Last week, the comment period for changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) closed. Members of the public had 60 days to express their opinions about the federal government’s proposed changes, which if implemented could take away benefits from as many as three million U.S. residents, including 300,000 in Texas, many of whom are already vulnerable to food insecurity.
Yesterday, a Senate special committee held its first meeting to discuss gun violence and prevention and address the eight executive orders issued by Governor Greg Abbott. Discussion centered around mental health, social media, shooters who self-radicalize online; many panel members repeated concerns about impinging on second amendment rights and due process of the law.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area has the lowest rate of children’s health insurance coverage among the 25 largest metro areas in the United States, according to new census data released Thursday. Across the area, 11.7% of children are uninsured, continuing a multiyear slide that reflects statewide trends. Adults in Dallas and…
DeSoto will become the first North Texas city to offer paid family leave to all city employees, beginning next month. Candice Quarles, the DeSoto City Council member who spearheaded the law, is a mother herself and saw an opportunity to use her 12 years of human resources experience to help…
Texans of color are saddled with medical debt at disproportionately high rates. One big reason: They lack insurance. It’s a problem that’s particularly bad here in Dallas. That’s the conclusion of a new report released Wednesday by the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. It found that…
Dallas County, at least to the extent that its county commissioners have a say, is ready to do something about e-cigarette and vape use. They made that much clear at their twice-monthly meeting Tuesday, whether anyone is sure about what’s causing the illnesses likely tied to the practice or not…
For a second consecutive year, more people in Texas were without health insurance in 2018 than any other state, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. Texas leads the nation in uninsured residents, both in terms of raw numbers and as a percentage of the population, according to the…
As many as 14 Dallas County residents have come down with “severe pulmonary disease” related to their use of e-cigarette or vape products, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services. Five of those reported to the county by local hospitals have required intubation and been placed on ventilators. Two…
Postpartum depression — more properly known as perinatal mood and anxiety disorder — affects one in seven new mothers. And yet not many parents or doctors know how to recognize symptoms or treat it. A new Texas law, which takes effect on September 1, will put in place some steps to make treatment easier.
Two new Texas laws aiming to protect sexual assault victims will go into effect on September 1st. One law establishes stricter guidelines for testing and sharing information about rape kits and the other expands the definition of sexual assault by a fertility doctor.
Come Sunday, September 1, it will no longer be legal to buy cigarettes, electronic cigarettes or tobacco products in Texas, if you are under the age of 21.
Immigrant advocates say that the new rules would unfairly target minority immigrants who come to the country legally and make it harder for families to succeed here.
More than 300,000 Texans could lose food assistance benefits under proposed changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to statistics from Governing Magazine. The estimated 302,800 Texans affected is the highest number of vulnerable SNAP recipients in any state in the nation, according to the magazine…
In just over a decade, Texas is headed for a major nursing shortage, according to a new report. Nursing, the largest health care profession in the U.S., is also one of the nation’s fastest growing professions according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But by 2030, the state of Texas…
Tuesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a mixed judgment on one of the most controversial abortion laws to reach the court since it heard Hellerstedt v. Texas in 2016. Indiana’s rule that all aborted fetuses in the state must be buried or cremated is back in effect, thanks to…
More than 25% of Texas women between ages 18 and 44 don’t have health insurance coverage. That’s one of the biggest takeaways from a new study into the effects of Medicaid expansion on maternal health from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Texas’ uninsured rate for women of child-bearing age…
Barring an upset, Texas looks poised to become the 14th state to raise its smoking age, after the Texas House passed an amended version of a Senate bill raising the state’s tobacco-use age on Tuesday. Under the bill, the purchasing age for all tobacco products in the state would be…
A former University of Texas All-American and U.S. National Team swimmer sued a Dallas clinic Tuesday, claiming a multivitamin she bought from the clinic led to a 2018 doping suspension. FINA, international swimming’s governing body, suspended Madisyn Cox for two years in March 2018 after she tested positive for trimetazidine,…
Tarrant County is the latest area in North Texas to have a resident come down with measles, county health officials said Thursday. The unnamed county resident makes 14 confirmed cases in Texas and four in North Texas so far in 2019, more than in the last four years combined. According…
If you’re lucky enough, you may have seen one of the ads from the Texas Senate Republican Caucus on Facebook. Accompanied by the image of a white, blue-eyed little boy is a plea from the caucus for the person reading the ad to support Senate Bill 23, the “Texas Born-Alive…
Second-trimester abortions increased 13 percent in Texas in the aftermath of 2013’s House Bill 2 despite abortions decreasing by 18 percent generally, a study published Tuesday in Obstetrics & Gynecology shows. Overall, women seeking abortions were forced to wait an average of one week more to get an abortion after…
It might not matter — all the teens are vaping pot now anyway — but a bipartisan group of Texas legislators is pushing a plan to raise the state’s tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21, making anyone who wants to look cool while slowly killing themselves wait three more…
