Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Faster, more frequent Amtrak trains could be running on Texas tracks in just a few years — and someday soon, bullet trains may zoom across the prairie from a Dallas-Fort Worth hub — after President Barack Obama announced a major commitment Thursday to high-speed rail.

Chanting "Gun-free schools" and holding signs bearing slogans such as "Remember Virginia Tech," a group of University of Texas students gathered at the Capitol on Thursday, the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, to protest a proposal by state lawmakers that would allow students to carry concealed handguns on Texas college campuses.

The Texas Workforce Commission has estimated that the fund will drop $839 million below its minimum required level by Oct. 1 because of the large number of Texans receiving unemployment benefits this year.

State Sen. Carlos Uresti and other advocates for children don't believe that Child Protective Services (CPS) and its parent agency, the Department of Family and Protective Services, have the resources they need to handle caseloads that are sure to grow.

The pitched political battles over several recent State Board of Education decisions could lead the Legislature to strip the board of most of its authority to set curriculum standards and choose textbooks for public schools.

State District Judge Scott Jenkins is expected to rule soon on whether Shapleigh should have access to documents that contain information about how and why the commission decided to grant Asarco an air permit to restart its copper smelter in El Paso.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, emerged from the Travis County District Court Monday hopeful his request for confidential Asarco-related documents from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would be granted soon.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound — who serves on Finance, chairs Health and Human Services and carried the bill that was amended to include the money for visits — said she'd wanted to add the money before but was told it wasn't available. “When Sen. Shapleigh spoke so eloquently ... and Sen. Carona spoke so passionately, it did help,” Nelson said. “I think it was kind of a neat sign that we do sometimes change minds around here.”

In a slow-moving session, Texas lawmakers are turning their attention to a wave of electric utility measures that deal with state oversight of the industry and improving consumer protections.

Rather than taking a plane or a limo to the nation's capital for their inauguration, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Washington by train. When he was a senator, Biden commuted regularly on Amtrak for more than three decades from his home in Delaware.

It’s not hard to tell which current legislative bill is the best to help universities like the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas grow into nationally recognized research institutions.

Local students are joining a grass-roots campaign started by state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, to urge Texas lawmakers to increase funding for need-based financial aid.

Outside a Capitol hearing on casinos and other gambling not allowed in Texas, an advocate for legalizing slot machines at horse and dog tracks called a pro-casino lobbyist a "pathological liar."

As a Chinese-American raised in Houston, I was distressed by the insensitive comments made by State Rep. Betty Brown during a recent state House Elections Committee hearing on the Voter ID Bill (Senate Bill 362).

Recent scientific advances have caused tremendous excitement in the burgeoning field of regenerative medicine, which focuses on developing therapies to restore or replace damaged cells and tissues in the human body. Stem-cell research has proved to be one of the most promising areas of research, offering the opportunity to revolutionize medical treatment, drug development and biomedical research.

"In Texas today, the American dream is distant. Texas ranks 43rd in home ownership rate and 50th in homeowner's insurance affordability. We have the highest percentage of uninsured children in the nation, are dead last in the percentage of residents with their high school diploma, and are near last in SAT scores. Texas now has America’s dirtiest air. On the streets, interest rates on payday loans exceed 1,100 percent per annum. If we do not change course, for the first time in our history, the Texas generation of tomorrow will be less prosperous than the generation of today. Our great state needs a change of course."

"The course we're on will result in no new roads in Texas in the very near future," said Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

Senate Democrats blocked action on a major insurance bill Wednesday after Republican sponsors of the measure declined to support several consumer protections, including prior state approval of all rate hikes.

Senate Bill 11 would make threats against a family member of a person being solicited to participate in gang activity a state jail felony, which carries with it a punishment of 180 days to two years in state prison. A $10,000 fine could also be attached.

If the proposal becomes law, Strama said, it would "overcome the two biggest barriers for my wife and me from putting solar on our roof," which are capital costs and willingness to invest in a long-term efficiency improvement.