Latest Contributions

• More Texans than ever before enrolled in ACA health plans in 2024, feds say

  By Karen Brooks Harper Jan. 24, 2024

  The final enrollment numbers, released Wednesday, touched off discussions over whether Texas should create its own marketplace exchange. Full Story 

• Facing pressure from judge, Texas reassigns workers to care for foster kids in unlicensed homes

  By Karen Brooks Harper Jan. 22, 2024

  The move is designed to reduce some of the rotating overtime shifts expected of agency caseworkers at group homes and motels, which have been criticized as dangerous for the children who live there. Full Story 

• Feds approve 12 months of Medicaid coverage for low-income Texas moms

  By Karen Brooks Harper Jan. 17, 2024

  The move caps a yearslong effort to extend coverage. Medicaid covers half of all births in Texas. Full Story 

• Eddie Bernice Johnson’s family says medical neglect led to former congresswoman’s death

  By Karen Brooks Harper Updated: Jan. 4, 2024

  The family of the recently retired congresswoman says Johnson contracted an infection at Baylor Scott & White’s rehabilitation facility that led to her death. Full Story 

• Judge considers holding state in contempt a third time over foster care conditions

  By Karen Brooks Harper Dec. 4, 2023

  U.S. District Judge Janis Jack on Monday considers whether state’s foster care agency has made progress caring for most vulnerable children or should be held in contempt for the third time in an ongoing 2011 lawsuit. Full Story 

• Texas attorney general sues Pfizer, claiming vaccines didn’t end pandemic quickly enough

  By Karen Brooks Harper Updated: Dec. 1, 2023

  Experts argue other assertions made in the lawsuit filing are completely unsubstantiated, such as one claiming that vaccinated people were more likely to die from COVID-19, which Texas health data disputes. Full Story 

• More than two-thirds of Texas’ 30.3 million residents live in four largest metro areas

  By Karen Brooks Harper and Ayden Runnels Nov. 20, 2023

  According to new Texas Demographic Center figures, the Austin region continues to grow at the fastest rate, but Fort Worth was the city that attracted the most new residents between 2020 and 2023. Full Story 

• Texas homeowners and businesses will get a tax cut after voters approve Proposition 4

  By Joshua Fechter and Karen Brooks Harper Nov. 7, 2023

  The $18 billion property tax-cut package is aimed squarely at lowering school district property taxes, which make up the lion’s share of a Texas landowner’s property tax bill. Full Story 

• Texas voters gave retired teachers raises and approved new infrastructure funds as most constitutional amendments passed

  By Karen Brooks Harper Nov. 7, 2023

  Voters approved a massive property tax cut and several other measures, but refused to raise the mandatory retirement age for judges. Full Story 

• Sex trafficking, drugs and assault: Texas foster kids and caseworkers face chaos in rental houses and hotels

  By Karen Brooks Harper Nov. 6, 2023

  A report from Department of Family and Protective Services watchdogs paints a picture of a roughshod safety-net system that is unprepared to protect its youthful charges from predators and unable to keep them from endangering themselves. Full Story