UPDATED: Williamson County state district Judge Ken Anderson has filed an appeal asking a court to rule that a warrant for his arrest should be void because it violates the statute of limitations.
April 2013
Posted in
Bidness As Usual
Campaign Finance Loophole Targeted
Politically active nonprofits, which are playing an increasingly important role in state elections, would no longer be able to hide the identity of their major donors under a bill making its way through the Texas Legislature.
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Public Education
Senate Panel Discusses Scrutiny of State Testing Contracts
The procedures that led to the state’s five-year, $468 million standardized testing contract with Pearson were the focus of a Senate panel’s hearing Tuesday on legislation that would change how the state handles future agreements.
Posted in
Health care
House Panel Advances Zerwas’ Medicaid Proposal
Despite opposition from conservative Republicans, the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday advanced a proposal that would reform Medicaid by allowing the state to request a block grant from the federal government and expand coverage to low-income Texans.
Posted in
Guides
Texplainer: Who Oversees Texas’ Fertilizer Plants?
Hey, Texplainer: Which state and federal agencies were responsible for overseeing and regulating the fertilizer plant in West that exploded last week?
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Critics See Holes in Bill’s Border Security Strategy
Some Texas lawmakers and stakeholders are taking issue with aspects of the federal immigration reform bill filed last week, with some questioning why the measure was crafted without mechanisms to avoid a future inflow of illegal migration.
Posted in
Energy
TribLive: A Conversation About the Environment
Full video of Kate Galbraith’s 4/22 TribLive conversation about the state of the environment in Texas with Laura Huffman, state director of The Nature Conservancy of Texas, Jim Marston, director of the Texas regional office of the Environmental Defense Fund and Bryan Shaw, chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
House Shows Support for Innocence Commission Bill
UPDATED: The House on Tuesday endorsed a bill that would create a state panel to investigate wrongful convictions. Similar legislation has been defeated in the past, but this time it has drawn supporters many consider unlikely.
Posted in
Higher Education
Emails Reflect Strain Over UT Records Requests
Emails from a University of Texas at Austin administrator to the UT System Board of Regents’ general counsel highlight the strain caused by Regent Wallace Hall’s recent records requests.
Posted in
Bidness As Usual
Bill That Would End “Double Dipping” Gets Hearing
The obscure law that allows Gov. Rick Perry to collect both his pension and salary was the subject of a hearing Monday. A proposed bill would prevent future state officeholders from using the provision.