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The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.

  • TribBlog: Wind Claims

    By Elise Hu

    If the Larry Taylor-Steve Mostyn battle over windstorm insurance payouts wasn't a proxy war for the tort reformists and the trial lawyers before, it certainly is now. Full Story 

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  • Much Less Stimulated

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    The Legislative Budget Board says the state used about $14 billion in federal stimulus money to balance to budget in the current biennium. Lawmakers warned state agencies that those dollars were to be used for one-time expenditures only, but not all agencies followed that advice. With the next biennium's shortfall projected to be as much as $21 billion and no new fed-stim money available, what to do? Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • SBOE Will Vote on Sects Education

    By Nathan Bernier, KUT News

    The State Board of Education is getting set to vote later this week on a resolution that would call on textbook publishers to avoid a "pro-Islamic, anti-Christian bias" in Texas textbooks. As Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports, the matter may be more about symbolism than practical change. Full Story 

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  • Pete Earley: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    The author of Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness on the criminalization of mental illness, the need for community-wide solutions and how Texas wastes the money it spends on the problem. Full Story 

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  • Interactive: Government Unlimited

    By Matt Stiles

    Legislative filings increased in the Texas House and Senate by 70 percent from 1991 to 2009, records show, and the number of bills and resolutions passed by both chambers climbed at a higher rate. Resolutions alone numbered about 4,000 last session, or more than half of all legislation. Explore our interactive graphics. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman/Kiet Callies

  • Cutting School

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    The Texas Education Agency has submitted a proposal to slash 10 percent of its budget to help close the state's coming shortfall, which could be as much as $21 billion. Among the items on the chopping block: outside-the-classroom expenditures that, Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, could have a dramatic affect on student outcomes. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • The Fire Next Time

    By Morgan Smith

    Under the leadership of Williamson County DA John Bradley, the Texas Forensic Science Commission has waged a masterful war of attrition in the Cameron Todd Willingham case: Stall long enough, and public interest in the internationally controversial capital punishment case — along with political liability for any missteps — will fade away. But the commission’s latest delay, while pushing the resolution of the Willingham investigation securely after the general election, comes against Bradley’s wishes and could represent a sea change on the board that until now has resisted making any broader inquiries into the state’s arson convictions. Full Story 

    Texas Forensic Science Commission Chairman John Bradley listens to other board members during a scheduled meeting on Sept. 17, 2010, in Dallas.
    Credit: Tom Pennington

  • Accountable to No One

    By Brandi Grissom

    The Texas Department of Criminal Justice oversees most state jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards presides over county jails. But the 350 city jails across Texas are wholly unregulated. The jail commission receives dozens of complaints about the conditions inside municipal lockups — most commonly about sanitation, food, supervision and medical care — but they have no power to investigate. While critics are calling on state lawmakers to implement at least minimum standards, city officials worry that expensive new rules could result in the closure of their jails, which would mean that already overflowing county jails would get even more crowded. Full Story 

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  • A Conversation With Debbie Riddle

    By Evan Smith

    For the 12th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the GOP state representative from Tomball about what she really said on CNN, whether "tourism" babies are a threat to national security, why an Arizona-style immigration law would be right for Texas and whether she'll back Joe Straus for speaker. Full Story 

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  • Power Over Privacy

    By Elise Hu

    In the closing days of his last term in the Texas House, former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, used his legislative authority to obtain confidential records from the Texas Medical Board, The Texas Tribune has learned. His reason? To defend doctors who he believes were wrongly the subjects of misconduct investigations by the board, which licenses the state's physicians. Full Story 

    Former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, on the Texas House floor in 2007
    Credit: AP/Harry Cabluck

  • Protection or Exploitation?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    In the last year, Texas probate courts approved more than $6 million in payments from private estates to court-appointed attorneys, guardians and physicians, in many cases depleting funds left to care for incapacitated people. Critics say the practice amounts to destroying the village in order to save it. Probate judges say they're simply making sure people who can't defend themselves have proper representation. Full Story 

    Scherry Levi with her mentally disabled nephew Deartis Preston in Preston's home in Bay City.
    Credit: Rory Pabon

  • The Weekly TribCast: Episode 46

    By Elise Hu

    In our first TribCast recorded in front of a live studio audience, Evan, Ross, Elise and Ben discuss the results of the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, Gov. Rick Perry's new TV ad and the state's looming budget deficit — is it even bigger than we thought? Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: American Grandstand

    By Brian Thevenot

    Members of the State Board of Education’s hard-right wing appear poised to inject themselves into the national fray over Islamic influence in America with a resolution warning textbook publishers that a “pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias has tainted some past Texas Social Studies textbooks.” Full Story 

    Don McLeroy, a member of the Texas State Board of Education, at the Texas Tribune offices in October.
    Credit: Elise Hu

  • The Fight For Ceci

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Frank and Chila Covington could hardly be mistaken for cruel. For four decades, they showered their daughter, Ceci, who has Down syndrome, with love, affection and opportunity. But when they argued with a group home provider who insisted that Ceci needed psychotropic medication, their world turned upside down. In the time it took for the provider to accuse the Covingtons of “cruelty,” a Tarrant County judge called a secret hearing and removed their guardianship, telling them they could no longer communicate with their own child. And he had every legal right to do so. Full Story 

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    Credit: Emily Ramshaw