The Texas Health and Human Services Commission delivered a final legal notice to defund Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid program. In a provision under the state and federal law pertaining to Medicaid providers, the Office of the Inspector General wrote that the group is “not qualified to provide medical services in a professionally competent, safe, legal, and ethical manner.”

Texas Planned Parenthood will bypass any administrative hearing and go straight to federal court to halt the state’s action. On this edition of Houston Matters, we talk about the decision and its implications with Alexa Ura with The Texas Tribune.

Also this hour…

When Politics Come Up at the Holidays: How to Stay Sane

We’re all dreading it — a conversation about politics over the holidays with that one family member who sees things differently and loves to get into it. So what do you do? Do you avoid talking about politics altogether over the holidays? How do you stay sane during the holidays if (and when) a political disagreement occurs?

We get some advice from Dr. Michael Winters, a Houston behavioral psychologist, and we hear your suggestions and concerns.

Rules of the Road in Houston

Tailgating, speeding, changing lanes without signaling — do you see these offenses increase around the holidays? More than 7 million Texans are going to hit the road for holiday travel this year, according to AAA Texas. And while Houstonians are no strangers to traffic, no matter when you hit the road it’s still a good idea to freshen up on the rules of the road.

We discuss the basic safety and traffic laws in the Greater Houston area with Sgt. Stephen Woodard from the Texas Department of Public Safety, and Don Egdorf, DWI Task Force officer with the Houston Police Department.

Something Good, Something Bad, and Something Ugly About 2016

A lot can happen in a year. Some of it good. Some of it bad. Some of it downright ugly. On today’s special edition of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, we turn to panelists Joe Holley, Marcus Davis and Natalie Arceneaux to each share something good, something bad and something ugly that occurred in 2016.

Best Books of 2016

And we take a look back at some of Houston’s best books of 2016 and some to look forward to in 2017. Out of the thousands of books that were published this year we ask Rich Levy, executive director of Inprint Houston, to help us decide the must-reads of 2016.

Houston Matters offers a free daily, downloadable podcast here, on iTunes, Stitcher and various other podcasting apps.