Screening interviews are currently being conducted in the Houston area for the Battleground Texas Summer Fellowship Program. The fellowship program begins on June 15, with a one day training in Austin, and more fellows are needed for the Houston area. It is a six-week program where fellows will learn the in-and-outs of political grassroots organizing.

Anyone interested in the program can contact Adrienne Bell at 713-494-3970 or visit the website for more information about Battleground Texas.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE , The ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Aiming to show he's still focused on creating jobs, President Barack Obama is beginning a series of quick trips around the country to resurrect ideas from his State of the Union address that quickly became overshadowed by the intense debates over gun control, immigration and automatic spending cuts.

Obama on Thursday was dropping in on Austin, Texas, and using that bustling state capital as a backdrop to talk about attracting jobs, providing skills training and ensuring that hard work begets a decent living.

The president argued in February's State of the Union address that an economy that is growing and creating well-paying middle-class jobs must be the guiding principle for Washington policymakers. He proposed a broad expansion of pre-kindergarten to accommodate every 4-year-old, calling it a smart investment that will help improve educational outcomes, along with raising the federal minimum wage to $9 to help working families. Both ideas faced almost immediate resistance from some lawmakers who said the proposals cost too much and could stunt the economy, and Obama has barely discussed the proposals since then. (Read more)

By Jessica Luther

At a lunchtime speech on this past Monday, Greg Abbott, the Attorney General of Texas, said that "the state of Texas is coming under a new assault, an assault far more dangerous than what the leader of North Korea threatened when he said he was going to add Austin, Texas, as one of the recipients of nuclear weapons." Well, that sounds frightening. What could that assault possibly be? "The threat that we're getting," Abbott said, "is the threat from the Obama administration and his political machine." Wait. What? (Read more)