Texas House advances bill that would ban homeless encampments in public
The bill still needs final approval by the House — usually a formality after it's passed in the chamber's first vote — and then will head to the Senate. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/2fff40c7c5eaba9a754b7d3636fbe749/HTX%20Homeless%20Camping%20MS%20TT.jpg)
Karen Brooks Harper
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/profiles/Karen_Harper_NEW_TT_01.jpg)
Karen Brooks Harper reported on the state budget and health and human services from 2020 to 2024. An alumna of the Missouri School of Journalism, Karen arrived in Texas in 1995 to join the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, spent several years in Laredo and Mexico covering immigration and the drug war for Knight-Ridder newspapers, and has covered Texas politics for more than two decades for news organizations including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Dallas Morning News and Reuters.
Past Contributions
-
![A homeless camp near downtown Houston on June 23, 2019.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
With half of eligible Texans still unvaccinated and supply exceeding demand, Texas shifts COVID-19 vaccination strategies
Locals are also brainstorming incentives, sending out emergency cellphone alerts, running clinics in workplace break rooms and hanging sign-up sheets in churches. Full Story
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Ken Paxton’s challenge to California law banning state-funded travel to Texas
California banned state-funded travel to Texas because of a 2017 religious-refusal law for adoptions in the state, which critics called discriminatory against LGBTQ families. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/d3722d8d48076c5dfd9bc5640b1b1bc5/AG%20Ken%20Paxton%20SCOTUS%20REUTERS.jpg)
![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton addresses reporters on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court after the court took up a major abortion case focusing on whether a Texas law that imposes strict regulations on abortion doctors and clinic buildings interferes with the constitutional right of a woman to end her pregnancy in Washington March 2, 2016. At right is Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque -
Texas recommends resuming Johnson & Johnson vaccine shots after CDC, FDA give green light
The news comes a day after state health officials said that a Texas woman who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been hospitalized with blood clots and whose condition was being investigated by the CDC as potentially connected to the vaccine. No other details were released. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/57df26100c53178581273cb0e6756c45/Johnson%20and%20Johnson%20Vaccine%20REUTERS%20TT%2001.jpg)
![Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccines are kept refrigerated at the Forem vaccination center in Pamplona, Spain on April 22, 2021.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Vincent West -
Texas House votes down budget amendment aimed at giving health coverage to more uninsured Texans
The Texas Legislature has declined to pass any broad expansion of state and federal health care coverage for uninsured Texans since the Affordable Care Act of 2010 required states to expand Medicaid — a provision later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/9db35003bbd6d7a6f4bd06f6cb5fa938/Doctor%20Clinic%20Medical%20TT%2001.jpg)
![Dr. Spencer R. Berthelsen, M.D., saw a patient at the Kelsey-Seybold clinic in Sugar Land on Sept. 22, 2011.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Medicaid expansion picks up bipartisan support in the Texas House, but hurdles remain
Expanding the Medicaid rolls to include more than a million Texans could get a floor vote during House budget hearings on Thursday. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/8eef4d78d0ad828d23aa977daf0c6bc4/Trish%20Medicaid%20MM%20TT%2075.jpg)
![Trish and her 12-year-old son look out into the sunset at Canyon Lake on April 13, 2021.]()
Credit: Montinique Monroe for The Texas Tribune -
COVID-19 ravaged Texas nursing homes. Here are the stories behind the numbers.
Nearly 9,000 Texas nursing home residents have died of COVID-19. This is what the last year of chaos and isolation was like for nursing homes residents and the employees who care for them. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/4b84002233fc494a65eb337918001667/Uvalde%20Nursing%20Home%20COVID%20MG%20TT%2041.jpg)
![Norma Gonzales, the housekeeping supervisor of Amistad Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, walks with Ursula Sinko, a resident of the facility, on April 1, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texans hit hardest by coronavirus are facing another challenge: the pause on the J&J vaccine
Efforts to vaccinate young people, rural Texans, communities of color and people experiencing homelessness have been impacted by the pause. Full Story
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Texas pauses J&J vaccinations as feds plan to review six reports of blood clotting among 6.8 million doses nationwide
At the state's three FEMA vaccination sites in Dallas, Arlington and Houston, officials said that vaccine efforts would continue but that officials would not be administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/139a9e8cf0dae77fc6f25fecf700b765/Johnson%20and%20Johnson%20COVID%20Vaccine%20REUTERS%20%20TT.JPG)
![Harris County Public Health workers received 12,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine at NRG Stadium in Houston on March 2, 2021.]()
Credit: Harris County Public Health/Handout via REUTERS -
Trying to make sense of how Texas ranks on coronavirus vaccinations? Here’s a look behind the numbers.
Texas is beating the national rate in terms of seniors fully vaccinated, but unique challenges make it harder to move up in the rankings in other areas, officials and experts say. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/d82d4a16e58b0dd4cd4a7f897f0a4602/Wilco%20Mass%20Vaccination%20SF%20TT%2008.jpg)
![A volunteer checks in a patient who will receive a vaccine at a 24-hour vaccination event at Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex on March 6, 2021, in Austin. Family Hospital Systems hosted the drive-thru vaccine event with an 80s theme and equipped to vaccinate 7,000 people.]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/0f2da30508f0d42d0aa91e202c1972ea/Walmart%20Vaccine%20Ad%20ST%20TT%2003)
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/392481c99de0e2bd3db8153862b65f8d/Lubbock%20Vaccine%20JR%20TT%2007)