The latest John Whitmire news from The Texas Tribune.
Thousands of untested rape kits could be examined for DNA evidence, but a bill considered today by a Senate panel carries a hefty price tag. The result could be that the boxes remain stacked on shelves in police storage rooms across the state. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/RapeKit.jpg)
After a spate of bullying related suicides in Texas schools, state lawmakers introduced more than 15 bills this session to address the issue. Today, the Senate approved one of them — SB 205 from Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Asher_Photo_jpg_800x1000_q100.png)
Hours after the state Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would merge the state's two juvenile criminal justice agencies, a House committee passed a similar bill. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TYC-TJPC-Merger_split.jpg)
Deliberation about what to cut — and whom to save — ended with a vote to restore $4.5 billion to state health agencies at a Senate Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing this morning. The issue now goes to the full Senate Finance Committee. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/healthcare.jpg)
Judges across the state, and particularly in Harris County, are sending youth offenders to adult prisons even when they have few prior offenses, according to a study by a University of Texas criminal justice expert. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/JuvenilesCriminalJustice.jpg)
At Tuesday's Senate Education Committee hearing on a trio of anti-bullying bills, the parents of children who committed suicide after being picked on by classmates asked lawmakers to fix a system they say failed their families. Full Story
Anglo Democrats — an endangered species when the political mapmakers were working in 2001 — might be a protected species this year. Many of them represent districts full of minority voters they say are protected from disruptive redistricting. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/RedistrictingHouse.jpg)
The director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown Public Policy Institute on the factors Texas lawmakers should consider as they seek to make budget cuts while continuing the reforms they started in 2007. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Shay.jpg)
Abolishing the state's two existing juvenile justice agencies and creating one new department to prevent crime and treat and punish young offenders could save Texas up to $150 million, lawmakers said today. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/whitmire-madden002.jpg)
Texas history supporters came out in force today to tell the Senate Finance Committee why the Texas Historical Commission should be saved from a 77 percent budget cut. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/iStock_000001334173Small.jpg)
From patients and parents to nurses and practitioners, the many faces of Texans affected by health care budget cuts gathered at the Capitol today to give an earful to lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCA7932.jpg)
House and Senate budget writers have proposed closing a little-known state agency that helps prevent and solve automobile theft and burglary. The catch? While they’re planning to kill the agency, they're not planning to stop collecting the fee you pay to keep it going. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/AutoTheftRate.011.png)
State Sens. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, debate the importance of voter ID, which Gov. Rick Perry has declared a legislative emergency. Perry's designation allows lawmakers to consider the measure during the first 60 days of the session. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-01-24_at_8.00.29_PM.png)
In case you missed it, we mashed up Wednesday's speeches for and against the Texas Senate's hallowed "two-thirds rule," which senators ultimately preserved. Members voted to keep an exception to the rules that allows a simple majority to consider changes to voter identification laws. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-01-20_at_10.05.06_AM.png)
In a party-line vote, the Texas Senate adopted its rules today without making any changes to the rule that requires the consent of two-thirds of the body to bring an issue to the floor. Of course, no change means that controversial legislation on voter ID — as it was last session — is exempt. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/80-AAH-24.jpg)
The Sunset Advisory Commission today unanimously recommended consolidating the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission into one single youth justice division. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/103109_txyouthcommision001_jv.png)
Lawmakers will spend the next six months drawing political maps for Texas, doing their decennial readjustment to make sure each district has the same number of people. But when they’re done, some parts of the state will still get more political attention than others, and the voters have only themselves to blame. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/RedistrictSwellings.jpg)
Lawmakers, bureaucrats and criminal justice advocates all agree that the state’s trouble-ridden Texas Youth Commission ought to close down two of its correctional facilities. Like other state agencies, TYC has been asked to cut its budget for the next biennium by 10 percent, or $40 million. But no one at TYC is saying which lockups should get shuttered. “They don’t want to bite that bullet and show leadership,” says state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Nov2010.008.png)
Governing magazine has recognized two Texas lawmakers in its 2010 class of Public Officials of the Year. Full Story
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice oversees most state jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards presides over county jails. But the 350 city jails across Texas are wholly unregulated. The jail commission receives dozens of complaints about the conditions inside municipal lockups — most commonly about sanitation, food, supervision and medical care — but they have no power to investigate. While critics are calling on state lawmakers to implement at least minimum standards, city officials worry that expensive new rules could result in the closure of their jails, which would mean that already overflowing county jails would get even more crowded. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DeathsMunicipalJails.png)