Social Policy

Now Southern Dallas Businessmen Are Lining Up Against Mike Miles. But Why?

Three prominent Dallas business leaders have written a caustic public letter to Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles, taking him to task generally for not conferring with them personally on school reform and specifically for threatening the job of a particular high school principal popular in South ... More >>

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert: Beware of Islamic Terrorists "Trained to Act Hispanic"

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert is once again contributing to the public discourse, drawing connections between the attack during the Boston Marathon and immigration reform. On CSPAN's Washington Journal today, Gohmert, a Republican from East Texas, expressed concern over ethnicity-shifting terrorists aimin ... More >>

After Family Planning Cuts, More Than 17,000 Dallas County Women Lost Access to Care

In 2011, as we just cannot seem to stop mentioning, your state legislators cut $73 million from the state's family planning budget, instituted a tiered funding system designed to give family planning clinics any federal dollars dead last, and launched a weird war on the Medicaid Women's Health Progr ... More >>

The Real Victims in School Reform Battles Are Kids Who Can Be Taught and Aren't

The response to my article here last week about school reform proves one thing. I'm doing a poor job presenting school reform. The entire issue, in fact, is being framed in the responses to the article as a kind of combination civil rights question and job security dilemma for teachers and principa ... More >>

New Report Details the Incredible Stupidity of Texas' Rejection of Medicaid Expansion

In July, Governor Rick Perry sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius explaining why the state of Texas would not be taking part in the federal government's plans to expand Medicaid. Such an expansion would "enlarge a broken system that is already financially unsustain ... More >>

Texas Women's Health Program Still Says it Has Enough Docs, Even As It's Forced To Take Down Its Error-Riddled Provider Database

On January 1, Texas took over the Women's Health Program, booted Planned Parenthood out and dyed the website several shades of Pepto Bismol pink. Despite quite a bit of evidence to the contrary, Health and Human Services Commission officials continue to claim there'll be more than enough doctors for ... More >>

With Spraying Over, Dallas County Will Test Mosquitoes For Insecticide Resistance

The West Nile outbreak of 2012 isn't officially over, at least not according to Dallas County health officials, but it may as well be. There hasn't been a death reported in more than six weeks, the number of new cases is basically nil, and for most of us, the scenes of August nights spent barricaded ... More >>

This Is What Texas Stands to Spend, and Gain, with Obamacare

Governor Rick Perry vows that the Medicaid expansion prescribed under Obamacare won't come to Texas, the state with the highest rate of uninsured in the country. He fears it would render Lone Star State health care a mere "appendage" of the federal government. The feds, of course, would pick up nea ... More >>

Texas Will "Immediately" Defund Planned Parenthood After Court Refuses to Hear its Plea

That faint popping sound you heard last night was Governor Rick Perry uncorking a nice bottle of bubbly, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday refused a request by Planned Parenthood to rehear the case over its ban from the new Texas Women's Health Program (TWHP). Texas, it appears ... More >>

Dallas ICE Agent Sues ICE, Homeland Security Over Obama's Deportation Deferral

Ten ICE agents, including one from the Dallas office, are suing ICE and Homeland Security in a Dallas federal court over a directive from President Barack Obama that would defer in some cases the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought here as children. Dallas enforcement and removal officer ... More >>

Appeals Court Says Planned Parenthood Can Be Banned From the Women's Health Program, Rick Perry Rejoices

Texas' game of women's health pingpong continues. A panel of judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction yesterday that had allowed Planned Parenthood to remain in the Medicaid Women's Health Program. In other words, PP is out. Again. The nonprofit was boote ... More >>

Spraying to Stop West Nile - Is It Safe?

Farmers Branch Gets A Rehearing Before Appeals Court on Immigration Law

A controversial Farmers Branch immigration ordinance will get a second chance in court after a sound rejection back in March, and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's controversial immigration bill will play a determining role. Farmers Branch has three times passed a "housing" ordinance whi ... More >>

In Farmers Branch Immigration Fight, Competing Readings of Supreme Court's Arizona Ruling

Opposing counsel in a six-year legal battle over a proposed Farmers Branch immigration ordinance are trading letters to the judge, arguing, naturally, that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's immigration law supports their side. Last month, the high court struck down every provision of Ari ... More >>

Texas Has Worst Health Care in Nation, Report Says. But What Does the Government Know?

Texas Republicans have been complaining loudly since the Supreme Court decided that the Affordable Care Act passed constitutional muster. The law is a huge overreach by the federal government, it's a "stomach-punch" to the economy, Obama is a socialist, etc. etc. There's even quite serious talk abou ... More >>

A Guide to How Obama's New Immigration Policy Will Work, And a Word of Caution

President Barack Obama announced Friday afternoon that the Department of Homeland Security will no longer attempt to deport young undocumented immigrants brought here as children, signaling a compassionate shift in an immigration policy whose hallmark was aggressive enforcement and record-shattering ... More >>

Doctor Accused of $375 Million Medicare Fraud Decides He Won't Practice Medicine Anymore

You might remember Dr. Jacques Roy. Back in February, the feds fingered him as the leader of one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes in history, alleging that he bilked the federal government of nearly $375 million. To recap: Between 2005 and 2011, Roy referred more than 11,000 individual patient ... More >>

When Arizona's Immigration Law is Upheld, the Floodgates of Hate Will Swing Open

The U.S. Supreme Court and President Obama leave the undocumented and their allies no choice but to escalate civil disobedience.

More Subsidized Housing is the Last Thing Poor Neighborhoods Need

The Dallas Morning News owes me at least five bucks for all the business I steer their way -- and, believe me, I hate doing it -- but once again they have an op-ed piece in the paper today that's really a must-read for people who care about the city or have any involvement at all with City Hall. I ... More >>

Rick Perry and State Health Commissioner Insist Obama Hates Women, Loves Abortion

A few days ago, we told you that Texas's Medicaid Women's Health Program appears to be on death's door, which could leave some 130,000 low-income Texas women without vital medical care. We also mentioned that Gov. Rick Perry's administration appeared eager to blame the program's end on the feds broa ... More >>

At the Last Minute, Texas Spikes Federal Sex Education Funding ... Again

Condoms, birth control -- who needs 'em? Just don't have sex, Texas says to its horny teens. Just hobble that unbridled desire coupled with a limited understanding of consequences and say 'No, I'm saving myself for marriage.' That's pretty much the message, maybe paired with an infographic demonstr ... More >>

Why Don't Mexicans Just Come to this Country Legally?

And how can we keep them out otherwise?

ACLU of Texas Reacts to House Passage of Carrollton Rep's Sanctuary Cities Legislation

State Rep. Burt Solomons​As the Texas Tribune notes today, in the wee small hours of the morning, the state House passed Carrollton state Rep. Burt Solomons's HB 12, the so-called "sanctuary cities" legislation deemed an emergency item by Gov. Rick Perry. As the Trib's Julian Aguilar sums it up, t ... More >>

Again, Times Writes About Isenberg's Efforts to Help a Student Here Illegally Live the Dream

Photo by Mark GrahamRalph Isenberg​By now you're likely well aware of Ralph Isenberg's ongoing efforts to bring Saad Nabeel back to North Texas, after the the 20-year-old Frisco Liberty High grad was sent to Bangladesh last year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials -- after Saad's pare ... More >>

Why can't Mexicans keep their cactus-pickin' fingers off other people's plants?

Unlike refugees from other troubled countries, only a fraction of Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum are accepted- no matter how horrible their wounds or their stories.

Access Denied

U.S. Immigration Explained, the DVD Boxed Set You Won't Find at Blockbuster

Not the five-hour DVD boxed set we were going to watch this weekend, but just in case ...​We don't need lawyer Steven Riznyk to tell us that the immigration laws in the United States are complex and convoluted, but in stating the obvious, he's also offering a road map for those those in need w ... More >>

What's a Little Marriage Fraud Between Amigos?

It's a felony, sure, but in the absence of real immigration reform, some young, assimilated illegal immigrants see it as their best path to citizenship.

Commonwealth of Good Hair

White House Invites Head of Dallas CityDesign Studio to Talk Clean Energy, Public Health

Brandon ThibodeauxBrent Brown​Ran into bcWORKSHOP and Re:Vision Dallas's Brent Brown Friday night at the opening of Main Street Garden, and during a lengthy chat that spilled over into a downtown dinner with our families, not once did he mention a pending trip to Washington, D.C. But the Dallas In ... More >>

Yes, But What If Texas Were Healthy?

​Yes, indeed -- when it comes to health care, says the Commonwealth Fund, Texas ranks ahead of only Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi. The full study's here for those looking for context, but for Texans all the bad news is right here -- five pages full of charts documenting all ... More >>

Goin’ To The Chapel: When Is A Mexican Girl Ripe For Marriage

The Right Steals A Page From The Left’s Playbook And Scores

Last Night, Pete Sessions Turned Health Care Debate Into an Easy-to-Swallow Pill

Kimberly Thorpe​The debate surrounding the proposed health care bill can seem distant. The bill is some 1,000 pages. Those who claim to have read it become experts either for or against the legislation. But last night, a cherry-faced, white-haired politician successfully tied this unwieldy documen ... More >>

How a Local Rally For Obama's Health Care Proposal Turned Into a Rally Against It

Kimberly ThorpeQ Coleman, a Dallas Tea Party member and one of those who outnumbered the MoveOn.org'ers at Senator Cornyn's office today Local MoveOn.org members had penciled in on today's schedule a protest in front of Senator John Cornyn's Spring Valley Road office, during which they had hope ... More >>

Food For Thought 5.14.09

"I don't think we have a right to tell somebody what to do with their personal property." (State Senator Bob Deuell, a doctor, explaining his vote against a statewide smoking ban. The bill was endorsed by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee by a vote of 5-3. Deuell is a Republican from Gr ... More >>

Dr. Mexlove, Or How to Stop Fearing and Learn to Love the Illegal

Ultimately, Says Rep. Alonzo, All Immigration Bills, Pro or Con, Are Just "Fodder for Politics"

State Rep. Robert AlonzoYou might think that since Texas legislators are tied up dealing with a plunging housing market and accepting stimulus money, they'd drop the predictable collection of politically motivated immigration bills seeking to fill the federal policy vacuum. Nope. Not a chance.Rep. ... More >>

Ask a Mexican

Dear Babe: Mexicans don't hate you because you're Spanish, but just because you're you

Texas Instruments Is Now in the Immigration Reform Business, Kinda

Say This For Farmers Branch: They Do Stick to Their Guns

Who's the Boss?

"We Lost a Little Battle..."

Paper Chase

A former INS agent goes into business to smoke out fake documents

Fake I.D.: Good for Business, Bad for Nation

Just Like Mom Used to Make

Looking South, Heading North

Highwaymen

San Antonio conservatives and a professional road warrior try to hijack a DART rail election

Strange bedfellows

National union leaders do the math and switch their position on immigration

Girding for battle