Chisum: Legislators aren’t state employees; will ask Ethics Commission about disclosure

State House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum says he didn’t list his $600-a-month legislative salary on his 2007 personal financial disclosure form because he doesn’t believe “in the truest sense of the word” that he’s an employee of the state.
But he also said he’d call the state Ethics Commission and ask for clarification on it. [...]

Interactive map profiles candidates for Texas House speaker

Confused by the race for House speaker? Our map lifts the veil on the candidates jostling for the job as well as other key players. We highlight one of those players — Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum — who failed to disclose salary information, according to the documents we showcase via our map.

Big Oil, groceries and country music give big bucks to rebuild governor’s mansion

Several of the largest donors to the efforts to rebuild the burned structure also have business before the state government and its regulatory arms, a Texas Watchdog analysis has found. Others giving big bucks include the CEO of H.E.B., and music stars George Strait and LeAnn Rimes are contributing their star power.

Top state worker pay last year: $530,595

More than 1,700 state workers made six figures or more in total pay in 2007, according to a new Texas Watchdog analysis of state records. Search our database of workers making $100,000 or more. We found that nearly 1,000 state workers make more than the governor and we found five state workers who climbed onto the list by raking in tens-of-thousands of dollars in overtime.

Senate District 17: Chris Bell, Joan Huffman in their own words

Texas Watchdog has original mp3 audio clips of candidates Bell and Huffman on some of the key issues and what’s important to them in the Dec. 16 election. Listen and see what they they have to say on campaign finance, education, transportation and other topics.

State secrets? Names of people in death chamber, Beaumont helicopter logs, pollution informer, AG says

Here at Thanksgiving, we’re certainly thankful for Texas’ open records law. But many of the exemptions to the law are real turkeys, including one that allows records to be held if they’re deemed “intimate or embarrassing” to the people involved. Texas Watchdog takes a look at some of the public records people have asked to see in Texas lately and what the state attorney general’s office has said about whether they can see them — and we’ve plotted them on a map.

High wattage: Trial lawyer Mikal Watts funds Democrats’ resurgence

To some, Mikal Watts is just another slimy trial attorney looking to rent candidates to unravel tort reform. After all, he amassed a fortune doing something many conservatives hate –suing companies using legal loopholes and wining.

But to others, particularly those on the receiving end of his generosity, Mikal Watts is a visionary, who uses his personal fortune and keen political instincts to boost a surging Democratic party.

Dead voters may have cast ballots in Dallas County

More than 6,000 registered Dallas County voters may be deceased. The names of some of them, including Melvin Porter (left), have been used to cast ballots after their deaths, records show.

Dallas politico Adrain Noe accused of credit card theft in Iowa and Texas

One-time Dallas fundraiser Adrain Noe turned up in an Iowa jail on credit card theft charges. His peers in the Big D say he did the same thing here.

Unlike state officials, Dallas County officials don’t post campaign data online.

The Internet has been in popular use for a dozen years, roadside motels offer free WiFi and elderly women trade stocks online. But in Dallas County, if you want to see who’s bankrolling a candidate for sheriff or judge, you can’t simply fire up your browser and see the campaign reports for yourself.
(Reports for the [...]

Charity chief accused of fraud also major donor to Texas GOP figures

Prominent El Paso businessman Robert E. Jones had turned a struggling charity hiring people with disabilities into a major defense contractor doing nearly a billion dollars’ worth of business with the Pentagon –- and his arrest last week on fraud charges has been big news across Texas.
But what’s gotten less attention is the fact that [...]

Ballots cast in Houston using dead voters’ names

Thousands on the rolls after death, creating potential for fraud
Woodwick Street was quiet — with a few residents working in their yards and adding to post-storm brush piles at the curb — when Texas Watchdog visited on a recent Saturday to try to find Harris County voter Linda K. Hill.
“I’m sorry, but she passed on [...]

Muddy waters: Dunnam, top TYC critic, may sue agency

Only in Texas state government can you spin a conflict of interest as a tale of personal oppression.
Jim Dunnam, the charismatic and brash state rep from Waco, serves as a member of the House Corrections Committee, where he has become one of the fiercest and loudest critics of the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission. More quietly, [...]

Full disclosure: Houston leaders’ financial statements get a full airing

Hey, Mayor, aren’t you glad you sold that WaMu stock when you did?
Houston Mayor Bill White took a bath last year when he sold his stock in Washington Mutual bank, selling more than 1,000 shares at a net loss of more than $5,000.
Had he held on to the stock, he could have lost even more. [...]

‘Deadbeat’: Banking crisis puts Kim Brimer and his bad loans back in the spotlight

A struggling bank makes loans to a prominent businessman who offers flimsy excuses on why he can’t pay back his debt. The gentleman than begs a federal agency for a helping hand, claiming he can’t come up with the money.
No, it’s not a scene ripped from today’s headlines — this was in 1993, and the [...]

Extended sentence: At the Dallas County Jail, where guards work 70-hour weeks, overtime costs millions and poses dangers

If the fine folks at Lehman Brothers are looking for work, they may want to take a job at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. They could use the money.
Just ask Samuel Adkins, a guard at the jail’s central intake department, who earned more than $23,000 in overtime pay in just a six-month period. Averaging nearly [...]

Einstein? No, Eppstein: Fort Worth Republican plays both sides of the fence

It’s a great gig if you can get it. And Bryan Eppstein’s had it for years.
The Fort Worth political strategist helps elect politicians at every level in town, who turn right around and rubber-stamp his lucrative business deals. But now the powerful consultant may have invented an even cozier arrangement: using his lobbying client to [...]

Brimer faces serious challenger in Democrat Davis

Sen. Kim Brimer’s in the middle of a tough fight — and don’t believe he doesn’t get that
Tarrant County state Sen. Kim Brimer, a white-haired, cigar-chomping Republican right out of central casting, likes to pretend that challenger Wendy Davis doesn’t exist, refusing to debate her or even mention her name to the press.
But don’t buy [...]

City failed to post ethics statements

Houston city officials have failed for the past two years to post ethics forms online as required by law, Texas Watchdog has learned.
The ethics forms are meant to make public any ties city officials may have to a business seeking a government contract.
On Wednesday - and only after Texas Watchdog questioned city officials about the [...]

Shootout with Sheriff Lupe Valdez at the Big D Corral

Up for reelection, Sheriff Lupe Valdez has had a rocky first term, but as Democrats strengthen their hold on the county, will that matter?
You could argue there is no local race in all of Texas more important than the one for Dallas sheriff. If the Republicans can’t outdraw incumbent Lupe Valdez, whose first term was [...]

The bumbling Baron: Lawyer stumbles over role in Edwards’ sex scandal

Dallas trial attorney Fred Baron can’t get his story straight: What role did he play in defusing the simmering drama of presidential candidate John Edwards’ extramarital affair with a new age filmmaker who wound up pregnant?

You can say that again

Fred Baron is a brilliant attorney, a savvy strategist, and, up until recently, a fun and engaging interview. But ever since the John Edwards scandal leapt from the The National Enquirer to The New York Times, he’s been unable to speak the English language without eliciting howls of laughter, if not outright disbelief. Here Texas [...]