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But in my eyes, there's NO debate needed on this one--for BOTH of these gents will have NO choice but to share this award. So Sen. Carona and West are joint recipients of my "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE" award for this week...
PROTESTERS DECRY LOW-LEVEL WASTE--As the Senate decided to approve a bill to create a permanent storage site for low-level radioactive waste, a number of opponents got into the fray. Let's say that it has caused a bit of controversy within the Senate chambers recently. Bill sponsor Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) originally wanted the state to license only one site that would receive waste from Texas, Maine, and Vermont. Maine and Vermont have contracted with TX for a price tag of $50 billion to ship low-level radioactive waste such as waste products from hospitals. The bill would allow the TNRCC to license one operator of one big site as a safer alternative to over 1200 temporary storage sites. Sen. Teel Bivins (R-Amarillo) amended Duncan's bill to allow a second site to receive similar materials from the Federal government. Indications are due to geology, public support, etc. that the most likely site for this will be in Andrews County in the Permian Basin. But Sen. Eliot Shipleigh (D-El Paso) objected by saying, "Texas is taking DOE waste not to honor a national obligation, but to the benefit of one contractor." Then when Duncan and Shipleigh lost the fight over federal waste shipments, the Senate limited the bill further. Now get this--the waste site CANNOT be within 62 miles of the Texas-Mexico border or in a region with more than 26 inches of annual rainfall! (Talk about nuclear raindrops falling on your head...)... COMPROMISE POSSIBLE ON GRADE PROMOTION RULES:The Gov., Commissioner of Education, and lawmakers are nearing compromise on grade promotion rules that might hold back thousands of third-grade children in the 2002-2003 school year. Under current law, third-graders must pass state reading exams in order to move on to the next grade (which was the centerpiece of former Gov. and now current U.S. President George W. Bush's agenda). The third-grade promotion tests will be one in a battery of brand-new tests. Therefore, education officials have now said that schools and districts in that school year cannot be rated only on the basis of test scores.... LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE SURVIVES CLOSE VOTE: A bill providing for a form of capital punishment allowing life with no parole barely survived a razor-thin vote in the Senate. Sen. Tom Haywood (R-Wichita Falls) had been hounded to bring the measure up for discussion in the Senate. But the Lt. Gov. and others finally managed to bring the bill up for a vote and brought it along to subsequent passage. The bill would allow jurors the option of sentencing those convicted of capital punishment to life without parole...
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