CALL TO ACTION from Texans for School Choice
Fifty to sixty percent of Texas' urban children never graduate from high school! It is a prescription for certain disaster that must be stopped right now. Only one state has fewer citizens with high school diplomas--Mississippi. As the leader of the Senate, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst can make or break school choice legislation.

Conservative Goes His Own Way
After more than a decade of battling Rep. Robert Talton's efforts to fight gay rights, take apart social programs and promote religion in schools, liberals came to know the Houston- area Republican as the man they loved to hate.

ACTION ALERT - Property Tax Cut
House Bill 2785 would provide Texas property tax owners with a $2.5 billion tax cut, taking effect immediately. This legislation is authored by Rep. Ken Paxton, and co-authored by Representatives Wayne Christian, John Davis and Jodie Laubenberg. Please call your state representative today ...

Budget Update from Lt. Gov. Dewhurst
Just four years ago Texas faced a $10 billion revenue shortfall that threatened essential state programs and services. Today the Texas economy is strong and the state budget is back on solid ground. With billions of dollars in new revenue, the budget for the next two years will deliver the largest tax cut in Texas history.

Lawmakers Unfazed by Timing of Vote on Gun Bill
As the horrific scale of the shootings at Virginia Tech was still unfolding, the Texas Senate was routinely passing a bill that, except for the timing, might have gone unnoticed.

A House Hurrah: It Votes Unanimously to End Votes Anonymously
The cause of open government has occasion to celebrate a milestone in the Texas Legislature.

Gov. Perry Orders Flags at Half-Staff to Honor Victims of Virginia Tech Shootings
Gov. Rick Perry today directed that flags be flown at half-staff to honor the lives of the victims of yesterday's shootings at Virginia Tech.

House Rejects Senate Budget Amendments
The Texas House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to reject Senate amendments to the state budget bill and send the legislation to a House-Senate conference committee.

Information on HB 2136 - Counselor Referral Bill
Recognizing the important role middle, junior high, and high school counselors play in our students' lives, it is vital that we create a system that promotes transparency in regards to what outside organizations counselors are referring students.

Senate Passes Nichols' Moratorium on Private Toll Roads
Today the Texas Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 1267 by Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville), which puts a two-year freeze on private toll road contracts and establishes a panel to review the terms of these agreements.

Republican '08 Options Disappoint Evangelicals
Evangelical Christians have long been a key constituency for the Republican Party, but leading religious conservatives are expressing dissatisfaction with the party's current crop of presidential candidates.

Fred Thompson Auditions for the Leading Role
A strange thing happened a few weeks back when I went to the Café Promenade at the Mayflower Hotel for an off-the-record interview with an unpaid adviser to the non-campaign of unannounced presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

Fred Thompson Makes his '08 Case to the House GOP
Dozens of House Republicans met with former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) yesterday to discuss the TV actor's possible presidential ambitions.

Most GOP Education Activists Still Sizing Up Field
Republican education policy advisers and advocates are divided over where Congress and the next presidential administration should take federal K-12 policy: Some applaud the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind Act for holding states accountable for student achievement, while others are put off by the major expansion of the federal role in education.

Cornyn Calls on Democrat Leaders to Pass Troop Funds
In advance of tomorrow's meeting at the White House between President Bush and Democrat congressional leaders regarding the emergency supplemental bill, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today renewed his call for the Democrat leadership to remove the artificial "surrender date" and the billions in unrelated pork projects that they included in the initial legislation.

Harry Reid, Loser
The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, believes the war in Iraq is lost. There is nothing about that conclusion that bothers Reid: He is as blasé as he is certain, as resolute in pursuit of defeat as Churchill was in pursuit of victory.

Carl Leubsdorf: Court's Abortion Decision Foreshadows Issue for '08
The Supreme Court's decision banning a controversial late-term abortion procedure was hardly a surprise. But it underscores the fact that the legal right to an abortion, sanctioned by the high court 34 years ago, hangs by a thread.

Statement by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
"I applaud the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Congress' prohibition on the awful procedure of partial-birth abortion. This decision is important on two separate fronts. First, it affirms that we have a responsibility to protect innocent human life. Second, it reminds us that we are a nation with laws written and enacted by representatives elected by the people. Our laws are not to be written and enacted by judges unaccountable to the people."

In Their Own Words
While pro-lifers celebrated the Supreme Court victory on partial-birth abortion, the mood on Capitol Hill was far less jubilant.

Looking for Heroes at Virginia Tech
by Gary Bauer
The blame game is already in full force today over the horrific events at Virginia Tech. Some critics feel the university administration should have closed the campus after the first two killings early in the morning (I tend to agree).

New Moderate Democrats Mostly Bow to Leadership
by Robert Novak
For the second time, Heath Shuler has fallen short of expectations in Washington. Two decades ago, he was a top Washington Redskins draft choice as a University of Tennessee All-American quarterback but proved a bust. This year, he came to Congress after being elected to a heavily Republican North Carolina who would be so conservative that it was even speculated that he would vote against Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for Speaker. Not so.

Tax Relief (Still) Pending
So in fine Reaganesque fashion, State Rep. Ken Paxton (R-McKinney) is trying to get your money back into your hands. To accomplish that, he introduced House Bill 2785, which would provide more than $2.5 billion in immediate property tax relief. Because the bill would cut local school district M&O property taxes, a hearing was held in the House Public Education Committee earlier this week.

Democrats Eye Senate Race
He's not up for re-election until 2008, but Democrats are already fielding potential contenders to try to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

The Awfulness of the Income Tax
So here we are as usual this time of year, fuming and fretting and rummaging for choice epithets about income tax and the urgent, the unquestionable, the unimpeachable need for tax reform. We always talk this way in April. And it never comes to anything but talk.

Free Speech at Risk: A Free Congress Forum on the Fairness Doctrine
Conservatism survives and continues to evolve no matter who holds the majority in Congress or lives in the White House. Our essays and panel discussions on "The New Conservatism" have been honing the finer points of theory and practice for several years.

Taxpayer Dollars and Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Without any apparent sense of irony, many newspapers last week ran adjoining stories about human stem cells.