January 2009
Open records reveal that red-light camera study... →
City police brass may have tried to influence study results concerning accidents spurred by red-light cameras, according to documents in a Houston open records lawsuit.
According to an Associated…
Ex-mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, headed to... →
Well, don’t expect FBI agents in Texas to be out of a job anytime soon.
Kwame Kilpatrick, the disgraced ex-mayor of Detroit who pleaded guilty to a pair of felonies last fall, will be moving to…
Belton Police Department slow to release... →
The Temple Daily Telegram is reporting that last night Belton Police Officer Sidney Post was cleared in the shooting death of a neighbor’s Labrador mix, a decision that may not end days of angry…
Get ready for Sunshine Week 2009 →
With a cold front gripping Texas, it’s good time to talk about sunshine — Sunshine Week, that is.
National Sunshine Week — the national effort to raise public awareness of freedom-of-information laws…
Pet lovers called on to speak out in shooting... →
A pet adoption group is calling on the public to attend tonight’s Belton City Council meeting and speak out about recent allegations that a police officer shot and killed his neighbor’s dog.
That’s…
Houston’s sludge processor tied to Detroit bribery... →
A Houston-based company that does contract work for the city of Houston to remove and dispose of its sewage sludge is in the hot seat after an executive of the firm pleaded guilty to bribing Detroit…
State of the State: The word is ‘Texas’ →
Vince over at Capitol Annex has the complete text of Gov. Rick Perry’s 2009 “State of the State” speech, and we couldn’t resist running it through one of our favorite super-cool Web sites, Many Eyes,…
Chronicle: Mayor Bill White promotes the... →
Houston Mayor Bill White used city letterhead to promote a downtown development — the project of a company owned by a campaign contributor.
According to the story in today’s Chronicle by Bradley…
ProPublica to honor ‘investigative governance’;... →
Time is running out to nominate your favorite comptroller/auditor/inspector general for the ProPublica Prizes for Investigative Governance! Nominations are due Jan. 31. From ProPublica.org: The…
Problem-plagued Judson Independent School District... →
The Judson Independent School District is under scrutiny for “flouting everything from procurement laws to the Texas Constitution,” according to The San Antonio Express-News. An audit that unearthed…
$2M border Web cam program yields 10 immigration... →
Texans have shelled out $2 million to cover the Mexico border with Web cams so that the border could be virtually “watched” by anyone on the Internet.
Here’s what you got for your money, according to…
Austin lobbyists wine and dine lawmakers to the... →
We’re sad that the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Stiles isn’t covering Houston City Hall anymore, but we’re thrilled he’s taking a hard look at lawmakers in Austin.
Stiles spent some time combing through…
Ethics forms posted for three other Texas House... →
How many freshmen state legislators can dance on the head of a pin? We don’t claim to know. But we do know that the number of freshmen in the state House this year depends on how you define a…
Beaumont-area school system coughs up names of... →
Remember my post from a couple of weeks ago about how the freedom of information laws help us find out about important things, large and small? Here’s another example, this time from Beaumont:…
Superintendent candidates would come out of the... →
Vince at Capitol Annex says that Sen. Kevin Eltife wants to close the loophole that lets school systems publicly identify only one person in the running for a school superintendent’s job. His bill…
And the award for top-notch government... →
It’s true.
The folks who funded our start-up — the Sam Adams Alliance out of Chicago — are committed to government transparency. They have created a bevy of wikis devoted to open government, such as…
No disclosure in Belton dog-shooting... →
The Belton, Texas, Police Department is investigating one of its own concerning allegations that the officer shot and killed his neighbor’s dog. The neighbor claims that she let out her dog — Lillie…
Thank you, Houston bloggers, for a fruitful... →
Thanks everyone for coming out to the Stag’s Head Pub for our Houston-area bloggers meet-up; We hope you found it beneficial. We certainly enjoyed meeting you, and we hope we can do it again soon. —…
FOI ouch: Denison school district releases... →
OK, all you fellow freedom-of-information lovers, let’s cross our fingers and hope the U.S. Airways Hudson River crash doesn’t give anyone ammunition to close off more education-related records.
The…
Meet your legislative freshmen: Ethics forms made... →
Texas legislators are required by law to disclose where they get their income, who gives them gifts and who pays for their out-of-town trips. Texas Watchdog’s latest map gives readers a chance to…
Houston-area bloggers: Come to our meetup Saturday →
Don’t forget: Texas Watchdog is putting on a meetup for Houston-area bloggers — 2 p.m. Saturday at the Stag’s Head pub, 2128 Portsmouth St., between Richmond Avenue and South Shepard Drive. Come on…
Austin judge seals records that are already public →
A judge says the Austin American-Statesman can’t be given the psych records of a man accused of murder even though those same records have already been aired on local TV news.
KTBC-Channel 7, the Fox…
Houston bloggers: Meet us Jan. 17 at the Stag’s... →
We’re glad to announce that we’ve got a location for our Jan. 17 blogger meetup: The Stags Head pub at 2128 Portsmouth St. (near Richmond Avenue and South Shepard Drive).
If you didn’t see our…
Corpus Christi slow to release public records →
Sounds like the city of Corpus Christi is having some trouble making public records public, according to a story and analysis in the Caller-Times. From the story by Sara Foley:
The city took 15 days…
Austin utility district party to voting rights... →
The Supreme Court will decide a case brought by an Austin utility district challenging a section of the Voting Rights Act, national news outlets have reported.
Smith County asks AG about sunshine law in jail... →
The DA in Smith County has asked the state attorney general to weigh in on whether it was kosher under the state sunshine law for the county to use an “ad hoc committee process” in deciding what to…
Citizen journalism gets a shout-out from... →
My boss Trent Seibert’s short piece on the rise of citizen journalism — and the decline of traditional “old” media — for a new blog is getting a lot of attention today after being linked-to by…
Chisum: Craddick ‘a realist,’ Straus ‘a very... →
Warren Chisum has been a busy man the past few days. So when he called us this morning to respond to our Friday story about an omission on his 2007 ethics form, we couldn’t help but ask about the…
Chisum: Legislators aren’t state employees; will... →
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…
Support for Straus solidifies, and our interactive... →
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…
Bloggers: Texas Watchdog wants to meetup with you... →
Calling all bloggers: Do you ever blog about local politics? How about your kid’s school? Or new roads that you think need to be built to your town? Or a pollution problem in your neighborhood? Texas…
Bush library donors can remain anonymous, but... →
The Bush library foundation says it won’t disclose its donors — but for a peek at what the group has to disclose, here are the foundation’s tax forms for 2007 and 2006.
The Dallas Morning News has…
Craddick drops out of speaker’s race →
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,…
McCall, Smithee, Geren latest additions to Texas... →
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…
Texas Watchdog’s interactive map spotlighting the... →
We’ve added Rep. Joe Straus to our interactive map of the “who’s who” in the race for Texas Speaker of the House.
We’ll be adding to the map about the race for Texas House Speaker as the weekend…
Geren, ‘ABC Repubs’ take center stage in House... →
State Rep. Charlie Geren is supposed to be meeting sometime — maybe even right about now — with his “ABC” Republicans in the state as they try to craft their strategy for the House speaker’s race,…
AG says Katy schools can withhold police reports... →
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…
Interactive map profiles candidates for Texas... →
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…