Veteran El Paso Sen. Eliot Shapleigh recently released Texas on the Brink, a numerical snapsnot of how the state stacks up against the union’s other 49. Its findings?

Texas is ranked first in its percentage of uninsured children and its income inequality between the rich and poor and second in the percentage of the population without health insurance. Scholastic Assessment Test scores are 47th highest in the nation, and last nationwide for nonelderly women with health insurance, or women over 40 who receive mammograms. The entire report is available at www.shapleigh.org.

Shapleigh has thrown himself into the Internet age head first, with exhaustive video diaries available on the Web site. (He’s got his own YouTube page, fer chrissakes!) Here he is delivering the Texas on the Brink findings:

Rock on, Eliot.

Youtube video

This article appears in February 2 • 2007.

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