Paying for Parkland, Road-rage Driver, Energy Square Makeover: Your Thursday Evening News Roundup

Good evening. Here are some stories you may have missed today.Do you want to get this roundup via email? Sign up for our newsletters here.Dallas County taxpayers foot the bill as Parkland draws suburban counties' uninsured residentsIt irks Dr. Fred Cerise, the CEO of Parkland Memorial Hospital, to hear suburban counties north of Dallas bragging about their low property taxes.That's because, he says, these counties increasingly benefit from their poor residents using Parkland. And when neither the patients nor their home counties pay, Dallas County taxpayers have no choice but to. These unfunded patients cost $27.4 million last year, a 72 percent rise since 2012.To support the safety-net hospital, Dallas County property owners pay a separate tax — 27.9 cents per $100 valuation — on top of taxes for schools, cities and the county. Meanwhile, residents of Collin, Denton, Ellis and Kaufman counties don't pay a hospital tax. Yet hundreds of thousands of uninsured residents from those counties aren't poor enough to qualify for their counties' small indigent health care programs.State politics commentary: The special legislative session needs a peacemaker, but it probably won't be Gov. Greg Abbott, writes Brandi Grissom.National politics: A House panel said that President Donald Trump's tweet-denial of the FBI director James Comey tapes is not good enough, threatening a subpoena to clarify whether the conversations were recorded.  Continue reading...