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The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Forced to Fight

    By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune, and Terri Langford, Houston Chronicle

    Workers at a center for distressed children in Manvel provoked seven developmentally disabled girls into a fight of biting and bruising, while they laughed, cheered and promised the winners after-school snacks. The fight was one of more than 250 incidents of abuse and mistreatment in residential treatment centers over the last two years, based on a Houston Chronicle/Texas Tribune review of Department of Family and Protective Services records. Full Story 

    The Dystar Residential Inc. campus, in Manvel, photographed on Friday, June 4, 2010.
    Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ramshaw on geriatric care in state prisons, with Miller's photo essay inside those walls; M. Smith interviews the state's newest Supreme Court justice, Debra Lehrmann; Aguilar finds fewer Mexicans seeking asylum in the U.S; Galbraith sorts out the politics of pollution and whether our air is dangerous to breathe; Thevenot discovers authorities writing tickets for misbehavior to elementary school kids; Philpott reports on early hearing about political redistricting; Kreighbaum examines fines levied against polluters and finds they're often smaller than the economic benefits of the infractions; and Stiles and Babalola spotlight some of our data projects from our first seven months online: The best of our best from May 31 to June 4, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • The Pollution Wars

    By Kate Galbraith

    Since last week's announcement that the EPA is getting tough on Texas, the state and the feds have been going at it. But does alll the hubbub mean that the air we breathe is dangerous? Full Story 

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  • Dying on the State's Dime

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Texas’ “geriatric” inmates (55 and older) make up just 7.3 percent of Texas’ 160,000-offender prison population, but they account for nearly a third of the system’s hospital costs. Prison doctors routinely offer up the oldest and sickest of them for medical parole, a way to get those who are too incapacitated to be a public threat and have just months to live out of medical beds that Texas’ quickly aging prison population needs. They’ve recommended parole for 4,000 such inmates within the last decade. But the state parole board has only agreed in a quarter of these cases, leaving the others to die in prison — and on the state’s dime. Full Story 

    An inmate sleeps in his cubicle in the geriatric unit of the Estelle Prison in Huntsville.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller for The Texas Tribune

  • Quite an Undertaking

    By Julián Aguilar

    When a family member dies, accessing bank accounts and collecting on insurance policies requires proper paperwork. Despite a state mandate to process death certificates in a timely fashion, however, doctors are dragging their heels, funeral directors say, leaving survivors in the lurch. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Perry Takes a Knee [Updated]

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Gov. Rick Perry's having knee surgery on Friday. In an e-mail sent out this afternoon, Dana Parish, deputy finance director for Texans for Rick Perry, notified supporters that a campaign event had been rescheduled because of the impending surgery. Full Story 

    October 19, 2008. Gov. Rick Perry before the IBM Uptown Classic road race in Austin, TX.
    Credit: Mohammad Khursheed

  • TribBlog: Boosting Broadband

    By Rachel Kraft

    Most Americans can access broadband internet services where they live, but in rural Texas, some still lack the kind of connectivity that allows them to get online without the hassles of dial-up. On June 14, the Texas Department of Agriculture will release information on the state of connectivity in Texas, including maps of where Texans have the best — and worst — internet access. Full Story 

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  • Tickets for 10-Year-Olds

    By Brian Thevenot

    With the rise of get-tough juvenile crime policies across Texas, the municipal courthouse has become the new principal’s office for students who fight, curse their teachers or are generally “disorderly” — even in elementary schools. Campus police in the Austin, Houston and Dallas ISDs, among others, write thousands of citations per year, with young students tickted egularly and minority students targeted disproportionately. Fines of $250 or $500 are not uncommon, court officials say. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • The Pollution "Police"

    By Andrew Kreighbaum

    The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has nearly doubled its number of administrative enforcement actions against polluters in the last five years — yet critics charge the agency still levies penalties too small to act as a deterrent. Full Story 

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  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Ramsey on what the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll says about the governor's race, education, immigration, and other issues; Grissom on a far West Texas county divided over Arizona's immigration law; Ramshaw talks health care reform and obesity in Texas with a legendary Dallas doctor; M. Smith on the Collin County community that's about to break ground on a $60 million high school football stadium; Aguilar on the backlog of cases in the federal immigration detention system; Philpott of the Green Party's plans to get back on the ballot; Hu on the latest in the Division of Workers' Comp contretemps; Mulvaney on the punishing process of getting compensated for time spent in jail when you didn't commit a crime; Hamilton on the fight over higher ed formula funding; and my sit-down with state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin: The best of our best from May 24-28, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacqueline Mermea

  • TribBlog: The 10 Percent Solution

    By Ross Ramsey

    Fresh off of asking for five percent cuts from state agencies and actually approving $1.2 billion of what was proposed, the state's top three leaders are asking for ten percent cuts in the amounts the agencies will be seeking next time the Legislature meets. Full Story 

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  • Kenneth Cooper: The TT Interview

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The world-renowned Dallas doctor who essentially invented jogging as exercise talks with the Tribune about health care reform, the crisis of obesity in Texas, and what lawmakers must do to shore up the physical-education legislation they passed last session. Full Story 

    Dr. Kenneth Cooper
    Credit: Emily Ramshaw

  • We Like It Better Here

    By Ross Ramsey

    A majority of Texans believe the state is on the right track, while a plurality thinks the country is on the wrong track, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva