Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

As a way to cut energy use, it could not be simpler. Unscrew a light bulb that uses a lot of electricity and replace it with one that uses much less. While it sounds like a promising idea, it turns out that the long-lasting, swirl-shaped light bulbs known as compact fluorescent lamps are to the nation’s energy problem what vegetables are to its obesity epidemic: a near perfect answer -- if only Americans could be persuaded to swallow them.

Some states may no longer be able to say their pension funds are fully funded no matter how the markets perform. Accounting rule makers have proposed an amendment that would force these governments to provide a more realistic estimate of how much they owe retirees over time.

When Mr. Bailey discovered that Mario was in the country illegally, he wanted to help him. That's when the president of Bailey Family Builders ran into a little-understood roadblock to legal immigration for the millions of Mexicans and others who perform manual-labor jobs in the U.S.: Only 5,000 work visas are available every year for unskilled laborers.

For the past 10 years, the city of Asheville has given free diabetes medicines and supplies to municipal workers who have the disease if they agree to monthly counseling from specially trained pharmacists. The results, city officials say, have been dramatic: Within months of enrolling in the program, almost twice as many have their blood sugar levels under control. In addition, the city’s health plan has saved more than $2,000 in medical costs per patient each year.

Science behind non-drug treatments is getting stronger. And now, some researchers and doctors are looking again at how inconsistent, overly permissive or uncertain child-rearing styles might worsen children's problems, and how certain therapies might help resolve those problems, in combination with drug therapy or without drugs.

Earl Milford is chronically broke because each month, in what he calls ''my ritual,'' he travels 30 miles to Gallup and visits 16 storefront money-lending shops. Mr. Milford, who is 59 and receives a civil service pension and veteran's disability benefits, doles out some $1,500 monthly to the lenders just to cover the interest on what he had intended several years ago to be short-term ''payday loans.''

If you think Dan Patrick has made a lot of noise as a radio talk show host, wait until he gets to the Texas senate—and starts his campaign for governor against his new boss, David Dewhurst.

Minorities in Dallas-Fort Worth are buying homes like never before, but they're more likely than whites to accept higher-interest loans that could lead to foreclosure, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis.

Texas knows a thing or two about being at the bottom of the league. The Lone Star state has a greater percentage of uninsured than any other state at 25 percent. Texas admits twice the number of people to emergency rooms as the rest of the nation. 1 million Texans do not receive adequate care for chronic diseases. About 2,500 uninsured Texans die prematurely.

A day before it was set to go into force, a state judge blocked an ordinance barring landlords from renting apartments to illegal immigrants. Although the controversial measure is on hold, its passage already appears to have had a significant impact in this suburb of 27,000 on Dallas' northern edge.

The 80th Session of the Texas Legislature has begun! Both the City and County have crafted strong agendas, so now we must work together as a community to move issues and initiatives to reality. The Medical School and Ft. Bliss will be our top local priorities.

Legislators will consider thousands of bills on scores of topics in the session that begins Tuesday. But some major issues and themes have already emerged. Here's a preview of several.

The Texas Legislature begins its 80th session Tuesday. Leaders will face numerous urgent issues, but one they must address is health care. This is the least insured state in the country, with 25 percent of Texans lacking health care coverage.

Promoting fear under the guise of law and order, communities have adopted anti-immigrant ordinances throughout the nation. Farmers Branch, a community north of Dallas, was responsible for one of the most recent misguided efforts.

Primary health care in Texas is in a crisis. And if you believe you're not affected, think again. About a quarter of Texans are uninsured, the highest percentage in the nation. And Texas admits twice the number of people to emergency rooms as the rest of the nation.

Texas legislators should weigh illegal immigrants' economic role — and refuse to fall into a culture war. There's little empirical evidence that Hispanics driven here by extraordinary dedication to their families pose any sort of threat to U.S. culture and values.

Texas legislators will start their new terms Tuesday and, over the next five months, make decisions that could affect property tax bills, college tuition, schoolteachers' salaries, the length of prison terms, the fastest route to Dallas and whether some Texans have health insurance. Those issues and dozens of others will receive plenty of attention at the Capitol between now and the end of the legislative session May 28.

In each instance, diabetics contend that they are being blocked by their employers from the near-normal lives their doctors say are possible. But the companies say they are struggling, too, with confusion about whether diabetes is a legitimate disability and with concern about whether it is overly expensive, hazardous and disruptive to accommodate the illness.

That’s why government by the radical right has been an utter failure even on its own terms: the government hasn’t shrunk. Unable to make good on its promises, the G.O.P., like other failed revolutionary movements, tried to maintain its grip by exploiting its position of power.

State leaders and El Paso lawmakers have told the El Paso Times that more than $40 million for the El Paso medical school will be in the state's base budget next year. State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, has pushed for a Medical Center of the Americas in El Paso since 1996.