The senator still stands by her commitment to eliminate pay-to-play. The pattern is still there. There are enough contributors that he has voted for to show a pattern.

Last year we lowered prices on 5,000 items and we're continuing with our commitment to lower several thousand more. We work with vendors on negotiating an everyday value. The thought was we didn't want customers running all over town to find the best deal. We also wanted people to be able to buy things as they needed them and not feel the need to stock up.

I felt I made a commitment to play with this team and be with this team, and I didn't want to break that commitment.

The Chinese government's closure of Freezing Point is the most recent illustration of the commitment by the Chinese Communist Party to smother free expression.

Texas impressed me as being as good as any team I've seen play in this league. We made a lot of mistakes, but a lot of them were forced by the way they played. We just got beat by a much, much better team.

I think we really just want to continue improving. After last year we just have a goal to play good baseball and to make the playoffs. If we can do that, I think we will have a successful year.