A Newsweek/Texas Tribune exclusive: The Governor of Texas talks about the Tea Party, his beef with the federal government, health care reform, Mexico, the state budget, redistricting, whether he’s an insider or an outsider, what he thinks about the presidency of George W. Bush, and — while we’re on the topic — whether he plans to run for the White House himself … and his answer could not be more definitive.
Health care
In-depth reporting on public health, healthcare policy, hospitals, and wellness issues shaping communities across Texas, from The Texas Tribune.
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Demographics
The Brief: April 16, 2010
The Census deadline, a Texas-style Tea Party and NASA’s moon program.
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Health care
TribBlog: Medina Resurfaces — in the Texas Senate
Former gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina took her free market politics to the Texas Senate on Thursday, sharing a lively debate with lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee.
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Health care
TribBlog: Straus Hires Hawkins
Former HHSC Commissioner Albert Hawkins has a new job — working for the speaker of the Texas House.
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Criminal Justice
Thanks, But No Thanks
Depending on whom you ask, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins’ repeated refusal to allow Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott into a local corruption investigation is either bold or stupid. Either way, it’s unusual. Abbott has offered prosecution assistance to local district attorneys 226 times since 2007, when lawmakers first gave him permission to do it. In all but 16 cases, he’s been invited in. And Watkins didn’t decline politely.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on her two hours in Juárez, Grissom, Ramshaw and Ramsey on four of the runoffs on Tuesday’s ballot, Ramshaw on the religious experience that is voting for Dallas County’s DA and an energy regulator’s play for a job at the entity he regulates, Mulvaney on the Texas Senate’s biggest spenders, Aguilar on whether — as U.S. officials claim — 90 percent of guns used in Mexican crimes really flow south from Texas, M. Smith on the continuing Texas Forensic Science Commission follies, Stiles on how inmates spend their money behind bars and how counties are responding at Census time, Hamilton on the creative accounting and semantic trickery that allows lawmakers to raise revenue without hiking taxes when there’s a budget shortfall, and Hu on Austin’s first-in-the-nation car-sharing program. The best of our best from April 5 to 9, 2010.
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Demographics
Counting the Counties
Only three states — Louisiana, New Mexico and Alaska — are returning the census form at lower rates than Texas. But two dozen Texas counties are outperforming the national average, according to our interactive map.
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Health care
TribBlog: Small Businesses Fear Effect of Healthcare Reform
The uncertainty over the Congressional healthcare bill has incited fear among some small business associations in Texas. They gathered with U.S. Chamber of Commerce representatives on Tuesday to say they’re worried about ripple effects from the national healthcare reform — and unintended consequences for small businesses.
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Demographics
HuTube: A Census Message from Karl Rove
Check out Census 2010’s latest pitchman, Karl Rove. The man known as Bush’s Brain draws on his appreciation for James Madison to sell the Census to those who haven’t mailed in their forms yet.
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Health care
Admission Impossible
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.