Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Expectant mothers who don't control their diabetes face an increased risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Their babies have a higher chance of being born with birth defects.

On the back of 9/11, Rudy Giuliani refashioned himself as a national hero, a top presidential candidate—and, through his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, became a very wealthy man. But the questionable backgrounds of some of the firm’s clients make one wonder what Rudy wouldn’t do to make a buck.

Opponents of the permit, including El Paso city officials and state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, have long argued that allowing Asarco to restart smelter operations in El Paso would pose a serious health risk to residents in El Paso, Juárez and Sunland Park in Doña Ana County.

Tax season is back. First, income taxes and now property taxes. How do you feel when your appraisal goes up 70%, but your paycheck stays the same? We’ll, let’s talk about what to do.

The two men were sentenced to life in prison. Twelve years later, they were exonerated by DNA evidence and were among the first of a parade of people who have made Texas the national leader in acknowledging wrongful convictions. Their shocking tale still reverberates around the state Capitol, where legislators keep passing laws to fix flaws that the case revealed in the criminal justice system.

A consultant hired by the city is recommending a 14-mile light-rail system for Central Austin, not streetcars as proposed by Capital Metro. The system would run from the airport to downtown, through the University of Texas and east to the emerging Mueller development.

The TB program conducts statewide activities to prevent and control tuberculosis among individuals who reside in Texas. The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) provides direct TB patient management through its Health Service Regions (HSRs) and supports the TB prevention and control programs of local health departments through contracts.

We know this is happening because of reports from two independent inspectors. As The Dallas Morning News' Doug J. Swanson reported Sunday, these reports tell us that whatever good the Texas Youth Commission has done to fix its litany of problems, some fundamental bad remains.

As Texas is clamoring for more college graduates to fill the the state's employment needs, many high school graduates have to find ways around another barrier between them and a college education. In September 2003, the Legislature passed into law the Texas Success Initiative, which requires that seniors pass a test called the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA), or one of its variations, before they can take credit-level classes at any publicly funded colleges in the state.

The adult women, themselves victimized followers of Jeffs and the other elders, supported the men in their polygamy. Even now, with more than 400 children evacuated into state custody, their mothers with them, the women are making sure no one talks.

If anyone thought our governor was only kidding about running in 2010 for yet another term -- well, they must not have really heard him Thursday over the pounding hailstorm.

The Texas Education Agency reports that statewide at every single grade level African-American students are overrepresented in the number of students who public schools suspend to disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP). Latinos are overrepresented in 6th through 11th grades.

If anyone had told Mr. Millsap he'd lobby against the death penalty 25 years ago, he would have laughed.Growing up in San Antonio, his interest in law was piqued by the Perry Mason television show – where he was amazed that the prosecutor never won.

Short-term exposure to smog, or ozone, is clearly linked to premature deaths that should be taken into account when measuring the health benefits of reducing air pollution, a National Academy of Sciences report concluded Tuesday.

Welcome to the nation's laboratory for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Last year, Oklahoma's Legislature passed, by huge margins, the nation's toughest law on illegal immigrants, making it a felony to harbor, transport, shelter or conceal undocumented immigrants.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, co-chairman of a special legislative committee overseeing reforms at the troubled agency, questioned whether Conservator Richard Nedelkoff had authority to raise the maximum salary for applicants to $160,000 when the Legislature had capped it at $125,000.

A committee of the Higher Education Coordinating Board unanimously backed the recommendation by Commissioner Raymund Paredes on Wednesday. The full board votes today.

A bid to teach creationism as science in Texas is facing extinction. Raymund Paredes, commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, today recommended that the Institute for Creation Research not be allowed to offer a Masters of Science degree in Science Education.

The Supreme Court concluded last week, in a 7-2 ruling, that Kentucky's three-drug method of execution by lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts cited a Supreme Court principle from a ruling in 1890 that defines cruelty as limited to punishments that "involve torture or a lingering death."

The government will replace its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border with new towers, radars, cameras and computer software, scrapping the brand-new $20 million system because it doesn't work sufficiently, officials said.