The start of school should bring a renewed sense of purpose and optimism. Who isn’t hopeful about the future as our students start a new school year loaded with promise, potential and 40-pound backpacks?

My constituents adamantly believe it is wrong for the "Big Brother" State to take their private property away from them unnecessarily. The battle being fought for beach landowner rights is the same fight timber and pasture landowners face in our district. We have a statewide official who wants to take private property from Texans and the Legislature said no.

I am extremely proud of the work of the conference committee on HB 300—the Texas Department of Transportation Sunset legislation—and I am very disappointed by the unfair attacks made by Senator Carona against the committee, the process that we employed to seek a committee report that would pass both the Texas House and Senate and his extremely unfair and harsh attacks against me personally. Senator Carona's distortions sadden me because not only are they patently false, but because he is also attempting to reinvent history.

There is an old Italian saying: Dai nemici mi guardo io, dagli amici mi guardi Iddio.
It means "I can protect myself from my enemies; may God protect me from my friends!"

One of the cornerstones of good economic analysis is the realization that, in the words of my former colleague Milton Friedman, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

Fringe groups are up in arms, frantically sending out hysterical e-mails about the dire consequences if Republican Rep. Todd's Smith bill to clarify the corporate and union prohibition on campaign contributions were to become law. They allege that advocacy groups, charitable non-profits, even churches, will run afoul of the law for electioneering under HB 2511 — squelching these entities' free speech rights in Texas.

Last week the governor of Texas ignited a media firestorm for his remarks involving the idea of secession.