September 2009
Austin American-Statesman uses public records to... →
The Austin American-Statesman has used public records to shed light on the Austin school district’s superintendent search. They reported today on what they learned from the notes from candidate…
Coming Tuesday: Texas Watchdog examines a... →
Texas Watchdog is rolling out another enterprise story on Tuesday looking at the Houston Airport System. This time we put the spotlight on how a top city airport executive may have been hired by a…
Page 4: Executive has many high-level contacts in... →
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Asked how much Abashawl is paid by the Stavanger agency, Brekke didn’t give a dollar figure but said she was hired for one day of work per week.
But her job with the Houston…
Saba Abashawl’s Norwegian contacts →
Appointments on the calendar of Houston Airport System executive Saba Abashawl regarding Norway, from late 2007 to early 2009. Texas Watchdog obtained access to her calendar under the Texas Public…
New Texas Watchdog story raises question: Why did... →
For those of you who saw our latest story, regarding a Houston Airport System executive’s employment by a city in Norway, we wanted to take a moment and make one note to our readers.
For our piece…
Page 3: Executive’s jobs may have overlapping... →
(Continued from page 2)
Part of Abashawl’s job is dealing with groups like Greater Stavanger Economic Development. In fact, city records suggest that part of her job is dealing with Stavanger…
Page 2: Executive has access to Mayor Bill White →
Continued from page 1
In an interview in Norway, Trygve Brekke, international director of Greater Stavanger Economic Development, told Texas Watchdog earlier this month that Abashawl was hired by the…
Houston airports executive does double duty... →
A top executive for the Houston Airport System promotes Houston to Norway’s oil-and-gas capital city while also promoting the Norwegian town to people in Houston. The city of Houston has paid…
See how much Texas cities are spending to lobby... →
Want to see how much your local officials are spending on to lobby the federal government on transportation issues? The Center for Public Integrity has an awesome interactive map as part of their new…
The high cost of making it harder to get public... →
Fort Worth Weekly has a great piece this week by Dan McGraw on how local governments are repeatedly punting open records requests to the state attorney general’s office, taking up everyone’s time and…
Nonprofit linked to Houston Airport System’s... →
A nonprofit corporation through which the Houston Airport System builds and runs airports in other countries is not subject to the state’s Public Information Act and does not have to release its…
Gaping loophole in Texas ethics law: Officials’... →
Texas Watchdog has identified politicians — including Houston Councilman and mayoral candidate Peter Brown — who did not list their spouses on annual financial disclosures, even though their…
New video explains Texas Watchdog’s interactive... →
If our latest story today on the spousal loophole piqued your interest in Texas politicians’ ethics forms, we’ve got more from where that came from. See our latest how-to video on using our…
Privacy rules keep details on corporate tax breaks... →
The public can’t keep close tabs on a tax refund program that gave more than $39 million in breaks over the last two-and-a-half years because of laws keeping tax information private.
The Texas…
Handy tips on cost of public records in latest... →
For tips on the rules surrounding public records costs in Texas, check out the most recent Citizen Watchdog column in the Dallas Morning News: Unlike many states, Texas has specific rules on what…
Chronicle: Metro keeps full budget hidden, posts... →
The Houston Chronicle brings us this update to the paper’s earlier stories that highlighted how difficult it was for the public to find out the time and place of Metro committee workshops. Writer…
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission ‘does see the... →
A TABC spokeswoman responds to our piece criticizing the agency over transparency issues.
Blogger says stats show discrimination at... →
Frioman at Politicafe says there’s discrimination afoot in Houston’s Metro system and displays stats (and multi-colored pie charts) saying that 80% of all Metro bus drivers are black, while just 18…
Want to know how your state legislator made money... →
Texas Watchdog once again lifts the veil on how Texas’ elected leaders make their money — and what conflicts of interest they might have.
We’ve just published the 2009 interactive map of legislators’…
Federal appeals court lets Texas Open Meetings Act... →
Good news from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in the Rangra v. Brown case: The Texas Open Meetings Act remains good law after withstanding a constitutional challenge by former city…
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission needs... →
You would hope that a state agency that regulates alcoholic beverage sales would be as transparent as, say, vodka. (Or at least as translucent.) But the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is turning…
Texas legislators’ 2009 ethics forms published via... →
Ethics forms, campaign finance data, ethics penalties, wiki entries and biographical information for Texas’ 181 legislators are woven together in Texas Watchdog’s latest interactive map.
Fake Twitter account for traffic news has TxDOT in... →
First, it was someone pretending to be Gov. Rick Perry’s hair on Twitter. Now, there are Dallas-area traffic updates being Tweeted by a fake TxDOT Twitter account — but TxDOT is much less amused than…
Dallas city, county officials’ personal financial... →
If you’ve ever wondered how your elected leaders in Dallas butter their bread, here’s your chance to find out. Texas Watchdog has posted below the 2009 personal financial disclosure forms for the…
More Corpus Christi craziness on public records:... →
I’ve seen and heard a lot of people doing crazy things to withhold public records, but what I read this morning may just take the cake as the craziest one of all: A city government in Texas wants to…
Bracewell & Giuliani report out on Houston Airport... →
This just in: The city has released the report by Bracewell & Giuliani law firm regarding the nonprofit created by the Houston Airport System to enable it to build and run airports in other…
Bracewell & Giuliani: Houston Airport System could... →
The Houston Airport System is not on the hook for debts or other liabilities that haven’t already been made public regarding its work building and running airports in other countries, a top law firm…