Skip to main content

News For September, 2010

  • A Conversation With Debbie Riddle

    By Evan Smith

    For the 12th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the GOP state representative from Tomball about what she really said on CNN, whether "tourism" babies are a threat to national security, why an Arizona-style immigration law would be right for Texas and whether she'll back Joe Straus for speaker. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • Accountable to No One

    By Brandi Grissom

    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 

    Article thumbnail

  • Michael Brune: The TT Interview

    By Kate Galbraith

    The executive director of the Sierra Club on the perils of coal ash, why wind is a good thing, the priorities of state environmental-quality officials and how Texas oil companies are working to roll back California's global warming regulation. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Lori Eanes

  • Protection or Exploitation?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    In the last year, Texas probate courts approved more than $6 million in payments from private estates to court-appointed attorneys, guardians and physicians, in many cases depleting funds left to care for incapacitated people. Critics say the practice amounts to destroying the village in order to save it. Probate judges say they're simply making sure people who can't defend themselves have proper representation. Full Story 

    Scherry Levi with her mentally disabled nephew Deartis Preston in Preston's home in Bay City.
    Credit: Rory Pabon

  • Power Over Privacy

    By Elise Hu

    In the closing days of his last term in the Texas House, former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, used his legislative authority to obtain confidential records from the Texas Medical Board, The Texas Tribune has learned. His reason? To defend doctors who he believes were wrongly the subjects of misconduct investigations by the board, which licenses the state's physicians. Full Story 

    Former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, on the Texas House floor in 2007
    Credit: AP/Harry Cabluck

  • Fail to the Chief

    By Ross Ramsey

    Nearly as many Texans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim as approve of his performance as president, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • Gubernatorial Debate, R.I.P.

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    That deadline set by Rick Perry has come and gone. The governor gave his Democratic challenger, Bill White, until midnight last night to release tax returns from his days as Deputy Energy Secretary in the Clinton administration. So, for now, it looks like Texas voters will not get to see the two men duke it out on the same stage. Ben Philpott KUT News and the Tribune has this report. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • The Weekly TribCast: Episode 46

    By Elise Hu

    In our first TribCast recorded in front of a live studio audience, Evan, Ross, Elise and Ben discuss the results of the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, Gov. Rick Perry's new TV ad and the state's looming budget deficit — is it even bigger than we thought? Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • TribBlog: American Grandstand

    By Brian Thevenot

    Members of the State Board of Education’s hard-right wing appear poised to inject themselves into the national fray over Islamic influence in America with a resolution warning textbook publishers that a “pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias has tainted some past Texas Social Studies textbooks.” Full Story 

    Don McLeroy, a member of the Texas State Board of Education, at the Texas Tribune offices in October.
    Credit: Elise Hu

  • TribBlog: Fine Lines

    By Kate Galbraith

    Despite opposition from Hill Country landowners, the Texas Public Utility Commission declined to throw out one of the proposed wind-power transmission lines through Hill Country during an open meeting this morning. Full Story 

    An electrical substation in Comfort, Texas.
    Credit: Callie Richmond