Today's edition of my community-building diary series Houston, Texas News You Can Use, features the ongoing battle over women's health. You'll also find my regular community, business and nonprofit news, but I think this story deserves a little more attention and discussion:
State Could Use Block Grants to Free Up Women's Health Dollars
In a fiscal switcheroo, Texas could free up state dollars to fund the embattled Women's Health Program by seeking federal block grants for other programs, the state's health commissioner wrote in a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday. Texas is losing more than $30 million in annual federal funding for the Women's Health Program over the state's decision to force Planned Parenthood clinics out of the Medicaid program. Gov. Rick Perry has vowed that the state will find the money, despite a bleak budget, to continue operating the contraception and cancer screening program without federal help.
http://www.texastribune.org/...
What follows is information from various news sites with a perspective from the nation's fourth largest city, Houston, Texas. Also home of the world's best margaritas, and largest, most aggressive mosquitos.
COMMUNITY
The Center for AIDS merges with Legacy Community Health Services
The Center for AIDS, a Houston organization that has provided life-saving treatment information to people living with HIV/AIDS, caregivers and medical providers for the past 17 years, will merge with Legacy Community Health Services as of April 1. The Center for AIDS’s information and advocacy programs and publications will be integrated into Legacy’s programs and services, allowing them to reach a greater number of people while minimizing costs.
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/...
Suburbs rule in Texas health rankings
If you live in Fort Bend County, feel free to be a bit smug. You, or at least your neighbors, are a little healthier than the rest of us. Most Houston-area counties fared well in a county-by-county health ranking released Tuesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The study added weight to something researchers long have known: better-educated people tend to be healthier.
http://www.chron.com/...
Animal food bank aids shelters
Rescue Bank Houston, an Uptown-based organization founded by Asher and John Kane, puts the human food-bank model to work for animal shelters, rescue groups and advocacy organizations. Animal organizations must register and receive approval from the food bank before accepting food. Currently, Rescue Bank Houston works with 63 area animal organizations, from feral-cat groups to small shelters to a wolf sanctuary. The food bank stores and distributes food from a warehouse in the Heights and from the Houston Food Bank's warehouse at 535 Portwall in east Houston.
http://www.chron.com/...
Google brings Art Project to MFAH
Google announced today a partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to bring its pioneering Art Project to Houston. The partnership is part of a major global expansion of the project, which now counts 151 partners in 40 countries. In the United States alone, 29 partners in 16 cities are participating, ranging from excellent regional museums to top notch university galleries. Thanks to Google, art lovers are able—with a few simple clicks of their fingers—to discover not just paintings, but also sculpture, street art and photographs.
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/...
BUSINESS
Astros Fans Ready For Baseball Season To Start
The Astros are back home tonight to finish up the exhibition schedule before they open the regular season on Friday night at Minute Maid Park. With a new owner and a young roster, the odds aren’t good for Houston this season, but fans are still optimistic.
http://app1.kuhf.org/...
Texas' need for health information technology workers greater than expected, study says
Texas is expected to need 6,500 more health information technology workers than originally anticipated, a new study by the department of health information management. Clinics and hospitals are conservatively estimated to need 9,500 workers through 2013, and vendors and consultants will need 500 workers during that period, the study reports.
http://www.bizjournals.com/...
Hobby expansion adds 10,000 jobs, Southwest says
Opening Hobby Airport to commercial international flights will create 10,000 jobs, bring 1.6 million more air travelers through Houston annually and inject an additional $1.6 billion a year into the local economy, according to a Southwest Airlines executive who has seen city-commissioned studies on the matter.
http://www.chron.com/...
Interior Says It Will Speed Oil & Gas Drilling On Public Lands
The Obama Administration is unveiling new procedures to speed up oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the Bureau of Land Management will introduce new automated tracking systems that could reduce the review period for drilling permits on public lands by two-thirds, without jeopardizing safety. Salazar says the new system would also speed up the processing of federal oil and gas leases.
http://app1.kuhf.org/...
Fed Sees Improving U.S. Economy Reducing Need for Additional Accommodation
Federal Reserve policy makers see the improving economy reducing the need for new stimulus even as they stick to a plan to hold the benchmark interest rate near zero at least through late 2014. Fed officials called for additional stimulus only “if the economy lost momentum” or if inflation stays below their 2 percent inflation target, according to minutes of their March 13 meeting released yesterday in Washington. That contrasts with their January meeting minutes, in which some policy makers saw the economy requiring additional action “before long.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
NONPROFIT / OTHER
Nonprofit Demand Is Up, But More Than Half Of Charities Only Have Enough Cash For 3 Months Or Less
Though demand for services is up, an alarming percentage of nonprofits don't have enough cash on hand to last more than three months. After interviewing more than 4,500 respondents, the State of the Nonprofit Survey concluded that while nonprofits expect to see an 88 percent increase in demand for services this year, 57 percent of nonprofits only have enough cash on hand for three months or less.
http://www.fastcompany.com/...