Your afternoon reading: the budget and state employees; the fate of the Sugar Land prison; how a change to military voting law could alter elections in Texas
Topics
Posted in
Health care
Senate Committee Endorses Rural Hospital Hiring Doctors
Rural hospitals are one step closer to being able to directly hire doctors — something they say is necessary to attract new doctors to rural areas, but is not currently allowed by Texas law.
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Criminal Justice
Capitol Access Pass Moving Right Along
For those who frequent the Texas Capitol but don’t feel like sacrificing the time it takes to get a concealed handgun license, there may soon be a special pass allowing them to bypass the building’s metal detectors at Capitol entrances.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: Top Texas News for March 28, 2011
This week, we may find out just how hard the budget ax will swing — and who’s doing the swinging.
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Criminal Justice
AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Touring the Texas Prison Museum
Former “Walls Unit” warden Jim Willett narrates a photographic tour of the Texas Prison Museum, where he is the executive director.
Posted in
Economy
An Unexpectedly Important Bloc on Budget: Freshmen
Behold the mighty freshman Republicans of the Texas House of Representatives. They’re supposed to be quiet, to bow to their tenured colleagues, to stay out of the way. But here they are, quietly and deferentially exercising some clout on the only piece of legislation that absolutely has to pass: the state budget.
Posted in
Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: Redistricting Will Be…
For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked whether the Legislature will finish its redistricting chores or will need help, whether Republicans will be able to ensure future supermajorities, and how lawmakers will split four new congressional seats between the political parties.
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Criminal Justice
Looking Back on a Life as a Death House Warden
Jim Willett had not intended to spend the better part of his adult life working in Texas’ sprawling prison system. But the business student turned prison guard worked 30 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and oversaw 89 executions.
Posted in
Health care
Skimpy
The House Appropriations Committee, on a party-line vote, advanced the next state budget, sending to the full House a bill that spends $164.5 billion — about $23 billion less than state officials say they need to maintain current services.
Posted inState Government
Interactive: What Texas Hospitals Charge
Use our interactive to compare how much Medicaid paid individual hospitals in fiscal year 2009 for 17 common medical conditions and procedures.
