The latest state agencies news from The Texas Tribune.
A barrage of abuse scandals, a federal investigation and the shrinking state budget could be just what disability advocates need to achieve a longtime goal: fewer state institutions and more community-based living services for developmentally disabled Texans who can’t care for themselves. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/wheelchair_with_legs.jpg)
Travis County prosecutors who reviewed allegations of irregularities at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas decided months ago not to pursue the case. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3a23c6be7ec56cfb11c9283de9bc7e37/BD%20INC%20Perry%20KLRU%2001%202009)
Top appointees and employees at the state Teacher Retirement System overrode staff recommendations in order to hire political cronies and business associates for investment work there, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White charged Tuesday. A spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry's campaign says White is "throwing everything at the wall to see what will stick." Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3883060b1ee2344aa4fb7ccd0e4afa12/DONT%20USE%20Perry%20and%20White%20Split%202010)
The co-director of the University of Texas School of Law Capital Punishment Center, currently representing death row inmate Henry “Hank” Skinner before the U.S. Supreme Court, on what it's like to try a case in front of the high court, how Texas has influenced capital punishment law, why Texas juries are more inclined to impose the death penalty and the impact of life without parole. Full Story
Texas Tribune interview with Rob Owen, lawyer for Hank Skinner and co-director of the University of Texas School of Law Capital Punishment Center Full Story
A Houston-area tea party group may have illegally supported GOP candidates for office, according to a complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission today. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Screen_shot_2010-10-18_at_12.17.50_PM.png)
On Friday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White sat down with me for an interview co-presented by the Tribune and Austin's public broadcasting stations, KUT and KLRU. We talked about whether the big bucks he's raised from appointees qualifies as "government for sale," how he'd cut the shortfall, how he feels about Barack Obama, the health care reform he'd prefer, those lawsuits against the feds and more. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/white.jpg)
Highlights from Bill White's hourlong talk with the Tribune's Evan Smith. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/67d8f9a465a8b97d7a0756963d688737/TT%20Event%20Bill%20White%2001%202009)
Gov. Rick Perry says there was "nothing untoward" about his friend and donor's company receiving $4.5 million from the state's Emerging Technology Fund without getting approval from a regional screening board. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2010-10-14_at_6.11.50_PM.png)
The U.S. Supreme Court heard testimony Wednesday in a case that could have far-reaching ramifications for criminal justice nationally. Lawyers for Henry “Hank” Skinner maintain that the Texas death row inmate has a civil right to access DNA evidence that could exonerate him in the 1993 murders of his live-in girlfriend and her two sons. Lawyers for the state argue that Skinner exhausted his opportunity to analyze potentially exculpatory evidence when his defense team declined to request testing at his original trial, fearing that the results might be incriminating. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/HankSkinner002_CBM.jpg)
Judge Charlie Baird will decide today whether to recuse himself from an investigation into the innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his three young daughters. But with or without Baird, a bigger question is in play: Is a court of inquiry the appropriate venue to consider Willingham’s guilt or innocence? Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/BradleyBaird.jpg)
Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune is reporting this week on the hard-fought battles for Central Texas seats on the State Board of Education. Today: where candidates in District 10 — which covers 16 counties, including Williamson, Bastrop and parts of Travis — stand on a variety of issues. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TT-Audio.png)
Advocates say the Department of Aging and Disability Services’ baseline budget request eliminates financing for more than 13,000 people — the majority waiting to receive Medicaid waiver services. Agency officials will only say that an “unknown number” of people already receiving the services could lose them. It's unclear if lawmakers can make these cuts without risking losing federal funding; federal health care reform requires states to maintain coverage at the same level it was when the Affordable Care Act became law in March. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/102010_zhang_autism24.jpg)
Over the next two days, Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune will report on the hard-fought battles for Central Texas seats on the State Board of Education. Today: where candidates in District 5 — which covers 12 counties, including Hays, Caldwell and parts of Travis — stand on a variety of issues. Full Story
Callers have flooded the Texas Poison Center this year with reports of chest pains and increased heart rates because of a synthetic drug that mimics marijuana. Some cities are already taking steps to outlaw the substance, and lawmakers will propose a statewide ban in the next legislative session. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/k2.jpg)
Ramsey on whether Bill White at the top of the ballot helps Houston-area candidates, Aaronson and Stiles present a treemap of Texas political ads, Stiles and Ramsey on the latest campaign finance filings, Aguilar on the Laredo mayor's race, Hamilton on anonymous tweeters who make mischief, Ramshaw interviews a disability rights activist with a thing for iPads and bibles, Hu on the accidental release of Rick Perry's "secret" schedule, M. Smith on the bitter back-and-forth over a voter registration effort in Harris County, Philpott's micro-debate on education between two House candidates, Grissom on this week's twist in the Cameron Todd Willingham investigation and, in our latest collaboration with a big-city Texas newspaper, Stiles, Grissom and John Tedesco of the San-Antonio Express News on what kind of Texans, exactly, are applying to carry concealed handguns: The best of our best from Oct. 4 to 9, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TT-TribWeek_10-8-10_002.png)
Some law enforcement officials — including Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo — are pushing to criminalize driving with a blood alcohol level lower than 0.08. Matt Largey of KUT News reports that state lawmakers could consider making "Driving While Ability Impaired" a crime to help local police departments get a handle on drunk driving in Texas. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Impaired-Driving.jpg)
The new president of the Arc of Texas on why the disability community’s rallying cry to close state-supported living centers has become trite and ineffective, why the movement's messaging should be upgraded (employing everything from the iPad to the Bible) and why businesses and faith-based groups should be mobilized to fill the gaping holes in government services. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Clay-Business.jpg)
Navarro County prosecutor R. Lowell Thompson's request that Judge Charlie Baird recuse himself from the Cameron Todd Willingham court of inquiry hearing wasn't decided today. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Willingham_Baird.jpg)
A former Austin Police Department employee’s allegations of misconduct at the city's DNA Crime Lab prompted an outside audit of the lab. As Mose Buchele of KUT News reports, the results of that audit have been released. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/dna.jpg)