Texas' Medicaid program is in a "state of financial crisis," according to an analysis of caseload and costs published by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank. It's the latest addition to the debate over whether Texas should drop out of the federal Medicaid program. Full Story
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Dr. Thomas Royer, president and CEO of the Christus Health System, says that if an error occurs at the hospital, the patient should be financially reimbursed — but not with limitless settlements. He has blogged a response to Sunday's Texas Tribune/New York Times article on the effects of tort reform on the safety of Texas emergency rooms. Full Story
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Add another job for the Legislature come January: election arbitrator. Full Story
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Over the next several months, hundreds of electric and plug-in hybrid cars will arrive in Texas cities. They will emit little pollution and be cheaper to operate than conventional vehicles. For the state government, however, the advent of alternative-fuel vehicles creates a long-term concern: They will generate little or no gas tax revenue — a key funding source for keeping the state's roads and bridges in good repair. Full Story
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The president of Texans for Lawsuit Reform on why the group spends spend so much money on state elections, what it still wants from the Legislature, what he thinks the trial lawyers on the other side are after and what's wrong with the Democrats these days. Full Story
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Despite its relatively low number of people who walk and bike to work, Texas ranked 10th-highest among states in fatality rates for bicyclists and pedestrians in a recent survey. Lawmakers who worked on a failed 2009 measure to create a buffer zone, giving bicyclists more room on the road, will try again in 2011. Full Story
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Republican Dan Neil will take his battle for a Travis County seat in the Legislature to the full House to decide. Full Story
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Times may be tough, but higher education leaders in both chambers of the Legislature believe now is the perfect time for universities to build. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry today announced pardons for eight Texans who were convicted of relatively minor offenses, most of them decades ago. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading: glimmer of hope for Hutchison; Perry's nuclear money; and Aaron Peña for Congress? Full Story
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Three or four? That's the big question. And tomorrow, we get an answer. Full Story
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Now that state Reps. Allan Ritter of Nederland and Aaron Peña of Edinburg have ditched the Democrats, attention turns to how they'll hold on to their seats. The former is following a time-tested strategy that has worked for others. The latter is challenging political history. Full Story
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Three years after a crackdown that resulted in federal conspiracy charges against Laredo's former police chief, the city's electronic gaming parlors are back — most tucked in nondescript strip malls. Their resurgence owes to their popularity, says state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, who has offered a solution: Let the voters decide. Full Story
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A class-action suit being filed in U.S. district court today alleges that thousands of Texans with severe mental and physical disabilities are confined in nursing homes with no access to rehabilitative care. Full Story
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For this week's installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether more House members will change parties, how switchers should make the change and whether (and which) Republicans will peel off to vote with the Democratic minority during the coming legislative session. Full Story
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The prevailing theory among Republicans, at least publicly, is that their House herd of 101 will always move together as one, and there will be peace and harmony in the land and all that. Full Story
The tort reform state lawmakers passed in 2003 made it more difficult for patients to win damages in any health care setting, but none more so than emergency rooms, where plaintiffs must prove doctors acted with "willful and wanton" negligence. Tort reform advocates say the law is needed to protect ER doctors operating in volatile environments. But medical malpractice attorneys argue the threshold is nearly impossible to cross. “You’d have to be a Nazi death camp guard to meet this standard,” says one. Full Story
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There's no way to put lipstick on this particular Oriole: We screwed up, plain and simple, in writing that you are "in heaven." Full Story
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The inmates who escaped from a prison in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, which sits across from Laredo, are likely part of a plan to bolster the ranks of the Zetas cartel, says Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar. Full Story
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Ramsey on what a GOP supermajority means, Ramshaw on a crime victim not eligible for crime victims' compensation, M. Smith on grave matters and state regulation, Hamilton on the college pipeline at San Antonio's Jefferson High, Hu on a senator's anticlimactic return, Grissom on the coming closure of juvenile lockups, Aguilar on the return of residents to their drug-war-torn Mexican town, Galbraith on next session's energy agenda, Philpott on the legal fight over federal health care reform and Stiles on the travel expenses of House members: The best of our best from Dec. 13 to 17, 2010. Full Story
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