As expected, the Texas Senate approved the controversial voter ID bill on Wednesday. Next, the measure will move to the Republican-dominated House, where it is also expected to pass easily.
TribBlog: Senate Approves Voter ID Bill
Posted in
Health care
TribBlog: Disability Rights Advocates Sue Perry
Disability rights advocates filed a class-action lawsuit today claiming that six Texas officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, violated the rights of more than 4,200 residents in state-supported living centers.
Posted inState Government
The Midday Brief: Jan 26, 2011
Your afternoon reading: voter ID vote could come early, congressional Democrats chime in, and “Choose Life” license plates make a return
Posted inState Government
The Brief: Jan 26, 2011
The real battle over voter ID, which cleared an initial vote last night, could be just beginning.
Posted in
Economy
The Pre-K Predicament
Just how important is full-day pre-kindergarten for the state’s youngest and most disadvantaged kids? Is it more important than after-school tutoring? Than canceling music and art classes? As public school officials brace for a proposed $10 billion less in state funding, that’s one decision they’ll have to make. “It’s choosing between bad and worse and bad and bad,” says one superintendent. “It’s definitely not a good day when we are sitting around talking about whether class size going up could help salvage all-day pre-K, or vice-versa.”
Posted in
Health care
Keeping the Faith
Like many other Texas groups, faith organizations that lobby lawmakers are bracing for a brutal budgetary session. It’s not only a moral issue for the religious groups; it concerns their own bottom lines, too. Because when the government doesn’t provide for the needy, the needy look to the church.
Posted in
Guides
Texplainer: Why Are Bills Read Aloud?
Back in the day, not all public officials could read, so clerks would read the bills aloud in the House and Senate. We’re reasonably confident they all can read now, but the clerks keep the tradition alive.
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Health care
Gil Kerlikowske: The TT Interview
The Obama administration’s “drug czar” on the federal drug control strategy, curbing drug addiction in the United States, helping to end drug-related violence in Mexico — and why legalizing illicit drugs is not the answer.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Voter ID Advances
Late Tuesday, in what was a foregone conclusion, the Texas Senate passed its version of voter ID legislation out of the chamber’s committee of the whole.
