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  • Debbie Irvine: The TT Interview

    By Matt Stiles

    The newly christened executive director of the Texas Legislative Council on how the upcoming session is going to be "really, really difficult," how technology has changed her job, whether redistricting maps can get drawn and agreed upon by June and how she keeps politics from impacting her work. Full Story 

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  • There Will Be Blood

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and he'll tell you: The budget he and his fellow finance types will put forward in a few weeks confirms fears that carnage is looming. "We're making huge cuts," he told a Tea Party group last week. Full Story 

    State Representative Jim Pitts, representing District 10. District 10 includes Ellis County and Hill County, Texas.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • A Conflict in Care?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    For years, the state paid private providers who care for people with disabilities to handle their clients’ case management. But an 11th-hour change inserted into the budget last session stripped them of that responsibility, giving it instead to quasi-governmental Mental Retardation Authorities — and potentially creating a conflict of interest. Full Story 

    Health care assistant Crystal Kreig plays a card game with Steve Parker (center) and Eulalio Alvarada (right) at a group home operated by D&S Residential, Inc. Companies like D&S used to handle case management for their clients, but a budget change sent that responsibility to local Mental Retardation Authorities.
    Credit: Caity Colvard

  • Marc Levin: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    The director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation on the criminal justice challenges lawmakers will face next session (and how they can get the greatest return for each dollar spent), why eliminating prisons could be the most cost-effective way to improve safety and why creating new criminal offenses is the wrong thing to do. Full Story 

  • The Greening of Houston

    By Kate Galbraith

    The sprawling capital of the oil industry — the fourth-largest city in the U.S. — has embarked on a range of green initiatives in an effort to keep up with the times and, hopefully, save money. The local-food craze is the most visible of these efforts, with the opening of a weekly farmers market and the planting of Michelle Obama-style vegetable gardens tended by city hall staff. But it is also transforming itself into an electric car hub, a national leader in wind-power investment and an advocate for energy efficiency. It even has a sustainability director hired away from, yes, San Francisco. Full Story 

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    Credit: Wenjing Zhang

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Grissom (with Tedesco of the San Antonio Express-News) on high-speed police chases on the Texas-Mexico border, Hu and Hamilton draw a roadmap through the tangle of the Speaker's Race, M. Smith on the trouble with electronic supplements to science textbooks, Ramshaw interviews patient privacy advocate Deborah Peel, Aguilar on Cuba and Texas and trade, Hamilton on the latest in biotech from Texas A&M University, Stiles on who's in the money in Congress, Hu on the controversial renewal of the state lottery contract, yours truly on Tom DeLay's victory in the face of his conviction on money-laundering charges, and E. Smith with a Thanksgiving cornucopia of TribLive videos: The best of our best from November 22 to 26, 2010. Full Story 

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  • The Third Coast of Biotech?

    By Reeve Hamilton

    One hundred miles from the nearest major city, where there was nothing but flat earth seven months ago, a 145,000-square-foot facility has sprung up on the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus. Starting in January, its cavernous rooms will be filled with racks of tobacco-like plants expected to produce as many influenza vaccines in a single month as a traditional lab does in one year, at a fraction of the cost. Dr. Brett Giroir, the vice chancellor for research at the Texas A&M University System, calls it the most exciting project of its kind in the world, the potential savior of the next pandemic. And, he says, “it’s in Bryan. Go figure.” Full Story 

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    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • Tom DeLay Wins!

    By Ross Ramsey

    Yes, a jury convicted the former U.S. House majority leader of money laundering. But his maps — the ones that upended the careers of Democrats and helped the GOP take over Congress — are still in place. No amount of jail time can change that. Full Story 

    Tom DeLay, shown after his trial in 2011. DeLay, who was convicted of conspiracy and money-laundering, was found innocent of all charges by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • The Shipping News

    By Julián Aguilar

    The prospect of unabashedly Republican Texas becoming communist Cuba's leading U.S. trade partner seemed almost too good to be true. And, indeed, the relationship between two very different kind of red states hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Full Story 

    Barbour's Cut Container Terminal
    Credit: Louis Vest

  • TribBlog: DeLay Convicted

    By Ross Ramsey

    Tom DeLay, the former U.S. House majority leader from Sugar Land, was convicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering this afternoon. Full Story 

    Tom DeLay, at the Travis County courthouse following his conviction on money-laundering charges.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich