Comptroller Susan Combs, whose office exposed the Social Security numbers and other data of millions of Texans, struck a decidedly new tone Thursday.
April 2011
Posted in
Health care
Bill Aims to Expand Organ Registry, Save Lives
Lawmakers are hoping nonprofit organizations can do a better job of recruiting organ donors and saving lives. HB 2904 would transfer management of the state-run organ-donation registry from an agency to a new collaboration of nonprofits, a shift supporters say will reduce the number of Texans who die while waiting on the list.
Posted inState Government
Guest Column: What Would Elmer Kelton Say?
The greatest chronicler of drought and wildfires — the person everyone in Texas turned to for perspective at times like these — is no longer with us to make sense of it all. But according to his son, he’d see an a silver lining in all the devastation.
Posted in
Health care
Accused Wait Years, Face Backlog to Fight Abuse Registry
More than 2,000 people listed in a statewide database of people who mistreat children are caught in a backlog of cases waiting for appeals, many with their careers and families hanging in the balance.
Posted in
Higher Education
Guest Column: The Case for Higher Ed Accountability
Taxpayers and students make considerable financial investments in Texas universities. As such, they deserve excellence in both teaching and research. Full transparency and accountability are needed to ensure that neither of those priorities is shortchanged.
Posted in
Demographics
Senate Approves Major Homeland Security Bill
You wouldn’t know it by the miniscule amount of debate Thursday, but the Senate approved what some lawmakers called the most significant piece of homeland security legislation filed this session, a measure civil liberty groups worry is a major encroachment on civil rights.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
House Tentatively OKs New Juvenile Justice Agency
Texas youths who get crossways with the law could soon find themselves under the supervision of a new state juvenile justice agency whose main mission is to keep young offenders close to home and quickly headed in a more positive direction.
Posted in
State Government
House Democrats Applaud Senate’s Budget Delay
House Democrats are applauding the Senate’s delay in taking up what they call a “woefully inadequate” appropriations bill.
Posted in
Health care
Senate Approves Medicaid Savings Bill
The Senate unanimously approved Sen. Jane Nelson’s bill to find extensive cost savings in Texas’ Medicaid program, the primary health care provider for children, the disabled and the very poor.
Posted in
State Government
Combs: “I Am Responsible” for Security Breach
Comptroller Susan Combs now says she takes full responsibility for the data exposure. Some of her initial comments criticized the agencies that sent the data to her office. Today she says, “We’re the last door. We’re it. And as head of the agency, I am responsible.”