Lubbock, Texas has teenage pregnancy and STD rates that exceed per capita state and national averages. Mayor David Miller is alarmed, and claims that these rates tax the entire community by inflating local health care and insurance costs.

The Dow woke up this morning, looked around, and then promptly dove over 150 points. Looks like it is going to be another fun day if you have investments.

In yesterday's Roundup, we noted that Rep. John Davis (R-Houston) filed a bill retracting some of the 2003 cuts to the Children's Health Insurance Program. Rep. Garnet Coleman, who authored and co-sponsored CHIP in 1999, seems to be happy that some of the cuts to CHIP are being rescinded, but reminds us that many of those that are supporting the retractions today are the same people that voted for the cuts in 2003.

Certain wealthy school districts have begun using psychological profiling tests to refine their application process.

This week's installment of Who's Blue features Barbara Ann Radnofsky, the Texas Democratic candidate for US Senate in 2006. We discuss her campaign, her future plans, and her book, "The Dancer's Dead," available from lulu.com. You can listen to the interview by clicking here.

I am a little late in running this, but it is definitely worth reporting: The Texas Democratic Party has been raising money at a rate which exceeds past efforts, culminating in their Legislative salute last night. Two years ago, they had 28 sponsors for the salute and raised just under $45,000. For this year's event, they more than doubled the number of sponsors to 64 and raised $130,000. That sponsors list includes some heavy hitters, like AT&T.

There's been a lot of news about roads in the last 24 hours or so. Last Friday, state auditors questioned a thing or two about the Trans-Texas Corridor and the state's approach to that project. Representative Lois Kolkhorst has now filed a bill which would kill the TTC altogether, and arguments in favor of the TTC are getting increasingly harder to come by.

I come from a union family, so it has been a source of disappointment for me to observe the decline in union membership that's been underway for some time. There's a new bill up for consideration in the House which makes it easier for workers to unionize, and it is meeting expected resistance from business interests.

While fulfilling my daily addiction for political gossip, I ran across an article that promoted the website electsusie.com and her run for the Presidency. My confusion and curiosity forced me to look into the website, and what I found was rather surprising. What's unique about Susie Flynn is that she is only a little girl.

Is Texas ready for a move to the left on social policy? We may find the answer this session with HB 307. This bill seeks to make discrimination against a person's sexual identity a prohibited practice. The bill also alters the sovereign immunity protection of public servants if they discriminate against employees based on sexual identity.