One in 10 Asian-Americans has hepatitis B, a rate that is 20 times higher than the rest of the population — and is surely pronounced in Houston, which has the fourth-largest Asian population of any U.S. metropolitan area. But state public health officials struggle to get funding for vaccinations and outreach.
Houston
Posted in
Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey’s interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature’s disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor’s Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
A Man of Conviction?
Harris County District Judge Kevin Fine is set to hold a hearing Monday in the case of John Edward Green, who is charged with fatally shooting a Houston woman during a robbery in June 2008. Green’s attorneys and capital punishment opponents want Fine to find that prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty because the way we administer it in Texas is unconstitutional. “The current system is profoundly and fundamentally flawed from top to bottom,” says Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service. Prosecutors counter that the ruling should be made by higher courts, not a trial judge.
Posted in
Energy
The Greening of Houston
The sprawling capital of the oil industry — the fourth-largest city in the U.S. — has embarked on a range of green initiatives in an effort to keep up with the times and, hopefully, save money. The local-food craze is the most visible of these efforts, with the opening of a weekly farmers market and the planting of Michelle Obama-style vegetable gardens tended by city hall staff. But it is also transforming itself into an electric car hub, a national leader in wind-power investment and an advocate for energy efficiency. It even has a sustainability director hired away from, yes, San Francisco.
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Public Education
Solving the Dropout Problem?
Across Texas, credit-recovery courses — self-paced online makeups offered to any student who fails — are expanding rapidly. In the spring and summer, 6,127 students in the Houston Independent School District earned nearly 10,000 credits in such courses, and another 2,500 are taking them this fall. Austin ISD and Dallas ISD enrolled about 4,000 students last year. For districts, they’re a cost-effective way to bolster graduation rates, but questions remain over whether the digital curriculum offers the same quality of education as traditional courses. Little research exists on how much, or how little, learning is actually going on.
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Demographics
2010: Dems: Perry’s Ad Prompts “Disgust”
Texas Democrats today called Gov. Rick Perry’s ad featuring a Houston widow an underhanded attempt to promote Arizona-style immigration laws. Perry’s camp says Democrats are confused.
Posted inState Government
Ads Infinitum: Perry’s “Sergeant Johnson”
Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s newest ad features the widow of a slain Houston police officer who implies that then-Mayor Bill White’s policies led to her husband’s death.
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Economy
The History of the Shuttle Program, Part One
The nation’s space shuttle program is being retired next year after three decades and more than 133 flights — including the final voyage by Discovery, which is set to blast off in a few days. All this week, KUT News is reconstructing the program’s history: how it started, how it will end and what that means for Texas. Reporters Nathan Bernier and Jennifer Stayton kick off our five-part series.
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Public Education
Mike Feinberg: The TT Interview
The co-founder of the KIPP charter school network on why its approach to education reform has flourished in Texas, whether the model can work for any kid or any family and if teachers’ unions are really the villain they’re made out to be in Waiting for Superman.
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Demographics
TribBlog: Cornyn Hits DHS on “Selective Enforcement”
In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and six other Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee say the dismissals of cases against aliens is a result of a directive from ICE Director John T. Morton to staff attorneys ordering them to review and dismiss cases that do not involve Level 1 offenses—aggravated felonies or two or more felonies.