Terry Canales asked DPS to reconsider plan to lay off 117 older officers serving in a retire/rehire program.
In its latest attempt to address budget cuts, the Texas Department of Public Safety is again facing harsh criticism. Multiple lawmakers and the department’s officers association have called for the reversal of a DPS decision to cut the positions of 117 law enforcement officers currently employed under the agency’s retire/rehire program. The decision was made while the agency looks for ways to comply with a mandated budget cut of more than $50 million, according to a DPS memo from last month. Other budget decisions made by the department this year have been overturned after public uproar.
Read moreRep. Canales’ plan to do away with “debtors prisons” for poor people who can’t pay traffic fines and other minor offenses approved by Texas Legislature and on its way to Gov. Abbott
State lawmakers on Friday, May 26, 2017, approved House Bill 351 by Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, which will help do away with a decades-old injustice which results in hundreds of thousands of Texans going to jail every year because they are too poor to pay fines for traffic tickets and other Class C misdemeanors.
Canales said HB 351 represents a “sweeping reform” of the state’s criminal justice system.
Read moreOpen government pioneer sees 'sunshine laws' in peril
AUSTIN – As a young lawyer and activist in the early 1970s, Buck Wood recalls that prying loose information and records from the hands of government bureaucrats was so onerous that even members of the Legislature were routinely stiff-armed.
Read moreInternational trade with Mexico is vital for state’s and American economies and 382,ooo Texas jobs, Rep. Canales’ legislation, approved by House of Representatives, tells President and Congress
Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, along with a bipartisan supermajority of the Texas House of Representatives, wants President Trump and Congress to avoid any actions that would threaten almost $92.5 billion in annual Texas exports to Mexico, which is the largest trading partner for the Lone Star State.
Exports are goods or services sent to another country for sale.
Read moreSexual Assault Awareness Month, proposed by Rep. Canales, receives 144 – 0 House approval; lawmaker also wants universities and colleges to provide details of such crimes on campuses
Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, has proposed that April be designated as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Texas in order to increase knowledge that leads to more prevention of sexual assault and punishment of criminals, and to authorize the regular observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month through appropriate activities in public schools and other places.
Canales’ proposal, written in House Bill 822, was overwhelmingly approved, 144 – 0, by the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday, April 2o, 2017. The bill will now go to the Texas Senate for their action.
Read moreThis Lawmaker Says It's Time To Allow Accent Marks on State Documents
What’s in a name? It turns out that question has relevance long after Shakespeare’s time. In fact, it’s at the center of a bill before the Texas legislature this session.
Rep. Terry Canales (D-Edinburg) wants to make it so that accents – diacritical marks – can be put on state documents like driver’s licenses. He makes the case that without a proper accent, some names are simply different altogether.
Read moreHouse Bill 326 by Rep. Canales part of statewide measures designed to increase the minimum wage for working Texans, including more than 67,000 in Hidalgo County
House Bill 326, which would prohibit an employer from keeping any portion of a gratuity paid to or left for a tipped employee, has been filed by Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, as part of a series of proposals by Texas lawmakers designed to increase the minimum wage in Texas.
A gratuity, also known as a tip, is generally defined as a gift of money, over and above payment due for service, as to a waiter or bellhop.
Read more'High threat' Texas border busts aren't always
Drivers in Texas busted for drunken driving, not paying child support or low-level drug offenses are among thousands of "high-threat" criminal arrests being counted as part of a nearly $1 billion mission to secure the border with Mexico, an Associated Press analysis has found.
Read moreOpen Government Seminar, available to the public, set for Thursday, June 9, at McAllen Chamber of Commerce, announces Rep. Canales
An Open Government Seminar, offered by the Office of the Texas Attorney General and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, will take place on Thursday, June 9, 2016, from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, 1200 Ash Avenue, Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, has announced.
Read moreHere’s why low-income households may gamble with homeownership
Texas Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat who practices law in a town about an hour’s drive from the Mexican border, said contracts for deed are “a continuing problem” in South Texas.
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