Introducing TTLA by Text | A new opt-in member service to get up-to-the minute legislative news to you via text messaging to your cell phone. Texts will be limited to legislative issues. We'll let you know when important hearings or testimony are beginning, what's happening with bills of interest, and we'll provide links to video clips of relevant hearing testimony. Click on the headline to opt-in. If you have questions regarding the service, contact Mona Fults (mfults@ttla.com). | Texas Tribune Daily Brief | | The Demolition of Workers' Comp | | Over the past decade, state after state has been dismantling America's workers' comp system with disastrous consequences for many of the hundreds of thousands of people who suffer serious injuries at work each year, a ProPublica and NPR investigation has found. The cutbacks have been so drastic in some places that they virtually guarantee injured workers will plummet into poverty. Workers often battle insurance companies for years to get the surgeries, prescriptions and basic help their doctors recommend. Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, ProPublica 03/04/2015 | Read Article: ProPublica | The Workers' Compensation System is Broken | | There's a good news/bad news situation for occupational injuries in the United States: Fewer people are getting hurt on the job. But those who do are getting less help. That's according to a couple of important new reports out Wednesday on how the system for cleaning up workplace accidents is broken -- both because of the changing circumstances of the people who are getting injured, and the disintegration of programs that are supposed to pay for them. Lydia DePillis (blog), The Washington Post 03/04/2015 | Read Article: The Washington Post | Trinity Industries Awaits Court Ruling on Guardrail Penalty | | A Texas federal judge said he would rule 'as soon as possible' on how much Trinity Industries Inc. must pay after a jury found that the company defrauded the U.S. government by failing to inform regulators of changes to its roadside guardrail system. The whistle-blower in the false-claims lawsuit, who would get a share of the government's recovery, is asking for a judgment of $709 million, plus $19 million in lawyers' fees, expenses and costs. The Dallas-based company has said in court filings that those amounts are excessive and that 'no judgment against Trinity is proper.' Dennis Robertson & Patrick G Lee, Bloomberg 03/04/2015 | Read Article: Bloomberg | Texas Judge Denies Dismissal of Death Lawsuit | | A Texas state district judge has declined to dismiss a lawsuit over the death of a student of the University of the Incarnate Word. The university had requested that the lawsuit be dismissed based on the fact that it is both a private institution and a governmental unit. On Tuesday, Judge Cathleen Stryker denied the university's request and moved the lawsuit forward. The lawsuit was filed by the family of the student who was shot and killed by a police officer in December 2013. Staff Report, Fox 29 San Antonio 03/03/2015 | Read Article: Fox 29 San Antonio | Lawsuit Accuses Coverup in Army Helicopter Crash | | A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the families of two U.S. soldiers who were involved in a fatal helicopter accident in Afghanistan. The lawsuit was filed against the maker of a component of the helicopter, which the lawsuit alleges caused the crash in March 2013. One of the soldiers in the helicopter was killed in the crash. The other soldier sustained severe spine and head trauma and remains in a wheelchair. The lawsuit names as defendants Goodrich Pump and Engine Control Systems Inc. and Triumph Group Inc.. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants knew of defects in the failed part that caused the crash "while continuing to supply parts to companies and the U.S. government." Dan Lamothe, The Washington Post 03/03/2015 | Read Article: The Washington Post | | |