More than five years after Katrina, a long-term Texas Education Agency study finds that Louisiana students in Texas schools — many who came from among the nation’s worst campuses — have generally thrived here.
TribBlog: Katrina’s Exiles Thrived In Texas Schools [Updated]
Posted in
Health care
TribBlog: Small Businesses Fear Effect of Healthcare Reform
The uncertainty over the Congressional healthcare bill has incited fear among some small business associations in Texas. They gathered with U.S. Chamber of Commerce representatives on Tuesday to say they’re worried about ripple effects from the national healthcare reform — and unintended consequences for small businesses.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
2010: Lubbock or Leave It
Low voter turnout means that in a downballot statewide race like that between Debra Lehrmann and Rick Green the winner could be decided by chance — whose name comes first, or whose name sounds the friendliest. Green and Lehrmann are working to combat that dynamic in an unlikely place: Lubbock.
Posted inState Government
2010: Trouble in the Chavez Camp
Three sources close to the campaign of Democratic state Rep. Norma Chavez in Austin and El Paso today are reporting that some of her closest local campaign staffers are abandoning ship just a week before the April 13 election.
Posted inState Government
TribBlog: The Return of Debra Medina
She’s back! This morning, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina sat for a lengthy interview with BBC presenter Stephen Sackur.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: April 6, 2010
Early voting in the April 13 primary runoffs continues today. Meanwhile, the general election race for governor is already simmering.
Posted inState Government
The Census, Briefly
The forms being filled out across the country are shorter than ever before. KUT’s Mose Buchele looks into the reasons behind the census short form.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
“I Won’t Stop Dispensing Justice”
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins won’t go so far as to compare his support to the near-divine fervor of President Obama’s. But Watkins, who gained national prominence for using DNA evidence to exonerate nearly two dozen wrongfully convicted people in one of Texas’ notoriously tough-on-crime jurisdictions, will come close. “It’s a religious experience to vote for Craig Watkins,” Texas’ first African-American D.A. says without irony. Like Obama, he says, other Democratic candidates are “hanging their hats” on his re-election — and on the minority voters he draws to the polls. Like Obama, he’s got “a big target” on his back. “I’ve got to fight the political attacks coming at me from all directions,” he insists. “I’ll say it publicly: If you throw punches at us, we’ll drop a bomb on you.”
Posted in
Environment
To Dump or Not to Dump?
A proposed rule would allow more low-level radioactive waste to be transported, processed, and stored in West Texas. People turned out to speak Monday at the State Capitol about it. Andrews County, near the New Mexico border, currently accepts and stores hazardous waste, and as KUT’s Erika Aguilar reports, the list of its clients appears about to expand.
