We’re getting into the holiday spirit here at Texas Watchdog. We’re putting up the stockings and dusting off grandma’s famous eggnog recipe. Now, where is that nutmeg?
We also put a spotlight on pension problems in the Lone Star state as well as the proposed ban on paper and plastic shopping bags in Austin.
Also, Texas Watchdog was front-and-center in a ABC Undercover Wayne Dolcefino report on tough talk -- but little follow-through -- on getting to the bottom of possible widespread misconduct in a Harris County constable’s office.
North Forest ISD's merger with Houston ISD may be tougher than it looks
Forget the niceties spouted by Houston schools Superintendent Terry Grier and school board President Paula Harris last month about next year's merger with the North Forest Independent School District.
Outgoing Houston schools Trustee Carol Mims Galloway said combining the two districts is going to be a nightmare.
Read the full story here
$14 million to double-dippers in NJ pension scheme -- but what about Texas?
It's a story of 23 current investigators and supervisors who pocketed nearly $14 million in pension pay in addition to their salaries from the New Jersey Attorney General. It's a double-dipping pension scandal that's making waves across the Garden State.
And it's impossible to find out if anything similar is going on in Texas.
Read the full story here
Will Eastman, Meyers duke it out for HISD school board presidency next year?
A battle for the presidency of the Houston school board appears to be looming. Trustee Anna Eastman announced her desire to lead the Houston Independent School District governing body months ago.
But a faction of the nine trustees who oversee Texas' largest school district - and the seventh-biggest in the nation, with a $1.6 billion budget and about 203,000 students - has asked Trustee Greg Meyers to run against her.
Read the full story here
Grocery bag ban -- one of the toughest in nation -- considered in Austin
Offering disposable shopping bags to customers will be a crime in Austin beginning in 2016 should the City Council pass an ordinance drafted by the director of Austin Resource Recovery.
Read the full story here
In the Houston school board's debate over a new ethics policy, it's a case of young turks bent on ethics reform versus veterans who want no additional ethical rules placed on them.
At least, that's how longtime Trustee Larry Marshall -- one of the veterans -- sees it.
Marshall recently attacked fellow trustees Anna Eastman, Juliet Stipeche and Mike Lunceford, all of whom have spoken out in favor of ethics reform, as "the youngest, most inexperienced members" of the school board, who he said helped draft an ethics policy to address "assumptions that are these mythical situations that don't exist."
Read the full story here
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Contact Trent Seibert at trent@texaswatchdog.org or 832-316-4994 or on Twitter at @trentseibert or @texaswatchdog.
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Photo of ‘Egg Nog 2008' by flickr user queenkv, used via a Creative Commons license.
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