A bill, jointly authored by Rep. Four Price and Sen. Robert Duncan, seeking to protect the rights of millions of Texans, has reached the desk of the Governor. House Bill 1869 strikes a fair balance between allowing a severely injured accident victim to recover damages caused by a negligent wrongdoer and allowing the victim’s health insurer the ability to timely recover a reasonable portion of the medical expenses paid on his or her behalf. (more…)

WEST, Tex. — Five days after an explosion at a fertilizer plant leveled a wide swath of this town, Gov. Rick Perry tried to woo Illinois business officials by trumpeting his state’s low taxes and limited regulations. Asked about the disaster, Mr. Perry responded that more government intervention and increased spending on safety inspections would not have prevented what has become one of the nation’s worst industrial accidents in decades. (more…)

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When it comes to protecting public health and safety from threats posed by unsafe fertilizer plants in rural areas and equally dangerous industrial operations in major cities, Texas politicians have adopted a Wild West attitude that gives Texas businesses great freedom to innovate and grow the economy. But the Legislature and the governor have been less concerned about ensuring that these companies exercise that freedom in a responsible manner and are held accountable when they don’t. (more…)

In Texas, we have a strident belief in free-spirited ruggedness. Life’s challenges can be tamed through sheer will and individual effort. Those character traits will be particularly helpful for unionized public employees in Texas, because the Texas Supreme Court determined recently that they’re about to have to go it alone. (more…)

Unionized government workers in Texas — including firefighters, police and teachers — don’t have the right to be accompanied by a union representative while being questioned during internal investigations, a divided Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. (more…)

SAN ANTONIO, TX – Federal workplace safety investigations show that at least 11 deaths in Texas’ oilfields could have been prevented if companies followed safety protocols. (more…)

Gov. Rick Perry is in California trying to lure businesses to Texas with the promise of low taxes and loose regulations. When a reporter for the Orange County Register asked about Texas’ low rankings in worker safety, Perry said that the energy industry “is a fairly dangerous place to work,” and noted that many in California don’t understand that. (more…)

One of the oldest known workplace dangers is breathing in tiny bits of silica, which is basically sand. Even the ancient Greeks knew that stone cutters got sick from breathing in dust. And today, nearly 2 million American workers are exposed to silica dust in jobs ranging from construction to manufacturing. (more…)

NEW ORLEANS – A federal judge gave the green light Tuesday to a deal that allowed BP to plead guilty to manslaughter and other criminal charges stemming from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill in exchange for a $4 billion fine, probation and independent monitoring. (more…)