The state is working to get poor Texans food stamps quicker, but it’s not fast enough for many families, and too many children are getting their only hot meal at school, according to Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid.
Health care
In-depth reporting on public health, healthcare policy, hospitals, and wellness issues shaping communities across Texas, from The Texas Tribune.
No Country For Health Care, Part 2: The Trauma Hole
Emergency medicine doctors say trauma victims must receive care within the “golden hour” to survive. But many rural Texas counties aren’t anywhere near hospitals that can handle complex injuries or illness.
No Country For Health Care, Part 1: Far From Care
Dozens of rural Texas counties have no primary care doctors, no hospitals, no pharmacies. Many Texans live more than an hour from basic medical care. And some border communities have so little health care that U.S. citizens cross over into Mexico to get it.
Badillo Family on Rural Health Care
Moises Badillo talks about his struggle to get health care for his profoundly disabled son in a rural community in Van Horn.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Roll your own political videos … interactive travel maps of your federal and state legislators … scary movies, to keep the kids out of the border’s scary drug wars … puttting dropouts back in class … rates squeezing families out of home health care … how many lobby and trade associations do teachers in Texas need? … enjoying the silence before an expected two-month siege of political advertising … the dean of Texas political writers gets shut out of the gubernatorial debates … and we have an interactive database of the state’s best and worst public schools. The best of our best for a short news week, from December 19 to 26, 2009.
TribBlog: Texas Grows
We added more people this year than any other state — more than Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado combined.
TribBlog: DSHS Will Destroy Blood Spots
The Department of State Health Services will destroy all blood samples taken from infants before May 27, 2009 to settle a lawsuit over the state’s newborn screening program.
Rate Riot
Families of disabled Texans fear an increase in home nursing rates could force them to cut services for their loved ones.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Stiles and Thevenot collaborate on the salaries paid to superintendents, and even compare them on price per student… Ramsey’s look at redistricting and next year’s elections… Aguilar’s report on jails, brought to you by the federal agency that’s in the ag business… Rapoport’s peek at the power behind Texas pre-kindergarten programs… Smith’s conversation with Dan Patrick, in three parts… Grissom’s narrative on a circular immigration and deportation route financed by two governments… Ramshaw finds doctors agreeing on public policy and split on strategy and tactics… Hu’s latest Stump Interrupted puts the camera on Farouk Shami… Hamilton’s story on two retired cops who are taking on cargo theft in Texas… And Kreighbaum and Stiles pop open the itineraries of your folks in Congress. The best of our best from December 12 to 18, 2009.
TribBlog: Have Tx Medical Malpractice Caps Failed?
Medical malpractice liability caps Texas lawmakers installed in 2003 have failed to improve the state’s health care system, according to a Public Citizen report released today.


