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El Paso Children’s Hospital: UMC has secret salvation plan

2014-06-18T13:54:52-05:00

By Aileen Flores El Paso Times Originally published June 17, 2014 University Medical Center is proposing a secret plan to save El Paso Children's Hospital before it is forced to close because of its financial problems. On Tuesday, the UMC Board of Managers sent a letter to children's hospital's Board Chairman Sam Legate stating that the children's hospital is not able to maintain itself financially and it's unable to meet its current obligations to UMC and other providers. "This situation creates an immediate risk that one or more of these service providers may cancel existing agreements and possibly trigger an immediate [...]

El Paso Children’s Hospital: UMC has secret salvation plan2014-06-18T13:54:52-05:00

Hazardous chemical lists no longer public record in Texas

2014-06-13T17:28:21-05:00

By Brett Shipp WFAA.com Originally published June 12, 2014 DALLAS -- For the past 30 years, federal law has required chemical makers and handlers to disclose what's stored on premises. It's called the Community Right To Know Act, and it has been at the core of the safety conversation since last year's deadly fertilizer explosion in West, Texas. But News 8 has learned that in the past few weeks, state health officials have stopped making those hazardous chemical records public. On May 29, emergency responders in Athens, Texas, were faced with a potential disaster. An old storage building filled with explosive [...]

Hazardous chemical lists no longer public record in Texas2014-06-13T17:28:21-05:00

Commentary: Know Texas’ open records laws

2022-03-31T17:08:47-05:00

By Kelley Shannon Guest Columnist The Monitor Originally published June 9, 2014 Picture yourself attending a local government meeting because you’re curious about the hiring of a new city manager. Suddenly, city commissioners go into a closed-door session to talk secretly. Can they do that? Is it legal? Or, let’s say, you’ve requested information from your school district about its classroom curriculum. You are told obtaining those documents will cost hundreds of dollars. What can you do? Conversely, if you are a public official, what does the law allow you to charge for a large and time-consuming public records request? These [...]

Commentary: Know Texas’ open records laws2022-03-31T17:08:47-05:00

Viewing policy reduces media witnesses to Texas executions

2014-06-05T21:39:12-05:00

By Terri Langford The Texas Tribune Originally published June 5, 2014 At a time when a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma and secrecy about how Texas prisons obtain lethal injection drugs have increased public scrutiny of the procedure, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is allowing fewer media outlets to attend executions. There are only five media seats available in one of two tiny viewing rooms adjacent to the Texas execution chamber in Huntsville. While some of those seats have long been reserved for specific media outlets, the TDCJ has in the past allowed other reporters to fill empty chairs when those [...]

Viewing policy reduces media witnesses to Texas executions2014-06-05T21:39:12-05:00

Simpson letter warns against settling for ‘tame transparency’

2014-06-04T15:05:01-05:00

By Reeve Hamilton The Texas Tribune Originally published June 3, 2014 In a five-page letter sent Monday to all Texas House members, state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, expressed concerns with the legislative committee investigating University of Texas System Regent Wallace Hall, warning his colleagues that they shouldn’t settle for what he called “tame transparency.” The House Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations, which launched its investigation of Hall nearly a year ago, recently voted that grounds to impeach the regent exist. Hall has been accused of abusing his office in the course of personally conducting investigations of the University of [...]

Simpson letter warns against settling for ‘tame transparency’2014-06-04T15:05:01-05:00

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