- Chron: Meet the 179 people given state jobs without any public competition.
They range from security guards at The Alamo to receptionists at the Texas Railroad Commission to the governor's chief of staff, but they all have one thing in common: they won their jobs without facing any public competition.
Despite a 1991 state law requiring state agencies to advertise all job openings, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Comptroller Glenn Hegar, Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, and Railroad Commissioners David Porter, Christi Craddick and Ryan Sitton have bent the rules to hire at least 179 people over the past year,according to a Houston Chronicle investigation.
- Chron: Texas takes final step to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood.
Texas officials said Monday they plan to halt Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood, citing a recently released undercover video as the justification for taking the final major step in a years long quest to cut off all local, state and federal taxpayer dollars to the national organization's facilities here.
Stuart Bowen, the inspector general of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, announced the decision in a letter to Planned Parenthood, saying the video had revealed "program violations that justify termination," including evidence that employees at a Houston clinic have allowed private citizens to touch fetal remains wearing only gloves and have altered the abortion process to preserve fetal organs so they could be donated for medical research.
- Chron: Planned Parenthood cut is about politics: Medicaid funds family planning services that help make abortions unnecessary.
When he was attorney general, Greg Abbott liked to say that it was his job to go into the office, sue the federal government, and go home. Now that he's governor, the Abbott administration hasn't strayed too far from that model of legislating by lawsuit.
Monday morning, state health officials released a letter stating that all Planned Parenthood affiliates would be cut from Medicaid funding. However, it won't be that easy. Three other states - Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana - have tried to cut Planned Parenthood out of their state Medicaid programs only to end up in federal court.
This abortion fight, like so many before it, will likely have Texas taxpayers funding an expensive and drawn-out lawsuit. But this isn't about fighting for taxpayers or setting good policy. It is about politics.
- Chron: Patrick takes aim at HERO, mayor.
With the start of early voting Monday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick began lending his voice and his pocketbook to radio and TV ads urging Houston voters to reject the city's embattled equal rights ordinance.
At a news conference Monday in Houston, Patrick echoed the chief criticism of equal rights ordinance opponents - that the law would allow men to enter women's restrooms - and he blasted Mayor Annise Parker, saying she "ought to be embarrassed" by the ordinance.
In Patrick's TV ad, set to begin Tuesday airing on cable and network stations, he tells voters that "no woman should have to share a public restroom or locker room with a man."
