Valley & State

When the State Board of Education gathered in late July, what didn’t happen was more notable than what did. Leading up to the meeting, in which the board was set to approve supplemental materials for science curriculum, watchdog...... Full story

As GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney’s poll numbers hover at an anemic 25 percent and Herman Cain tries with growing desperation to fend off damaging allegations of sexual harassment, Gov. Rick Perry is increasingly...... Full story

PORTLAND, TEXAS — After being flooded with calls, faxes and emails calling for action, a Texas judicial panel is investigating an internet video that shows a judge beating his teenage daughter with a belt.The State Commission on Judicial...... Full story

DALLAS — It felt like a ton of bricks on his chest, Antionne Williams said, downing a Coke and recovering after 15 minutes secured in a coffinlike box. Researchers applied so much suction to the box that the blood in Williams’ torso...... Full story

The redrawing of political district lines — which ideally happens just once a decade after a federal census — could create a series of crazy election cycles for Texas voters and candidates. It happened in the 1990s. And it could happen...... Full story

UPDATE: Controversy 'much ado about nothing,' says Texas' 1st black chief justice Wallace Jefferson, the first black chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, said the hunting ranch name controversy is “much ado about nothing” and...... Full story

EDINBURG – The Texas Department of Transportation will add frontage roads to a five-mile stretch of U.S. 281 to build it to interstate standards through Hargill. Portions of state bond proceeds will be applied in South Texas to highway...... Full story

EL PASO — Pastor Tom Brown wants homosexuals to repent and turn to Christ. He certainly does not want them to be given taxpayer-financed health benefits. Brown, the charismatic leader of Word of Life Church, an independent evangelical...... Full story

ORLANDO, Fla. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry worked to convince Florida Republicans on Saturday that he is the strongest contender for the GOP nomination despite a shaky debate performance earlier last week that has sparked jitters about his bid....... Full story

HOUSTON — On Sept. 1, Dr. Ronald DePinho officially became the fourth president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. With the scientific community at, as he put it, “a critical point” in the war on...... Full story

GALVESTON — Gov. Rick Perry has repeatedly called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and said that people ought to control their own retirement money. But if the social safety net program created in 1935 were eliminated —...... Full story

SAN ANTONIO — Minority groups made a final push Thursday to have new redistricting maps tossed out, arguing in court that the new election lines violate federal law by diminishing Hispanics' voting strength and failing to recognize a...... Full story

HUNTSVILLE — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday halted the execution of a black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago after his lawyers contended his sentence was unfair because of a question asked about race during his...... Full story

The Gov is on the cov. Rick Perry comes out swinging in an exclusive interview in the new issue of Time magazine, which hits newsstands tomorrow. Perry sat down with the magazine’s editor, Rick Stengel, and Mark Halperin, its editor at large...... Full story

Dung Mai, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, had a hard time taking tests. He would know the material, but once he walked into class, his mind would go blank. “I didn’t know if it was just me or was something...... Full story