Most elected officials greet a chairmanship with some excitement. Gail Lowe, the Lampasas Republican who recently became the chair of the State Board of Education, is approaching her new title with some apprehension.
Reluctantly out in front
Posted in
Economy
States struggling to fund Medicaid
States are struggling mightily to fund Medicaid services in one the deepest recessions in recent history, according to a 50-state health care study released by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. States, many of them strapped by budget shortfalls, overwhelmingly reported being saved by the federal stimulus package, and said without it, they would have been forced to make serious cuts in Medicaid eligibility.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Too busy for a review
Just days before it was set to review a case in which the state has been accused of executing an innocent man, Gov. Rick Perry replaced the chairman and two other members of an independent state forensics panel.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Help Wanted
More than two-dozen people have asked Gov. Rick Perry to appoint them to replace former Texas Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister, who resigned recently to return to private practice.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
State technology chief resigns
The executive director of the state’s data and information technology agency stepped down last month. Brian Rawson, who spent the last three years overseeing the state’s data consolidation and telecommunications efforts for the Department of Information Resources, will run “statewide data initiatives” for the Texas Education Agency.
Posted in
State Government
Goin’ to the chapel
Wedding bells rang for state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, this weekend in the tiny old mining town of Shafter, near Big Bend National Park.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Third time’s the charm?
El Paso District Judge Bill Moody said Monday that he plans to make a third run for the Texas Supreme Court.
Posted inState Government
Watch That Date
Monday is K-Day. If Kay Bailey Hutchison quits before then, the election to replace her can be held on November 3. If she quits after that date, the replacement race will be held later.
Posted inState Government
Looking for the Levers
Kay Bailey Hutchison rebounded in the most recent poll from Rasmussen Reports, but one of Gov. Rick Perry’s hottest arguments rests on the rhetoric of “I’m from Austin; she’s from Washington.” And while the latest polling has the two gubernatorial candidates locked in a tight race, it’s a contest that initially — almost a year ago — was polling strongly in Hutchison’s favor.
Posted in
Demographics
Perry Reversal Irks Business Group
The leader of Texas’ largest business group said Wednesday that Gov. Rick Perry’s new election promise to crackdown on employers who hire undocumented workers would be unfair and untenable.
