BROWNSVILLE, Tex. — Becoming an American can be bad for your health.

A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents.

As House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts expressed optimism that the Legislature would approve a budget in time to avoid a special session, others were still expressing uncertainty as a pair of critical votes were set to take place Monday.

The 2014-15 deal that budget conferees reached Friday hinges on the approval ofSenate Joint Resolution 1, which would ask voters to create a fund for water infrastructure projects, and House Bill 1025, a supplemental appropriations bill for the 2012-13 budget. SJR 1 is on the House’s Monday calendar, while HB 1025 is on the calendar in the Senate…

We all love Texas. And there are certain areas in which all of us who love Texas should agree that Texas can do better. We all love Texas. And there are certain areas in which all of us who love Texas should agree that Texas can do better.

One of those is healthcare. And Texas had a golden opportunity this session to increase healthcare for Texans while simultaneously supercharging our economy.

It’s shaping up to be a colossal missed opportunity – for Texas and for all of its people. So far this year, the Legislature has passed on the tens of billions of dollars that the federal government is offering the state to expand Medicaid to cover more Texans. The goal is obvious: by ensuring that more people have health insurance, more people will seek help before small maladies become huge healthcare problems that send those folks to emergency rooms – and their bills to taxpayers. One of those is healthcare. And Texas had a golden opportunity this session to increase healthcare for Texans while simultaneously supercharging our economy. It’s shaping up to be a colossal missed opportunity – for Texas and for all of its people. So far this year, the Legislature has passed on the tens of billions of dollars that the federal government is offering the state to expand Medicaid to cover more Texans. The goal is obvious: by ensuring that more people have health insurance, more people will seek help before small maladies become huge healthcare problems that send those folks to emergency rooms – and their bills to taxpayers…

AUSTIN — Religious leaders and a San Antonio lawmaker are putting their faith behind Rick Perry to be the next Republican governor to work with the Obama administration to expand healthcare coverage in the state.

“We understand that Gov. Perry is moderating his position (on Medicaid) as he sees the needs of real Texans,” said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice group. “We just have to give him enough room so he can save face and he’ll do the right thing.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Nuns-on-the-Bus-Perry-oozing-toward-Medicaid-4442822.php#ixzz2Qpk7CbmV

Daylight revealed wide devastation, with downtown sidewalks littered with glass from broken storefront windows. The explosion reduced many homes to rubble and ripped the the brick facade off a 50-unit apartment complex near the West Fertilizer Co. plant.

The gun vote didn’t fail because a couple of red-state Democrats bolted, or even because too many senators are afraid of the National Rifle Association, or even because Sen. Pat Toomey couldn’t bring along more Republicans.

Those factors help explain why the gun vote didn’t clear the extraordinary bar set for it to succeed. But they’re not the main reason it failed.

The state balances its budget by counting nearly $5 billion in unspent funds that were raised for specific programs. Some lawmakers in both parties, though, are calling for more transparency in the budget. To change their ways, lawmakers would have to go back to what they were trying to avoid: choices between taxes and cuts.

AUSTIN — A key Senate panel approved a two-year, $195.5 billion budget Wednesday that begins a slow march back from education cuts and gives new attention to the mentally ill.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 15-0 for a budget that would spend $94.1 billion of state general revenue — an increase of more than $5 million from a Senate draft in January.

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Travis County and others across Texas would be allowed for the first time to open their own prisons for teenaged lawbreakers under legislation poised to gain fast approval in the Texas Senate.

Approved unanimously late Tuesday by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, and designated for final approval by the whole Senate with just a consent vote, Senate Bill 511 allows counties to operate so-called “post-adjudication” lockups to house offenders who previously would have been sentenced to state lockups operated by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

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