Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Again and again we’ve had media firestorms over supposedly revealing incidents that never actually took place. The latest fake scandal fit the usual pattern as an awkwardly phrased remark, lifted out of context and willfully misinterpreted, exploded across the airwaves.

Ross Perot has no intention of discussing presidential politics or entering the election fray. Instead, the two-time candidate for the nation's highest office says he has a peaceful revolution in mind. He wants the American people to rise up to fight the budget deficit.

Across the country, women in their prime earning years, struggling with an unfriendly economy, are retreating from the work force, either permanently or for long stretches.

A handful of state senators heard an earful yesterday from Texas college executives about why the state needs more national research universities. Commonly called Tier One schools, these campuses with large research portfolios receive a significant share of money from out of state to do their work. In turn, that money attracts the investment capital that grows their states' economies.

Three local college presidents made a pitch Wednesday for why their campus should be the next University of Texas at Austin or Texas A&M University.

Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation have sued Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office to prevent the release of records about Texas vehicle crashes.

Lately a few state policymakers have talked about a new round of property tax cuts because of a projected state surplus of $10 billion to $15 billion.

A man with mental retardation was critically injured Saturday when he was sexually assaulted by another resident at the Austin State School, police said Monday afternoon.

If millions of illegal immigrants work in the United States, then there are vast numbers of illegal employers, too.

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy on Thursday highlighted a backlog in naturalization processing as the nation prepared to hold citizenship ceremonies tied to Independence Day.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman said Monday he expects Texas' new business tax to fall about $1 billion short of projected revenues this year, but he said higher-than-expected collections from other taxes mean the state budget will be fine.

Investing just $10 per person - roughly the price of a six-pack of beer and some chips - could greatly fuel community programs that get couch potatoes moving, prevent smoking and improve nutrition, researchers say.

Years of spending more than they earn have left a record number of Americans like Ms. McLeod standing at the financial precipice. They have amassed a mountain of debt that grows ever bigger because of high interest rates and fees.

About 20 percent of small-business owners surveyed said they'll lay off at least one employee to cope with costs of a new state tax, while nearly half said they'll raise prices, according to the National Federation of Independent Business' Texas office.

It's not just the American dollar that's losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn't worth what it used to be.

El Paso County Attorney José Rodríguez said any proposed Texas legislation that would mandate local police to enforce federal immigration law would create the potential for loss of immigrants’ trust and cooperation with local police and prosecutors and thereby destroy local community policing efforts.

The world is beating a path to Finland to find out what made this unostentatious Nordic country top of international education league tables.

I am sick of Congress playing politics with patients. This is not and should not be a partisan political issue. As physicians, we are members of the "party of medicine." We are here to take care of one special interest — our patients.

I miss the Rio Grande. In my mind I see it, and I smell menudo spiced with oregano. I see it and I hear the clop of horses' hoofs outside my grandfather's house in Juárez, feel the beat of a corrido lifting my feet.

A recently surfaced e-mail by a Department of Veterans Affairs psychologist was added Friday to the evidence a federal judge is considering in deciding whether to order a massive overhaul of the agency's health care system.