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Texas News Minute

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Governor Rick Perry is joining the ranks of lawmakers dissatisfied with parts of a Texas budget deal. Perry is opposed to taking $1.75 billion from the state's Rainy Day Fund to settle a debt owed to public schools. Lawmakers had postponed the classroom payment in 2011 as a trick to balance the budget.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas lawmakers are giving new life to the state's troubled cancer research agency. The Senate gave final approval to sweeping reforms at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas today. The changes would dissolve the agency's governing board, prohibit salary supplements for the chief executive and specify the role of top officers.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - How the state responds to the listing of an endangered species in Texas will be coordinated by a task force under a bill approved by the Legislature. The bill would create the Coordinated State Endangered Species Response Committee. Republican leaders say endangered species laws hurt the Texas economy.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman says she's steeping down as head of the state's insurance regulatory agency. The legislative session ends Monday. Kitzman can't continue past then because her appointment by Governor Rick Perry wasn't confirmed by the state Senate.

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