On-the-Job Learning | Casey's Last Word

The financing of higher education is one of the hottest topics in the public sphere these days.

But I haven’t seen much discussion of one of the most damaging consequences – the decline of a modern version of the medieval concept of apprenticeship.

Homes for an Aging America | May 18, 2012

Watch May 18, 2012 | Henry Cisneros and Homes for an Aging America on PBS. See more from Texas Week.

Former Mayor Henry Cisneros helped to increase tourism and create jobs in San Antonio and went on to become the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Clinton, where he worked to revitalize this country's largest cities. Cisneros, who is turning 65 years old, is now working to educate home builders on how to build age-appropriate homes.

Voters Flying Blind on Judges | Casey's Last Word

Imagine how you would feel if a judge ruled on your case without listening to either you or your opponent, without considering any evidence other than, say, your gender, your ethnicity and which party primary you had voted in.

Imagine he had spent, at most, five minutes considering the merits of your case.

That would be absurd.

Yet that’s about how much information most of us have when we mark our ballots to elect our judges.

Consider the last two elections of judges in Bexar County.

New Children's Hospital | May 11, 2012

Watch May 11, 2012 | New Children's Hospital on PBS. See more from Texas Week.

The downtown CHRISTUS Santa Rosa hospital in San Antonio will undergo an expansion to transform it into a Tier 1 Childrens Hospital. Christus had been working with University Hospital on a joint project but negotiations fell apart. While Christus focuses on downtown there are voices in the medical community that believe a second hospital in the medical center area would be a better location.

Planned Parenthood Correction | Casey's Last Word

Last week’s Last Word wasn’t. That’s because I made a mistake and I need to correct it.

It is no excuse that my mistake was, in effect, to agree with the governor and the attorney general. They were wrong too.

I said, accurately, that the Texas Legislature last year passed a law designed to exclude Planned Parenthood from the Women’s Health Program.

The program is 90 percent funded by the federal government and provides health screening and family planning services to more than 100,000 Texas women who are not quite poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but don’t have and can’t afford health insurance.

I also wrote that the law provides that if Planned Parenthood, which serves nearly half the women in the program, sues and wins, then the entire program must be shut down.

That was wrong.

Keep The Constable? | May 4, 2012

Watch May 4, 2012 | Keep The Constable? on PBS. See more from Texas Week.

How important to a community is the office of Constable. In the smaller rural communities it appears to be very important. But is that the case in the larger urban counties where some say the office of Constable is unnecessary and should go the way of other offices which were abolished by constitutional amendment during recent decades.

Planned Parenthood Targeted | Casey's Last Word

Last year the Texas Legislature took this state down a rabbit hole into an Alice-in-Wonderland world of sexual politics.

In response to pressures from anti-abortion forces, the Legislature passed a law barring Planned Parenthood from the Women's Health Program. It provides cancer and other health screening as well as contraceptive services to more than 100,000 low-income women who earn marginally too much to qualify for Medicaid.

For many of these women, the Women's Health Program serves as their regular checkup, as well as their source of family planning. The providers are modestly reimbursed, with about 90 percent of the $40 million annually coming from the federal government.

The federal government has told Texas that under the law, women are free to choose any qualified providers and Planned Parenthood cannot be excluded. For a variety of reasons, about 50 percent of the women in the program choose Planned Parenthood clinics.

San Antonio Bond Election | April 27, 2012

Watch April 27, 2012 | San Antonio Bond Election on PBS. See more from Texas Week.

San Antonio voters will soon determine whether or not a record 596 million dollar bond program is in their best interests. The bond proposes spending money on 140 projects targeting four areas including streets and sidewalks parks drainage and facility and community initiatives. Those against the proposal feel some projects are over budgeted or underfunded.

Wal-Mart Learns Lesson | Casey's Last Word

EXPOSÉ:
Wal-Mart
in Mexico

Wal-Mart this week demonstrated that it has learned something San Antonio developers learned 30 years ago.

That’s about the time that the rise of neighborhood associations as a political force began.

Such associations generally are sensitive to what they see as incursions on their neighborhoods – whether the incursions be low-income housing or big-box developers. Or just about anything other than a park.

Bexar County Political Races | April 20, 2012

Watch April 20, 2012 | Bexar County Political Races on PBS. See more from Texas Week.

Rick Casey and two political journalists discuss and evaluate the upcoming Bexar County elections, which take place May 29.