Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

A higher number of mentally retarded residents died in state care in the past year and a half than previously disclosed, state officials said Tuesday.

Gov. Rick Perry's appointed special master to investigate the troubled Texas Youth Commission said Monday he's not authorized to order changes but is acting as a vocal advocate to overhaul the agency. "I ain't got no statutory anything," Kimbrough said.

Just before Rep. Brian McCall publicly stabbed at history last month by trying to unseat the speaker of the Texas House, the Plano Republican quietly plowed gubernatorial history to earn a doctorate in humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Gov. Rick Perry may have gotten only 39 percent of the vote in last year's election, but it was enough to win — and push to expand the power of his office and dare either the Legislature or state courts to do anything about it.

When teenager Ashley Lozano was taken from her home by Child Protective Services, little did she and her mother know what would be in store: eight caseworkers, more than 10 placement, three judges, a half-dozen attorneys and lots of heavy-duty medications.

The executive director of the Texas Youth Commission abruptly announced his retirement Friday after coming under intense criticism for his handling of a sexual abuse scandal at a West Texas juvenile prison.

Now Texas children will benefit from highly qualified teachers who lack opportunity in their home country, Mexico.

If executive orders are Perry's attempt to increase his appeal as a candidate for higher office, he and his brain trust should stop and reconsider.

Conditions at a former Texas prison being used to detain immigrant families are "anti-family and un-American," and violate national detention standards and congressional guidelines, according to a report being released today by two national advocacy organizations.

Those who rape, molest and abuse children are unquestionably despicable. They prey on the most vulnerable in our society and scar victims and their families forever, physically, emotionally and psychologically. But the death penalty isn't the right way to go.

State lawmakers are pushing bills to deal with bad dogs and their owners more harshly and to crack down on people who sell animals by the roadside.

City officials and lawmakers are fighting to keep the NBC series from being picked off by New Mexico and Louisiana.

Two months after federal investigators described grim conditions at the Lubbock State School, advocates for people with disabilities are calling on lawmakers to close it.

We've heard some doozies coming out of the Texas Capitol over the years, but a comment made last week by state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, is a top contender for the Miriam "Ma" Ferguson Rhetoric Award.

Once, good government meant just that. Government that worked for people. Government where professionals delivered valuable services for valuable tax dollars. As Thomas Jefferson once stated: "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

Lawmakers in the past four years have spent about every dime they could find, but the current House proposal leaves $8.5 billion unspent. Lawmakers can add that money to the budget later or, more likely, save it to cover already-approved property tax cuts in 2009.

The power of the question. Alison Brock, chief of staff to Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, made the initial inquiries alerting folks in the Texas Capitol to reports of sexual abuse of youths in a West Texas facility. "I felt an urgency, a duty," she said.

Eliot Shapleigh asked the Senate Health and Human Services Committee to investigate 17 deaths at the Lubbock State School in the last 18 months and follow up on a December 2006 report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Support for higher education is an investment and one with an amazing rate of return for our state. I'd like to share with you five facts about the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M.

The HPV vaccine, which has been available since June, is suddenly big news because Gov. Rick Perry is mandating it for girls entering the sixth grade in 2008. Learn more about the virus, what it can do and how a new vaccine can help stop it.