Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

It's intriguing how a spotlight can change a politician's perspective. Or in the case of the special session just past, a whole bunch of politicians' perspectives.

A high-profile proposal to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program divided lawmakers this spring before fizzling out at the last moment and reignited sore feelings when it didn't make Gov. Rick Perry's agenda for the just-wrapped special session.

Being a celebrity has its perks, but it sure can be exhausting. "I'm kind of really tired right now," 18-year-old Socorro High School baseball player Marcus Molina said as he sat in the Capitol hall waiting for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to arrive for the team's last photo op of the day.

The danger of a special session for a governor is that he won’t get what he wants, and in failing to get it, will open himself to charges of failed leadership. That is why Perry planned to limit the session to the Sunset Safety Net bill that will continue the existence of TxDOT, the Department of Insurance, the Racing Commission, and other agencies, and to authorizing $2 billion in highway construction bonds that had previously been approved by the voters.

Today, the Socorro Bulldogs take a bite out of the State Capitol! Here is a piece by Toni Ramirez, class of 2004, now in Medical School at Brown University on what it means to have Bulldog Pride.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh urged Gov. Rick Perry to include the Children’s Health Insurance Program bill on Thursday’s special legislative session agenda.

Texas has adopted a law intended to ensure that so-called orphan trusts, which are left under the stewardship of lawyers or banks after their founders have died, continue to comply with the founders’ wishes.

Among the recent research grants awarded by the National Cancer Institute is one for a study asking whether people who are especially responsive to good-tasting food have the most difficulty staying on a diet. Another study will assess a Web-based program that encourages families to choose more healthful foods.

Gov. Rick Perry put his finger on an inconvenient truth, hidden in the middle of his proclamation calling lawmakers into special legislative session beginning today. The passage in question (emphasis added):

Health insurance for all U.S. children would be a bargain, study finds

The swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus that burst into public consciousness a month ago is starting to behave like a mixture of its infamous, pandemic-causing predecessors.

TWO TRILLION dollars in health-care savings, as hailed by President Obama in the White House yesterday, would be nothing to sneeze at. It was encouraging to hear pledges of cooperation on that front from groups that in the past have fought against health-care reform, and against each other. But we wouldn't take the savings to the bank just yet, and we hope Mr. Obama won't, either.

NO ONE will be astonished to hear that health care costs more in Indiana than in India. However, a few might be surprised to learn that Americans spend more than twice as much per person on health care as Swedes do. And many may be shocked to be told that in Miami people pay twice as much as in Minnesota, even for far worse care.

The mountain labored, and brought forth a mouse. Last week the administration confronted the budget of the U.S. government in the "line by line" review long promised by President Obama -- and found theoretical savings almost invisible to the naked eye

Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the former Special Operations chief who is President Obama's new choice to lead the war in Afghanistan, rose to military prominence because of his single-minded success in a narrow but critical mission: manhunting.

When the federal government started dangling billions of stimulus dollars for education in front of states, many snapped up the money right away.

State legislators head back to the Texas Capitol today after a one-month absence to wrap up unfinished business.

At the 2001 children's Medicaid expansion bill-signing ceremony in San Antonio, Gov. Rick Perry praised the new law that made it easier for poor children to enroll in and stay eligible for Medicaid. The governor was quoted by Cindy Tumiel in the San Antonio Express-News as saying, "There is no child among us that is not deserving of the finest care available."

Iraq celebrated the withdrawal of American troops from its cities with parades, fireworks and a national holiday on Tuesday as the prime minister trumpeted the country’s sovereignty from American occupation to a wary public.

Socorro High School's state championship baseball team will spend two days in Austin this week. Bulldog players are scheduled to meet top state officials, take a VIP tour of the Statehouse and maybe even have time to relax.