The Texas Legislature will face a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion when it meets to write the next state budget in 2011, a key state official said Monday.

Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.

Bills dealing with the death penalty, lending practices and the face of public education hang in the balance in the last six days of the 2010 General Assembly.

The special session began Monday afternoon after being called Friday by Gov. Jan Brewer.

Rising property taxes, failing eyesight and even a tumble that cracked her tailbone haven't forced 89-year-old Angeline DiBeneditto from the home she's had for more than six decades.

Hanging three or four ornaments on a dead piece of shrubbery does not make it a Christmas tree, even if President Barack Obama says it is.