Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Haggerty and a dozen other GOP lawmakers got tired of Craddick's tactics and eventually turned against the speaker. Haggerty was particularly upset when Craddick's people tried to pressure him on a school finance bill several years ago. Haggerty says they told him he had "no choice" but to go with the speaker. If not, there would be political consequences they reminded him.

Our number one priority for the session is guaranteeing UTEP's participation in Tier One formula funding. Every great southwest city has a great university at the heart of her education and economic development initiatives. Moving UTEP to Tier One will define our region for the next generation as a value added knowledge center. Over the past ten years, UTEP has grown from one to 17 PhD programs and from $3 million to more than $40 million in sponsored research. By matching what an institution produces, our state can put several more universities on the path to Tier One.

Straus is considered an astute pick because he's seen as a fresh face. The 49-year-old was only elected to the House in 2005. An insurance executive, he's pro-business and a fiscal conservative. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility ranked him higher than the average Republican lawmaker, for example, and higher than any other declared speaker candidate.

The biennial announcement from Comptroller Susan Combs — coming as the Legislature convenes for its 140-day session — will tell state budget writers how much money they have to spend on things like public schools, courts and health care services for the 2010-11 spending cycle. And it will show for the first time if Texas shoppers have tightened their belts so much that it put a dent in sales tax revenue.

The fault, however, lies not in Republicans’ stars but in themselves. Forty years ago the G.O.P. decided, in effect, to make itself the party of racial backlash. And everything that has happened in recent years, from the choice of Mr. Bush as the party’s champion, to the Bush administration’s pervasive incompetence, to the party’s shrinking base, is a consequence of that decision.

Members of both parties offered a friendly welcome to Mr. Daschle, the man chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be secretary of health and human services, in charge of a department with 65,000 employees and a budget of more than $700 billion a year.

In an interview with the American-Statesman, Straus said Thursday that there would be a few surprises in his committee assignments, including that some of Speaker Tom Craddick's loyalists could be given positions of influence.

The statement also says Obama plans "to extend a 36 percent interest cap to all Americans" and "require lenders to provide clear and simplified information about loan fees, payments and penalties."

“When it comes to health care, we really are in it together,” Mr. Daschle said, adding that to do nothing — or too little — about the spiraling costs of health care, the growing legions of the uninsured and substandard medical treatment in some areas is simply unacceptable.

Mr. Chertoff said the criminal activity in Mexico, which has caused more than 5,300 deaths in the last year, had long troubled American authorities. But it reached a point last summer, he said, where he ordered specific plans to confront in this country the kind of shootouts and other mayhem that in Mexico have killed members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, often not far from the border.

El Paso State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh said Texas will have a surplus this year, but not as big as many expected and that means some projects may be put on hold.

And now Straus said he intends to run the House by sharing power among Republicans and Democrats, identifying the best jockeys and helping them run the track on issues including health care, education, transportation and water.

On Monday, El Paso lawmakers announced that obtaining funding to catapult UTEP into top-tier status was their top priority for the legislative session that will start Tuesday. During a legislative preview hosted by The Associated Press Managing Editors on Wednesday, Chisum and other lawmakers said a strained economy dimmed the possibilities for increased funding for universities wanting to become national research institutions.

Despite growing discussion about the need for additional public flagship universities in Texas, the prospects for underwriting an effort to lift one or more schools to that level are dim because of what is expected to be a tight state budget, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said Wednesday.

El Paso businessmen Steve Sambrano and Ramiro Guzman, who once moved in the city’s most elite business and political circles, pleaded guilty to public corruption charges in South Texas today on the eve of their trial.

On Monday, more House members joined the Straus bandwagon. By 6.45 p.m., his list of supporters had grown to 99, according to the online newsletter Quorum Report. Austin's KVUE-TV was even reporting that the other two Republican speaker candidates, John Smithee of Amarillo and Dan Gattis of Georgetown, were pulling out of the race.

State Rep. Joe Straus appeared poised to become the next Texas House speaker Monday, a development Tigua tribal leaders said could bode well in their ongoing pursuit to resume gaming at Speaking Rock Casino.

Texans Care for Children's campaign report, released Tuesday, again ranked Texas behind most other states in many child well-being indicators such as infant survival rates, school graduation rates and access to health insurance.

As the 81st Texas Legislature gets ready to start next week, Perry was focused on the Middle East and Hutchison was sending out fundraising letters accusing him of "challenges unanswered, too little trust and consensus, and too much infighting."

Faced with the loss of $100 million from its endowment, Texas Christian University is looking hard for cuts. Already, officials have asked departments to trim 8 to 10 percent of their budgets for next school year and are imposing a hiring freeze.