Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Congressional Democrats moved the ball forward on healthcare reform Tuesday, introducing a $1 trillion bill in the House as a key Senate panel inched closer to a deal.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has appointed a legal advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as its new president and general counsel.

President Obama came to this economically struggling state Tuesday with a sobering message about its vanishing jobs and a promise of renewal through a new federal investment in community colleges.

As many as 82,000 unemployed Texans won't receive an immediate 13-week extension of benefits as they expected because of federal rules and state computer problems, the Texas Workforce Commission said Tuesday.

President Obama is stepping up efforts to maintain public support for his agenda as rising unemployment presents him with the biggest test of his political strength since taking office.

Clinic outreach workers for Thomason Hospital Women's Health Center have been touring the area's closed Planned Parenthood offices in a large white RV since the longtime women's health service called it quits in El Paso on June 30.

The math is alarming for anyone with a debit card.

The new Paul L. Foster School of Medicine is at the forefront of a shift in medical education.

City and school officials say they are ready for about 3,400 soldiers in a new infantry brigade recently created at Fort Bliss.

Biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen F. Austin? Not fit reading material for children in the early grades.

Americans, unlike people in other industrialized nations, are uncomfortable with the concept of social class. We like to believe we live in a land of equal opportunity.

In an article published on May 22, “Report blames 2 insurers for rise in health rates,” the Chronicle reported on a study by Health Care for America Now that blamed two insurance carriers for increases in health insurance rates. A closer look at the facts reveals why this conclusion is both flawed and misleading.

Count ours among the swelling chorus of voices rising in objection to state education policy-makers' recent decision to remove health curriculum from the list of requirements to graduate from high school in Texas.

VISITORS to Governor Rick Perry’s vast office in the Texas capitol building in Austin (with a dome a mite taller, naturally, than the one in Washington, DC) are sometimes offered a viewing of a triumphalist video. Entitled “The Texaplex”, the seven-minute film is a hymn to the successes Texas has achieved in recent years, and they look pretty impressive.

Texas has major catching-up to do in the race against other states for federal money to advance intercity passenger rail projects, including high-speed rail. Austin needs to make a robust application that highlights something we know in Texas but that may be lost elsewhere: This is a heavily urbanized state with some of the nation's most congested stretches of interstate.

About 100 soldiers sit rigidly in their chairs, contemplating life after the military. They are fresh off tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they survived roadside bombs and dodged sniper fire.

When you hit the highway for that midsummer get-away, you can learn a lot about the other drivers barreling down the road

Today's joint announcement on high-speed rail from here to Denver is an historic moment. I applaud Governors Richardson, Perry, and Ritter in making this happen. Here in El Paso, we will make every effort to join Congressman Silvestre Reyes, Mayor John Cook, and the Governors of the three states to push this critical project and specifically to include the Salmayuca line in the Federal Railroad administration study. Our main goal should be a 21st century Camino Real that strengthens economic ties in this 400 year old corridor that has been the lifeline for trade for so long.

Randy Brinson, a conservative political consultant in Alabama, has been fielding anxious calls for weeks from business interests across the South.

Groups attacking Texas' environmental policies have gained an important ally: the Obama administration.

Shucking off years of arms-length relations with Texas' anti-pollution activists, the Environmental Protection Agency has reached out to organizations that have challenged state permits and practices.