State employees suspected of stealing from low-income Texans' public assistance accounts
Seven human services employees were fired after a string of fraud and theft — and the largest data breach in agency history. Full Story
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Terri Langford
Health and Human Services Reporter
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Terri Langford is the Tribune's health and human services reporter based in Austin. Langford is a veteran journalist, having worked at the Florida Times Union, The Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, WNYC, Honolulu Civil Beat and Texas Standard/KUT. Langford has a bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin. She has covered various city and state agencies, criminal justice and health and human services for the Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The Associated Press, WNYC and Texas Standard at KUT.
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![The fresh produce section of a Brookshire Brothers grocery store in Buffalo, Texas, on June 29, 2023.]()
Credit: Joe Timmerman/The Texas Tribune -
Texas is silent on whether it will offer summer food assistance for students
After the state missed the Jan. 1 deadline, lawmakers still have time to approve administrative costs before applying for $400 million in federal summer meal assistance. Full Story
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![Ector County Independent School District employees serve lunch to Bonham Middle School students Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023 in Odessa.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
State agency to ask lawmakers for $300 million to fix “significant neglect” in Texas’ Medicaid enrollment system
The request, which includes hiring more staff and updating the online application system, comes as applicants must wait for months to receive approval for benefits. Full Story
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![A Texas Health and Human Services client application on April 24, 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Trial judge in Robert Roberson’s death row case agrees to recusal
Senior District Judge Deborah Oakes Evans recused herself after a challenge to her impartiality over longtime relationships with case prosecutors and judges. Full Story
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![Judge Deborah Oakes Evans presides over a hearing in Palestine on Aug. 14, 2018 as Robert Roberson's attorneys seek a new trial. Roberson was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House committee demands that attorney general allow Roberson to testify
The Criminal Jurisprudence Committee plans to issue a new subpoena to the death row inmate for a Dec. 20 hearing if Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office does not cooperate. Full Story
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![From left: Texas Tribune reporter Kayla Guo moderates a conversation with State Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and Joe Moody, D-El Paso, in Austin on Dec. 6, 2024. Moody, who is chairman, serves with Leach on the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence.]()
Credit: John Jordan/The Texas Tribune -
Los hospitales en Texas ahora deben preguntarle a sus pacientes sobre su ciudadanía. No tienes que responder.
El gobernador Greg Abbott quiere saber cuánto gastan los hospitales en el cuidado de inmigrantes indocumentados. Los hospitales no deben negar atención en ningún caso. Full Story
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![The emergency drop-off at an Austin hospital on March 30, 2020.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas hospitals are now required to ask for patients’ citizenship. Here’s what you should know.
Gov. Greg Abbott wants to know how much hospitals spend caring for undocumented immigrants. Hospitals should not deny care based on how patients respond. Full Story
![The emergency drop-off at an Austin hospital on March 30, 2020.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Could Texas do for Alzheimer’s research what it did for cancer?
Modeled after the state’s $6 billion cancer research fund, the dementia fund — a legislative priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — could pump hundreds of millions of dollars into Texas researchers. Full Story
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![The facilities of El Faro Health and Therapeutics clinical research facility count with an infusion room to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease in Rio Grande City on November 13, 2021.]()
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Texas Supreme Court removes temporary block to Robert Roberson’s execution
The state’s highest civil court ruled that legislators can’t use subpoenas to block death row inmates’ executions, but suggested there’s still time for Roberson to testify before a Texas House panel. Full Story
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![Former Detective Brian Wharton testifies during a Criminal Jurisprudence hearing on death row inmate Robert Roberson on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 in Austin, TX. Wharton was an investigator in the case of the death of Nikki Roberson and has expressed his doubts of Roberson's guilt and agrees with stopping his execution. With his scheduled execution drawing closer, a hearing debating the certainty of Robreson's guilt and there is a bipartisan push to stay his execution. Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune -
A growing and aging population is forcing Texas counties to seek state EMS funding
Although Texas counties are not required to provide ambulance services, many are digging deep to pay for their own fleet or to contract out services. Full Story
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![The interior of a CareFlite ambulance vehicle outside the Johnson County County Commissioners office in Cleburne on November 8, 2024.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune