Your afternoon reading.
The Midday Brief: May 18, 2010
Posted inState Government
The Brief: May 18, 2010
The state misused the blood samples of Texas babies, and lawmakers yesterday showed they are not happy about it.
Posted inState Government
2010: Saving Bill White’s Soul
“There was a lot of church growing up,” the former Houston mayor tells Texas Monthly, recalling his coming of age San Antonio.
Posted in
Health care
Uninformed Consent
Lawmakers said Monday that the state’s newborn disease screening program — which has been used to warehouse infant blood samples for biomedical and forensics research — has misled parents and given them few options to protect their babies’ DNA.
Posted in
State Government
Workers’ Comp: What’s Next?
Lawmakers are pledging to take a closer look at the Texas Department of Insurance’s Division of Workers’ Compensation in light of allegations by former employees that their higher-ups failed to sanction or remove dozens of doctors accused of overmedicating patients and overbilling insurers. The chairman of the House panel that oversees workers’ compensation says he’s planning a hearing on the matter this summer, and the chair of the Sunset Advisory Commission plans to question the division’s commissioner at a public hearing next week.
Posted in
Energy
The Next Deepwater?
While Congress investigates the April 20 explosion that killed 11 people and spiked an underwater oil leak that continues to spill more than 210,000 gallons a day, another BP rig is at the center of its own firestorm.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: El Paso City Reps. Urge Changes in Drug Policy
City of El Paso representatives call for a change in drug policy, allege current laws are a failure.
Posted in
State Government
Unemployment Stimulus Still Available?
Rick Perry made national headlines last year when he announced Texas was turning down unemployment insurance benefits available as part of the federal stimulus package. Attempts by state lawmakers to get their hands on the money anyway ran out of time at the end of the Legislative session, but as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, the $555 million is still there for the taking.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: Riddle vs. Martinez Fischer … Finally
The long-awaited debate over the Arizona immigration law between state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, and state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio — promised but never facilitated by CNN — took place today on Dallas radio station KRLD.
