Texas health insurance premiums are about to get a lot more costly, validating earlier fears regarding the potential inability to afford coverage. Blue Cross Blue Shield announced this week its request to significantly increase health insurance rates, a move that could affect more than 600,000 Texans. Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is the only provider that […]

The Austin Sentinel reported in March about the deplorable living conditions children are subjected to in foster care as the state of Texas struggles to manage budget insufficiencies and an influx in children removed from their homes. The Dallas Morning News revealed that for the second time in less than a decade, foster children were being […]

Scientists from Texas A&M University recently conducted an overview of 14 studies to observe the impact drinking water laced with agricultural chemicals has on pregnant women and their unborn babies. The research looked at studies published over the last decade and a half, and specifically focused on agricultural areas. The study was led by Jean […]

Over the last five years, men working in the oil and gas extraction industry have mysteriously dropped dead on the job. Several of the deaths were determined to be a result of cardiovascular failure, a cause the coroner deemed natural. However, new information reveals the workers likely passed away after inhaling noxious vapors while sampling […]

Drinking water in West Texas may be laced with extremely harmful chemicals linked to brain cancer, leukemia and birth defects, according to health officials warning of a potential catastrophe. Heavy rains triggered flooding across the Lone Star State in recent months, causing an array of noxious fracking chemicals to be washed into local waterways. Emergency […]

Several counties in Texas have drinking water laced with a group of disinfectant chemicals that may cause damage to the liver, kidney, and thyroid. Exceedingly high levels of trihalomethanes (THM) were recently found in drinking water in Kyle, Blanco, and Hutto. The discovery angered some Texans who say they were not issued proper warnings, and […]

The Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice motioned for the improvement of mental health services in county jails on Wednesday, citing the highly publicized and controversial death of Sandra Bland, an activist against police brutality who was reported to have committed suicide following her arrest after a traffic stop in July 2015. Though the committee […]

A woman from the Austin area has been charged with a Class A misdemeanor after allowing her children to get tattoos. Ashley Weir, 31, permitted her boyfriend’s brother, a registered sex offender, to tattoo her three children, all of whom are younger than 13-years-old. The Austin Police Department got involved after they were contacted by […]

Several years ago, Chemese Armstrong, 34, from Abilene, Texas, learned that she was allergic to an industrial chemical commonly found in permanent hair dyes called paraphenylenediamine (PPD), used for the natural look it gives to colored hair. Trying to avoid an allergic reaction, and at the behest of her dermatologist, Armstrong visited a salon in […]

The outlook for foster children in Texas is grim as the state struggles to manage budget insufficiencies and an influx in kids taken from their homes. For the second time since 2007-08, foster children have been forced to sleep in the offices of Child Protective Services, according to a piece by The Dallas Morning News […]