Free Republic

The Texas Lottery Commission will continue allowing tickets sales in stores that permit smoking after earlier weighing a ban urged by anti-smoking and civil rights activists... The issue has been smoldering since 2006 when Billy Williams, 77, of Lewisville, complained to lottery officials that he suffered an asthma attack after buying a lottery ticket at a store that allowed smoking. He argued that the federal Americans with Disabilities Act protects him and others from having to buy tickets at smoky stores. State Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who asked Abbott for the opinion, said the commission's decision fell short...

The estimate of a $5.6 trillion budget surplus over the next 10 years is a far-out projection in a world that changes in milliseconds. It could disappear faster than a squirrel up a tree. President George W. Bush, as a Texan, probably knows that, and that may be the reason why he is talking about cutting spending as much as giving a huge tax cut to everyone. His Feb. 27 nighttime address to Congress and to the nation opened the public debate on economic policy for the next 10 years. Economists know how any number of modern forces can adversely ...