The deadline for filing major legislation has passed — local bills can still be filed, and major bills, if the members agree. About 5,700 bills were filed, and most of them will die. That’s the way of things. Education and taxation legislation of various types led the way. The most prolific filers: Sens. John Carona, R-Dallas, and Royce West, D-Dallas; Reps. Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City, and Richard Raymond, D-Laredo. The halfway mark of the 140-day session lands on Monday, March 18.

The Senate Finance Committee unanimously voted for a $195.5 billion two-year budget that undoes some of the cuts from the 2011 legislative session. The budget, which now heads to the full Senate, is 2.9 percent higher than the estimated size of the current two-year budget, which is $189.9 billion after factoring in extra spending lawmakers are expected to approve later this session.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, the state's largest health insurance provider, is launching a statewide campaign on Tuesday aimed at getting Texans enrolled in health plans through an online marketplace created by federal health reform. Texas won’t have its own state-specific health insurance exchange; Republican leaders here have rejected that option as part of their opposition to the Affordable Care Act.

Sounding the alarm over a 70-year-old treaty that governs the release of water to Texas by Mexican officials, state and federal lawmakers say that Mexico is again falling short on its part of the agreement and that water users in the Rio Grande basin are feeling the impact. Technically, Mexico is in compliance and has two more years to release the amount covered in the treaty. Lawmakers and stakeholders, limited in what they can do to compel the Mexicans to deliver the water, are turning to the agency tasked with enforcing the treaty to step up its efforts to ensure the required total is delivered.

After a week of forced negotiations between craft brewers and wholesale beer distributors resulted in a compromise, the Senate Business Commerce Committee amended the Alcoholic Beverage Code to allow on-site retail sales at breweries, limited sales at brewpubs and self-distribution rights for breweries producing less than 125,000 barrels a year. That’s on its way to the full Senate. 

Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, was sworn in Monday as the newest member of the Texas Senate. The former Harris County commissioner replaces the late Mario Gallegos in SD-6, and will serve (barring redistricting) until 2017. She'll be on four committees: Government Organization, Intergovernmental Relations, Jurisprudence, and Nominations.

Austin police charged Rep. Naomi Gonzalez, D-El Paso, with driving while intoxicated after she apparently hit another car that, in turn, hit someone on a bicycle. No one was seriously injured. 

Kenneth Evans, dean of the business school at the University of Oklahoma, is the sole finalist for the president’s job at Lamar University. He’ll succeed James Simmons, who has held the top post at Lamar for 14 years. 

Former Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, got spanked for a wording problem on his campaign signs and on those campaign emery boards he’s been handing out since black-and-white TVs were all the rage. In his rematch against Rep. Charles Perry last year, Jones’ campaign materials said “Elect Delwin Jones State Representative District 83.” According to the Texas Ethics Commission, they should have said “Elect Delwin Jones for State Representative District 83.” Perry won in 2012, just like he did in 2010.

Deaths: Former El Paso Mayor Raymond Telles, the first Hispanic chief executive of a major city in the U.S. (1957-61). He was also U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica in the Kennedy administration and on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under presidents Nixon and Ford. He was 97.

Lt. Col. (retired) Borah Van Dormolen, Republican national committeewoman from Texas, a one-time professor at West Point, and a stalwart in the Texas Federation of Republican Women.