Top Stories
- Federal officials reject Texas' bid to bar Planned Parenthood from women's program – Robert Garrett, Dallas Morning News
Cindy Mann, a top federal Medicaid official, said Monday that the federal government cannot renew Texas’ version of the Women’s Health Program because the state wants to disqualify health-care providers that perform abortions or have affiliates that conduct abortions.
Federal law won’t allow ostracism of caregivers “because they provide other services that Medicaid doesn’t pay for,” such as abortions, said Mann, deputy administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry promptly blasted the decision.
“I am concerned the Obama administration is playing politics by holding women’s health care hostage because of Texas’ pro-life policies, sacrificing the health of millions of Texas women in the name of their pro-abortion agenda,” said Perry,
Big Abortion is a Big Supporter of the Obama Administration, so the administration’s latest effort to trim self-government at the state level is hardly surprising.
- Perry says he's a 'different candidate' since recovering from back surgery – Tom Benning, Trail Blazers Blog
Really? It’s hard to tell from the ongoing verbal gaffes. - Obama prepares to trim National Guard on U.S.-Mexico border – Stewart Powell, Texas on the Potomac/Chron.com
- UTEP mimics UT Austin, raises tuition – Jordan Brownwood, Texas Budget Source
- Grocery bag ban — one of the toughest in nation — considered in Austin – Mark Lisheron, Texas Watchdog
Keep Austin. Seriously, just keep it.
Recommended
- Speaker Straus to draw a primary challenger – Robert Garrett, Trail Blazers Blog/DallasNews.com
- Where’s Ricardo? (Plus: A New Democratic Challenger Appears) – Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog
- School Finance Expert Leaving Texas Legislature – Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune
At some point, these over-the-top tributes will stop, right? The Texas legislature will surely survive the departure of one member. Surely. - Deconstructing Patricia Kilday Hart – Unca Darrell
For Ms. Kilday Hart, this is just another shift at the office, where one day the Houston Chronicle climbs in bed with the Occupy movement, today she plumps for public money for a radical political organization, and tomorrow — who knows?
- Measuring the Impact of Historic Texas Education Cuts – Morgan Smith, Texas Tribune
The Texas lockstep political media’s latest edition of turning a small spending increase into (historic!) cuts. Needed corrective here.