The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.
The state Division of Workers' Compensation has uncovered "tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary medical care" in the last several years, but its commissioner failed to sanction the doctors involved, a key former employee told members of the Sunset Advisory Commission on Tuesday night. Full Story
A new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that 57 percent of Texans favor legalizing casino gambling as a means to draw down the coming budget shortfall, but only 21 percent support higher taxes. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/gambling-cards-dice.jpg)
Death row inmate Hank Skinner bought himself some time Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to address whether he can bring a federal civil rights lawsuit instead of making a habeas corpus claim. But legal experts say he's unlikely to escape his ultimate punishment. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/HankSkinner002_CBM.jpg)
More than two-thirds of Texans say their confidence in the state's public schools ranges from shaky to nonexistent, according to the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. A majority of Texans believe that crime, low academic standards, lack of parental involvement and not enough funding are "major" problems that public schools face — but two-thirds say "too much religion in the schools" is not a problem. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/tt-educationpoll001.png)
The state's largest business group is opposing proposed recommendations to change up the review process for unscrupulous workers' comp doctors, a process at the center of the controversy over how the Division of Workers' Compensation operates. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TABlogo.jpg)
As lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission prepare to publicly review the Division of Workers' Compensation on Tuesday, the Commissioner and his former physician fraud investigator are waging a war of words in their letters to lawmakers. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20100429_Ken_Ford_250.jpg)
Coming soon to a large pink state capitol building in this very state: A day-long seminar on slot machines and casinos and all that, especially as it pertains to the state budget. Full Story
The U.S. Supreme Court announced this morning that it will take up Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner's case. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20100120-IMG_2761-2.jpg)
Let's say you served time for a crime you didn't commit: How much is each year you lost really worth? A new law increases the state's payout to exonerees, but the process of getting compensated is its own form of punishment. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TexasExonerations002.png)
Today the former San Antonio mayor, former HUD Secretary and recent social studies textbook reject publicly backed the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in a big, iconic state with a screwed-up Capitol culture and an incumbent governor who is occasionally the subject of unkind comments elsewhere in the country. No, not that candidate. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/henry_cisneros_-_lower_res.jpg)
Thevenot on the ideological backbiting at the internationally famous State Board of Education; Stiles, Narioka and Hamilton plumb employee salary data in Texas colleges and universities; Grissom looks at the problem of insufficient indigent defense; Cervantes on the push for "veterans courts" emphasizing treatment and counseling over punishment; Aguilar finds border congressmen asking the governor for a fair break on federal homeland security dollars; M. Smith on another BP rig in the Gulf; Ramshaw reports on nurse practitioners trying to get permission slips from doctors; Hu follows up with lawmakers poking at whistleblower allegations of trouble in the state's workers' compensation regulation; Hamilton stops in on Luke Hayes and his efforts to turn Texas into a political powerhouse for Obama; and Ramsey writes on generation changes at the Capitol and on political pranksters: The best of our best from May 17 to 21, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Tribweek800px05222010.jpg)
You know that prayer that before today's State Board of Education meeting, which some found so inappropriate? It was read by arch-conservative Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond — but not written by her. In a gag on her detractors, she lifted the text from U.S. Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon Earl Warren. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/mcleroyanddunbar.jpg)
After a series of bombastic speeches, the State Board of Education just approved the social studies curriculum on a party line vote of 9-5, with Geraldine Miller, R-Dallas, absent. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/10430f052e84e298206bb60371f96cdb/BD%20INC%20SBOE%2002%202009)
The State Board of Education instructs students to "contrast" the intent of the Founding Fathers with the modern legal interpretation of the separation of church and state. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/dunbarandmcleroy.png)
At long last, Thomas Jefferson returns to the State Board of Education’s world history standards, where he had been excised to great controversy earlier. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/gaillowe.jpg)
In a morning prayer to open the State Board of Education meeting, social conservative member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, mixed worship with a constitutional argument against the separation of church and state — previewing the politically charged debate to come later today, as conservatives tackle their last big agenda item before approving the state social studies standards. Full Story
As the Division of Workers' Compensation heads into a public hearing at the Sunset Advisory Commission next week, Commissioner Rod Bordelon is blasting his former employees for their allegations reported by the Texas Tribune. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20100503-DSC_0187.jpg)
The number of Texans working was up in April, but so was the number of people looking for work. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/txemploy20100521.jpg)
The SBOE's last day, Dallas could turn all "wet," El Paso ranked one of the safest cities in the U.S. and the truth behind the BP oil spill. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/books_800px.jpg)
A member of the State Board of Education's internationally notorious conservative wing trotted out Barack Obama's middle name late in a marathon meeting Thursday, a fitting end to a debate over social studies curriculum standards that was marked by irritable outbursts and inane dialogue. Members fought over slavery, Jefferson Davis, Joseph McCarthy — even over when they could finally adjourn. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/0bb7ecbaecc33aa7c0093c5e31130cf7/BD%20INC%20Just%20Educate%202010)