Paul Flahive

Last January, the City of San Antonio began negotiations with public safety unions to renew their contract.

The city's goal was to reduce the expenditure on health care and pension benefits that are significantly higher than other public employee packages.

The Texas Legislature begins its biennial session Tuesday in Austin. 

Tax cuts, school finance, tuition re-regulation, vouchers, all hot-button issues that will break along party lines as much as along the urban vs rural divide.

What do you want from the Texas Legislature this year. What big issues are you hoping are addressed?

Guests:

Few would deny that former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro was a charismatic and dynamic leader. It was those attributes that allowed him to turn a nearly-unpaid city mayor job, at $3,000 a year, into the cabinet of the most powerful man on the planet, as U.S. Secretary of housing and urban development. 

But as San Antonio reevaluates everything from transportation and public safety, to conservation and urban transformation, has the city seen a slow down or even an outright reversal of the vision for the city?

Before his death on Sunday at the age of 61, Robert Rehm was a theater director, a graphic designer, and an arts philanthropist in San Antonio for decades.

His work at Jefferson High School's theater department inspired many students to pursue a career in the medium. His graphic design graced chests from Texas Public Radio members, with his donated design for a TPR shirt, to Paul McCartney, who wore one of his designs for the animal-welfare group PETA.

On Monday, The Los Angeles Times reported a group of developers that included the owner of the St Louis Rams, Stan Kroenke, announced plans to build an NFL Stadium in a Los Angeles suburb.

Kroenke's involvement gave rise to speculation on whether the Rams would return to Los Angeles, where they played from 1946 to 1994. 

View image | gettyimages.com

Last month, the FBI launched a special investigative unit in the Rio Grande Valley, with the one major focus: to find and prosecute corrupt elected officials 

The task force was formed after several high-profile cases of public corruption were discovered throughout the valley. School boards, county sheriff's, and many others have been implicated in vote buying and drug trafficking, using state salaries to finance sordid activities. 

The ordinance passed with little controversy, but that didn't mean that people liked that it just became illegal to use your phone while driving.

Texting, calling, using Google maps or furiously trying to open Shazam before the song on the radio ended all became against the law in the Alamo City on Jan. 1.

2014 was a wild year for Texas.