For this edition of On The Record, I spoke with Jesus "Chuy" Gonzalez, Chief of Staff for State Representative Richard Raymond.

Tuition at our state universities is different for in-state students and out-of-state students. In-state “residents” pay less to attend our colleges. This reality is repeated in most states in the United States.

The House decided to see what happens when an incredibly embattled president tries to flex his muscle and spend some political capital yesterday, passing the Iraq funding bill 218-208. The bill includes provisions for troop withdrawal which could begin as early as July, depending on whether the Iraqi government meets certain benchmarks. Withdrawal would have to begin by October 1, and combat would be over by next March.

Today, Massachusetts had a big setback in pollution prevention with the contamination of their water supply with corrosive lye. Yikes!

For all of you who might not be as interested in actual campaign mechanics or how politics works, you can now be the MySpace candidate for President.

Did you know John McCain is running for President? He made it official today, much to everyone's surprise. I'm glad to see it, though. I was starting to think he was kidding.

That's quite a disguise for toll roads, isn't it? "Managed Lanes" sounds quite similar to "managed care," only there's no "caring" in most of the Texas Department of Transportation's road plans. TxDOT may be a lot of things, but it's certainly not community-friendly.

Well, it happened. The House passed HB 218 this morning, one of two voter ID bills proposed in the Lege. 218 is the one that requires a photo id to vote. Representative Betty Brown, the Republican author of the bill, claimed that the right to vote had been protected against voter fraud. Rep. Rafael Anchia argued that, well, no, it hadn't, pointing out that college students buy counterfeit versions of the documents required by the bill all the time in order to drink.

HB 218 passed to engrossment yesterday night, on a nearly party-line vote; Reps. Jones and Merritt were the two dissenters from the Republican majority.

Why are such Herculean efforts being made to pass bills which remedy a problem that doesn't exist?