Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The centerpiece of COMPARE is a policy options "dashboard" that offers both a snapshot and an in-depth look at the implications that various policy changes could have on a range of outcomes like costs to government and others, quality of care, and access to care, as well as the ease with which changes could be implemented.

Legislation to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program was vetoed twice by President George W. Bush in 2007. This time around, supporters are confident that a deal can be struck and the bill passed shortly after President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

Under current law, legal immigrants are generally barred from Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years after they enter the United States. . .Supporters of the bill said it would cover 10 million children, providing benefits for nearly 4 million who are uninsured, while continuing coverage for 6.6 million youngsters already enrolled.

The council added the re-establishment of gaming at Speaking Rock to its legislative agenda and promised to help the tribe in its efforts to become economically autonomous.

Proud parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles looked on in the packed House chamber as Marisa Marquez and Joe Moody lifted their right hands to their hearts and swore to uphold and protect the constitutions of the United States and Texas.

Republican state Rep. Joe Straus of San Antonio received a standing ovation as he took the Texas House speaker's gavel Tuesday after being unanimously elected to lead the chamber, ending six years of leadership by controversial state Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland.

As a symbol of the ties between the two nations, incoming U.S. presidents traditionally meet with Mexico's leader before meeting with other heads of state or government. The meeting between Obama and Calderon, who heads Mexico's conservative National Action Party, was their first opportunity to address the global economic slowdown, drug violence along the border, immigration and trade.

Although Combs also acknowledged that, by coincidence, $9.1 billion will be available in a "rainy day" fund for emergencies by September 2011, she warned lawmakers not to empty the fund, which grows rapidly only when oil prices spike, as they did last summer.

One of Craddick's main goals as a young legislator with few Republican colleagues was to see more members of the GOP elected to the Texas House. Over the years, he raised money for Republican candidates and watched his party's power grow in the Legislature.

Immigration prosecutions have steeply risen over the last five years, while white-collar prosecutions have fallen by 18 percent, weapons prosecutions have dropped by 19 percent, organized crime prosecutions are down by 20 percent and public corruption prosecutions have dropped by 14 percent, according to the Syracuse group’s statistics. Drug prosecutions — the enforcement priority of the Reagan, first Bush and Clinton administrations — have declined by 20 percent since 2003.

When Bill Clinton's health-care proposal was foundering in the summer of 1994, a group of senators suggested that the administration put off trying to get universal coverage and insist instead on insuring all children. The idea was to make, at least, a down payment on reform.

Hit with middle-class concerns about the rising costs of a college education, Texas lawmakers soon will consider legislation that would temporarily freeze tuition at state universities. But higher education leaders are warning the move could blow a hole in their budgets and lower the value of a Texas diploma.

As White prepares this month for a speaking tour in which he will introduce himself to the broader Texas electorate, it remains an open question whether voters in McAllen and Dallas and El Paso will be listening with the same ears as Houstonians. Without the angst of a hurricane as a backdrop, will White's frequent pauses and stutters, interlaced with wonkish policy discussions, resonate the way they do here?

The changes come with the end of Speaker Tom Craddick's three terms of iron-handed leadership in the House. Craddick was known for handling legislation with a no-prisoners approach.

The TYC is investigating the alleged sexual abuse of four youths by other youths in November and December at a facility outside Waco. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, co-chair of the legislative committee that oversees the troubled agency, and his panel colleagues learned that three of the victims had shared rooms with youths with a history of sex offenses.

But with "global warming" a radioactive term in the Texas Legislature, state lawmakers in the coming session are expected to constrain their response to environmental issues to a series of measures that encourage consumers to buy efficient appliances and build more efficient houses.

A threatening Department of Justice letter details civil rights violations across the state's dozen institutions, which care for the mentally disabled and some with physical disabilities. A report from Texas budget officials recommends downsizing the system. And a popular moderate legislator vows to carry their politically sensitive bill.

And with the economy suffering from a meltdown in the housing market that is spreading to Texas, lawmakers are expected to consider a multitude of other measures affecting homeowners – from beefed-up regulation of mortgage brokers to tougher rules against shoddy home construction practices. Climbing electric utility rates also will get some attention.

Inadequate staffing allowed violent teenage patients to assault others, government reports show. State surveyors also cited filth, disrepair and repeated mistakes in delivery of medications.

Already, Hutchison and Perry are sniping, with their camps tangling over issues ranging from leadership skills — neither is impressed with the other's — to hot-button topics. For instance, Perry's campaign doubts Hutchison's anti-abortion bona fides, and Hutchison has disparaged Perry's vision of toll roads crisscrossing Texas. Both issues are likely to be in play this session.