InstantNewsKaty.com is reporting today that the state attorney general’s office has sided with the Katy Independent School District in allowing the school system to keep private police reports in the cheerleader hazing case that made national news last fall.
InstantNewsKaty had filed an open records request to review the police report and other investigative materials complied [...]
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.
Remember that big fuss about that unusual church group that went by the name FLDS, where folks were alleged to be practicing polygamy and kids were getting abused, and the state went in and took like 400 kids away? Well, the state Child Protective Services agency has done an investigation into it.
But when The [...]
Two of three state Department of Public Safety officers who made more than $100,000 last year through big overtime checks are on the governor’s security detail, and a third spent six months as a counselor at the DPS Training Academy, an agency spokeswoman said.
If you saw our story from yesterday about state workers who made [...]
Texans want to be No. 1. They want to be bigger, better, faster, at the very top of every list.
Well, Texas, here’s a ranking where you’re almost at the very top. In fact, you’re No. 3 in the entire nation.
It’s the number of public officials convicted of criminal charges between 1998 and 2007. The [...]
Written on December 17, 2008 | Posted in
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It was a serious charge, even though it was never substantiated: AshBritt, a debris removal company with a checkered past, claimed that Joe Jaworski, the former mayor pro tem of Galveston, used Hurricane Ike to help a client at his law practice.
In a letter sent to Jaworski and obtained by Texas Watchdog, the corporate counsel [...]
If you ever wondered how important it is for the public to have access to government information, here’s your answer: Your own personal safety might be at risk.
From a story everyone should read in this morning’s Dallas Morning News by reporter Robert T. Garrett:
AUSTIN – More than 1,500 Texas offenders who had their records sealed [...]
Prisoners in Beaumont have brought more than 130 lawsuits in the past month, claiming that their rights were violated when they were not evacuated from the LeBlanc Unit at the state prison during Hurricane Ike, the Beaumont Enterprise reports.
Written on December 14, 2008 | Posted in
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TxDOT has come out with a new study suggesting that red light cameras have been sharply curtailing accidents at Texas intersections — but the Grits for Breakfast blog picks apart the data and finds it lacking. If you didn’t see it already, GTB has been lauded by the American Bar Association Journal as one of [...]
The former district attorney of Harris County who left office earlier this year after pornographic and racist e-mails were found on his computer will not be prosecuted criminally for those and other forms of misconduct, Harris County’s current DA announced this afternoon.
Interim DA Kenneth Magidson says there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Chuck Rosenthal.
Magidson [...]
Written on December 2, 2008 | Posted in
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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.
When are public officials going to learn to stop sending e-mails that offend others? Better yet, when are they going to learn that racist, sexist and/or sexually suggestive jokes just aren’t funny?
Written on November 25, 2008 | Posted in
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Tapes and transcripts of phone calls and conversations recorded by Corpus Christi’s police chief have been released to the public, and Chief Bryan Smith says he’ll retire Dec. 19. The Caller-Times has the transcripts and MP3s posted on its Web site.
From the Star-Telegram this morning:
More than a third of criminal records are missing from the online Department of Public Safety database available to the public, a Fort Worth company found in a study.
Even government agencies, which have access to more detailed criminal records to screen teachers, doctors, volunteers and tradespeople, use a DPS system fraught [...]
Just what did Police Chief Bryan Smith say? And why won’t anyone make the tapes public, some three weeks after the Caller-Times asked for their release?
As Richard Connelly wrote today on the Houston Press’ Hair Balls blog, “Who the hell pays any attention to what MUD directors do?” In this case, local prosecutors did.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has used the state’s Public Information Act to show that a local school system is accusing its own former real-estate broker of buying up land for a school site and then reselling it to the school system — at a profit of $621,500.
The FBI is involved in probing the dealings of [...]
Even the Texas Education Agency can’t get access to some records from the Somerset ISD that could tell whether a teacher should lose their state-issued teaching certificate.
Two city officials in Hempstead have been indicted and arrested on charges of taking bribes, several local news outlets are reporting this morning.
Mayor Pro Tem Larry Wilson and City Alderman Paris J. Kincade Jr. took $13,000 in bribes, the Chronicle story says:
The contractor was paid more than $19,000 to demolish four Hempstead buildings in 2007, [...]
Obama may have lost here, but Valdez wins, England and Vaught hang on, Goolsby loses, and Brimer won’t concede. Is Texas turning blue?
Written on November 5, 2008 | Posted in
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People suspected of misdemeanor offenses such as marijuana possession, when the amount is small, and suspended licenses, would be cited instead of taken to jail under a new Austin Police Department policy, the Austin American-Statesman reported over the weekend.
Such Class A and Class B misdemeanors also include theft or criminal mischief that results in [...]
Written on October 21, 2008 | Posted in
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More than 4,000 people on Harris County’s voter rolls who may be deceased will still be on those rolls when voters begin casting early ballots Monday — and they still may be on the rolls on Election Day, county officials told KPRC Local 2 investigates Friday.
An investigation by Texas Watchdog earlier this month found more [...]
Written on October 17, 2008 | Posted in
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