Senator Rodríguez’s Summer 2011 Newsletter, outlining the Senator’s accomplishments during the 82nd Legislative Session, is now available online. Summer2011Newsletter
Two Texas Supreme Court justices have taken the unusual step of making a direct plea to legislators before appearing in committee, asking them to find money for state legal aid programs that are being slashed under the proposed budget. Read More »
Today, State Senator José Rodríguez released the following statement regarding the passage of Senate Bill 31, the Texas Senate redistricting map: Read More »
Following a national trend in which legislators force broad women’s health issues onto the battleground of anti-abortion politics, the Texas state Senate has put the future of the state’s Medicaid Women’s Health Program (WHP) in limbo. Read More »
You wouldn’t know it by the miniscule amount of debate Thursday, but the Senate approved what some lawmakers called the most significant piece of homeland security legislation filed this session, a measure civil liberty groups worry is a major encroachment on civil rights. Read More »
More than once, Norma recalls, she yearned to dial 911 when her partner hit her. But the undocumented mother of a U.S.-born toddler was too fearful of police and too broken of spirit to do so. Read More »
Dr. Steven B. Schnee, executive director of the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County, offered up an extended metaphor one day recently to illustrate the consequences of what he considers catastrophic cuts in state funding for mental health services. Schnee is a licensed psychologist whose agency assists more than 45,000 county residents annually through a variety of community-based programs. Read More »
In a second-grade classroom last week, Elizabeth Moore’s 23 students quietly learned vocabulary words associated with gardening. Read More »
A bill eliminating a loophole in a Department of Homeland Security program that checks the immigration status of people booked into jail passed a state Senate committee last week. Read More »
State senators have found more money for family planning services that took a beating in a bare-bones budget that House members approved earlier this month. Read More »
