Alexa Ura
covers politics and health care for The Texas Tribune, where she started as an intern in 2013. While earning her journalism degree at the University of Texas at Austin, she was a reporter and editor for The Daily Texan. A Laredo native, Alexa is a fluent Spanish-speaker and is constantly seeking genuine Mexican food in Austin.
Recent Contributions
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte waves to the delegates at the 2014 Texas Democratic Convention held at the Dallas Convention Center on June 27, 2014.
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, is reaching out to voters in conservative hotbeds in North and East Texas — a nod to Democrats’ dependence on increasing voter turnout in statewide races.
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A nod to the city's changing demographics, the masthead for a branch of Jefferson Dental Clinics in Irving, Texas includes a large Spanish-language sign on its storefront that reads, “A friend of the Hispanic family.”
Democrats are hoping to take advantage of the shifting demographics in Irving to flip Texas House District 105, which has been held by a Republican for more than a decade.
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photo by: Cynthia Goldsmith
Ebola virus virion. Created by CDC microbiologist Cynthia Goldsmith, this colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion.
A representative of the Dallas hospital under scrutiny for its handling of the first Ebola case in the United States apologized on Thursday for mistakes he said the facility made when it initially misdiagnosed the patient.
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Dan Patrick, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, is shown at the Texas Republican Convention in Fort Worth on June 7, 2014.
Dan Patrick, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, has made clear that he wants to lower property taxes. What he has left unclear — both to voters and to prominent business groups that have endorsed him — is exactly how he'll do that.
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photo by: Todd Wiseman / Callie Richmond
A provision of the Texas abortion law that closed all but eight abortion facilities in the state almost two weeks ago was put on hold Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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photo by: Todd Wiseman / Callie Richmond
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday refused to reconsider a March ruling that allowed Texas to require physicians who perform abortions to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of an abortion facility.
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Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins during "All Transportation is Local," part of The Texas Tribune Transportation Symposium on Oct. 17, 2013.
After the first case of Ebola in the U.S. was confirmed in Dallas, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has been thrust into the national spotlight.
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photo by: 2011 Facebook photo
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States diagnosed with the Ebola virus, died in Dallas, Texas on Oct. 8, 2014.
A week after the first Ebola case in the U.S. was confirmed at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died Wednesday morning, hospital officials said.
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Claiming that ISIS terrorists are threatening to enter the U.S. and "kill Americans," state Sen. Dan Patrick, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, says in his first TV ad that border security would be his top priority if elected in November.
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Texas Sen. Charles Schwertner, Dr. Brett Giroir and Gov. Rick Perry at the Ebola press conference at the Texas Capitol on Oct. 6, 2014.
In the wake of what some have called a botched response to the first known case of Ebola in the United States, Texas lawmakers will meet Tuesday afternoon in Austin to examine the state's public health infrastructure.
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While many Texas women now live hundreds of miles away from abortion facilities, some may still have another option: their doctor’s office.
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photo by: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
A day after a federal appeals court allowed Texas to begin enforcing new abortion restrictions, a group protested the ruling on the South Steps of the Texas Capitol building.
After a federal appeals court ruled that the state could temporarily enforce new requirements for abortion facilities, Texas abortion providers are looking to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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A large crowd of abortion rights advocates gathered Thursday at the Texas capitol to protest strict abortion regulations lawmakers that approved in the 2013 special session and the lingering affects of 2011 cuts to family planning services, Feb. 20, 2014.
As it hears arguments in an appeal of a federal judge’s decision overturning new requirements for Texas abortion facilities, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Texas could enforce the requirements in the meantime.
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graphic by: Todd Wiseman / Phil Moyer
State officials have characterized the response to an Ebola diagnosis in Dallas as top-notch, but medical experts argue that the state’s public health infrastructure may be vulnerable.
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photo by: Cynthia Goldsmith
Ebola virus virion. Created by CDC microbiologist Cynthia Goldsmith, this colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed by an Ebola virus virion.
Texas health officials have expanded to 100 their list of people who may have had contact with a man in the Dallas area confirmed to be infected with the Ebola virus. Eighteen people are already under observation.
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