Flu widespread in Texas, health department says get flu shots

DALLAS (AP) — With flu widespread in Texas now, a handful of schools are reporting enough absences due to flu and other illnesses that they’ve decided to close.

Flu season in Texas generally runs from October to March, with February usually being the height of the season, said Emily Palmer, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services. She said that flu has been considered widespread in Texas since the week ending Jan. 27.

Palmer added that if people are sick with the flu, it’s important that they stay at home. Also, she said, it’s still not too late to get a flu shot.

She said that lab tests are showing that the flu strains circulating match the vaccine.

Texas senators push for more BRAC funding in spending bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas’ senators pressed Thursday for more money in a sweeping spending bill to pay for the restructuring of military bases, but Democrats said additional money would come next month.

Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both Republicans, wanted to add $3.1 billion to the spending bill. Democrats were resisting amendments to the bill because of a looming deadline for funding the federal government.

The senators predicted delays in the six-year plan to restructure military bases and economic consequences for communities wanting to develop bases closed in the latest round of Base Closure and Realignment Commission hearings in 2005.

More lawmakers ask Perry to rescind order

AUSTIN (AP) — Thirty-two state representatives sent a letter to Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday reiterating their plea for him to rescind his anti-cancer vaccine mandate for schoolgirls.

The letter, signed by 31 Republicans and a Democrat, said Perry’s order “usurped the legislative process.”

“While philosophic differences will dictate where our beliefs fall, no Texan would willfully abdicate their voice in the Legislature to a single office of their government,” the letter said.

Perry’s order required the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to adopt rules requiring the Merck & Co.’s new Gardasil vaccine for girls entering sixth grade as of September 2008. The vaccine protects girls against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that cause most cases of cervical cancer.

The governor has been widely criticized for mandating the vaccine without letting the Legislature hear from scientists, doctors and parents. But he has firmly defended his actions, saying the vaccine will save many lives.