The list of people who were running for Tom Craddick’s job as speaker seemed like it was a mile long just the other day. Now, it’s dwindling as more and more candidates get behind relative newcomer Joe Straus, a Republican from San Antonio.
We’re continuing to update our interactive Google Map looking at the candidates [...]
Looks like Texas will have a new state House speaker soon. Incumbent Speaker Tom Craddick is dropping his bid for re-election to the speaker’s post. More at Dallas Morning News, El Paso Times, Star-Telegram. And don’t forget to keep checking our (ever-updating) Google Map for the House speaker’s race.
Keep up with all the latest [...]
One of the many Texas political blogs we read — can’t remember which one (e-mail me if you do) — recently observed that it would just be easier to list the state House members who AREN’T running for House speaker, rather than list the ones who ARE running.
The same could be said for our interactive [...]
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.
We’re awfully grateful for the shout out from the editorial board at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — and they’re right: lawmakers’ personal financial disclosure forms should be available in a searchable database.
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.
Football tickets from Texas Tech, paintings representing West Texas and “One Nation Under God,” and a .38-caliber pistol: They’re all examples of some of the gifts received by Texas’ legislators last year.
Lawmakers and other Texas officials are required to disclose gifts worth $250 or more by listing them on personal financial disclosure reports collected by [...]
You got your chocolate in my peanut butter! No, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate!
Like Reese Cups, voting irregularities and Google Maps taste great together. And Wired magazine has brought them together in Reese Cup-like style: It has rolled out an interactive Google Map where voters can report problems at the polls nationwide [...]
The Austin Police Department must be really hard-pressed to find good help these days. The Austin American-Statesman reports this morning that the department has reinstated an officer after he was fired four months ago for providing false information in an affidavit and police report. The reports in question were for an arrest made late last [...]
Video: Texas Watchdog’s inaugural investigative piece detailed top Bush money-man Stephen Payne’s close relationship with the White House — a relationship the White House took pains to distance itself from. Here is the video of The Times of London sting, featuring Stephen Payne.
