Corrie MacLaggan
is the Tribune's news editor. Previously, the Austin native worked as a national correspondent for Reuters, writing and editing stories about Texas and nearby states and overseeing a network of freelance writers. Before joining Reuters, she covered Texas government and politics for the Austin American-Statesman, writing about everything from gubernatorial races to food stamp application backlogs. She spent her first year at the Statesman writing for the newspaper's weekly Spanish-language publication. She has also worked in Mexico City, where she wrote for publications including the Miami Herald's Mexico edition, Latin Trade magazine and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Her first reporting job was at the El Paso Times. Corrie is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and Spanish.
Recent Contributions
Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott says in new, Spanish-language ads that businesses are leaving California for Texas, where regulations are reasonable and taxes are low.
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A new online ad from Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott focuses on the importance of education. "As a student, I know that education has value," one Texan says in the ad.
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State leaders tout the so-called Texas miracle – the idea that the economy here is thriving thanks to their small-government approach. But not everyone benefits. Here are the stories of six Texans who've found little relief in the Texas miracle.
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Tiffany Richardson took out a short-term loan against a Nissan Altima and another against a Toyota 4Runner. Both vehicles were repossessed.
State leaders in business-friendly Texas have been reluctant to put new limits on any industry, and a lack of regulation is being acutely felt by the low-income borrowers to whom the payday and auto-title lending industry most often caters.
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photo by: Ivan Pierre Aguirre
Dr. Orlando Garza walks with a dog that was boarding at his animal hospital on Monday in El Paso. Garza has been a practicing veterinarian since 1982.
There were 84 Hispanic veterinarians in Texas in 2010, making up less than 2 percent of the state’s 5,728 veterinarians, according to the 2014 book Changing Texas, whose lead author, Steve H. Murdock, is the former state demographer.
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Child Protective Services caseworker Juan Carlos Pacheco rents a spare bedroom in his childhood friend's home in Odessa. He has also lived in a trailer with five other people and a one-bedroom apartment with six other people. His own family lives in El Paso.
The oil boom has brought jobs and prosperity to Midland and Odessa, but it has also driven up housing prices, making it difficult for the Department of Family and Protective Services to hire caseworkers.
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photo by: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson
Natalie Madeira Cofield, president and CEO of the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce, in her South Congress Avenue neighborhood in Austin.
Among large, fast-growing cities, Austin is the only one with a shrinking African-American population, according to a report from the University of Texas at Austin.
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Texas sends people who want to make cash payments under the Driver Responsibility Program to ACE Cash Express, which last week agreed to pay $10 million to settle allegations that it harasssed borrowers.
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Texas-based payday lender ACE Cash Express has agreed to pay $10 million to settle allegations by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it used illegal tactics to push borrowers into a cycle of debt.
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Keshawn Johnson, then 20, colored earlier this year with her sons (l-r) Keenan Mitchell, 20 months, and Kenny Mitchell, 3, in their home in North Dallas.
In Texas and across the country, the birth rate among teenagers has declined significantly. But Texas has not fared as well as other states. The Lone Star State has the nation's fifth-highest birth rate among teenagers.
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Austin State-Supported Living Center.
State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, says a Sunset Advisory Commission staff recommendation to close six state-supported living centers is "inaccurate" and "slanted."
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The Dallas Museum of Art
Also, a new report points to a big boost in Hispanic voting in November.
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Voters wait in line to cast their ballots at a location across the street from the University of Texas at Austin campus on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund is projecting a 20.4 percent increase in Latino voters in Texas in 2014 compared to 2010.
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Dr. Javier Saenz, who has a medical practice in the Rio Grande Valley town of La Joya, prepared his clinic’s X-ray machine in 2012.
Texas is considering doing away with the licensing of X-ray technicians and 11 other types of health professionals. Some say that would put patients at risk. A Sunset Commission hearing Wednesday is set to address the issue.
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James Dickey, chairman of the Travis County Republican Party (in red), and Brendan Steinhauser, campaign manager for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (in black), talked to members of the crowd at a Juneteenth celebration in East Austin on Saturday. Steinhauser's visit was part of the Cornyn campaign's efforts to reach diverse communities.
John Cornyn's campaign is actively seeking to reach diverse communities that haven’t been traditional Republican supporters. And his team is trying to use Tea Party-style strategies to do it.
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