By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
Recently, Governor Rick Perry said that he did not think the immigration law recently passed by the state of Arizona would be appropriate for Texas. However, State Representative Debbie Riddle, R-Houston, said that when the Texas Legislature convenes in January, she will introduce a bill similar to the Arizona law.
On April 30th, Perry said that Texas will not operate a new high-risk insurance pool, called for the new federal health care law. Perry said in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that the federal funding was insufficient and that there is a lack of rules governing the program.
These pools are called for in the federal legislation to serve as a stopgap before the health care insurance exchanges take effect in 2014.
Texas joined more than a dozen other states in opting out of running the pools. The Governor was responding to a letter that Sebelius sent out earlier in April asking governors and state insurance commissioners to tell her by the 30th how they planned to proceed with high-risk pools which her department wants to have in place by June.
Texas has also joined 20 states in preparing a challenge in the courts against aspects of the new health care act they deem unconstitutional.
HHS Commissioners told a Senate committee, regarding the federal health care bill, "There's a lot of things we know, there's a lot of things we know we don't know, and there's a lot of things we don't know we don't know."
There is a new requirement now in effect with regard to teenage drivers. Prospective teenage drivers will now need an additional 20 hours of behind-the-wheel training. Under a state law passed last year, new drivers will need 34 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction including 10 hours at night, rather than the 14 hours previously required.
The requirement for 32 hours of classroom training (or the equivalent in a parent-taught course) has not changed.
The additional 20 hours do not have to be taught by a professional driving instructor. A parent or other licensed driver age 21 or older (with at least one year of driving experience) must be in the passenger seat for those 20 hours.
The new requirement does not apply to first-time applicants between the ages of 18 and 24 who enroll in the six-hour course now mandated by state law.
Recently, Gov. Perry told the press he killed a coyote while jogging with his daughter's puppy. The Governor carries a pistol when jogging.
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Bill White, running against Perry in the November election, said he had encountered coyotes while riding his bike in Houston's Memorial park and that they always run away. He said he was not afraid of coyotes.
In fairness, Perry may have been concerned for the safety of the puppy.
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