Expect just about every redistricting decision made this year to center on the state’s rapidly growing Hispanic population. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on how the search for Hispanic-majority districts could affect the re-election chances of some lawmakers.
Politics
Stay informed with The Texas Tribune’s in-depth political coverage, including Texas elections, state government, policy debates, and the leaders shaping the future of the state.
Posted in
Demographics
Two New Texas Latino Seats in Congress?
The public version of drawing new congressional maps for Texas started this morning with committee hearings and the unveiling of a proposal from a coalition that insists at least two of the four new districts should have Latino majorities.
Posted in
Health care
Updated: Will Hospitals Be Taxed to Prop Up Medicaid?
Talk has resumed in the Senate — albeit quietly — about a so-called quality assurance fee, a revenue generator that would effectively tax hospitals to prop up the state’s cash-strapped Medicaid program.
Posted inCongress, Politics
Interactive Map: U.S. House Seniority
These maps visualize the number of years members of the U.S. House of Representatives have served, with darker shades representing longer seniority.
Posted in
Economy
Lawmakers, Policy Experts Spar Over LBB Jobs Analysis
Lawmakers and lobbyists continue to spar over the accuracy of a recent Legislative Budget Board analysis of the effect House Bill 1 could have on jobs in the state of Texas.
Posted in
Health care
Leo Linbeck III: The TT Interview
The Houston builder and Health Care Compact Alliance vice chair on how an interstate compact could fix health care in Texas — and give the state some semblance of local control over what he calls an unsustainable health care system.
Posted in
Higher Education
Lawmakers’ Concerns Linger After Changes at UT System
After running a gantlet of concerned legislators, Gene Powell, the chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, took steps last week to assuage concerns over his direction of the system.
Posted in
Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on threats to re-entry programs for criminals, Hamilton on the tempest over the direction of UT, E. Smith’s interview with Joe Straus, Stiles and Chang’s new lobbying app, M. Smith and Weber on where state officeholders send their children to school, Aaronson on allowing new nuclear power plants, Aguilar on how Hispanic Republicans are handling immigration issues, Ramshaw talks abortion with Planned Parennthood’s Cecile Richards, Tan and Dehn on tapping the Rainy Day Fund and Galbraith on San Antonio and its water: The best of our best content from March 14 to 18, 2011.
Posted in
Health care
Cecile Richards: The TT Interview
The president of Planned Parenthood and daughter of the late Democratic Gov. Ann Richards on Republican lawmakers’ efforts to defund her organization, a Texas attorney general’s opinion she says will keep low-income women from preventative care, and how her mother would’ve handled all of this.
Posted in
Higher Education
UT System Reassigns O’Donnell: “We’re Listening”
Top officials at the University of Texas System said in an interview Wednesday that they are moving quickly to allay the concerns regarding the direction of UT, starting with the reassignment of Rick O’Donnell.