Category Archives: The great state of Texas

Feds grant 15 month Medicaid waiver extension

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I sure hope they keep the pressure on to expand Medicaid during this time. The Obama administration has agreed to temporarily keep some federal Medicaid money flowing into Texas to help hospitals treat uninsured patients, a relief to health care … Continue reading →

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A personal story of CPS’ failure to protect children

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I can’t begin to tell you how angry this makes me. The new foster parents opened the door last September to a child they can only describe as feral. At 3, he was obese, his brown saucer eyes shell-shocked, his … Continue reading →

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Two Medicaid stories

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the Trib: State health officials confirmed Tuesday they have asked the Obama administration to keep a 15-month lifeline of federal Medicaid money flowing into Texas to help hospitals treat uninsured patients. That money would offer temporary relief to health care providers who face losing … Continue reading →

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Pity the poor utilities

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry, but low electricity prices, especially when they are aided by record amounts of wind power generation, are good news. Texas’ national lead in cheap wind power, combined with near historically low natural gas prices, mild weather, an abundant power … Continue reading →

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30 years of “Don’t Mess With Texas”

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Happy birthday to one of the greatest public service campaigns of all time. It seems it’s every Texan’s duty to at least once invoke the slogan “Don’t Mess With Texas.” You’ll see it on bumper stickers, in the movies, on … Continue reading →

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Earthquake!

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a real risk in Dallas now. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has a 1 to 5 percent chance of experiencing an earthquake strong enough to damage buildings in the next year, the U.S. Geological Survey said Monday. That risk has … Continue reading →

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If we really cared about improving mental health in Texas

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

We would have expanded Medicaid at our first opportunity. Federal health officials say people with mental illness and addictions are being left behind in Texas because the state hasn’t expanded Medicaid to more low-income adults. The health care program for … Continue reading →

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We’re still growing

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

The collapse of the oil boom has not slowed down Texas’ rapid population growth. The Houston area added more people last year than any metropolitan region in the country, continuing its exceptional growth of the last decade and a half, … Continue reading →

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The stars at night are slightly less bright

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

But we’re trying to fix that. Texas regulators are asking West Texas oil and gas producers to help preserve the region’s famously starry skies. In a notice issued Wednesday, the Texas Railroad Commission called on Permian Basin operators to curb … Continue reading →

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One way to approach the feral hog problem

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

This has some promise. The Caldwell County Feral Hog Task Force, a volunteer group [Nick] Dornak started two years ago, is now at the forefront of the state’s patchwork effort to control the wild swine population boom that is hurting … Continue reading →

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More kids in Texas have health insurance now

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Thanks, Obama! The number of uninsured children in Texas fell by almost 100,000 during the first year of full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, signalling a potential trend across all age groups, a new study by the Robert Wood … Continue reading →

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Yet another record year for Obamacare signups in Texas

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

It’s like a trend or something. A record 1.3 million Texans signed up for health coverage during the 2016 Affordable Care Act’s enrollment period, topping last year’s number by more than 100,000, according to the U.S. Health and Human Services … Continue reading →

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The easily predicted results of de-funding Planned Parenthood have resulted as predicted

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Who’d a thunk it? A new study released Wednesday reports that after anti-abortion Texas lawmakers blocked Planned Parenthood from participating in the Texas Women’s Health Program (TWHP) in 2013, fewer low-income women received the most effective kinds of contraception. The study, … Continue reading →

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Fewer Texans having trouble paying medical bills than pre-Obamacare

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

What else can you say but “Thanks, Obama!” Fewer Texans say they have problems paying their medical bills in 2015 compared to 2013, according to a new report released by EHF and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The … Continue reading →

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Environmentalists petition EPA to strip Texas of some authorities

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

This unfortunately is not likely to go anywhere, but I relish the idea anyway. Alleging that Texas has dramatically eroded its safeguards against air and water pollution, two environmental groups are asking the federal government to step in. The Environmental … Continue reading →

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Dealing with climate change whether you believe in it or not

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Writer Taylor Hill visits West Texas to talk about drought, wind energy, and the topic that dare not speak its name, also known as climate change. Actions, though, do speak louder than words. AzTx Cattle and other ranching and farming … Continue reading →

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Another kind of feral hog to worry about

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Texas now has a warthog problem. Over its 46-year history, the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area has been the site of a long list of achievements that cemented its reputation as the premier state-owned wildlife and wildlife habitat research, education and … Continue reading →

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Health insurance exchange open enrollment, Year 3

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

The challenge, in a nutshell. In rural Borden County, 12 people signed up for Obamacare this year. Livid over the government telling them they must buy something and loath to take anything that looks like a “handout,” the uninsured here … Continue reading →

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Droughts will always be with us

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Remember how wet and rainy it was earlier this year? It ain’t like that now, though we do have some rain coming later this week. After an uncharacteristically wet early-summer across Texas, the Lone Star state’s weather has turned dry … Continue reading →

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We’re still #1!

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

In uninsured people. For the first time in more than a decade, Texas’ uninsured rate dipped below 20 percent, analysts said [recently] following the release of U.S. Census data. Slightly more than 5 million Texans were uninsured in 2014 — … Continue reading →

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The dark side of SpaceX

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Be careful what you wish for. People who live in Boca Chica Village, all 26 of them, knew Elon Musk’s SpaceX company would put the South Texas town on the map after it was selected last year as the world’s … Continue reading →

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Carrizo cane and French wasps

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

I love stories like this. They’ve burned it, bulldozed it, hacked it and poisoned it. Now they want to try wasps – imported from France, no less. The target is carrizo cane, a bamboo-like reed that’s a fearsome enemy of … Continue reading →

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Hempstead landfill would indeed hurt the environment

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Raise your hand if this surprises you. Pintail Landfill developers backpedaled from arguments that their proposed dump site outside Hempstead would not harm the environment, agreeing for the first time this summer that their review of groundwater under the property … Continue reading →

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The demography of the uninsured in Texas

Posted on August 8, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Another look at those who have been helped by Obamacare in Texas, and those who would be helped if the state wasn’t actively resisting. The states’s uninsured continue to be most likely Hispanic, middle-aged, with low incomes and without a … Continue reading →

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It’s a little easier to run for a statewide judicial office now

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

From the Quorum Report: In a change that flew under the radar for most and was signed by Gov. Abbott, candidates for statewide judicial offices will no longer be required to gather petition signatures from around the state before they … Continue reading →

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Please don’t feed the gators

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Should be obvious, but apparently not to everyone. In the time it took for something to hit the water and the unseen creature lying in wait to snap at it, the legend of the “killer gator” was born. It didn’t … Continue reading →

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Revisiting birth certificates

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

This is one of those next steps that needs to be taken. After the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage, some gay and lesbian couples in Texas have raised questions about another legal document – birth certificates. They want Texas … Continue reading →

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Whither the monarch butterfly

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

We should try to keep them from going extinct. That would be bad. The state’s chief financial officer has approved a $300,000 grant to investigate why the number of monarch butterflies is declining in Texas, and what can be done … Continue reading →

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Rusk County Clerk sets an example

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

I respect this. The Rusk County Commissioners Court on Monday formally accepted the resignation of County Clerk Joyce Lewis-Kugle, apparently the first Texas elected official to quit office rather than abide by the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. … Continue reading →

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Hempstead landfill update

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: After several postponements, the Contested Case Hearing on the proposed Pintail Landfill permit has been set for November 2, 2015, in Austin. Assuming no further delays, the case will be heard by two Administrative Law Judges with … Continue reading →

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Legislators ask for a task force to review Capitol monuments to the Confederacy

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Fine by me. On the same day that the South Carolina Legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag from its Capitol grounds, five Democratic lawmakers asked Gov. Greg Abbott to consider the appropriateness of the Confederate monuments at their own … Continue reading →

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Encroaching on Sam Houston National Forest

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

The march of development continues apace. All over the Texas Piney Woods, along farm-to-market roads and state highways, multicolored signs hawk real estate – small plots of paradise among the tall trees. The billboards offer “gated acreage” and “room to … Continue reading →

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Georgetown goes all in on renewable energy

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

From ThinkProgress. Located about 30 miles north of the Texas capital in a deeply conservative county, the city of Georgetown will be powered 100 percent by renewable energy within the next couple years. Georgetown’s residents and elected officials made the … Continue reading →

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We still face water shortages

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Yes, we’ve had a lot of rain lately. No, that hasn’t solved all our water problems. The recent rainfall that drenched much of Houston and the state was thought to put the drought and the state’s water supply concerns at … Continue reading →

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