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“Thank God for Mississippi.” How does Texas stack up against the Magnolia State? Social and Health Indices Texas Adults in corrections system 50 Mental health spending 48 Teen birth rate 48 Uninsured children 50 Child abuse fatalities 45 46 Children in poverty 44 High school graduation 50 Food security 48 Uninsured population of Texas: 5.83 million Rank, among U.S. states, if the uninsured population of Texas were a state: 19th Percentage of Texans who believe Barack Obama is a Muslim: 23% State senator who boycotted an invited prayer delivered in the Senate by a Muslim cleric in 2007: Mississippi 31 18 50 48 29 49 50 45 50 Dan Patrick Power of KSEV, the Houstonarea talk radio station owned by Sen. Patrick: 15,000 watts Amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, emitted in Texas in 2005: 630 million metric tons Rank among nations in terms of carbon emissions if Texas were its own country: Number of people who voted in 2007 to create an 8-acre special freshwater district in, the Panhandle benefiting T. Boone Pickens: 2 Number of those voters who are employees of Pickens: Highest academic degree achieved by Rep. Geanie Morrison, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee under Tom Craddick: High school diploma 8th 2 Number of the 150 members of the House with a college degree: Number of the new fivemember water district that are employees of Pickens: 5 Number of votes in the House for and against the legislation authorizing the water district election: 136-1 Annual revenue the state of Texas will likely earn initially from new private toll road SH 130: $1 million Length of one lane of new highway that could be built with that revenue: 1,000 feet 133 Gift received by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum \(Rmembers in 2007: Colt .38 Super handgun Minimum number of legislators with a concealed handgun license: 20 \(17 Republicans & Number of members who carry weapons in the Legislature: Unknown OCCUPATIONS OF TEXAS LEGISLATORS Business 64 Law 58 Medical 10 Real estate 9 Insurance 8 Ranching/Agriculture 8 Public interest/Non-profit 7 Education 5 Other 12 Compiled by Forrest Wilder with research assistance from Reeve Hamilton and Susan Peterson. FOR SOURCES SEE WWW.TEXASOBSERVERJORG