In what’s becoming an increasingly obvious Republican sweep in the Texas House, 22 Democratic incumbents are behind in their races.
Emily Ramshaw
Emily Ramshaw was the editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune from 2016 to 2020. During her tenure, the Tribune — billed “one of the nonprofit news sector’s runaway success stories” — won a Peabody Award, several national Murrow Awards and top honors from the Online News Association.
Before joining the Tribune in 2010 as one of its founding reporters, Ramshaw spent six years at The Dallas Morning News, where she broke national stories about sexual abuse inside Texas’ youth lock-ups, reported from inside a West Texas polygamist compound and uncovered “fight clubs” inside state institutions for the disabled. The Texas APME named Ramshaw its 2008 star reporter of the year. In 2016, she was named to the board of the Pulitzer Prizes.
A native of Washington, D.C., and the product of two journalist parents, Ramshaw graduated from Northwestern University in 2003 with dual degrees in journalism and American history.
Posted inState Government
Laura Bush: The TT Interview
The former first lady on life in the Governor’s Mansion vs. life in the White House, her newfound freedom living in Dallas, why she kept her personal politics out of her husband’s presidency, the role she’s playing at the Bush Library, the two works of fiction she’s reading now and her fondest memories of the Texas Book Festival, which she launched when she was living in Austin 15 years ago — and whose annual gala she’ll headline tonight with a reading from her best-selling memoir, Spoken from the Heart.
Posted in
Health care
A Hole in the Safety Net
Advocates say the Department of Aging and Disability Services’ baseline budget request eliminates financing for more than 13,000 people — the majority waiting to receive Medicaid waiver services. Agency officials will only say that an “unknown number” of people already receiving the services could lose them. It’s unclear if lawmakers can make these cuts without risking losing federal funding; federal health care reform requires states to maintain coverage at the same level it was when the Affordable Care Act became law in March.
Posted in
Health care
Clay Boatright: The TT Interview
The new president of the Arc of Texas on why the disability community’s rallying cry to close state-supported living centers has become trite and ineffective, why the movement’s messaging should be upgraded (employing everything from the iPad to the Bible) and why businesses and faith-based groups should be mobilized to fill the gaping holes in government services.
Posted in
Health care
An Interview With Arc of Texas President Clay Boatright
An Interview With Arc of Texas President Clay BoatrightTexas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Posted inState Government
An Interview With Laura Bush
An Interview With Laura BushTexas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Posted in
Health care
In the Soup?
Double-billing taxpayers for travel expenses, driving a luxury car owned by a state transportation contractor and repeatedly failing to pay taxes won’t put a lawmaker in good standing with the ethics police, as state Reps. Charles “Doc” Anderson, R-Waco; Joe Driver, R-Garland; and Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, are finding. The three hope the headlines dogging their re-election bids won’t follow them to the polls, while their Democratic opponents are reveling in their misery at every campaign stop. Yet whether a scandal forces an incumbent from office depends on the scenario.
Posted in
Higher Education
TribBlog: UT Shooting Coverage Roundup
The University of Texas campus has reopened following the apparent suicide of a young man who burst into the Perry-Castañeda Library in a business suit and a face mask, wielding an AK-47, according to witness accounts. We’ve rounded up the best of the media coverage so far.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Housing Department Broke Disaster Recovery Rules
In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs broke several regulations when it contracted with a firm to distribute more than $200 million in disaster recovery funds, according to a federal audit.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Bed-Mal
Is a hospital bed an integral part of medical care? As a federal judge considers the constitutionality of Texas’ 2003 medical malpractice reform — and Gov. Rick Perry campaigns for more lawsuit restrictions — the state Supreme Court has ruled that hospital injuries seemingly unrelated to doctor error can fall under Texas’ stringent medical malpractice caps. Some legal observers say the decision is a perversion of legislative intent, but tort reform advocates contend the high court simply closed a huge loophole in liability reforms.