U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Number of Poor People in Dallas Suburbs Keeps Going Up

The suburbs stir up a lot of associations in the popular imagination. It covers territory as diverse as Leave It to Beaver and Blue Velvet. What the 'burbs don't usually evoke is poverty. For decades the war on poverty has been fought mostly in urban centers, but according to a new study out today f ... More >>

Feds Bypass State, Give $13 Million for Family Planning Directly to Women's Health Coalition

Maybe you're not a Yiddish speaker, but you need a handy illustration of the concept of "chutzpah." In Spanish: cojones. Or in English, if you insist: king-sized brass balls. If you need a real-world demonstration of this cross-cultural concept, you have only to look at how your state-level bureaucr ... More >>

CDC Offers Weak Numbers on West Nile Spraying

Before we blanket ourselves with pesticides, we should clear some things up.

Dallas' Very Tiny, Very Baptist Criswell College Takes On Obamacare's Contraception Mandate

Criswell College is comprised of a couple of buildings on a single block in East Dallas at the intersection of Gaston and Haskell. The 42-year-old institution is tiny, just 322 students, but deeply religious. Its mission is centered on preparing students for the ministry, which it does according to ... More >>

Perry Says NO-bamacare for Texas

This morning, in a move about as surprising as the sun rising, Governor Rick Perry came out with guns blazing against the Affordable Health Care Act, recently approved (mostly) by the U.S. Supreme Court. The act's expanded Medicaid coverage for the poor will not be implemented in Perry's state, de ... 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 >>

Today is Alcohol Screening Day. Really.

Today is National Alcohol Screening Day, a day on which almost 1,000 community-based organizations, colleges and military installations will offer free, anonymous screenings to help people determine whether or not they have a drinking problem. The website HowDoYouScore.org is sponsored by another s ... More >>

Think Last Night's Burger Made You Feel Sick Today? Think Again.

When I interviewed James Childers and asked him how many people got sick eating at restaurants in Dallas, his answer begged the question. He said his department received 117 complaints, in the last year but noted they were only complaints, not confirmed food-borne illness outbreaks. So I asked him ... More >>

Postcard from Texas Meth Country

In one East Texas town, a new brand of meth lab has business -- and the occasional house -- booming.

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 >>

Doc's Whistleblowing Results in Parkland, UT Southwestern Paying $1.4 Million to Feds

Gentilello in a 2005 UT Southwestern photo​Amidst all the other things going on with Parkland at the moment, there remains one other Very Big Thing you've probably forgotten all about: Dr. Larry Gentilello's allegations that trauma residents at the county hospital were treating patients and perfo ... More >>

Super Bowl prostitution: 100,000 hookers didn't show, but America's latest political scam did.

Golden Acres Heads to Federal Court to Take on Kathleen Sebelius and Medicare's "Hospice Cap"

Kathleen Sebelius​The National Alliance for Hospice Access lays out very clearly what the so-called "hospice cap" is, but long story short: In 1982, Congress enacted a law that allowed Medicare beneficiaries to choose hospice care over hospital care. There was one caveat: Congress put in place a c ... More >>

Why Do Some Mexican-Americans Join the Minutemen?

Former Dallas Cowboys Running Back Ron Springs' Tale of Triumph Takes a Sad Detour Through Stagnation and Litigation

Governor Rick Perry 's Lame Statement About Child Support Tells Us All We Need To Know About Republican Ally Greg Abbott

Danny Fulgencio​In the current paper version of Unfair Park, we detail the lengthy battle between Robert O'Donnell and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who extinguished O'Donnell's child support collection business after several courtroom victories. Despite the efforts of Abbott and his off ... More >>

In the War of Attrition Waged by the Texas Attorney General Against Robert O'Donnell, There Were Unintended Consequences

Turns Out, All It Takes to Kill Dallas's Convention Business Is a Little Swine Flu Scare

Something called the Food Marketing Institute was scheduled to hold two events in Dallas beginning May 4: a "Future Connect leadership development conference" on May 4-6, followed by a "MARKETECHNICS® technology event" May 5-8. According to Tradeshow Week, the events were to take place at the Hyatt ... More >>

HIV Numbers Cloud Condom Sense

Just Because, Texas Watchdog Sifts Though AG's Open Records Opinions

Just to see what's open and what ain't these days, Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles sifted through a stack of November 12 rulings handed down by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office concerning open records requests. Today, she posts the results.About half of the opinions concern requests gen ... More >>

Seriously, Never Give an Employee the Company Credit Card. Like, Ever.

Gustav Isn't Screwing Around, and Neither is the City of Dallas

DISD Now $316,000 Lighter

American Toxic

The railroad tie plant that gave birth to tiny Somerville may now be killing the town, residents claim

ACS to Fork Over $2.6 Mil to Feds

Follywood

A B-actress, computer mayhem and families feudin'! Making a movie with your rich friends is just courting disaster.

Six Organs of Admittance

The Sun Awakens (Drag City)

Thanks, But No Thanks

Plus: The Dallas Crown Affair

Just Get Married!

Bells will be ringing as a new pro-marriage, anti-poverty plan takes root in Texas

Joint Effort

"Aging hippies" team with the desperately ill and one lawmaker to fight for medical marijuana in Texas. Is that just a smoke screen?

Rotting away in jail

Kevin Young earned his trip to the Dallas County jail, but no one deserves what happened to him there

Unacceptable Risk

Texas health officials say that mandatory childhood vaccinations against hepatitis B will prevent the spread of life-threatening illness. But which is riskier--the disease or the vaccine?

Letters

The garden of life

In East Dallas' Little Asia, a community blooms in fields of litter

Nice try

A troubled Dallas anti-poverty agency's end-run around state regulators goes nowhere

The war over Gulf War Syndrome

Dallas doctors believe they've solved the mystery of sick veterans, but find themselves in "a bloody scientific war" where they are branded charlatans

Letters

Hoping for the worst

Defense lawyers itch for a health-care fraud bonanza

Lost Tribe

Grand Prairie's Henry Clayton has proclaimed himself chief of the new 'nato Nation. Is he the head of Texas' largest Indian tribe-or an indian impostor?