Texas
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U. S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast. Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth largest in the U. S. while San Antonio is the second-most populous in the state and seventh largest in the U. S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and fifth largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, respectively. Other major cities include Austin, the second-most populous state capital in the U. S. and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed "The Lone Star State" to signify its former status as an independent republic, as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico; the "Lone Star" can be found on the Texan state seal.
The origin of Texas's name is from the word taysha. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U. S. Southern and Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10% of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the desert and mountains of the Big Bend; the term "six flags over Texas" refers to several nations. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state; the state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846.
A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, joined the Confederate States of America on March 2nd of the same year. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. Four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton and oil. Before and after the U. S. Civil War the cattle industry, which Texas came to dominate, was a major economic driver for the state, thus creating the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the 19th century cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative, it was though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry in the mid-20th century.
As of 2015, it is second on the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with 54. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including agriculture, energy and electronics, biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U. S. in state export revenue since 2002, has the second-highest gross state product. If Texas were a sovereign state, it would be the 10th largest economy in the world; the name Texas, based on the Caddo word táyshaʼ "friend", was applied, in the spelling Tejas or Texas, by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves the Hasinai Confederacy, the final -s representing the Spanish plural. The Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in May 1690, in what is now Houston County, East Texas. During Spanish colonial rule, in the 18th century, the area was known as Nuevo Reino de Filipinas "New Kingdom of the Philippines", or as provincia de los Tejas "province of the Tejas" also provincia de Texas, "province of Texas", it was incorporated as provincia de Texas into the Mexican Empire in 1821, declared a republic in 1836.
The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings and Texas, as Spanish-language forms of the name of the U. S. State of Texas; the English pronunciation with /ks/ is unetymological, based in the value of the letter x in historical Spanish orthography. Alternative etymologies of the name advanced in the late 19th century connected the Spanish teja "rooftile", the plural tejas being used to designate indigenous Pueblo settlements. A 1760s map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin shows a village named Teijas on Trinity River, close to the site of modern Crockett. Texas is the second-largest U. S. state, with an area of 268,820 square miles. Though 10% larger than France and twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Zambia. Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers; the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the south.
The Red River forms a natural border with Arkansas to the north. The Sabine River forms a natural border with Louisiana to the east; the Texas Panhandle has an eastern border with Oklahoma at 100° W, a northern border with Oklahoma at 36°30' N and a western
Constitution of Texas
The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that describes the structure and function of the government of the U. S. state of Texas. The current document took effect on February 15, 1876, is the seventh constitution in Texas history; the previous six were adopted in 1827, 1836, 1845, 1861, 1866 and 1869. The current constitution is among the longest of state constitutions in the United States. From 1876 to 2015 the legislature proposed 673 constitutional amendments, of which 491 were approved by the electorate and 179 defeated. Most of the amendments are due to the document's restrictive nature: the State of Texas has only those powers explicitly granted to it by the Constitution. However, despite its length, it is not nearly as long as the Alabama Constitution nor the California Constitution; as with many state constitutions, it explicitly provides for the separation of powers and incorporates its bill of rights directly into the text of the constitution. The bill of rights is lengthier and more detailed than the federal Bill of Rights, includes some provisions unique to Texas.
Article 1 is the Texas Constitution's bill of rights. The article contained 69 sections; some of the article's provisions concern specific fundamental limitations on the power of the state. The provisions of the Texas Constitution apply only against the government of Texas. However, a number of the provisions of the U. S. Constitution are held to apply to the states as well, under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. Section 4 purports to prohibit office holders from the requirements of any religious test, provided they "acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being"; this conflicts with the U. S. Constitution's No Religious Test Clause, would certainly be held unenforceable if challenged, as was a similar South Carolina requirement in Silverman v. Campbell, a broader Maryland restriction in Torcaso v. Watkins. Section 32 denies state recognition to same-sex unions, a practice, invalidated as a consequence of Obergefell v. Hodges. Article 2 provides for the separation of powers of the legislative and judicial branches of the state government, prohibiting each branch from encroaching on the powers of the others.
Article 3 vests the legislative power of the state in the "Legislature of the State of Texas", consisting of the state's Senate and House of Representatives. It lists the qualifications required of senators and representatives, regulates many details of the legislative process; the article contains many substantive limitations on the power of the legislature and a large number of exceptions to those limitations. As with the United States Constitution, either house may originate bills, but bills to raise revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. Section 39 allows a bill to take effect upon the Governor's signature if the bill passes both chambers by a two-thirds vote, unless otherwise specified in the bill. If the bill does not pass by this majority it takes effect on the first day of the next fiscal year; the largest Section within this article is Section 49. Section 49 limits the power of the Legislature to incur debt to only specific purposes as stated in the Constitution. Section 49-g created the state's "Rainy Day Fund".
Article 4 describes the powers and duties of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Commissioner of the General Land Office, Attorney General. With the exception of the Secretary of State the above officials are directly elected in what is known as a "plural executive" system. Under Section 16 of this article, the Lieutenant Governor automatically assumes the power of Governor if and when the Governor travels outside of the state. Article 5 describes the composition and jurisdiction of the state's Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, District and Commissioners Courts, as well as the Justice of the Peace Courts. Article 6 denies voting rights to minors and people who are deemed mentally incompetent by a court, it describes rules for elections. Article 7 establishes provisions for public schools and universities. Section 1 states, "it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools".
This issue has surfaced in lawsuits involving the State's funding of
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members; as of the 2010 Census, each member represents about 167,637 people. There are no term limits, with the most senior member, Tom Craddick, having been elected in 1968; the House meets at the State Capitol in Austin. The Speaker of the House is highest-ranking member of the House; the Speaker's duties include maintaining order within the House, recognizing members during debate, ruling on procedural matters, appointing members to the various committees and sending bills for committee review. The Speaker pro tempore is a ceremonial position, but does, by long-standing tradition, preside over the House during its consideration of local and consent bills. Unlike other state legislatures, the House rules do not formally recognize majority or minority leaders; the unofficial leaders are the Republican Caucus Chairman and the Democratic House Leader, both of whom are elected by their respective caucuses.
†Representative was first elected in a special election. Eligio De La Garza, II, first Mexican-American to represent his region in the US House and the second Mexican-American from Texas to be elected to Congress. Ray Barnhart, Federal Highway Administrator Anita Lee Blair, first blind woman elected to a state legislature Jack Brooks, U. S. House of Representatives Dolph Briscoe, Governor of Texas Frank Kell Cahoon, Midland County oilman and representative from 1965 to 1969. S. Representative Tom DeLay, U. S. Representative and House Majority Leader John Nance Garner, U. S. Representative, Speaker of the House, Vice President of the United States O. H. "Ike" Harris, Dallas County representative from 1963–1965. Kay Bailey Hutchison, U. S. Senator Ray Hutchison, husband of Kay Bailey Hutchison Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. father of President Lyndon B. Johnson Dan Kubiak, representative from Rockdale known for his support of public education Mickey Leland, U. S. House of Representatives, died in a plane crash.
Charles Henry Nimitz Born in Bremen. In 1852, built the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, which now houses the National Museum of the Pacific War. Grandfather of United States Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. Elected to the Texas Legislature 1890. Rick Perry, longest serving Governor of Texas, current U. S. Secretary of Energy. Colonel Alfred P. C. Petsch Lawyer, civic leader, philanthropist. Veteran of both World War I and World War II. Sam Rayburn, U. S. Representative and longest served Speaker of the House Coke R. Stevenson, Governor of Texas Sarah Weddington, attorney for "Jane Roe" for the 1973 Roe v. Wade case in the U. S. Supreme Court Ferdinand C. Weinert, coauthored bill to establish the Pasteur Institute of Texas, authored resolution for humane treatment of state convicts, coauthored the indeterminate sentence and parole law. Served as Texas Secretary of State Charles Wilson, U. S. House of Representatives, subject of the book and film Charlie Wilson's War The Speaker of the House of Representatives has duties as a presiding officer as well as administrative duties.
As a presiding officer, the Speaker must enforce and interpret the rules of the House, call House members to order, lay business in order before the House and receive propositions made by members, refer proposed legislation to a committee, preserve order and decorum, recognize people in the gallery and hold votes on questions, vote as a member of the House, decide on all questions to order, appoint the Speaker Pro Tempore and Temporary Chair, adjourn the House in the event of an emergency, postpone reconvening in the event of an emergency, sign all bills, joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions. The administrative duties of the Speaker include having control over the Hall of the House, appointing chair, vice-chair, members to each standing committee, appointing all conference committees, directing committees to make interim studies; the Chief Clerk is the head of the Chief Clerk's Office which maintains a record of all authors who sign legislation and distributes membership information to current house members, forwards copies of legislation to house committee chairs.
The Chief Clerk is the primary custodian of all legal documents within House. Additional duties include keeping a record of all progress on a document, attesting all warrants and subpoenas, receiving and filing all documents received by the house, maintaining the electronic information and calendar for documents; when there is a considerable update of the electronic source website, the Chief Clerk is responsible for noticing House members via email. Agriculture and Livestock AppropriationsSubcommittee on Articles I, IV & V Subcommittee on Article II Subcommittee on Article III Subcommittee on Articles VI, VII & VIII Subcommittee on Budget Transparency & Reform Business & Industry Calendars Corrections County Affairs Criminal Jurisprudenc
Olive
The olive, known by the botanical name Olea europaea, meaning "European olive", is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, found in the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, southern Asia as far east as China, as well as the Canary Islands and Réunion. The species is cultivated in many places and considered naturalized in all the countries of the Mediterranean coast, as well as in Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Norfolk Island and Bermuda. Olea europaea is the type species for the genus Olea; the olive's fruit called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which includes species such as lilacs, jasmine and the true ash trees; the word "olive" derives from Latin ŏlīva through Etruscan from the archaic Proto-Greek form *ἐλαίϝα. The word "oil" meant "olive oil", from ŏlĕum, ἔλαιον. In multiple other languages the word for "oil" derives from the name of this tree and its fruit.
The oldest attested forms of the Greek words are the Mycenaean, e-ra-wa, and, e-ra-wo or, e-rai-wo, written in the Linear B syllabic script. The olive tree, Olea europaea, is an evergreen tree or shrub native to the Mediterranean and Africa, it is short and squat, exceeds 8–15 m in height.'Pisciottana', a unique variety comprising 40,000 trees found only in the area around Pisciotta in the Campania region of southern Italy exceeds this, with correspondingly large trunk diameters. The silvery green leaves are oblong, measuring 4 -- 1 -- 3 cm wide; the trunk is gnarled and twisted. The small, feathery flowers, with ten-cleft calyx and corolla, two stamens, bifid stigma, are borne on the previous year's wood, in racemes springing from the axils of the leaves; the fruit is a small drupe 1–2.5 cm long, thinner-fleshed and smaller in wild plants than in orchard cultivars. Olives are harvested in the green to purple stage. Canned black olives have been artificially blackened and may contain the chemical ferrous gluconate to improve the appearance.
Olea europaea contains a seed referred to in American English as a pit or a rock, in British English as a stone. The six natural subspecies of Olea europaea are distributed over a wide range: Olea europaea subsp. Europaea Olea europaea subsp. Europaea var. sylvestris, considered the "wild" olive of the Mediterranean, is a variety characterized by a smaller tree bearing noticeably smaller fruit. O. e. subsp. Cuspidata O. e. subsp. Guanchica O. e. subsp. Cerasiformis O. e. subsp. Maroccana O. e. subsp. Laperrinei The subspecies O. e. maroccana and O. e. cerasiformis are hexaploid and tetraploid. Wild growing forms of the olive are sometimes treated as the species Olea oleaster; the trees referred to as white and black olives in Southeast Asia are not olives, but species of Canarium. Hundreds of cultivars of the olive tree are known. An olive's cultivar has a significant impact on its colour, size and growth characteristics, as well as the qualities of olive oil. Olive cultivars may be used for oil, eating, or both.
Olives cultivated for consumption are referred to as table olives. Since many olive cultivars are self-sterile or nearly so, they are planted in pairs with a single primary cultivar and a secondary cultivar selected for its ability to fertilize the primary one. In recent times, efforts have been directed at producing hybrid cultivars with qualities useful to farmers, such as resistance to disease, quick growth, larger or more consistent crops. Fossil evidence indicates the olive tree had its origins some 20–40 million years ago in the Oligocene, in what is now corresponding to Italy and the eastern Mediterranean Basin; the olive plant was first cultivated some 7,000 years ago in Mediterranean regions. The edible olive seems to have coexisted with humans for about 5,000 to 6,000 years, going back to the early Bronze Age, its origin can be traced to the Levant based on written tablets, olive pits, wood fragments found in ancient tombs. The immediate ancestry of the cultivated olive is unknown. Fossil Olea pollen has been found in Macedonia and other places around the Mediterranean, indicating that this genus is an original element of the Mediterranean flora.
Fossilized leaves of Olea were found in the palaeosols of the volcanic Greek island of Santorini and were dated about 37,000 BP. Imprints of larvae of olive whitefly Aleurolobus olivinus were found on the leaves; the same insect is found today on olive leaves, showing that the plant-animal co-evolutionary relations have not changed since that time. Other leaves found on the same island are dated back to 60,000 BP, making them the oldest known olives from the Mediterranean; as far back as 3000 BC, olives were grown commercially in Crete. Olives are not native to the Americas. Spanish colonists brought the olive to the New World, where its cultivation prospered in present-day Peru and Chile; the first seedlings from Spain were planted in Lima by Antonio de Rivera in 1560. Olive tree cultivation spread along the valleys of South America's dry Pacific coast where the climate was
Battle of Gonzales
The Battle of Gonzales was the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution. It was fought near Gonzales, Texas, on October 2, 1835, between rebellious Texian settlers and a detachment of Mexican army soldiers. In 1831, Mexican authorities lent the settlers of Gonzales a small cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids. Over the next four years, the political situation in Mexico deteriorated, in 1835 several states revolted; as the unrest spread, Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales with a weapon and requested the return of the cannon. When the initial request was refused, Ugartechea sent 100 dragoons to retrieve the cannon; the soldiers neared Gonzales on September 29, but the colonists used a variety of excuses to keep them from the town, while secretly sending messengers to request assistance from nearby communities. Within two days, up to 140 Texians gathered in Gonzales, all determined not to give up the cannon.
On October 1, settlers voted to initiate a fight. Mexican soldiers opened fire as Texians approached their camp in the early hours of October 2. After several hours of desultory firing, the Mexican soldiers withdrew. Although the skirmish had little military significance, it marked a clear break between the colonists and the Mexican government and is considered to have been the start of the Texas Revolution. News of the skirmish spread throughout the United States, where it was referred to as the "Lexington of Texas"; the cannon's fate is disputed. It may have been buried and rediscovered in 1936, or it may have been seized by Mexican troops after the Battle of the Alamo; the Mexican Constitution of 1824 liberalized the country's immigration policies, allowing foreigners to settle in border regions such as Mexican Texas. In 1825, American Green DeWitt received permission to settle 400 families in Texas near the confluence of the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers; the DeWitt Colony became a favorite raiding target of local Karankawa and Comanche tribes, in July 1826 they destroyed the capital city, Gonzales.
The town was rebuilt the following year, after DeWitt negotiated peace treaties with the Karankawa and Tonkawa. The Comanche continued to stage periodic raids of the settlement over the next few years. Unable to spare military troops to protect the town, in 1831 the region's political chief instead sent the settlers of Gonzales a six-pounder cannon, described by historian Timothy Todish as "a small bored gun, good for little more than starting horse races". During the 1830s, the Mexican government wavered between centralist policies; as the pendulum swung towards centralism in 1835, several Mexican states revolted. In June, a small group of settlers in Texas used the political unrest as an excuse to rebel against customs duties, in an incident known as the Anahuac Disturbances; the federal government responded by sending more troops to Texas. Public opinion was divided; some communities supported the rebellion for a variety of reasons. Others, including Gonzales, declared their loyalty to Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna's centralist government.
Local leaders began calling for a Consultation to determine whether a majority of settlers favored independence, a return to federalism, or the status quo. Although some leaders worried that Mexican officials would see this type of gathering as a step toward revolution, by the end of August most communities had agreed to send delegates to the Consultation, scheduled for October 15. In the interim, many communities formed militias to protect themselves from a potential attack by military forces. On September 10, a Mexican soldier bludgeoned a Gonzales resident, which led to widespread outrage and public protests. Mexican authorities felt it unwise to leave the settlers with a weapon. Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, sent a corporal and five enlisted men to retrieve the cannon, given to the colonists. Many of the settlers believed Mexican authorities were manufacturing an excuse to attack the town and eliminate the militia. In a town meeting, three citizens voted to hand over the gun to forestall an attack.
According to historian Stephen Hardin, "the cannon became a point of honor and an unlikely rallying symbol. Gonzales citizens had no intention of handing over the weapon at a time of growing tension." The soldiers were escorted from town without the cannon. Ponton anticipated; as soon as the first group of soldiers left Gonzales, Ponton sent a messenger to the closest town, Mina, to request help. Word spread that up to 300 soldiers were expected to march on Gonzales. Stephen F. Austin, one of the most respected men in Texas and the de facto leader of the settlers, sent messengers to inform surrounding communities of the situation. Austin cautioned Texians to remain on the defensive, as any unprovoked attacks against Mexican forces could limit the support Texians might receive from the United States if war began. On September 27, 1835, a detachment of 100 dragoons, led by Francisco de Castañeda, left San Antonio de Béxar, carrying an official order for Ponton to surrender the cannon. Castañeda had been instructed to avoid using force if possible.
When the troops neared Gonzales on September 29, they found that the settlers had removed the ferry and all other boats from the Guadalupe River. On the other side of the swiftly moving river waited eighteen Texians. Albert Martin, captain of the Gonzales militia, informed the soldiers that Ponton was out of town, until his return the army must remain on the west side of the river. With no
Texas Senate
The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U. S. state of Texas, with populations of 806,000 per constituency, based on the 2010 U. S. Census. There are no term limits, each term is four years long. Elections are held in even-numbered years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. In elections in years ending in 2, all seats are up for election. Half of the senators will serve a two-year term, based on a drawing. In the case of the latter, they or their successors will be up for two-year terms in the next year that ends in 0; as such, in other elections, about half of the Texas Senate is on the ballot. The Senate meets at the Texas State Capitol in Austin; the Republicans control the chamber, made up of 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats. The Lieutenant Governor of Texas serves as the President of the Senate. Unlike most lieutenant governors who are constitutionally designated as presiding officers of the upper house, the Lieutenant Governor exercises this function.
The Lieutenant Governor's duties include appointing chairs of committees, committee members and referring bills to specific committees, recognizing members during debate, making procedural rulings. The Lieutenant Governor may cast a vote should a Senate floor vote end in a tie. If the Senate votes to dissolve itself into the Committee of the Whole, in which all members are part of the Committee, the President Pro-Tempore presides over the proceedings, with the Lieutenant Governor acting as a regular voting member. Due to the various powers of committee selection and bill assignment, the Lieutenant Governor is considered one of the most powerful lieutenant governorships in the United States. Unlike other state legislatures, the Texas Senate does not include minority leaders. Instead, the President Pro Tempore is considered the second most powerful position, can be reserved to any political party in the chamber regardless if the party is a majority or not. Presidents Pro Tempore are the most senior members of the Senate.
The President Pro Tempore presides when the Lieutenant Governor is not present or when the legislature is not in regular session. For the 82nd Legislative Session, which began in 2011, there were only two new, or freshman, Brian Birdwell, a Republican from Granbury, José R. Rodríguez, a Democrat from El Paso. For the 83rd Legislative Session, which began in 2013, there were six new senators, including Sylvia Garcia, who succeeded the late senator Mario Gallegos Jr. through a special election. The five other new senators were Charles Schwertner, a Republican from Georgetown, Ken Paxton, a Republican from McKinney, Kelly Hancock, a Republican from Fort Worth, Larry Taylor, a Republican from Friendswood, Donna Campbell, a Republican from New Braunfels. For this term of the Legislature the President of the Senate is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick; the President Pro Tempore is Republican Kel Seliger of District 31. Senator John Whitmire, a Democrat from Houston, is the Dean of the Senate, meaning he is the most senior member, having served since 1987.
Senator Chris Harris, a Republican from Arlington, is the most senior member of his party, the fourth most-senior overall member. New senators elected in 2014 included Bob Hall, Paul Bettencourt, Van Taylor, Don Huffines, Konni Burton, all Republicans. New senators elected in 2016 were Bryan Hughes, Borris Miles, Dawn Buckingham. Pete Flores joined the Texas Senate through a special election in 2018. New senators elected in the 2018 regular election included Angela Paxton, Beverly Powell, Nathan Johnson, Pat Fallon. State Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, won the Senate District 6 special election on December 11, 2018, to replace Sylvia Garcia, who resigned after she won a seat in the United States House of Representatives in the regular election. There have been at least three cases of quorum-busting in Texas Senate history; the first case was in 1870, with the Rump Senate, followed by the 1979 Killer Ds. and the Texas Eleven in August 2003, who were following the example of the Texas house Killer Ds.
The following represents the Senate committee structure for the 85th Legislature. Administration Agriculture, Water & Rural Affairs Business & Commerce Criminal Justice Education Finance Health & Human Services Higher Education Intergovernmental Relations Natural Resources & Economic Development Nominations State Affairs Transportation Veteran Affairs & Border SecurityIn addition, the House and Senate operate the permanent joint committee known as the Legislative Budget Board. †Elected in a special election Edward Clark, Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Governor of Texas. Wayne Connally, Senator from Wilson County, brother of Governor John Connally. Lloyd Doggett, Texas Supreme Court Justice, U. S. House of Representatives. Robert L. Duncan, State Senator from Lubbock, 1996–2014. S. House of Representatives. James W. Flanagan, U. S. Senate. Glenn Hegar, current Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. John Ireland, Texas Supreme Court Justice, Governor of Texas. Eddie Bernice Johnson, U. S. House of Representatives.
Rienzi Melville Johnston, U. S. Senate. Barbara Jordan, U. S. House of Representatives. Earle Bradford Mayfield, U. S. Senate. William Neff "Bill" Patman, Senator from Jackson County, U. S. House of Representatives. Dan Patrick, current Lieutenant Governor of Texas
Alamo Mission in San Antonio
The Alamo Mission in San Antonio called The Alamo and known as the Misión San Antonio de Valero, is a historic Spanish mission and fortress compound founded in the 18th century by Roman Catholic missionaries in what is now San Antonio, United States. It was the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Today it is a museum in the Alamo Plaza Historic District and a part of the San Antonio Missions World Heritage Site; the historic district was one of the early Spanish missions in Texas, built for the education of local American Indians after their conversion to Christianity. The mission was secularized in 1793 and abandoned. Ten years it became a fortress housing the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras military unit, who gave the mission the name Alamo. During the Texas Revolution, Mexican General Martín Perfecto de Cos surrendered the fort to the Texian Army in December 1835, following the Siege of Béxar. A small number of Texian soldiers occupied the compound for several months; the defenders were wiped out at the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.
As the Mexican Army retreated from Texas several months they tore down many of the Alamo walls and burned some of the buildings. For the next five years, the Alamo was periodically used to garrison soldiers, both Texian and Mexican, but was abandoned. In 1849, several years after Texas was annexed to the United States, the U. S. Army began renting the facility for use as a quartermaster's depot, before again abandoning the mission in 1876 after nearby Fort Sam Houston was established; the Alamo chapel was sold to the state of Texas, which conducted occasional tours but made no effort to restore it. The remaining buildings were sold to a mercantile company which operated them as a wholesale grocery store; the Daughters of the Republic of Texas began trying to preserve the Alamo. Adina Emilia De Zavala and Clara Driscoll convinced the state legislature in 1905 to purchase the remaining buildings and to name the DRT as the permanent custodian of the site. Over the next century, periodic attempts were made to transfer control of the Alamo from the DRT.
In early 2015, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush removed control of the Alamo to the Texas General Land Office; the Alamo and the four missions in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site on July 5, 2015. In 1716, the Spanish government established several Roman Catholic missions in East Texas; the isolation of the missions—the nearest Spanish settlement, San Juan Bautista, Coahuila was over 400 miles away—made it difficult to keep them adequately provisioned. To assist the missionaries, the new governor of Spanish Texas, Martín de Alarcón, wished to establish a waystation between the settlements along the Rio Grande and the new missions in East Texas. In April 1718, Alarcón led an expedition to found a new community in Texas. On May 1, the group erected a temporary mud and straw structure near the headwaters of the San Antonio River; this building would serve as a new mission, San Antonio de Valero, named after Saint Anthony of Padua and the viceroy of New Spain, Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán Sotomayor y Sarmiento, Marquess of Valero.
The mission, headed by Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares, was located near a community of Coahuiltecans and was populated by three to five Indian converts from Mission San Francisco Solano near San Juan Bautista. One mile north of the mission, Alarcón built the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar. Close by, he founded the first civilian community in Texas, San Antonio de Béxar, which developed into the present-day city of San Antonio, Texas. Within a year, the mission moved to the western bank of the river, where it was less to flood. Over the next several years, a chain of missions were established nearby. In 1724, after remnants of a Gulf Coast hurricane destroyed the existing structures at Misión San Antonio de Valero, the mission was moved to its current location. At the time, the new location was just across the San Antonio River from the town of San Antonio de Béxar and just north of a group of huts known as La Villita. Over the next several decades, the mission complex expanded to cover 3 acres.
The first permanent building was the two-story, L-shaped stone residence for the priests. The building served as south edges of an inner courtyard. A series of adobe barracks buildings were constructed to house the mission Indians and a textile workshop was erected. By 1744, over 300 Indian converts resided at San Antonio de Valero; the mission was self-sufficient, relying on its 2,000 head of cattle and 1,300 sheep for food and clothing. Each year, the mission's farmland produced up to 100 bushels of beans; the first stones were laid for a more permanent church building in 1744, the church, its tower and the sacristy collapsed in the late 1750s. Reconstruction began with the new chapel located at the south end of the inner courtyard. Constructed of 4-foot thick limestone blocks, it was intended to be three stories high and topped by a dome, with bell towers on either side, its shape was a traditional cross, with short transepts. Although the first two levels were completed, the bell towers and third story were never begun.
While four stone arches were erected to support the planned dome, the dome itself was never built. As the church was never completed, it is unlikely that it was used for religious services; the chapel was intended to be decorated. Niches were carved on either side of the door to hold statues; the lower-level niches displaye
.jpg)
.svg)
.svg)
.png)
.png)
.svg)
.svg)
![[1]](http://www.markbyrd.com/images/RPB/RPB_tmoh.jpg){kind=link}