Texas Prisons Make Family Visits Easier
The Texas prison system is making it easier for family members to visit loved ones behind bars, hoping to strengthen social networks inmates need when they are released.
Full StoryTerri Langford Born in Oceanside, California. Naturalized Texan. Comes by her tough love of government honestly. She majored in it at the University of Texas. First courtroom stories were in the Atticus Finch-like Lowndes County courthouse in Valdosta, Georgia, where two months into that first job for the Jacksonville-based Florida Times Union, she found herself covering a quadruple murder. Eventually moved to Jacksonville, covering social services and began unpacking the conflicted rules of government social work and public housing redevelopment for readers. Joined the Associated Press in Dallas and worked there and in Houston covering some of the state's biggest trials and complicated legal issues including the Branch Davidian standoff with ATF agents and the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas as well as witnessing several state executions. Worked for the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle, where she covered everything from airport security, civil courts and the 9/11 attacks to the strains of the Texas Child Protective Services system, the state's removal of more than 400 children from their polygamist parents in West Texas, the Allan Stanford Ponzi scheme trial and the world of Medicare fraud in Houston's private ambulance networks. Langford was named Texas Reporter of the Year in 2011 for her work on the connection between private ambulances in Houston and the non-regulated mental health clinics there. Before joining the Tribune in March 2014, she tried her hand at public radio, working for WNYC in Trenton, covering New Jersey government.
The Texas prison system is making it easier for family members to visit loved ones behind bars, hoping to strengthen social networks inmates need when they are released.
Full StoryThe U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday halted the execution of a Texas death row inmate with a history of schizophrenia, just hours before he was to be put to death in Huntsville.
Full StoryThe Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles won't recommend a reprieve for convicted killer Scott Panetti, leaving it up to Gov. Rick Perry to decide if he will delay Wednesday's scheduled execution of the schizophrenic death row inmate.
Full StoryA state lawsuit challenging President Obama’s executive order shielding as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation could come from Texas in the next two weeks, Gov.-elect Greg Abbott says.
Full StoryThe Texas Supreme Court will not review whether a $5-per-patron fee at live nude entertainment clubs is an occupation tax in disguise, letting stand a ruling that found alcohol-serving strip clubs must pay up when it comes to the "pole tax."
Full StoryAttorneys for schizophrenic death row inmate Scott Louis Panetti on Thursday asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt his impending Dec. 3 execution, saying their client is too incompetent to be legally put to death.
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The special prosecutor pressing criminal charges against Gov. Rick Perry will not be disqualified from the case over questions around the oath of office he took. A judge ruled Tuesday that the prosecutor was properly sworn into office.
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To attract young families, the Texas Beef Council is turning to food and recipe apps, its website and tailored cooking events.
A bipartisan group of lawyers led by former Texas Solicitor General James C. Ho filed an amicus brief Monday in Austin, asking a judge to dismiss the case against Gov. Rick Perry.
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Gov. Rick Perry appeared in court Thursday to watch his attorneys, armed with plenty of theater, try to convince a judge that the prosecutor pursuing abuse-of-power charges against him was improperly sworn in.
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At a Thursday pre-trial hearing on Rick Perry's abuse of power indictment, all eyes will be on the Texas governor, who is expected to make his first appearance in court.
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Lawyers for a schizophrenic Texas death row inmate want their client evaluated before his scheduled execution next month.
Full StoryGov. Rick Perry has no legal right to a transcript of what witnesses told the grand jury that indicted him, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
Full StoryFormer San Antonio gang member Miguel Angel Paredes was executed Tuesday for his role in a 2002 slaying that left three people dead.
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Gov. Rick Perry won't be making a Halloween court appearance after all. The Oct. 31 hearing that had been scheduled in Perry's criminal case has been rescheduled for Nov. 6 at 10 a.m., a court employee confirmed.
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