I wanted to bring something important to your attention that may potentially save your family thousands of dollars for your children’s education.

Nine years ago my father bought each of his grandchildren a Texas Tomorrow Fund grant. Since it’s beginning in 1995 as the Texas Tomorrow Fund, the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan has been an important educational resource for many Texans, including my family. On August 24, 2009, I received a letter, as did the thousands of other families regarding the Texas Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board’s decision to change the refund rule for unused tuition hours when a contract with the fund is canceled or a refund is requested.

The purpose of Proposition 7 is simply to conform the Texas Constitution to the current structure of the Texas Military Forces: the Texas Army National Guard, the Texas Air National Guard and the Texas State Guard.

The Texas State Guard is a volunteer force of about 1,800 guardsmen from all across the State of Texas and is a "first responder" to natural disasters and other emergencies. Over the past two years members of the Texas State Guard have volunteered over 42,000 working days supporting local and state authorities responding to hurricanes, fires, floods and other state declared emergencies.

The Texas State Guard is there to deal with hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. The all-volunteer force helps fire and rescue crews in the field and take care of natural disaster victims. KVUE's Quita Culpepper reports.

Retail electric providers in Texas’ deregulated market are offering residential rates that in many instances are lower than those of some municipal power companies, electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities that are still under rate regulation, a Star-Telegram survey shows.

A decade after the Texas Legislature passed a law authorizing deregulation, retail electric providers compete intensely to win new customers. They have sharply lowered rates in response to a plunge in prices for natural gas, which is burned to generate much of the electricity produced in Texas.

As Congress continues its health care debate, the American public is focused squarely on the implications that current federal proposals will have on our nation's economy, health-care system and fiscal future.

“The Prognosis for National Health Insurance: A Texas Perspective,” the recent report by internationally renowned economist Arthur Laffer for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, concluded that a reform based on President Barack Obama's principles — including an estimated $1 trillion increase in federal government health subsidies over 10 years — will accelerate health-care inflation; slow our economy, cost every Texas resident an additional $4,265, and still leave about 30 million Americans uninsured.

There’s a new Texas two-step.

Natural gas prices and retail electric rates are moving in tandem — steadily downward — a trend that could leave many energy consumers dancing with delight.

As of Thursday afternoon, powertochoose.com, the comparison shopping site overseen by the Texas Public Utility Commission, showed 31 retail electric-rate plans priced below 10 cents per kilowatt-hour in the Oncor Electric Delivery service area that includes North Texas.

California is in bad shape. It is likely to get worse. As America’s most populous state faces a $26.3bn (€18.4bn, £16.2bn) budget gap, lawmakers in Sacramento have had no choice but to make desperate spending cuts. Their latest solution? The legislature is debating a plan to release 27,000 prisoners early to save money on correctional facilities.

California, like so many other states facing budget shortfalls, is a victim of decades of reckless spending and unsustainable budgets. It was not always like this. The Golden State’s government services and public institutions – including its prisons – were models for the country in the 1960s and 1970s. But Californian policymakers stopped planning for the future. The state’s population ballooned from 23m in 1980 to 36m in 2008, and demographics shifted dramatically due to immigration. Roads, schools and prisons built with 1975 in mind are now crumbling and overcrowded.

As you know, I've been very outspoken in my opposition to the healthcare plan that the Democrats and President Obama have been propagating in Washington. A couple of weeks ago I joined several of my colleagues in the Texas Legislature in sending a letter to the Texas Congressional delegation urging them to oppose the plan as well.

The proposed climate change legislation, intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions over the next 40 years, will substantially raise electricity bills. An analysis recently released by ERCOT, the electric grid operator for most of Texas, joins other reports from around the country that project significant job losses and dramatic increases in the cost of electricity if this legislation is enacted.

About 50 percent of all electric generation in America comes from burning coal and about 20 percent comes from natural gas. And, even though Texas has more wind generation than any other state (and all but a handful of other countries), we still burn fossil fuels to generate the vast majority of our electricity.

GOPAC-TX will raise money and work to get additional Republicans elected to the Texas House and Senate, the group’s chairman, Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said at a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin.