Tuesday when I wrote this thing, the list of entities and people pulling out of SXSW because of coronavirus, according to the Austin American-Statesman, included Facebook, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Intel, Mashable, the Global Alternative Food Awards and a trade show for Chinese companies called China Gathering. As for China…
Texas’ chief lawyer, Ken Paxton, joined attorneys general from across the country last week in urging the Food and Drug Administration to tighten electronic cigarette regulations. In a letter, co-signed by Paxton, the attorneys sharply criticize the agency’s recent efforts to combat the youth vaping epidemic. “The current guidance will not…
For months, Parkland Hospital administrators have been touting a new focus on tackling health disparities in Dallas’ poorest ZIP codes. Now, they’ve released details about how they’ll do it. The hospital is hiring community health workers and plans to deploy them in southern Dallas to help fight heightened mortality rates,…
In 2018, Dallas set an ambitious goal to speed up medical emergency response times: get to the scene within five minutes at least 90% of the time. The new goal — based on guidelines set by the National Fire Protection Association — was a reaction to growing dissatisfaction with how long it took ambulances to…
The Dallas County public defender’s office plans to hire social workers to help keep its mentally ill clients out of jail. It’s one more attempt to end the cycle of hospitalization, incarceration and homelessness caused by the criminalization — rather than treatment — of mental illness. Nonprofits and county administrators…
The Observer’s news vertical is, for the most part, a local concern. We do our best to stay focused on DFW, while occasionally allowing our eyes to wander further afield to the rest of Texas. So we are, for the purposes of this article at least, going to disregard about 99.8%…
Customers of Dallas vape shops looking for Mango Juul cartridges are finding empty shelves and heavy markups. Instead, they’re turning to Puff Bars, a nearly identical product that skirts the new rules by fusing the liquid-filled cartridge to the pen-sized stem. Users consume the liquid — which can last from…
Dallas County confirmed on Thursday that the teenager who died late last year as a result of vaping was 15. That makes the teenager the epidemic’s youngest victim, underscoring North Texas’ outsize role in the nationwide outbreak of vaping-related illnesses. The state has reported the most hospitalizations in the nation,…
A Dallas teenager’s death from a lung injury associated with vaping comes at a time when hospitalizations for the mysterious disease are on the decline nationwide. The teenager is the first person in Dallas County to die of injuries related to e-cigarette use, according to Dallas County Health and Human…
Everyone, it seems, has something good to say about plans for the city’s new jail diversion center. District Attorney John Creuzot called it a “solution” to the city’s continued criminalization of homelessness and mental illness. “Ditto,” said Lynn Richardson, chief of the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office, which represents many…
Nearly a fifth of the nation’s youngest uninsured children live in Texas, a stark reminder that the state has some of the most restrictive policies in the nation governing healthcare benefits for its most vulnerable residents. More than 8% of Texan children under the age of 6 are not insured, according…
Dallas’ jails and emergency rooms are overwhelmed by mental health crises. These institutions of last resort have become the only option for many “high utilizers,” people who return time after time in need of medication or counseling. It’s not their fault, explains Jessica Martinez, the chief clinical officer at a…
Food is medicine, the adage goes, acknowledging that you can’t address many health problems without tackling the underlying issues of poverty and food insecurity. A new Dallas initiative is about to take a stab at doing exactly that, thanks to a $250,000 grant and a resource-sharing agreement between some of…
Over the last three years, the federal government has gutted an Obamacare program designed to increase health insurance enrollment. Dallas has been hit hard: millions of dollars that had been used to help low-income households has disappeared, contributing to its status as one of least insured regions in the country…
If you happen to follow any of Texas’ Republican leadership on Twitter — and God bless you if you do — you’ve likely encountered the state GOP’s latest cause célèbre: a child-custody dispute in Dallas County between a mom who says that one of her two 7-year-old twins is a trans…
On Saturday, a federal judge issued a temporary order blocking the Trump administration’s proposed new requirement that all immigrants entering the country must show proof of medical insurance in order to be granted entry.
Texas has the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation and it has been getting worse at an alarming rate, according to a new report released Wednesday. Researchers at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute analyzed 2018 census data and found that the percentage of children with no healthcare coverage…
Hormone-based birth control has a much more nuanced and wide-spread effect on women’s brains than we commonly think, according to a new book written by Texas Christian University Research Psychologist Sarah E. Hill.
Three federal judges have issued nation-wide preliminary injunctions that block a new rule targeting low-income immigrants, that was set to go into effect today. Advocates say that the temporary block on the rule is a huge relief.
Immigrants are hastily dropping public benefits in response to a federal rule change put forth by President Donald Trump, but many of them don’t need to, advocates say. The fear, misinformation and rumors have lead to people needlessly giving up food stamps and healthcare assistance. The new guidelines stipulate that the use of assistance like Medicaid and food stamps and the likely hood that an applicant will use them in the future be weighed when deciding if an applicant should be approved for a green card.
Last week, the comment period for changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) closed. Members of the public had 60 days to express their opinions about the federal government’s proposed changes, which if implemented could take away benefits from as many as three million U.S. residents, including 300,000 in Texas, many of whom are already vulnerable to food insecurity.
Yesterday, a Senate special committee held its first meeting to discuss gun violence and prevention and address the eight executive orders issued by Governor Greg Abbott. Discussion centered around mental health, social media, shooters who self-radicalize online; many panel members repeated concerns about impinging on second amendment rights and due process of the law.
