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Griffin Perry

The latest Griffin Perry news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Admission Impossible

    By Alexa Garcia-Ditta

    The wait to get into one of Texas' 10 state mental hospitals — already long — may be about to get longer. Last month, as part of its attempt to comply with Gov. Rick Perry’s request that each state agency reduce its budget by 5 percent, the Department of State Health Services proposed eliminating 50 beds from four of the state's 10 mental hospitals: San Antonio, Rusk, Terrell and North Texas Wichita. The state's mental hospitals are already almost at full capacity, with nearly 2,500 self-admitted patients and allegedly criminal patients awaiting treatment so they can stand trial. Full Story 

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  • Kay in 2012?!?

    By Ross Ramsey

    She said she would limit her time in the U.S. Senate to two terms and is currently serving a third. She said she would resign her federal office to run for governor and didn't. She said she would quit after the primary and hasn't. So who's to say she won't reconsider in two years and run for a fourth term? And what of all those would-be successors? Full Story 

  • 2010: Kay Stays [UPDATED]

    By Elise Hu

    Surprising almost no one, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison announced in San Antonio that she will not resign her Senate seat. She'll stay through the end of her term in 2012. Full Story 

    March 31, 2010. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in San Antonio, announcing she will keep her Senate seat through 2012.
    Credit: Elise Hu

  • Remember Immigration?

    By Brandi Grissom

    Lawmakers are reeling from the bruising political battle over health care reform and are loath to take on another divisive issue and additional risky votes. So the prospects remain dim for legislation that would improve border security, provide a pathway to citizenship for millions and crack down on unscrupulous employers — but that doesn't mean everyone's forgotten about it, as the hundreds of thousands of advocates who marched on Washington, D.C., last weekend can attest. Full Story 

    Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance press conference in Dallas before departure for The March for America Immigration Rally.
    Credit: Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance

  • The Runoffs: CD-17

    By Emily Ramshaw

    It's money versus geography and name ID in the race between the two top finishers in the five-way GOP primary in this conservative-leaning congressional district. The winner will face U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. Full Story 

    CD-17 Republican candidates Rob Curnock of Waco and Bill Flores of Bryan

  • 2010: White Attacks Perry's Border Crime Claims

    By Brandi Grissom

    Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White today called on GOP Gov. Rick Perry to remove claims on his public and campaign Web sites that crime on the Texas border has dropped 65 percent. Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner defended the claims. He said Perry's claim refers to temporary crime drops in discreet areas during so-called "border surge" operations. Full Story 

    BIll White, Rick Perry at their Primary 2010 reception speeches.
    Credit: Callie Richmond, Caleb Bryant MIller

  • Skinner Gets a Stay

    By Brandi Grissom

    Hank Skinner was set to die Wednesday for the 1993 murders of his live-in girlfriend and her two mentally disabled adult sons — a crime he insists he did not commit. About an hour before he was to have poison pushed through his veins, the U.S. Supreme Court spared his life. Full Story 

    International media gather around death penalty abolitionist Kiersten Saldano shortly after the Supreme Court announced a stay of Hank Skinner's execution.
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • The Price of Reform

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Behind the fiery health care rhetoric is a measure expected to dramatically expand Texas’ Medicaid program, adding up to 1 million adults to the state’s insurance roll — but at a steep cost. Texas will have to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue to foot its share of the bill. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Spillover Politics

    By Brandi Grissom and Julián Aguilar

    Leaders from one end of the Texas-Mexico border to the other want Gov. Rick Perry to tone down the scary rhetoric and get real about solving problems in their hometowns. And, by the way, they would like to be consulted about security plans that affect their communities. "We know what's going on on the border," says Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas. "Our needs were not taken into consideration." Full Story 

    A screengrab from Perry's "Border" spot.
    Credit: Texans for Rick Perry

  • The Secret Pardon

    By Brandi Grissom

    Barring the intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is Hank Skinner’s last hope for reprieve from the poison-filled syringe he is set to meet on Wednesday. The board makes life-or-death decisions, recommending to the governor whether an execution should be delayed, called off or carried out, yet it’s one of the least transparent agencies in state government. Full Story 

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    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • TribBlog: Perry Sends Choppers to the Border

    By Brandi Grissom

    Revealing more details about the first phase of the border spillover prevention plan that he activated Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry today announced he is sending two helicopters to the Texas-Mexico border, an OH-58 Kiowa and a UH-72 Lakota. The exact locations of the choppers, however, will not be released for security purposes. Full Story 

    UH-72 Lakota helicopter
    Credit: Wikipedia