Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Payday lenders, with names such as Fast Cash and Ace Cash Express, usually operate from shopping centers and Web sites. They offer borrowers – often those with troubled credit histories, frequently behind on their bills – instant cash for short periods at rates far above what banks charge. On an annual basis, the interest rate on some payday loans can exceed 900 percent.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh is still waiting for a pile of documents from the state's environmental agency more than a week after a judge ordered the department to relinquish information about proceedings in Asarco's controversial air permit case.

Some of Asarco's harshest critics in El Paso say the $52 million planned to remove contamination in El Paso is not nearly enough.

Eleven Texas Senate Democrats sent a letter Friday April 16, 2009 to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking for clarification about the use of State Fiscal Stabilization Funds in the Senate's version of the budget. The letter specifically asks about the $3.25 billion that should go directly to school districts, but instead was used to supplant the state's general revenue.

Gov. Rick Perry is playing politics behind closed doors this week but the message is clear: He's doing all he can to wrap up religious, conservative voters in his face-off with Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senator who plans to come back and run for governor.

Sen. Eliot Shapleigh says that as a result of the legislation, El Paso can become a state leader in solar energy generation, pointing out that since the early days of the Sun Carnival, his city has been known as “Sun City.”

Compromise legislation sent to the House would give judges discretion to lower the surcharges – which can run as high as $3,000 for a single driving-while-intoxicated conviction – and also bar the state from assessing surcharges against students and the indigent.

Two measures intended to lift more public universities in Texas to national prominence were approved today by the Senate Higher Education Committee. The proposals now go to the full Senate.

Senate Republicans also beat back several other Democratic attempts to tighten regulation of insurance companies, including a proposal that would have required health insurers for the first time to file rate increases with the Texas Department of Insurance.

The Senate gave final passage to Senate Bill 1569, which expands the unemployment program so the state can get $555 million in federal stimulus money. It now heads to the House, where supporters and opponents alike say it is likely to pass.

Because the Republicans refuse to govern, refuse to lead, and refuse to put policy that’s good for Texas ahead of politics that are good for them, this is shaping up to be a dismal legislative session.

In the Senate, Democrats Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso, Wendy Davis of Fort Worth and Rodney Ellis of Houston have also filed bills aimed at protecting Texas consumers from the industry.

"We have 1,200 or so very fragile, medically needy Texans in institutions," said Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, who sits on the Senate Health & Human Services Committee and whose senatorial district includes a state school.

Legendary Sam Houston, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas, fell on his political sword in 1861 rather than secede from the union that Texas had joined in 1845.

An attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said state lawmakers are trying to enact legislation that would allow the Department of Public Safety to deny driver’s licenses to legal residents.

McLeroy, who was nominated chairman by Gov. Rick Perry in 2007, faced searing questioning during his lengthy confirmation hearing Wednesday at the Nominations Committee.

Don McLeroy's controversial leadership as chairman of the State Board of Education could jeopardize his confirmation to keep the job after a rocky reception Wednesday night before the Senate Nominations Committee.

With less than two months left in a session dominated by fights over voter identification bills, insurance and federal stimulus money, supporters of the major abortion-related bills are hoping they can whip their issue back to the forefront.

During the Senate’s budget debate earlier this session, some Democrats questioned whether money they said was earmarked for specific education programs was instead supplanted to the general revenue fund.

In a 19-hour budget debate on Friday, House members voted to increase the CHIP coverage to $1.5 billion in 2010 and $1.8 billion in 2011, said Rep. Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton, who in the 2007 session filed a bill to increase the number of children enrolled in the program.