Category Archives: The great state of Texas

The border tax effect on your food

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

You’re gonna pay more. Any questions? The idea of a tariff on Mexican imports or a radical change to the North American Free Trade Agreement — another Trump promise — worries many Texas agriculture industry leaders, who say it is … Continue reading →

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Alternate funding sources

Posted on February 7, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

That’s one way to do it. State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, announced plans Friday to raise public funds for Travis County, days after Gov. Greg Abbott canceled about $1.5 million in criminal justice grants over the county’s new “sanctuary” policy. … Continue reading →

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“The Short, Tumultuous Tenure Of Corpus Christi Mayor Dan McQueen”

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

This is just amazing. After just 37 days in office, Dan McQueen announced his resignation as the mayor of Corpus Christi via Facebook last Wednesday. “Consider this my resignation. I resign immediately,” he wrote in the Facebook post, according to the … Continue reading →

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Texas’ first transgender Mayor

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Meet Jess Herbst, Mayor of New Hope, Texas. The mayor of a small Collin County town has become the first known openly transgender elected official in Texas history. Jess Herbst, who was elected mayor of New Hope last May, came … Continue reading →

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Fire ant-killing robots

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s just luxuriate in the glory of that headline for a moment, shall we? Harley Myler is working on a “war of the worlds.” That’s what the Lamar Electrical Engineering Department chair calls his latest project: a walking robot that … Continue reading →

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The history of the Chicken Ranch

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Chron columnist and Texas historian Joe Holley writes about an attempt to put a marker by the site of the infamous Chicken Ranch. It’s been 43 years since KTRK-TV’s crusading consumer affairs reporter (“Slime in the ice machine!!”) rolled into … Continue reading →

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Galveston wants a bag ban

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck. Reacting to a groundswell of concern about the effect of plastic bags on the environment, Galveston is on the forefront of a statewide controversy over cities’ ability to ban plastic bags that are killing turtles, birds and fouling … Continue reading →

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It’s Santa season

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Ho, ho, ho, y’all. For two months of the year, Houston aircraft mechanic Lance McLean trades in his coveralls at the end of the day for a red Santa suit. This year, McLean will don the suit 49 times, beginning … Continue reading →

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The coming measles outbreak

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I hope we’re wrong about this. Peter Hotez used to worry mostly about vaccines for children in far-away places. An infectious diseases researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, Hotez is developing shots against diseases in poorer countries … Continue reading →

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An awful lot of Texans could lose health insurance

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

It sure will suck to be them. New public-health studies warn that hasty congressional action toward repealing the Affordable Care Act could have dire consequences for the poor and uninsured both in Texas and nationwide. The dismantlement of portions of … Continue reading →

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MUDs and debt

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Another story about the least-understood form of debt and taxation in Texas. In Houston’s conservative suburbs, where local governments are loath to raise taxes, the thankless task of hiking revenues has fallen to hundreds of so-called municipal utility districts created … Continue reading →

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Ostriching

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Hey, remember when ostrich farms were the next big thing? Over the last few years, there’s been renewed interest in ostrich farming in the United States, particularly in Texas. The industry peaked in the 1990s, before inflated prices for birds … Continue reading →

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Stuck in the MUD

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Tricky things, these municipal utility districts. MUD 187 came to be when a Houston developer arranged for two people to move their trailer onto a 519-acre site on the edge of Richmond in Fort Bend County, which at the time … Continue reading →

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Black women face much higher risk of pregnancy-related death in Texas

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Any time you’re being compared to a third world country, it’s not a good thing. Black women bear the greatest risk for pregnancy-related death in Texas by far, according to a much-awaited new report, commissioned because the state rate resembles … Continue reading →

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Getting the (wind and solar) power to the people

Posted on August 27, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

It’s all about the transmission lines. The Lone Star state is by far the largest state for wind power, with nearly 18,000 megawatts of wind generation capacity already built and another 5,500 megawatts—nearly equal to California’s total installed capacity—planned. The … Continue reading →

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Why are so many pregnant women dying in Texas?

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Better yet, what are we going to do about it? The rate of Texas women dying of pregnancy-related causes nearly doubled from 2010 to 2014, with the state seeing more than 600 such deaths in the four-year span. In a … Continue reading →

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“Just Like Every Other Kid”

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the Observer: Texas’ child welfare apparatus is in a shambles. Zika virus threatens to put some of our most vulnerable in danger. Low oil prices have fiscal leaders worried about the future of the state’s budget. State lawmakers are … Continue reading →

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Behind The Tower

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Fifty years have passed since Charles Whitman went on an infamous killing spree at the University of Texas. Now a group of historians at UT have taken an in depth look at Whitman and his actions, and tried to answer … Continue reading →

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The Latino health insurance enrollment gap in Texas

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

We have made great strides in reducing the uninsured rate in Texas thanks to the Affordable Care Act, but there’s still a lot of work to do. The percentage of Hispanics in Texas without health insurance has dropped by 30 … Continue reading →

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Will we ever learn what caused Greg Abbott’s burns?

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Not sure what to make of this. Gov. Greg Abbott was released Friday from a San Antonio military hospital, but he has yet to give details of the accident that put him there with second- and third-degree burns. Abbott’s office … Continue reading →

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Guardianship

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

An eye-opening story in the Observer on a subject many of us probably never think about. Guardianship is the state’s last-ditch tool to protect people from neglect or abuse, and although it saves lives, it can be a blunt instrument. … Continue reading →

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Hexit?

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron’s Ken Hoffman asks a burning question. Just for fun, how would the vote go if Houstonians had a crack at “Hexit” – leaving Texas? I don’t mean another “Brexit” – in which British voters elected to leave the … Continue reading →

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Abbott hospitalized after suffering burns

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Ouch. [Gov. Greg] Abbott is recuperating from burns on both legs below the knees. On Tuesday, the governor [underwent] skin grafts to repair damage on both feet. He is expected to be discharged and will return to Austin. His office … Continue reading →

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The zebra mussels keep invading

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Can anything stop them? When zebra mussels exploded in the Great Lakes region during the early 1990s, fisheries managers in Texas and many other southern states certainly noticed, but most weren’t overly alarmed. Yes, the alien freshwater mollusks, native to … Continue reading →

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Colleges and bathrooms

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Texas’ colleges and universities have not yet been affected by Dan Patrick’s potty obsession. At the University of Houston, transgender students can enroll in voice feminization or masculinization clinics. At the University of Texas at Austin, students can write a … Continue reading →

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Where’s the abortion data?

Posted on June 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

The ACLU would like to know. With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to decide the biggest abortion case in nearly a decade, the ACLU of Texas is demanding that the Department of State Health Services “stop concealing” abortion statistics for … Continue reading →

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Let’s please get the children covered

Posted on June 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Surely that’s not too much to ask. Five nonprofit organizations and community groups in Texas, including three in the Houston area, have been awarded a combined $4.78 million by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to boost efforts to … Continue reading →

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What do you get when you cut off funds for HIV testing?

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

You get no HIV testing, of course. When Texas abruptly ended its $600,000 HIV prevention contract with Planned Parenthood’s Houston affiliate in late December, state health officials promisedthat there would be no interruption in services. The Department of State Health … Continue reading →

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Benjamin Elder

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Meet Benjamin Elder, a better and braver person than Dan Patrick will ever be. Spend a few hours in Benjamin Elder’s company and you’ll realize he’s an average, bubbly 10-year-old kid. All lanky limbs and wavy chestnut-colored hair, he’s easy … Continue reading →

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Another story on how Texas’ uninsured rate has fallen under Obamacare

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Same book, next chapter. A study released Tuesday shows that the rate of Texans without insurance has dropped to its lowest point since the late 1990s because of the Affordable Care Act, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and … Continue reading →

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Texans say they favor Medicaid expansion

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

This comes with a huge “but” attached to it. More than 60 percent of Texans support an expansion of Medicaid here and plan to take those views into the voting booth in November, a new survey commissioned by the Texas … Continue reading →

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The latest good news/bad news on Texas uninsured numbers

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Good news: Texas’ percentage of uninsured residents continues to drop. Bad news: It’s still higher than what the national average was in 2010, the year before the Affordable Care Act was passed. The percentage of Texans without insurance has dropped … Continue reading →

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Texas tobacco litigation, 20 years later

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting look at something I don’t think about very much. Twenty years ago, then-Texas Attorney General Dan Morales filed a federal lawsuit accusing the tobacco industry of racketeering and fraud. He said the case would make Big Tobacco change how … Continue reading →

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We’re going to get more big rain storms

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Better get used to it. The weather is getting worse, says one expert. Torrential rains fall in the Houston area more often than they used to, according to an unpublished analysis from state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. Heavy precipitation of any … Continue reading →

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