• 2009-2010 Annual Report, Texas Military Preparedness Commission, May 2011
• Strategic Plan 2011-2015, Texas Adjutant General, 2011
• Texas Military Forces Standing Operating Guidance for Support to the State, Texas Adjutant General, October 2009
• Texas Homeland Security Strategic Plan 2010-2015, Office of the Governor, February 2010

•  Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008-2010, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, April 28, 2011
• The Protected Innocence Challenge: State Report Cards on the Legal Framework of Protection for the Nation's Children, 2011 and Texas report card, Shared Hope International, December 1, 2011
• The Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force Report 2011 to the Texas Legislature, Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force, Office of Attorney General, January 2011
• Trafficking in Persons Report 2011 and United States of America country profile, U.S. Department of State, June 2011
• "Underage Sex Trafficking Is Everywhere Local Law Enforcement Looks, but Will Their Budgets Hold Out?", San Antonio Current, February 7, 2012

• Texas Juvenile Justice Department Board Meeting - Information Packet (including Transition Team Report, p. 17 of PDF document), Texas Juvenile Justice Department, February 17, 2012

• "Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Practices May Ease Flow of Committed Youth to State Corrections and Help Sustain Lower Populations," (including Texas and Louisiana), Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, Winter 2012
• No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, October 2011

• Juveniles in the Adult Criminal Justice System in Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, March 2011

• Methods and Assistance Program (MAP) Reviews, including 2012-13 MAP Presentation [PDF, 50MB], Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

This entry was posted on February 27, 2012 at 9:10 AM and has received 1288 views. Print this entry.

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.

• Explore the origins of African American History Month and learn about key figures in African American history. (Library of Congress, February 2012)
• Read about who qualifies for veterans' benefits. (Congressional Research Service, January 23, 2012)
• Examine the crisis in state judicial funding. (American Bar Association, February 6, 2012)
• Consider how to improve the voter registration system. (Pew Center on the States, February 14, 2012)
• See how the indoor tanning industry provided teens with misleading information. (U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce – Minority Staff, February 1, 2012)
• Note that many states do not disclose tax credits for films (Texas does). (Stateline, February 22, 2012)

This entry was posted on February 23, 2012 at 3:15 PM and has received 1032 views. Print this entry.

• "State Reviews Health Insurance Hikes, Lacks Authority to Halt Them," Austin American-Statesman, February 5, 2012
• Essential Health Benefits in Texas, Center for Public Policy Priorities, January 2012
• Medical Loss Ratios, Texas Public Policy Foundation, January 2012
• "Texas Insurers Won't Get Reprieve from Health-Care Law Rule," Business Week, January 31, 2012
• The Affordable Care Act in Texas, Healthcare.gov, last updated August 2011
• Update on Federal Health Insurance Reform, Texas Department of Insurance, November 2010

• 2011 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, Alzheimer's Association, March 2011
• Alzheimer's Disease Program, Texas Department of State Health Services; including Putting the Pieces Together: A Comprehensive Plan for Addressing the Burden of Alzheimer’s Disease in Texas: Texas State Plan on Alzheimer's Disease 2010-2015, September 2010; and Texas Council on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders 2010 Biennial Report, December 2010

• A Mid-Year State Medicaid Budget Update for FY 2012 & A Look Forward to FY 2013, Kaiser Family Foundation, February 2012

• Texas Healthcare Transformation and Quality Improvement Program - Program Brief, Medicaid 1115 Waiver Proposal, Texas Health and Human Services Commission, July 13, 2011
• Approval Letter and Documents, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, December 12, 2011
• California's "Bridge to Reform" Medicaid Demonstration Waiver, Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2011 update

This entry was posted on February 21, 2012 at 9:59 AM and has received 1456 views. Print this entry.

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.

• Travel back in time with a legislative history about federal funding for roads and highways from the 18th century forward. (Congressional Research Service, January 6, 2012)
• Note that the State Bar of Texas has created a task force to study indigent pro se litigant issues. (Texas Lawyer Tex Parte blog, January 31, 2012)
• Read about science education standards by state. (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, January 31, 2012)
• Learn how too much sodium sneaks into our diets. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 2012)
• See where entitlement benefits go, demographically and geographically. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February 10, 2012 / New York Times, Febraury 11, 2012)
• Consider how the economy has affected young people seeking employment. (Pew Research Center, February 9, 2012)

This entry was posted on February 16, 2012 at 3:15 PM and has received 1226 views. Print this entry.

• Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts, Mathematica Policy Research, Center on Reinventing Public Education, November 2011
• Do Charter Schools Improve Student Achievement? Evidence From a National Randomized Study, Mathematica Policy Research, U.S. Department of Education, December 2011
• The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts: Final Report, U.S. Department of Education, Institute for Educational Research, June 2010
• Evaluation of New Texas Charter Schools (2007-10): Final Report, Texas Center for Educational Research, Prepared for Texas Education Agency, July 2011
• Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Charter School Laws, Second Edition, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, January 2011

• Affordability and Transfer: Critical to Increasing Baccalaureate Degree Completion, The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, June 2011
• Implementing Statewide Transfer & Articulation Reform: An Analysis of Transfer Associate Degrees in Four States, Center for the Study of Community Colleges, April 2011
• Improving Student Transfer from Community Colleges to Four-Year Institutions - The Perspective of Leaders from Baccalaureate-Granting Institutions, The College Board, July 2011
• Promising Practices in Statewide Articulation and Transfer Systems, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, June 2010
• Transfer and Articulation from Community Colleges to Four-Year Institutions: Hope on the Horizon, The SOURCE on Community College Issues, Trends & Strategies, October 9, 2011
• Transfer Policies and Resources, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

• A Basis for Public Funding Essential to Bringing a Nationwide Next Generation 911 Network to America’s Communications Users and First Responders, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, September 2011
•  Funding Emergency Communications: Technology and Policy Considerations, Congressional Research Service, January 5, 2012
• Next Generation 911: Reports, Commission on State Emergency Communications
• Research Success Stories: Next Generation 911, U.S. Department of Transportation, Intelligent Transportation Systems

•  Bringing Broadband to Rural America: Update to Report on Rural Broadband Strategy, Federal Communications Commission, June 17, 2011
• Broadband Availability in Urban vs. Rural Areas, National Broadband Map, September 2011
• Broadband Landscape (broadband maps), Connected Texas
• The Broadband Landscape in the State of Texas: Assessment at a State, Regional & Local Level, and Recommendations for Broadband Expansion, Connected Texas , March 2011

• Design-Build and Alternative Project Delivery Issues in Texas, Texas Council of Engineering Companies, November 2007
• A Guidebook for the Evaluation of Project Delivery Methods, Transit Cooperative Research Program, April 2009

• A Call to Action: Information Exchange Strategies for Effective State Government, National Association of State Chief Information Officers, April 2011
• Protecting Texans' Identities: The Challenges of Securing Privacy in Transparent Government, Texas Comptroller, December 2010
• The State of Texas Improves Information Sharing Through Adoption of National Information Exchange Model Standards, UniSys, 2008

This entry was posted on February 13, 2012 at 1:14 PM and has received 1194 views. Print this entry.

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.

• Review the Texas Emerging Technology Fund's annual report. (Office of the Governor, Texas Emerging Technology Fund, January 2012)
• Consider the cost of prisons to taxpayers in Texas. (Vera Institute of Justice, January 2012)
• See how employment-based health benefits are changing. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 27, 2012)
• Compare state-by-state differences in child well-being. (Foundation for Child Development, January 2012)
• Read about local planning and preparedness for nuclear and radiological events. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, January 2012) 
• Get a brief overview on right-to-work law and a map of which states are right-to-work states. (Wall Street Journal Law Blog, January 25, 2012)
• Don't forget about pets in underserved communities. (Humane Society of the United States, Janauary 27, 2012)
• Check out the economic impact of the Texas restaurant industry. (National Restaurant Association, 2012) 

This entry was posted on February 9, 2012 at 3:15 PM and has received 979 views. Print this entry.

Texas was suffering from a severe drought. Transportation planning, taxes, and public school finance were topics of debate.  It sounds familiar – but this was the nineteenth century, not the twenty-first. 

In 1883, the 18th Legislature passed, and voters approved, a constitutional amendment providing for an ad valorem tax for the support of public schools, but additional legislation was needed. 

 
 

Meanwhile, the drought exacerbated conflicts between landless cowboys and ranchers who had fenced their land – and occasionally neighboring public land – with barbed wire. Desperate to find water and grazing for their herds, organized bands of cowboys with names like Blue Devils and Javelinas took to cutting fences, causing millions of dollars of damage. 

 
 

The conflict between cattle ranchers and fence cutters was reaching the point of crisis; landowners demanded action, but there were no laws that would allow an adequate response.

 
 

In January of 1884, Governor Ireland called the Legislature into special session to address public school finance, fence cutting, and other issues. By the end of the special session, laws had been passed to make the willful cutting of fences a crime; to forbid landowners from fencing public lands; to alter the system of school finance; and to improve county roads.

Whether you are interested historical issues, like the fence-cutting wars, or in subjects of recurring interest, like school finance and transportation, the Legislative Archive System can help. With the Legislative Archive System, you can search for passed legislation back to 1883 by bill number, session law chapter, and caption. 

Additional search options and resources are available for more recent sessions. For assistance using LAS, please contact the library.

This entry was posted on February 6, 2012 at 5:02 PM and has received 3106 views. Print this entry.

In this weekly post, we feature online articles and policy reports published recently, and other helpful research tools.

• Read about security concerns related to violent drug trafficking in Mexico. (RAND Corporation, 2011)
• See how taxpayers are benefitting from oil and gas lease sales by the Bureau of Land Management. (U.S. Department of the Interior, January 10, 2012)
• Browse the 2012 State Business Tax Climate Index. (Tax Foundation, January 2012)
• Check out trends and issues in state government. (Stateline, January 18, 2012)
• Review state electricity profiles. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, January 2012)
• Consider how tobacco control has progressed state by state. (American Lung Association, January 2012)

This entry was posted on February 2, 2012 at 3:15 PM and has received 1036 views. Print this entry.