Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

A former state science curriculum director on Wednesday sued the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes.

July 4 is about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the historic document that laid the groundwork for this great nation’s promises of freedoms and unalienable rights. It’s about our nation’s sons and daughters, who throughout our history have given their lives for those freedoms. It’s about others becoming American citizens and having the opportunity to live the American Dream. It’s about our roots.

Since World War II, Americans have always shared a common belief that government is by and for people, and that government has a good and essential role to play in all our lives. Not any more—basic American values are now under attack, and not from the outside, but from within. A leader in the attack on responsible governance, Grover Norquist famously stated "my goal is to cut government in half in twenty five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."

From her home in El Segundo Barrio, wedged between downtown El Paso and the border, Catalina E. Garcia looked out toward the mountains and the big houses hugging the hillsides and dreamed of the day she'd live in a place like that. Catalina, now an anesthesiologist and a leader in women's issues in Dallas for more than 30 years, quickly learned how far she'd have to climb.

An $863 million state project with IBM Corp. to streamline the information technology operations of 27 Texas agencies has been hampered by difficulties getting experienced state workers for the startup effort, state auditors said.

Though quality of life and cost of living are what attract business to Texas now, a panel of mayors from the three largest cities in the state told lawyers at a bar convention here Thursday that what will keep the cities thriving is better education.

Which hospitals bungled their jobs? The state knows, but, by law, you can't find out. In fact, from now on you won't even be able to see such statistics. Since September, the state no longer requires hospitals to own up to their mistakes, even anonymously.

Based on evaluations of nearly 2.6 million students in grades three through 12, the testing found that fitness levels drop with each passing grade – and elementary-age children perform the best.

As El Paso adjusts to the incredible growth at Fort Bliss, area leaders have made a concerted effort to determine how to improve United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities in our region. The information below outlines the current veterans healthcare system in El Paso.

The knee-high, brightly colored footwear worn by Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck of Bhutan and Lyonpo Minjur Dorji, Bhutan's minister of cultural affairs, made the governor's customary cowboy boots look downright dowdy.

Texas' new business tax has brought in $4.2 billion in revenue so far, the state comptroller's office announced today. That's short of the $5.9 billion that the tax is projected to bring in this fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31.

On June 19, 1865, two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect, slaves in Texas learned of their freedom. The day is still celebrated as “Juneteenth.”

The Texas Legislature has repeatedly rejected voucher programs that would use public funds to send children to private schools. Despite those clear statements of legislative intent, the Texas Education Agency seems determined to do exactly that. It has devised a pilot program to entice dropouts to private classrooms.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it intends to approve Texas' latest smog-fighting plan for the Dallas-Fort Worth region. That endorsement comes despite environmentalists' objections that the plan is too weak to protect North Texans from lung-scarring ozone.

Now, almost nine years after his death while serving a 25-year sentence as the infamous Tech rapist, Cole’s name is finally being cleared in what could be the first posthumous exoneration of a Texas prison inmate through DNA testing.

The budget outlook for San Antonio schools is grim all around, but districts on the South Side are feeling the pinch the most.

State-mandated school finance changes, fierce competition for good teachers and soaring gas prices are combining to squeeze public education budgets this summer.

Texans, in a poll on transportation released last week, said they want money for nothing and their toll roads for free. Or words to that effect.

A federal audit sharply criticizes the Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of a $300 million grant program designed to provide sewer service for thousands of people living in remote, makeshift communities along the Texas-Mexico border.

Energy and environmental issues increasingly are intertwined. In Texas, especially, where the skies are polluted and carbon is king, plans for new power generation must give consideration to air-quality standards and expected federal emissions limits.