Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

The executive director of the state's environmental agency is poised to recommend a radioactive waste dump in West Texas despite a report from agency scientists who said nearby groundwater makes the site unsuitable.

Across the country, in state after state, child advocates have deplored the conditions under which young offenders are housed – conditions that include sexual and physical abuse and even deaths in restraints. The U.S. Justice Department has filed lawsuits against facilities in 11 states for supervision that is either abusive or harmfully lax and shoddy.

When coupled with robust support from undecided voters and from rural areas, Clinton's core backers proved to be a little bit stronger than Sen. Barack Obama's coalition of young, college-educated and city-dwelling voters, according to exit polls and political analysts.

Rural Texans delivered the swing vote that made Hillary Rodham Clinton the popular vote winner of this week's Democratic presidential primary, even if the caucuses made Barack Obama the apparent champion among pledged delegates.

But the sections of 1,250-mile-long border that Clinton traversed when she was registering Hispanics for George McGovern in 1972 is a vastly different place today. The county that includes the largest city on the Texas side, El Paso, has nearly doubled its 1972 population to 736,000 in 2006, according to the Census Bureau.

The aide, Alfonso Royal, is among five new top management appointments announced by Youth Commission Conservator Richard Nedelkoff on Tuesday. The chief of staff serves as a top aide to the conservator and will be based at the Youth Commission office in Austin.

The national Democratic ticket has all but turned its back on Texas in almost every presidential general election since Jimmy Carter won the state in 1976. The Electoral College math was that Democrats could win without Texas, so why spend money in a very large state?

After Perry made the re-election statement, his spokesman was quick to add that the governor plans to run again if the Legislature does not pass his agenda next year. With a successful session, the aide said, Perry may do something else instead.

Perry's statement cleared the way for jostling among potential gubernatorial aspirants on the same day he said he wouldn't accept the 2008 vice presidential nod from his party even if asked to do so by presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, the Arizona senator.

Word of a 2010 re-election bid, which Perry blurted out to reporters during a swing through Grapevine, prompted rushed statements from would-be competitors, including Republicans U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he will run for re-election in 2010, possibly setting up a bruising primary battle with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Our opposition to the death penalty is long-standing, but until the Texas Legislature abolishes it - which isn't likely in the foreseeable future - we urge that it be imposed fairly and as humanely as possible. There is no honor to be found in turning the state into the same ruthless killer it says it is executing every time a condemned inmate is strapped to a gurney.

Of the $7.1 million the group raised since January, one fourth of it came from Texas. In the quarter before Mr. Perry became chairman, Texas interests accounted for only 8 percent.

The Travis County district attorney's office has declined to pursue a complaint regarding Gov. Rick Perry's policy of deleting e-mails every seven days despite an attorney's assertion that the policy "insures that valuable public information is lost."

I wonder if Noriega would have benefited by not winning outright. In a primary runoff, he would have had the state's political spotlight almost to himself, though it would have drained resources.

McGowan, 49, won his freedom after a DNA test this month proved what he had always professed: that he did not rape a Dallas-area woman in 1985 and then burglarize her apartment. He was convicted of both crimes in separate trials in 1985 and 1986 and sentenced to life each time. The primary evidence against him turned out to be misidentification by the rape victim.

More than two years ago, the state board commissioned the development of a new set of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards. A group of highly qualified and successful teachers collaborated and came up with a document that outlines a rigorous curriculum for Texas' K-12 students. It focuses on what Barrett called "knowledge creation" and "learning how to learn."

A policy that recommends a high bail bond for felony suspects with immigration problems has sparked a debate between judges, who say it reduces the likelihood suspected offenders will flee, and defense lawyers, who say it unfairly targets Hispanics.

But with a high profile, high-turnout primary just a week away, critics say computer glitches on electronic systems could lead to errors in vote totals and, without paper records, make real recounts impossible.

Though a marvelous tool, DNA must not give Texans false confidence that the justice system can suddenly render air-tight results. To be sure, DNA exonerations – most notably the 15 out of Dallas County – have made authorities more careful in assembling cases. DNA has made prosecutors more selective in seeking the death penalty.