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Please support Texas Watchdog, and help keep Houston and Texas government open and transparent for the public

5:35 pm July 3, 2009

Dear readers, Texas Watchdog needs your help to keep an eye on government. You can help by making a donation to us of $5, $25, $50, $100, or, heck... even a larger amount of your choosing. Your donation will go directly to support our work. It will enable us to do investigations ...

Houston’s Jackson-Lee pushes for transparency for private prisons

2:05 pm July 3, 2009

For those of you who have been following our stories on private prison contractor Geo Group: U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Houston Democrat, has introduced a bill in Congress that would make private prisons subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act if they are holding federal ...

Dallas Observer takes close look at Southern Methodist University’s land acquisition for Bush library, homeowners’ subsequent lawsuit

10:40 am July 3, 2009

Writer Matt Pulle, a regular contributor to Texas Watchdog, has a captivating piece on the lawsuit against Southern Methodist University brought by former residents of a Dallas condo complex where President George W. Bush's library is to be erected: The lawsuit features two plaintiffs, attorney Gary Vodicka...

Public agencies surveyed by UT students show they’ve had public information training, but overall compliance drops

3:45 pm July 2, 2009

The University of Texas at Tyler reported the results of its regular audit of how East Texas agencies comply with the Texas Public Information Act, which guarantees public access to government-maintained records. The findings were explored in a Tyler Morning Telegraph article. The students visited just over 100 agency ...

Texas Watchdog joins other nonprofit news publishers in creation of an investigative news network

11:58 pm July 1, 2009

I just got back from the Pocantico Conference Center, located at one of the Rockefeller family's former estates about 45 minutes or so out of Manhattan. The conference center is used for many events connected with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. I was invited to the stone, ivy-covered ...

blogHOUSTON questions mayor’s choice of reviewer for airport nonprofit

2:06 pm June 29, 2009

When a city is trying to get to the bottom of things, should an official be put in charge of scrutinizing his own actions? Or should someone independent of those actions review them? The writers at blogHOUSTON question the mayor's choice of Anthony Hall to review a nonprofit entity formed ...

The Houston Airport CEO, the mayor and a mystery: a Texas Watchdog story round-up

9:32 am June 28, 2009

There's more to come from Texas Watchdog as we continue to dig into why many issues concerning the departure of the Houston Airport CEO is being kept such a closely guarded secret by both airport and city officials. In the meantime, though, we wanted to put all the enterprise reports and ...

Check out the archived video of this week’s discussion on getting public records

5:26 pm June 26, 2009

If you missed the discussion of public records our staff participated in this week, you can check it out at New Media TV. The online discussion is part of a series of webinars aimed at bloggers, citizen-journalists, and journalists interested in keeping an eye on City Hall. Next session: Investigating local ...

Coming soon: Vacar says everything was above board

1:08 pm June 26, 2009

Update 5:26 p.m.: Story posted here. Coming very soon to TexasWatchdog.org: Former Houston Airport System chief Richard Vacar responds to Texas Watchdog's story from Wednesday, addressing what we wrote about his trip to Libya earlier this year and the work he did for a nonprofit that builds and ...

Were taxpayers tapped too much for Tripoli trip tab?

5:47 pm June 25, 2009

gnome When you're doing business from Nicaragua to Macedonia, the frequent flyer miles add up. Too bad former Houston Airport System Director Richard Vacar apparently didn't use any to fund his February trip ...

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