Former employees of the Division of Workers’ Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance say their higher-ups have failed to sanction or remove dozens of physicians accused of fraudently overbilling and overtreating patients, costing insurers millions of dollars. The allegations of stalled enforcement action have sparked an inquiry by the State Auditor’s Office, records show.
Austin
Posted in
Higher Education
A Voice but No Vote
It took decades to get Texas lawmakers to allow students to sit on each university system’s board of regents — and only on the condition that they can’t vote. But most other states with student regents do grant voting privileges.
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: $18 Billion Dollar Budget Hole
Texas lawmakers have been fishing for ideas on how to fill a looming budget deficit when they return to Austin in 2011. Based on new projections out today, they’re gonna need a bigger boat.
Posted in
Energy
The Green Mile
Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham was in Austin yesterday as part of a travelling conference on how far we have to go to address the county’s renewable energy challenges. Abraham spoke with Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune about his message to public and private sector players.
Posted in
Higher Education
TribBlog: Diane Wouldn’t
Barack Obama will apparently name his solicitor general, Elena Kagan, the former dean of Harvard Law School, to replace the retiring John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court, once again bypassing UT Law grad Diane Wood, who has now been on the president’s short list twice.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: O’Neill Signs Off
Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O’Neill, who isn’t seeking reelection to the court, also isn’t finishing her term. She told Gov. Rick Perry and the other members of the court today that she will step down from the bench on June 20.
Posted in
Energy
HuTube: Patterson’s Walk Down Memory Lane
Muskets, bayonets, Confederate war heroes. Just a sample of some of the cool stuff Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson keeps in his office. In our latest HuTube vlog episode, we get Patterson to give us a tour.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
On the Records: Combs’ Open Data Center
Susan Combs’ new texastransparency.org includes an Open Data Center, where anyone can download dozens of raw data sets, much like the federal government’s data.gov.
Posted in
Politics
TribBlog: Of Rats and Men
State Sen. Kirk Watson’s spoof of the governor’s coyote adventure …
Posted inState Government
A Conversation with Francisco Cigarroa
For the eighth event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the tenth chancellor of the University of Texas System about the big three concerns of anyone in a leadership role in higher education these days: access, affordability and excellence.