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Texas Matters: It's finally here! The 83rd Texas Legislature will be sworn in and start on Tuesday, Jan. 8. Political Action Committees, or Super PACs as they came to be so heroically known in last year's election, enjoyed fairly easy regulations on both organization and donations. However, there are rules and stiff penalties if you break them; one Texas billionaire was caught and fined a shocking $6,450!

In pop music, pieces featuring the "original artists" are usually big sellers. These are the performances we heard first and are used to -- not the cover songs performed by other artists years later. Some pieces are so familiar that we mentally hear the scratches and pops on the 45's that we had at home back in the day.

'Reportero,' a new documentary that examines how journalists at a Tijuana-based news weekly risk their lives to report on Mexico's deadly drug war airs Jan. 7 on PBS. When you think of drones, the military may come to mind at first, but a couple of entrepreneurs want them to become part of everyone's daily life.

With a mixture of trepidation and excitement, Hector Berlioz, the composer, critic and conductor, stood poised to lay aside many of the usual tasks and distractions of his life and give himself up to the dream of a lifetime: The composition of an epic on antique themes inspired by Virgil's "Aeneid," Les Troyens.

It was on a Summer morning in Mexico City that I heard the sad news of the passing of Herbert von Karajan. The notice was on the radio as I drove over to the Sala Nezahualcoytl, on the campus of Mexico's National University. I was on my way to play a matinee concert with the Orquesta de la Mineria.

Once I arrived, I immediately went to the dressing room of the conductor, Luis Herrera de la Fuente, to relate the bad news. He was alarmed. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I'm afraid so, Maestro," I replied.

A Special Court Martial begins today for another military training instructor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.  This is the sixth trial, which begins  as two more cases are revealed.

Staff Sgt. Christopher Jackson is charged with engaging in unprofessional relationships with two technical training students, and of obstruction of justice -- both violations of Air Force policy.

However, Joint Base San Antonio spokesman Brent Boller said a significant majority of the allegations are not for sexual assault -- as was the case in the other courts-martial.

Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could face a more critical type of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of multiple deployments, and one noted psychiatrist and specialist on PTSD fears an increase of sufferers among today’s veterans.

Dr. Harry Croft literally wrote the book on PTSD among veterans. In his book titled, “I Always Sit with My Back to the Wall,” Croft outlines a seven-step program to recover from PTSD.

Only a year and a half after joining the ranks of the San Antonio Police Department, comrades gathered on a cold January morning to say goodbye to Officer Edrees Mukhtar.

For Police Chief William McManus, the final farewell to a fallen officer never gets easier.

"Very sad morning, very sad event,” he said. “It's nothing you ever, ever get used to."

Born in Afghanistan, McManus said Mukhtar came to the United States at a young age and lived in New York.

World record playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" on the Giant Tuba by Joerg Wachsmuth with Dresden Phil on Dec 31,2012. Don't want to be stung by this thing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HJDUp2PlT2s