Rural health advocates asked state lawmakers Wednesday to help pay for improvements to rural hospitals in up to 42 Texas counties. Without state help, they said, the rural hospitals have no hope of doing necessary renovations to catch up to federal and state hospital codes.
Texas Legislature
Posted in
State Government
After Sunset
Sunset Advisory Commissioners unanimously approved a series of changes to the troubled Division of Workers’ Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance on Tuesday, but not before aggressively rewriting the Sunset staff’s original recommendations to improve the division’s medical quality review process.
Posted in
State Government
Sunset Finishes Workers’ Comp Fixes
State lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission make final remarks after the panel unanimously approves changes to the Division of Workers’ Compensation’s medical quality review process.
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State Government
Rice Poli Sci Chair Mark Jones on House Partisanship
Mark P. Jones, political science chairman at Rice University, recently ranked Texas House members’ partisanship based on their 2009 legislative votes. The study, which we’ve used to create an interactive chart, shows Texas’ increasingly polarized political environment, Jones says in an interview.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom, Hamilton, and Philpott on the Texas Democratic Party’s state convention, the two-step, the forecast, and the ticket; Galbraith on the political and environmental battle between state and federal environmental regulators, and on a new age of nukes in Texas; Burnson on signs of the times in San Antonio; Ramshaw on hackers breaking into the state’s confidential cancer database; Aguilar’s interview with Katherine Glass, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for governor; Acosta on efforts to stop ‘Murderabilia’ items that sell because of the association with killers; Ramshaw and the Houston Chronicle’s Terri Langford on the criminal arrest records of workers in state-funded foster care centers; Hu on accusations that state Sunset examiners missed problems with workers compensation regulators because they didn’t ask the right questions of the right people; Ramsey and Stiles on the rush to rake in campaign cash, and on political races that could be won or lost because of voter attraction to Libertarian candidates; and Aguilar’s fresh take on South Texas’ reputation for corruption. The best of our best from June 28 to July 3, 2010.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Hegar: No PUC Revolving Door
When reports surfaced that the Public Utility Comission chair was being considered for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ top job, watchdogs questioned whether he could legally — or ethically — apply for the job. If Sunset Advisory Commission Chair Glenn Hegar’s recommendations stick, the answer will soon be no.
Posted in
State Government
Sunset Grill
Physician fraud investigators inside the troubled Division of Workers’ Compensation say state examiners failed to uncover serious problems there — and then recommended changes that would take key decisions away from trained physicians and give them to bureaucrats.
Posted in
Health care
Down in the Valley
Last week State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island, was indicted on charges she engaged in Medicaid fraud — the second House member from South Texas to be indicted in less than a year. But their colleagues insist that such corruption isn’t a regional thing, no matter what the stereotype suggests.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Katherine Youngblood Glass: The TT Interview
The Libertarian Party’s gubernatorial candidate talked to the Tribune on Friday about why more Texans should be armed, why same-sex unions should be allowed and her admittedly slim chances of dethroning Gov. Rick Perry.
Posted in
Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramsey’s interview with Rick Perry’s chief consultant, Stiles on the massive amount of cash that cities are collecting from red-light cameras, Grissom on the coming debate over the Democrats’ two-step primary/caucus process, Thevenot on the State Board of Education’s latest controversial plan, Aguilar on immigrants deported for minor infractions, Ramshaw on the social conscience (or lack thereof) of medical schools, M. Smith on a nascent voter registration effort in Harris County, Hamilton’s interview with the newest state senator, Philpott on Bill White’s feistier week, Galbraith on how tighter EPA rules will affect Texas and Hu on questions about the governor’s transparency: The best of our best from June 21 to 25, 2010.
