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News For November, 2010

  • TribBlog: Game On ... for Now

    by Julián Aguilar

    Unregistered high school umpires will keep their stripes on, for now. A U.S. district judge granted an injunction today requested by the Texas Association of Sport Officials, halting a University Interscholastic League mandate that all high school sports officials register with the agency. Some officials were refusing to register, risking a lockout. Full Story 

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    Credit: Tom Pennington

  • TribBlog: Changes Ahead For TEXAS Grants?

    by Reeve Hamilton

    With the threat of massive budget cuts looming on the horizon, state higher education leaders are looking for ways to get more out of what few dollars they may ultimately get to spend. One program that may see some changes is the Toward Excellence, Access, and Success Grant program, the state’s largest financial aid program. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: Anderson Cooper vs. Leo "Birther"

    by Evan Smith

    On last night's edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, sparred with the host about whether Barack Obama has a U.S. birth certificate — and whether Texas law should be changed to require that any candidate for president who wants ballot access produce one. Full Story 

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  • "A Many-Headed Monster"

    by Julián Aguilar

    Mexican police think they've caught the drug kingpin behind the murder of a U.S. consulate employee and an El Paso sheriff's deputy in Juárez in March. But it's unlikely the arrest of a cartel leader will stem the tide of violence. Full Story 

    Alleged hit man Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, center, is displayed by Mexican law enforcement.
    Credit: SECRETARÍA DE SEGURIDAD PÚBLICA

  • Diabetic Shock

    by Emily Ramshaw

    The number of adult Texans with diabetes is expected to quadruple over the next three decades, a massive spike that demographers and health care experts attribute to the state’s aging population and obesity epidemic. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Debbie Irvine: The TT Interview

    by Matt Stiles

    The newly christened executive director of the Texas Legislative Council on how the upcoming session is going to be "really, really difficult," how technology has changed her job, whether redistricting maps can get drawn and agreed upon by June and how she keeps politics from impacting her work. Full Story 

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  • There Will Be Blood

    by Ross Ramsey

    Ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and he'll tell you: The budget he and his fellow finance types will put forward in a few weeks confirms fears that carnage is looming. "We're making huge cuts," he told a Tea Party group last week. Full Story 

    State Representative Jim Pitts, representing District 10. District 10 includes Ellis County and Hill County, Texas.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • A Conflict in Care?

    by Emily Ramshaw

    For years, the state paid private providers who care for people with disabilities to handle their clients’ case management. But an 11th-hour change inserted into the budget last session stripped them of that responsibility, giving it instead to quasi-governmental Mental Retardation Authorities — and potentially creating a conflict of interest. Full Story 

    Health care assistant Crystal Kreig plays a card game with Steve Parker (center) and Eulalio Alvarada (right) at a group home operated by D&S Residential, Inc. Companies like D&S used to handle case management for their clients, but a budget change sent that responsibility to local Mental Retardation Authorities.
    Credit: Caity Colvard

  • Marc Levin: The TT Interview

    by Brandi Grissom

    The director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation on the criminal justice challenges lawmakers will face next session (and how they can get the greatest return for each dollar spent), why eliminating prisons could be the most cost-effective way to improve safety and why creating new criminal offenses is the wrong thing to do. Full Story 

  • The Greening of Houston

    by Kate Galbraith

    The sprawling capital of the oil industry — the fourth-largest city in the U.S. — has embarked on a range of green initiatives in an effort to keep up with the times and, hopefully, save money. The local-food craze is the most visible of these efforts, with the opening of a weekly farmers market and the planting of Michelle Obama-style vegetable gardens tended by city hall staff. But it is also transforming itself into an electric car hub, a national leader in wind-power investment and an advocate for energy efficiency. It even has a sustainability director hired away from, yes, San Francisco. Full Story 

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    Credit: Wenjing Zhang

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    by Ross Ramsey

    Grissom (with Tedesco of the San Antonio Express-News) on high-speed police chases on the Texas-Mexico border, Hu and Hamilton draw a roadmap through the tangle of the Speaker's Race, M. Smith on the trouble with electronic supplements to science textbooks, Ramshaw interviews patient privacy advocate Deborah Peel, Aguilar on Cuba and Texas and trade, Hamilton on the latest in biotech from Texas A&M University, Stiles on who's in the money in Congress, Hu on the controversial renewal of the state lottery contract, yours truly on Tom DeLay's victory in the face of his conviction on money-laundering charges, and E. Smith with a Thanksgiving cornucopia of TribLive videos: The best of our best from November 22 to 26, 2010. Full Story 

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