Obstacles slow Texas’ effort to improve conditions at substance abuse recovery homes
A new law was meant to uphold standards at homes where substance abusers are trying to rebuild their lives. But compliance is proving difficult. Full Story
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![House of Extra Measures residents during a meeting at a home in Houston, Texas, on March 2, 2025.]()
Credit: Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate advances bill to start a $3 billion dementia research fund
The legislation would require voters to approve the $3 billion start-up cost, and then the fund would be maintained at no more than $300 million annually. Full Story
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![State Senators discuss a Point of Order on an amendment to the SJR 1 property tax bill to include a bonus for Texas teachers, with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on the Senate floor during the first day of the second special session at the state Capitol in Austin on June 28, 2023.]()
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Why a Rio Grande Valley hospital is helping to feed its patients
As the Edinburg facility and others seek to assist people experiencing food insecurity, state lawmakers have more than a dozen bills that could tackle Texas’ food deserts. Full Story
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![Evangelina Yzaguirre, a cancer patient at DHR, receives food aid from the hospital food pantry program.]()
Credit: Ben Lowy for The Texas Tribune -
Following Trump’s lead, Gov. Abbott pushes state agencies to end telework
The directive comes as some state agencies have downsized their office spaces after the pandemic forced many employees to work remotely. Full Story
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![The state capitol seen from the Sam Houston State Office Building in Austin on June 20, 2023.]()
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West Texans, Mennonites at center of measles outbreak choose medical freedom over vaccine mandates
In rural West Texas, measles has sickened nearly 150 people, most of them unvaccinated. A school-age child has died. The virus is spreading among Gaines County’s Mennonite community, where government mandates are not trusted. Full Story
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![A child holds a man’s finger during a service at Community Church of Seminole on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, in Seminole.]()
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Texas officials still don’t know how West Texas measles outbreak started
Texas’ health commissioner fielded questions from state lawmakers about the outbreak and vaccine risks. Full Story
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![An Austin Public Health truck is decorated with an advertisement encouraging vaccinations while parked outside the Austin Public Health office at the Bergstrom Technology Center in Austin, Feb. 28, 2025.]()
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Texas leaders quiet amid the biggest measles outbreak in decades
Declining vaccination rates, decreasing trust in government and a political unwillingness to endorse vaccines is shaping Texas’ measles response. Full Story
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![Covenant Children's Hospital in Lubbock on Feb. 26, 2025. Covenant has added a patient screening check before entering the children's emergency entrance.]()
Credit: Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribune -
Who are the Mennonites in a Texas community where measles is spreading?
The group is part of a larger, loosely affiliated group of churches with varied beliefs and leadership structures — and with sometimes strained relations with authorities. Full Story
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![The Seminole Mennonite School on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Seminole.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune -
First death in West Texas measles outbreak is unvaccinated child
More than 120 people across nine counties have been infected during the largest Texas outbreak in 30 years. Full Story
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![A measles testing sign in Seminole on Feb. 25, 2025. An outbreak in Gaines County has spread to other parts of the state.]()
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Texas has the highest rate of uninsured children, and it’s getting worse
Issues with Medicaid coverage, including long wait times, abrupt loss of coverage and lack of political will to expand it, have contributed to Texas’ high uninsured rate for children. Full Story
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![Houston pediatrician D. Maneesh Kumar talks with his young patient, Maya, who was born with a rare genetic disorder. Maya’s family relies on Medicaid to cover the expensive treatment and care she needs to stay healthy.]()
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New study finds elevated cancer rates near toxic San Jacinto River waste pits
State researchers found above normal levels of four types of cancer in communities near a toxic waste site. Full Story
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![The San Jacinto River Waste pits, an EPA Superfund site which is contaminated with dioxins, sits right on Interstate 10 east of Houston on Oct. 12, 2014.]()
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Rates of pregnancy-related sepsis and deaths grow in Texas after abortion ban
ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban. Full Story
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Texas mental health licensing board gives initial OK to remove training requirement associated with DEI
Officials say the motive for the change to the rule requiring mental health providers to receive cultural diversity or competency training for license renewals has been misunderstood. Full Story
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![Psychotherapist Monrovia Van Hoose's office on Friday, Mar. 11, 2022.]()
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Texas measles cases rise to 597
Two more counties, Potter and Parmer, have reported a measles case. The outbreak has cost state taxpayers $4.5 million to pay for immunization, testing and a public awareness campaign. Full Story
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![Covenant Childrens hospital located in Lubbock on Feb. 26, 2025. Covenant has addd a patient screening check before entering the children's emergency entrance.]()
Credit: Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribune -
How a South Texas community college embraced apprenticeships to ease a growing nursing shortage
South Texas College in McAllen launched one of the first registered nursing apprenticeships in the country as area hospitals expect the need for nurses to increase. Full Story
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![Students from left, Victoria Zamora, Michael Hunter Maldonado, and Emily Luna, practice their knowledge and skills on a manikin during class at a simulating hospital at South Texas College in McAllen, Texas on Dec. 6, 2024.
Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Gabriel V. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune -
New York doctor ordered to stop providing abortion pills to Texans
The ruling is the opening salvo in a likely lengthy battle between Texas’ abortion bans and New York’s “shield” protections for providers. Full Story
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![Boxes of mifepristone, the first pill given in a medical abortion, are prepared for patients at a clinic in New Mexico on Jan. 13, 2023.]()
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Domestic violence is up in Texas. Survivors and supporters hope lawmakers will take action.
Reported domestic violence incidents have risen 26% since 2019. Full Story
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![The East Texas Crisis Center, on Wednesday January 8, 2025, in Tyler.]()
Credit: Michael Cavazos for The Texas Tribune -
Texas foster home linked to boy’s death had history of fight clubs and sexual misconduct, report says
The death of an 11-year-old at a Greenville residential treatment center is among 16 deaths reported in the Texas foster care system in the last 15 months. Full Story
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![The Thompson’s Residential Treatment Center in Greenville on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025.]()
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Texas universities could face funding cuts for health care research under new Trump administration policy
A federal judge blocked a new National Institutes of Health policy from going into effect in 22 states that sued the agency, but Texas wasn’t part of the suit. Full Story
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![UT Tyler Health East Texas is seen from a garage in Tyler on Dec. 7, 2023. The regional system of hospitals was bought by The University of Texas System, UT Health Northeast and Arend Health Services in March 2018.]()
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Measles outbreak in West Texas worsens
Most of the infections have shown up in Gaines County. Texas health officials have consistently said that vaccination is the best way for people to avoid the highly contagious airborne disease. Full Story
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![An empty emergency room at Goodall-Witcher Hospital in Clifton on August 3, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune