Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The region's legislative delegation should recognize the local impact and work furiously to find revenue for the rail fund. Sen. John Carona of Dallas has one firm proposal – a bill (SB 383) to dedicate $200 million a year using the current tax on vehicles sales and rentals. There may be other legitimate ways of attacking the problem, but lawmakers shouldn't let this session end without settling on one.

As early as May, Waste Control Specialists, a politically connected company that owns a waste dump near Andrews, about 30 miles north of Odessa, will receive the first shipments of toxic Hudson River sediment from upstate New York.

By the time Finland's children complete the ninth grade, they speak three languages. They have studied algebra, geometry and statistics since the first grade. And they beat the pants off students from just about everywhere else in the world.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Monday voided controversial air quality permits that Asarco fought for years to obtain, officially ending the company's bid to restart its copper smelter in El Paso.

Mexico’s government is under the glare of stage lights in different national and international venues for allegedly allowing the systematic violation of human rights. The administration of President Felipe Calderon faces a test Tuesday, February 10, when the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council will submit Mexico to a three-hour exam and possibly assign voluntary make-up work.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, visited Sageland Elementary School on Friday to share with students the five-year, community-driven project "Invest in the American Dream," which will introduce new curriculum to teach financial literacy.

Hospital administrators told KFOX, diabetic patients at the hospital were being injected with insulin improperly. A medical injection pen was being used on more than one patient. Even though the needle was changed with each patient, there are fears the insulin reservoir may have contained diseases from past patients, which has sparked the fear of contamination.

Of the city's 230,000 children, he said, 120,000 are enrolled in either Medicaid or CHIP. The other 110,000 children are either high income, middle income with insurance, undocumented immigrants or eligible children who are not enrolled in those programs.

Texas officials are working on a plan to respond to a potential collapse of the Mexican government and the specter of thousands fleeing north in fear for their lives after recent reports indicated the country could be on the verge of chaos.

"If there's any risk Perry would reject that money, we want responsible lawmakers to take it, allocate it and use it for Texas," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

President Barack Obama has inspired a new generation of HOPE. His energy and progressive ideals have motivated and mobilized young people to get involved in their community. His history of community organizing has inspired the masses to stand up, speak up and get involved in something they believe in.

The House gave final approval on Wednesday to a bill extending health insurance to millions of low-income children, and President Obama signed it this afternoon, in the first of what he hopes will be many steps to guarantee coverage for all Americans.

The roughly $800 billion stimulus package moving through Congress could create as many as 286,000 jobs in Texas, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the White House.

The implications are huge, because typically joblessness doesn't peak until two years after a recession's end. Our state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund will probably run a deficit because our leaders have refused to implement some key reforms.

Beaumont Army Medical Center is contacting 2,114 diabetes patients who have been treated at the hospital since August 2007 because they may be at risk for developing a blood-borne disease such as hepatitis or HIV.

This week the Asarco copper company announced it was giving up plans to re-open a plant in El Paso—even after the state environmental agency handed them a permit. That plant had been the subject of angry protests by small businesses, organized students and the city of El Paso, which spent over a million dollars fighting the plant in court.

Lawmakers are considering a broad range of proposals, from creating an ombudsman to monitor state schools, to capping the number of residents to closing some state schools and putting more money into community services.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday told Asarco and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that the renewed permit the state gave the smelter probably would not be valid under the Clean Air Act because of the length of time the plant has been closed and the lack of maintenance the plant has received.

“I am very excited by the news that the Asarco smelter is going to be closed. It gives us an opportunity to move forward with state-of-the-art, cleaner jobs,” Moody told the Guardian. He described the 112-year-old smelter as an “anachronism.”

Regardless of his feelings about the stimulus, Perry should request funding if the package is passed by Congress, signed by the president and becomes law. The governor's office has indicated that if the Senate passes the stimulus measure, Perry will seek money for the state.