Governor, call a special session to fix teacher retirement system

The Texas Federation of Teachers held a protest rally in front of the Stafford office of Congressman Tom DeLay in 2003, wanting a bill granting teachers full Social Security spousal and family benefits in addition to their Texas Teachers' Retirement System benefits. That didn't come true and now rising insurance premiums are eating into their TRS benefits.

Failed House Vote Is ‘A Great Opportunity’ For Republicans, Former House Leader Says

After yesterday's pulled health care vote, many on the left and the right are seeing it as a failure for Republicans - but former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says it's actually a blessing in disguise. Tom DeLay served in Congress as representative for Texas's 22nd district from 1984 to 2005, when he resigned in the midst of a money laundering scandal.

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 28, 2017.

He set off a mild firestorm early in the morning in a CNN interview when he conceded his party needed to do a better job selling its replacement to President Obama's 2010 health care overhaul and promised Americans they would be able to keep their current insurance plan and doctors. But those remarks were largely forgotten just hours later amid the continuing chaos surrounding the run-up toward a Thursday vote in the U.S. House.

politicsHow Obama Could Go Nuclear on TrumpBefore leaving office. Ed Kilgore

Obama could even put Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court at least temporarily, maddening the Republicans who denied him a hearing. Barack Obama is probably not going to be in a terribly good mood between now and January 20, 2017, the day Donald Trump takes the oath of office to succeed him.

Dershowitz blasts Netanyahu witch-hunts, BDS, and wants a Kotel – for all Jews’

The numerous legal or quasi-legal scandals raised against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are witchhunts which harm democracy, the counterattack against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign is having mixed success, and the Kotel must be "for all Jews," Prof. Alan Dershowitz told The Jerusalem Post in a wide-ranging interview on Thursday.

A Decline in Texas Power Looms in Washington

Bill Archer and Martin Frost; Secretary of State James Baker III; Commerce Secretary Don Evans; Education Secretary Margaret Spellings; and Bush White House advisers campaign and a weak bench on the Democratic side, it's unlikely Texas talent will flood the executive branch in 2017 - no matter It matters, Sarver says, because of how directly the spending of the federal government affects the state - and the problems that could emerge with a lack of high-level federal advocates. "It could have a direct correlation on things like appropriations, on base closures, and getting facilities like NASA, and other things that are directly related to job and opportunities for Texas."

This Bananas Republicby Kevin D. WilliamsonFBI director James Comey’s …

FBI director James Comey's explanation of the case against the case against Hillary Rodham Clinton - "Sure, she pretty clearly did what she's accused of doing but hey man aren't penguins cute is that a squirrel man hey check it out a squirrel!" - is a fascinating floor routine of intellectual gymnastics in and of itself, dissected in these pages by several very fine lawyers and others with much more of interest to say on the strictly legal question than I have. But it is worth considering the context.