University of Texas President Bill Powers has been hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism.

No time to follow every twist and turn of the Texas Legislature? We've made it easier for you with our weekly recaps of the action under the dome.

Jim Spaniolo, the president of UT-Arlington, said the university is committed to increasing its engagement with research that “could change the quality of life of many, many people” — but funding cuts resulting from the state’s budget shortfall would slow that momentum.

In this week's TribCast, Evan, Ross, Reeve and Ben discuss the budget's structural deficit, the effort to repeal health care reform, the back-and-forth over House District 48 and if 2011 will be the year Texas bans smoking.

At a recent forum titled "Improving Productivity in Public Education," former U.S. Secretaries of Education Rod Paige and Margaret Spellings under George W. Bush took time to discuss the state's looming budget cuts, the Bush legacy, the Obama administration and what they believe needs to change in public education. 

State Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, is looking to shake up the way Texas trains, educates and certifies public school counselors.

The latest from Gov. Rick Perry's preferred polling firm, Baselice & Associates, shows that 70 percent of Texans support a ban on indoor smoking, including in restaurants and bars.

Creative industries — from advertising to dance companies to book publishing — generate $4.5 billion per year in economic activity for Texas, according to a new report released by the Texas Cultural Trust in association with the Texas Commission on the Arts. The report features projects in communities like Amarillo, El Paso, Rockport, Texarkana and the tiny, north central Texas town of Clifton, population 3,795. “It’s more than fluff,” says Amy Barbee, the Trust's executive director. “We want to tell the story that the arts truly are economic development.”

Every chancellor of a university system in Texas knows — down to the exact, excruciatingly precise percentage point — how much worse higher education fared than other agencies when their current budgets were cut. With the state facing a massive budget shortfall in the next biennium, the chancellors know they're in for another round. But this time they're adamant that they not bear a disproportionate share of the pain.

Texas produces more law school graduates than it has jobs for. But that hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from proposing that the state build a new law school in the Valley.

Opening day of the 82nd Legislative Session was heavy on pomp and circumstance and light on substance. But, amid the hand shaking and picture taking and protesting Tea Partiers, there was business to be done.