Lawmakers, bureaucrats and criminal justice advocates all agree that the state’s trouble-ridden Texas Youth Commission ought to close down two of its correctional facilities. Like other state agencies, TYC has been asked to cut its budget for the next biennium by 10 percent, or $40 million. But no one at TYC is saying which lockups should get shuttered. “They don’t want to bite that bullet and show leadership,” says state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.
Criminal Justice
Get the latest Texas Tribune coverage on criminal justice, including crime, courts, law enforcement, and reforms shaping the state’s justice system.
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Audio: Abbott on Health Reform Ruling
The Virginia court ruling declaring parts of federal health care reform unconstitutional elicited plenty of reaction in Texas, which is part of a separate attempt to repeal the new law. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports.
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Diagnosis: Unconstitutional
A federal court’s ruling on Monday declaring parts of federal health care reform unconstitutional elicited plenty of reaction in Texas, which is part of a separate attempt to repeal the new law. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Abbott Gives Virginia Ruling Thumbs Up [Updated]
A Virginia federal district court judge’s ruling today that the individual mandate portion of the Obama health care law is unconstitutional is a “huge victory” for Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a phone interview.
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TribBlog: New SG Also New to Texas Bar [Updated]
The state’s new chief appellate lawyer is as new to the Texas bar as he is to the job.
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TribBlog: Texas Juries Gave Only 8 Death Sentences in 2010
Texas juries sentenced just eight people to death in 2010, the smallest number since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment here in 1976, according to a report published today by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
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TribBlog: Ho (Steps) Down
James Ho said today that he’s leaving the post he’s held as Texas solicitor general since 2008.
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The Tea Pot Party?
Backers of medical marijuana laws are holding fast to hopes that the specter of an ever-encroaching government will resonate with the most energized wing of the Republican Party in the upcoming legislative session.
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TribBlog: Inflexible
The legal wrangling between Texas and the federal government over the state’s air-pollution permitting system for big industrial plants is intensifying, as Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a brief in a federal court yesterday defending the system.
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John Nielsen-Gammon: The TT Interview
The Texas state climatologist on the reasons for rising temperatures, why international science on climate change is fundamentally sound (no matter what state officials say), what he thinks of our fight with the EPA and how long the drought in Central Texas is likely to continue.