The latest state agencies news from The Texas Tribune.
A bill in the Legislature aims to adjust the formula for assessing completion and dropout rates at dropout recovery charters, which supporters say penalizes the schools who serve challenging populations. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_CBM2921.jpg)
Some of the thousands of untested rape kits lining evidence storage room shelves statewide would finally get testing under a bill the Texas Senate approved today. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/RapeKit.jpg)
On last night's episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart interviewed the former Texas GOP vice chairman and State Board of Education curriculum expert. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/01/09/DavidBarton.jpg)
According to researchers, Texas taxpayers would save about $57 million per year if the state cut its teen birth rate. But as Gretch Sanders of KUT News reports, proposed legislation to curb the state’s teen pregnancy problem — and save taxpayer dollars — hasn’t gotten much traction. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Pregnancy_YoungWoman.jpg)
Every 10 minutes a teen in Texas gets pregnant, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. With groups observing the 10th Annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy today, Gretch Sanders of KUT News reports on the search for ways to bring that rate down. Full Story
Less than a month before his scheduled execution, Cary Kerr had no attorney. And the ones he had had up to that point, he argued, didn’t do him much good. Tonight, his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution was turned down. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Kerr_1.jpg)
The newly named Texas Oil and Gas Commission won't be able to meet in secret to discuss contentious issues after all. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/RailRoadCommissioner_2.jpg)
Members of the Texas Railroad Commission would be allowed to meet behind closed doors to discuss the details of disputed cases under a bill tentatively approved by the Texas House on Monday. Full Story
Sen. Steve Ogden is still looking for 20 fellow senators willing to start the debate on the state budget and with less than a month left in the legislative session, the pressure is on. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/9f5f26e136fbebb47a7d5c313e924d11/BD%20INC%20Ogden%2005%202011)
Michael Marder, the co-director of the University of Texas' UTeach program, which trains secondary school math and science teachers, looks at public education data and explains the significance of poverty, why he thinks charter schools are not necessarily the answer and how public education is like a Boeing airplane. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DSC_2674.jpg)
For the latest installment of our unscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked whether the state should pay the costs if identities are stolen using state data, whether the state is can be trusted with data, and whether the comptroller will suffer politically for the latest data breach. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/inside_intelligence-logo_1.png){kind=logo}
Aguilar and Weber on a subdued debate over homeland security, Galbraith on rising concern about natural gas drilling, Grissom on a controversial psychologist, Hamilton on the aftermath of the Rick O'Donnell episode, Philpott on the comptroller's apology, Ramshaw with more on the statewide database of child abusers, E. Smith interviews Lance Armstrong, M. Smith on what House budget cuts would mean for school districts, M. Stiles on how redistricting would change things for each House member, Tan on the Senate's wobbly attempts to approve a budget and my interview with David Dewhurst: The best of our best content from April 25 to 29, 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Tribweek_04_25_2011.jpg)
Lawmakers are hoping nonprofit organizations can do a better job of recruiting organ donors and saving lives. HB 2904 would transfer management of the state-run organ-donation registry from an agency to a new collaboration of nonprofits, a shift supporters say will reduce the number of Texans who die while waiting on the list. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/OrganDonor2.jpg)
More than 2,000 people listed in a statewide database of people who mistreat children are caught in a backlog of cases waiting for appeals, many with their careers and families hanging in the balance. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib-NoWayOff-TS001.JPG)
You wouldn't know it by the miniscule amount of debate Thursday, but the Senate approved what some lawmakers called the most significant piece of homeland security legislation filed this session, a measure civil liberty groups worry is a major encroachment on civil rights. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCA5938.jpg)
Texas youths who get crossways with the law could soon find themselves under the supervision of a new state juvenile justice agency whose main mission is to keep young offenders close to home and quickly headed in a more positive direction. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20110428-Cap-Richmond007.JPG)
Comptroller Susan Combs now says she takes full responsibility for the data exposure. Some of her initial comments criticized the agencies that sent the data to her office. Today she says, "We're the last door. We're it. And as head of the agency, I am responsible." Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/b8ed19150a7fd85f8c8821b2c9d6480e/BD%20INC%20Combs%2003%20CMS%202011)
As the wildfires have worsened, costs have mounted at a rate of over $1 million per day. The state will pay the majority, though local governments and the feds will also pay a share. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/6ab253158c7e637354fc05fae609febe/BD%20INC%20Terlingua%20155%202011)
Thousands of untested rape kits could be examined for DNA evidence, but a bill considered today by a Senate panel carries a hefty price tag. The result could be that the boxes remain stacked on shelves in police storage rooms across the state. Full Story
The Texas attorney general and the FBI are already investigating the accidental release of personal information by the comptroller's office. Now, as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, an outside group wants to start its own investigation. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Susan_Combs2.jpg)