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News For Monday, June 14, 2010

  • TribBlog: Texas v. the EPA, Round 2

    By Morgan Smith

    In the latest bout of the state's legal contretemps with the Environmental Protection Agency, Attorney General Greg Abbott announced today that Texas will challenge the federal agency's decision to disapprove its qualified facilities program. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • TribBlog: State Suspends Daystar Placements

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has suspended all new placements of foster children at the Daystar Residential Treatment Center outside of Houston, following a Texas Tribune/Houston Chronicle investigation that revealed workers forced young girls to fight each other in return for snacks. Full Story 

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    Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle

  • 2010: Carville Protege Joins Team White

    By Elise Hu

    Chad Clanton, a Waco-born Democratic consultant and well-known protege of James Carville, has joined the Bill White gubernatorial campaign to "work on a variety of projects ... on multiple media channels," says White spokeswoman Katy Bacon. Full Story 

    Chad Clanton in 2005.
    Credit: NY Times

  • Boyd Richie: The TT Interview

    By Reeve Hamilton

    The chair of the Texas Democratic Party on why he should keep his job, whether Matt Angle is really running things, why zero out of 29 statewide offices held by Democrats isn't his fault, why he's optimistic about 2010 and what he thinks of Barack Obama. Full Story 

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    Credit: Reeve Hamilton

  • The Chair Yields

    By Morgan Smith

    The ouster of Cathie Adams as the titular head of the Republican Party of Texas was the biggest news at its biennial convention this weekend. There was also open hostility toward Speaker Joe Straus, predictable fretting about a rift between moderates and conservatives and, of course, a laser-like focus on the state GOP's common enemy: Washington. Full Story 

    Gov. Rick Perry being endorsed by his former GOP primary rival, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, at the 2010 Republican Party of Texas Convention.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Far From Home

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Alaska officials sent 16-year-old Richard DeMaar 4,000 miles away from his parents to a psychiatric facility in San Antonio because his home state wasn’t equipped to handle his severe depression. Within six weeks, he had tied a makeshift noose around his neck, strangling himself to death. He's one of roughly 900 out-of-state kids sent to residential treatment centers in Texas in the last five years, part of a national compact that allows states that don't have adequate psychiatric services to send kids to states that do. But the practice has come under fire from children’s health advocates, who say it takes kids away from their families and their communities — two things they need to make a full-fledged recovery. Full Story 

    Richard DeMaar in his Fairbanks, Alaska home.
    Credit: Elizabeth DeMaar