Foster child death linked to state-contracted home prompts criminal investigation
The Greenville-based treatment center has closed after the death of an 11-year-old boy the day before Thanksgiving. Full Story
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Terri Langford
Health and Human Services Reporter
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Terri Langford is the Tribune's health and human services reporter based in Austin. Langford is a veteran journalist, having worked at the Florida Times Union, The Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, WNYC, Honolulu Civil Beat and Texas Standard/KUT. Langford has a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin. She has covered various city and state agencies, criminal justice and health and human services for the Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The Associated Press, WNYC and Texas Standard at KUT.
Latest Contributions
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![The Thompson’s Residential Treatment Center in Greenville, Texas on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025.]()
Credit: Emil T. Lippe for The Texas Tribune -
Two more state employees fired after accessing Texans’ private information
So far, nine HHSC employees have been fired for accessing without a “business” purpose the private information of Texans seeking public assistance that includes Medicaid and food stamps. Full Story
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![The Brown Heatly Health and Human Services building in Austin on Nov. 29, 2017.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
After Hurricane Beryl, Texas lawmakers push for generators at senior living facilities
After failed attempts in 2021 and 2023, southeast Texas lawmakers have filed bills to require generators in nursing homes and assisted living centers. Full Story
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![Nettie Carlisle, a cook at Ella Springs Senior Living Community in Houston, holds open the empty freezer at the assisted living center on July 12, 2024. All the food had to be thrown out after the widespread power outage caused by Hurricane Beryl.]()
Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune -
Donald Trump’s push to freeze federal funds sparks confusion in Texas
Texas cities, counties, higher education institutions and nonprofits clambered Tuesday to gauge the potential fallout from the suspension, later blocked temporarily by a federal judge. Full Story
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![U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on AI infrastructure at the Roosevelt room at White House in Washington, U.S., January 21, 2025.]()
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Several bills filed to weaken vaccine mandates as more Texas families opt out of immunizations
Emboldened by Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination and disdain for pandemic-era mandates, skeptics are pushing for bills to make it easier to opt out of vaccines. Full Story
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![A man carries a sign protesting Houston Methodist Hospital's COVID-19 vaccine mandate outside Houston Methodist Hospital in Baytown on June 7, 2021. Employees who chose not to inoculate themselves by the hospital's Monday deadline faced suspension without pay and job termination, a policy criticized by the protesters as unfair and unauthorized.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
State employees suspected of stealing from low-income Texans' public assistance accounts
Seven human services employees were fired after a string of fraud and theft — and the largest data breach in agency history. Full Story
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![The fresh produce section of a Brookshire Brothers grocery store in Buffalo, Texas, on June 29, 2023.]()
Credit: Joe Timmerman/The Texas Tribune -
Texas is silent on whether it will offer summer food assistance for students
After the state missed the Jan. 1 deadline, lawmakers still have time to approve administrative costs before applying for $400 million in federal summer meal assistance. Full Story
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![Ector County Independent School District employees serve lunch to Bonham Middle School students Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023 in Odessa.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
State agency to ask lawmakers for $300 million to fix “significant neglect” in Texas’ Medicaid enrollment system
The request, which includes hiring more staff and updating the online application system, comes as applicants must wait for months to receive approval for benefits. Full Story
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![A Texas Health and Human Services client application on April 24, 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Trial judge in Robert Roberson’s death row case agrees to recusal
Senior District Judge Deborah Oakes Evans recused herself after a challenge to her impartiality over longtime relationships with case prosecutors and judges. Full Story
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![Judge Deborah Oakes Evans presides over a hearing in Palestine on Aug. 14, 2018 as Robert Roberson's attorneys seek a new trial. Roberson was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House committee demands that attorney general allow Roberson to testify
The Criminal Jurisprudence Committee plans to issue a new subpoena to the death row inmate for a Dec. 20 hearing if Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office does not cooperate. Full Story
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![From left: Texas Tribune reporter Kayla Guo moderates a conversation with State Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and Joe Moody, D-El Paso, in Austin on Dec. 6, 2024. Moody, who is chairman, serves with Leach on the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.]()
Credit: John Jordan/The Texas Tribune