Hotel rooms and worker lodges are full across South and West Texas, as the oil and gas industry rushes to drill thousands of new wells.
Canales Co-Authors Major Education Bill.
Texas’ education policy would be dramatically improved under House Bill 5, legislation, local leaders said.
Read moreLawmaker Hopes to Boost Hispanic Civic Engagement
In an attempt to increase civic participation among the state's growing Hispanic population, state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, has filed a bill to make legislative information from the state House available on the internet in Spanish.
Read moreCanales Support UTRGV bill.
Legislation that would merge the University of Texas-Pan American and UT-Brownsville – and also creates a UT medical school in the Rio Grande Valley as part of the proposed system – was passed by the Texas Senate on Wednesday, March 13.
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Canales says 2/3 vote needed for university funds.
The full Texas Senate voted in favor of starting a new, major University of Texas System university and medical school in South Texas.
Read moreUnder scrutiny, bill would limit food stamp rollovers
An Edinburg legislator filed legislation Friday that would limit the benefits recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known as food stamps — could carry over continually, days after the U.S. Department of Agriculture directed state agencies to conduct a review of high balance accounts.
Read moreLawmakers Takes Action After SNAP Investigative Report
A bill has been filed limiting rollovers of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds.
Read moreCanales weighs in on wrongful convictions.
Grits spent much of yesterday at the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, which heard legislation calling for creation of an Innocence Commission to study the causes of wrongful convictions. As in the past when this bill has come up, several Texas exonerees testified in favor of the legislation, offering up powerful narratives of injustice that the committee clearly found moving and compelling.
Read moreCanales responds to report showing people on food stamps have a balance of more than $7000.
“Should there be a limit on how much tax payers dollars can be given to someone on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program?” Texas’ KGBT 4TV asks in an investigative report on possible food stamp abuse in the Rio Grande Valley.
Read moreCanales responds to report showing people on food stamps have a balance of more than $7000.
Rio Grande Valley: People with $7K food-stamp surplus
An investigative report has shown that some people in the Rio Grande Valley are receiving exorbitant amounts of food stamp money, racking up thousands of dollars in unused funds.
“Should there be a limit on how much taxpayers dollars can be given to someone on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)?” Action 4 News asks.
One gas station clerk, who refused to reveal his name, said he once saw a balance of $7,000 on a recipient’s Lone Star card.
“You would think that it would red flag in the system,” he said.
He told the TV station that the local SNAP office told him they couldn’t doing anything about it.
“I had never heard of this issue until you brought it to light,” State Representative Terry Canales told Action 4 News.