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News For January, 2011

  • Discharged?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Advocates for shuttering Texas' institutions for people with disabilities say they have a big plus in their column this session: the state’s giant budget crunch. Full Story 

    Austin State-Supported Living Center employee Tamika Mays is shown with resident Rebecca Hadnot in 2011.
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • The Carbon Conundrum

    By Kate Galbraith

    In Texas, the largest oil producer in the United States, the demand for carbon dioxide is soaring, because it can help squeeze oil out of formations deep in the earth. That's why the idea of of capturing it and pumping it underground is gaining traction in the power sector. It sounds like an exercise in environmental idealism: Take the heat-trapping gas — belched prolifically from coal plants, which generate 45 percent of the nation’s electricity — and bury it, benefiting the atmosphere and combating global climate change. Of course, it is something of an environmental conundrum that stowing the greenhouse gas underground can also help to produce more fossil fuels. Full Story 

    A pump at an Alvin, Texas oilfield uses carbon dioxide, piped in from Mississippi, to help extract oil.
    Credit: Wenjing Zhang

  • Green House

    By Ross Ramsey

    The biggest caucus in the Texas House is the Republicans', now with 101 members. Next? The Democrats', at 49. And then there’s the freshman class — one of the biggest in years — with 38 members. All but six are Republicans, and many of them replaced Democrats. They face some challenges. Full Story 

    Members of the freshmen class of 2011 at their new member orientation in December 2010.
    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • Mental Breakdown

    By Erika Aguilar, KUT News

    Mental health providers are bracing themselves for brutal budget cuts. Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: Proposed Immigration Laws Create Unlikely Alliances

    By Julián Aguilar

    Proposing state enforcement of immigration laws can produce strange bedfellows. "Who would imagine that after 28 years of law enforcement the ACLU would be talking so nicely about me,” Sheriff Richard Wiles joked after being introduced as a common-sense sheriff by ACLU of Texas Executive Director Terri Burke for his opposition to proposed legislation patterned on Arizona’s. Full Story 

    An estimated 25,000 demonstrators attended a rally in Dallas to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform on May 1, 2010.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • TribBlog: Straus, Paxton and the Tea Party

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Hoping to see a debate between the candidates for speaker? A group of Tea Party organizations recently posed an identical set of questions to Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, and contender Ken Paxton, R-McKinney. The result is not really a debate, but it might be the closest we get. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • On the Records: The Bills So Far

    By Matt Stiles

    A new word cloud visualizes the bills filed so far according to their Texas Legislative Council assigned categories. After education, which accounts for more than a quarter of the bills, the top categories are elections, criminal procedure, vehicles and traffic, and taxation. Full Story 

    House and Senate bills filed from 11/8-1/4.
    Credit: Graphic by Wordle.net

  • Silvestre Reyes: The TT Interview

    By Julián Aguilar

    The Democratic congressman from El Paso on what life will be like with the Republicans in control of the U.S. House, why the information released by WikiLeaks shouldn't be public, whether we should be sending troops to Mexico and why Gov. Rick Perry talks so much about spillover violence. Full Story 

    U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso
    Credit: Julian Aguilar

  • The Revenue Guesstimate

    By Ross Ramsey

    Lawmakers are waiting for Comptroller Susan Combs to forecast exactly how much money the state will collect between now and August 2013 so they can write a two-year budget that spends no more than that. It's not exactly like opening the envelopes at the Oscars, but the Capitol community will be hanging on her every word. If history is a guide, her estimate of revenues will be closer to the bull's eye than the Legislature's estimate of spending. But this is a dark art; accuracy can be elusive. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman/Bob Daemmrich

  • Needles and the Damage Done

    By Julie Chang

    Public health officials have been trying for years to get dirty syringes and the diseases they spread off Texas streets with needle exchange programs that allow IV drug users to get clean ones — and always they've come up short. Given November's election results, they fear 2011 may be no different. Full Story 

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