Pete Sessions’ Texas congressional district safely Republican for now, but population changing

The 32nd Congressional District is a microcosm of how Hispanic population growth could affect seats in Dallas County.

Matt Jacob: http://dallasne.ws/Sb6au2

Now thank we all our Medicaid, with heart and hands and voices

Supporters of the Texas Medicaid program cheered and shouted “Thank you, Medicaid” at a Thanksgiving week press event staged one block from the Texas Capitol on Tuesday.

Garrett: http://bit.ly/SOin4P

Texas’ cancer-fighting agency loses another high-ranking official

The state’s $3 billion cancer-fighting agency has lost another high-ranking official.

Jerald “Jerry” Cobbs has resigned as chief commercialization officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. He was the agency’s point person in efforts to help for-profit companies try to develop better ways to treat cancer.

Drew: http://dallasne.ws/WigvTm

Family planning group will try to bypass Perry, state for federal grant

A trade group for family planning wants to apply for a federal Title X grant and bypass the state to give the money back to clinics that lost funding last year.

The 2011 legislature cut about $73.6 million — two-thirds of funding — from family planning for the current biennium shuttering more than 100 clinics and putting more than 120,000 Texans in search of new providers.

http://shar.es/GF24r

Manager of UT Southwestern’s animal research committee files whistleblower suit after alleging non-compliance

For the last few years, Donna Pulkrabek was the manager of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, a group of scientists and vets and other folks tasked with keeping an eye on how the school treats its animal research subjects, among them dogs, goats, frogs and sheep and mice. It was her job to make sure UTSW complies with Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare guidelines concerning the treatment of animals.

Wilonsky: http://dallasne.ws/RORLm6

Texas’ big contingent of House freshmen splits on mandate for compromise

WASHINGTON — Texas is sending eight freshmen to the U.S. House, five Democrats and three Republicans. All of them arrived for orientation last week eager to learn and hoping for good committee assignments.

There the similarities end.

Gillman: http://dallasne.ws/WgEH8N

DMN Investigates: State’s cancer-fighting agency funded projects of Perry campaign contributor

One night in December 2007, Dallas businessman David Shanahan and several of his family members gathered at a home in Highland Park with a special guest, Gov. Rick Perry, to talk about cancer.

By the end of the next day, the governor had collected $50,000 for his campaign fund from Shanahan and several of his associates. Less than one week earlier, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst pulled in $40,000 from a similar group of donors that included Shanahan.

This political gift-giving came just a month after Texas voters approved a 10-year, $3 billion program to fight cancer. Millions from that program later would flow to Shanahan’s firms.

DMN Staff Writers JAMES DREW and SUE AMBROSE GOETINCK: http://dallasne.ws/U8xpGs