Texas

This is the first installment in the KERA News series "Inside the Bush Center."

George W. Bush’s environmental legacy as president was decidedly . . .  mixed. He established the largest protected marine environment in American history – more than a hundred million acres set aside in our Pacific territories. But he also permitted more mountaintop removal by mining companies. And he refused to sign the Kyoto Protocols on global warming. Yet the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of SMU is unequivocally eco-sensitive. The new center will be dedicated Thursday.

Only a railroad separated West’s intermediate school from the fertilizer plant that exploded last week. The blast destroyed that school -- and left three out of four West ISD campuses unusable. But many West students are going to finish the school year, just not in West.