Texas voters listen to Lance

AUSTIN, Texas-Although there was some grumbling from the usually fiscally conservative Texas voters, in the end they could not say no to native son Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, cancer survivor, and founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Proposition 15, which passed by a margin of 61% to 39% last November, provides for the creation of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and authorizes issuance of up to $3 billion in bonds for research in Texas to find the causes of and cures for cancer.

In a letter to Texas newspapers urging voters to support the measure, Mr. Armstrong and others wrote: "Proposition 15 will help attract the world's leading medical minds to Texas, create new jobs, fund new laboratories and research facilities, and stimulate economic growth."

Each year, more than 37,000 Texans die of cancer and more than 95,000 are diagnosed with the disease.

'Texas, we've done it'

After the vote, at a campaign celebration in Austin, Mr. Armstrong exulted, "Texas, we've done it tonight. We will bring the ultimate fight to this great state, and we will beat this dreaded disease, and we will win."