the agency's 52 Youth Commission lockups, halfway houses and contract residential facilities. The vast majority were investigated but no disciplinary action was listed.