Items by Trent Seibert

• Dallas Morning News looks at Plano schools boundary changes controversy; Texas Watchdog highlighted

  —Texas Watchdog

  The Dallas Morning News has a well-written piece today about a controversy that has boiled over in Plano. Reporter Theodore Kim along with colleague Matthew Haag put the spotlight on how the trustees of the Plano Independent School District appeared to have hammered out a plan concerning school boundaries in a [...]
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  Posted: December 17, 2009, 7:41am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog story on donations not reported by Harris County GOP prompts call for independent audit

  —Texas Watchdog

  Readers had plenty to say concerning last week’s story about the money missing on the campaign finance report of the Harris County Republican Party. The story explained that some large donations to the party were reported on the donors’ forms covering the first half of the year but did not show [...]
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  Posted: December 15, 2009, 1:19pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Additional media coverage of the tax return issue in the Houston mayor’s race

  —Texas Watchdog

  A few weeks ago, Texas Watchdog called on Houston’s mayoral candidates to release their tax returns going back three years. Annise Parker released her tax returns soon after. And late last week, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Gene Locke released his. We appreciate the candidates doing so. We asked for them [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 2:49pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• KHOU-TV features Texas Watchdog in story looking at Houston car ‘booting’

  —Texas Watchdog

  Thanks to Lee McGuire and KHOU 11 News for featuring Texas Watchdog in a story examining booting illegally parked cars for a news feature on Friday. If you haven’t see Texas Watchdog’s version of the booting issue — and the potential conflicts surrounding it — please give it a read. There’s more [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 1:03pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• NewsRadio 740 KTRH interviews Texas Watchdog on Houston mayor tax return issue

  —Texas Watchdog

  The NewsRadio 740 KTRH AM morning team interviewed Texas Watchdog this morning about Houston Mayoral candidate Annise Parker about Parker making public her tax returns. Right after the Nov. 3 election that led to the runoff, we asked for the tax returns of both Parker and opponent Gene Locke to see [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 10:19am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• What does the Texas Watchdog team do to relax on the weekends? Cover more news…

  —Texas Watchdog

  You may have noticed a familiar name in the many bylines filing from Fort Hood, Texas this weekend. Texas Watchdog’s Steve Miller was tapped by the Washington Times to file stories about the killing rampage there for the Times’ national desk. Steve is back in Houston today, though, sifting through records [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 8:56am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Tomorrow at Texas Watchdog: Texas state senators use taxpayer cash to fly to Maui, stay in luxury hotels, ride in private charter planes

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 3
  The Texas Watchdog team did some digging through the receipts submitted by Texas state senators for travel on the taxpayer dime. Here’s what we found: Texas state senators have racked up tens of thousands of dollars on the taxpayer’s tab jetting around the state in charter planes, relaxing in luxury hotels [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 5:16pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog asks for the tax returns of Gene Locke and Annise Parker; voters deserve fully vetted Houston mayor

  —Texas Watchdog

  Texas Watchdog has asked the mayoral candidates for their IRS tax returns for the last three years. Our email this morning to the campaigns of Annise Parker and Gene Locke asks: As part of our ongoing efforts to promote government transparency, Texas Watchdog asks that you release to us three years’ worth [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 10:42am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog responds to — and thanks — Rick Casey for his Houston Chronicle column about Texas Watchdog’s work

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 4
  Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey takes issue this morning with our Texas Watchdog story from Thursday about J. Marcus Hill, the No. 2 man in the Harris County attorney’s office whose moonlighting posed a potential conflict of interest. Specifically, he takes issue with our claim that Hill announced his resignation as [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 10:40am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Moving day for Texas Watchdog

  —Texas Watchdog

  We’re putting on the overalls and work shoes today because the Texas Watchdog team is moving into a new office. (Our first offices were way too expensive, and we’ve been working out of our homes now for months, so we’re happy to finally put up a shingle in a well-placed, [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 9:15am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Check our our story on moonlighting and conflicts at the Harris County Attorney’s Office

  —Texas Watchdog

  Go to our featured reports section (the left column of the screen at the Texas Watchdog home page) to check out our latest story. This time we deal with the practice of lawyers at he Harris County Attorney’s Office moonlighting for cold hard cash — even if the case they’re taking [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 8:44am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Coming soon from Texas Watchdog: Top lieutenant in Harris County Attorney’s Office resigns in the wake of questions about conflicts of interest

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 1
  A top lieutenant of Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan has resigned his post in the wake of questions from Texas Watchdog about a conflict of interest. This top-level county attorney — a political appointee — had been hired by Ryan at the beginning of the year. He announced his resignation late today [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 5:57pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Coming Tuesday: Texas Watchdog examines a potential conflict of interest at the Houston Airport System

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 2
  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 foreign government for the exec’s access to Mayor Bill White… while the exec was still [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 3:56pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Want to know how your state legislator made money last year? Check out Texas Watchdog’s interactive map

  —Texas Watchdog

  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’ ethics forms, and this time we’ve brought you tons of extras along with the ethics forms. Give it [...]
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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 8:34am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog wins national FOI award; Capitolbeat, the association of statehouse reporters, gives Texas Watchdog’s Jennifer Peebles top honor

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 1
  We’re thrilled as can be that our very own Jennifer Peebles grabbed yet another award! This time, it’s a national honor, so we are very happy. Below is the press release we put out about Jennifer and the award which honored her Freedom of Information work here in Texas. If you’d like [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2009, 10:52am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Gov. Rick Perry hits the million-dollar milepost

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 1
  The Texas legislative session may be over, but Associated Press capitol scribe Jay Root is still on the case. This time, he examined Gov. Rick Perry’s tax return and found the guv had surpassed the million-dollar mark in annual income for the first time. Root asked for, and received, Perry’s tax [...]
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  Posted: August 11, 2009, 2:19pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog’s August newsletter is hot off the virtual presses

  —Texas Watchdog

  The August Texas Watchdog newsletter — and boy is it ever august! — is out the door this morning. The newsletter has a message from the Texas Watchdog editor (yours truly) as well as a sneak peek at some upcoming stories. It also keeps you up-to-date on Texas Watchdog goings-on and [...]
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  Posted: August 05, 2009, 11:08am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Coming later today: An interactive map of Houston City Council’s ethics forms

  —Texas Watchdog

  Check back at Texas Watchdog later today. We’re going to roll out an interactive map that will allow readers to access the ethics forms — and other important information — of Houston’s city council members. Ethics forms are chock-full of important information for voters, showcasing the properties that elected officials own, [...]
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  Posted: July 29, 2009, 6:15am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog highlighted in ABC-13 story about Houston airport spinoffs; Chronicle also reports on controversy

  —Texas Watchdog

  Our team here at Texas Watchdog has been digging through the mystery at the heart of the city-approved nonprofit — called HASDC — that serves as an arm of the Houston Airport System. KTRK ABC-13’s Ted Oberg took a look at the airport situation, too, and last night featured our organization [...]
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  Posted: July 28, 2009, 3:57pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Coming Tuesday: Three Houston City Council members delinquent in paying property taxes. Guess who?

  —Texas Watchdog

  Can you guess which three members of the Houston City Council were late paying their property taxes this year? Properties owned by the three members showed up as delinquent on the Web site of the Harris County tax assessor, so Texas Watchdog called the assessor’s office and the trio of elected [...]
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  Posted: July 27, 2009, 6:48pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog’s Jennifer Peebles featured in newsletter penned by Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Chapter

  —Texas Watchdog

  Award-winning Texas Watchdog journalist Jennifer Peebles was the subject of a very complimentary write up in this month’s newsletter of the Fort Worth Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. John Dycus, who produces the monthly newsletter for SPJ, wrote: ... but the real star was investigative journalist/ wanna-be banjo picker Jennifer [...]
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  Posted: July 27, 2009, 9:47am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• The Houston Chronicle: Metro rehires consultant to help build new rail

  —Texas Watchdog

  The Chronicle’s Carolyn Feibel took a look recently at Metro once again rehiring a consultant to help the agency build light rail. The Metro board has renewed a contract with a $107-per-hour consultant, continuing a pattern of hiring outside experts to help build four new light rail lines. It’s the Metropolitan Transit [...]
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  Posted: July 27, 2009, 9:20am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Breaking news from our series of reports examining the Houston Airport System and its shadowy spinoffs

  —Texas Watchdog

  If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our latest story on the Houston Airport System. We’ve been digging into the shadowy web of companies spun off by a city-approved nonprofit that is essentially an arm of the city’s airport system. We’re also trying to determine what our findings mean [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2009, 10:57am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Coming soon (ish): more in our series of stories looking at the Houston airport system

  —Texas Watchdog

  A quick note to Texas Watchdog readers: We have delayed publication of a follow-up story on the Houston Airport System because we need to get answers to some questions that cropped up last night. We had promoted the story on a press release yesterday as coming this morning. We hope you [...]
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  Posted: July 21, 2009, 11:00am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog wins another open records battle with the city of Houston

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 1
  There has seemed to be a pattern lately when we’ve tried to get basic public records from Houston city government. And not a good one, either. We haven’t been trying to wheedle state secrets out of the city or from Mayor Bill White. We’ve asked for records that are either clearly [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 4:03pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Our latest report, which details a no-bid contract at Metro, is up — with a Creative Commons license.

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 2
  If you haven’t seen it, check out our piece about a no-bid contract over at Metro. We thought it was an interesting story, and we’re pleased to have Rosanna Ruiz (formerly of the Houston Chronicle) on board to write it up. Also, please note we’ve added a Creative Commons license to [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 10:12am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Coming soon: Metro officials say they don’t have expertise to manage Houston rail project, must rely on no-bid $300/hour California consultant

  —Texas Watchdog

  (UPDATED). We’ve published our piece and it can be found under our Featured Reports column to the left. Come back to Texas Watchdog Thursday morning to read our report about a top-dollar consultant hired by Metro — who is also a former associate of Metro CEO Frank Wilson. Metro awarded the [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 5:14pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Our latest aiport story is published, but the theme is the same: Very little government transparency from Houston officials

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 2
  We just published our latest story in the Houston Airport System saga. What we found: At the same time Houston airport officials were using city resources to create a maze of obscure companies, many of those same city airport employees appear to have laid the groundwork to secure potentially lucrative jobs [...]
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  Posted: July 14, 2009, 12:55pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Coming Tuesday morning at Texas Watchdog: The revolving door to the shadowy string of companies linked to the aiport

  —Texas Watchdog

  (UPDATED) Check out Texas Watchdog Tuesday morning soon for the next installment of our investigation into the city airport system. Texas Watchdog has reported that city airport executives used city resources to create a string of shadowy companies — but now Texas Watchdog has found that more than half a dozen [...]
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  Posted: July 13, 2009, 5:13pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Our story about the Houston Airport Systems connection to a shadowy web of companies is published WITH an added bonus: Interactive maps!

  —Texas Watchdog

  If you haven’t yet, check out the story we’ve pubished about the intricate web of companies linked to the Houston Airport System, definately do so. I’ve provided links to the story below, but check out the graphic we’ve created on page one that details what we know so far about this [...]
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  Posted: July 09, 2009, 1:23pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Don’t miss Howard Stern this week: Texas Watchdog interviewed about private prisons

  —Texas Watchdog

  Enclosure: [download]

  Dogged Texas Watchdog reporter Matt Pulle was interviewed by another dogged reporter yesterday — Steve Langford from Howard Stern’s news team. This was fun for us. I’ve been a Howard Stern fan for years. I followed him over to Sirius Satellite Radio, now Sirius XM, when he moved there from terrestrial [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 9:31am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Please support Texas Watchdog, and help keep Houston and Texas government open and transparent for the public

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 1
  Dear readers, Texas Watchdog needs your help to keep an eye on government. You can help by making a donation to us of $5, $25, $50, $100, or, heck… even a larger amount of your choosing. Your donation will go directly to support our work. It will enable us to do investigations [...]
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  Posted: July 03, 2009, 5:35pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog joins other nonprofit news publishers in creation of an investigative news network

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 2
  I just got back from the Pocantico Conference Center, located at one of the Rockefeller family’s former estates about 45 minutes or so out of Manhattan. The conference center is used for many events connected with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. I was invited to the stone, ivy-covered mansion that the infamous oil baron [...]
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  Posted: July 02, 2009, 11:58pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• The Houston Airport CEO, the mayor and a mystery: a Texas Watchdog story round-up

  —Texas Watchdog

  There’s more to come from Texas Watchdog as we continue to dig into why many issues concerning the departure of the Houston Airport CEO is being kept such a closely guarded secret by both airport and city officials. In the meantime, though, we wanted to put all the enterprise reports and [...]
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  Posted: June 28, 2009, 9:32am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• More reports on the Houston airport controversy coming from Texas Watchdog

  —Texas Watchdog

  Our reporting today that sheds more light on the mysterious ouster of the Houston airport chief and the role of Mayor Bill White in the deal has spawned several more stories about how the city runs the airport. Check back at Texas Watchdog later today for updates and additional stories. [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 2:16pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Check out Texas Watchdog in the AM: We’ve got details of the former Houston airport chief’s international junkets and info about what the Houston mayor knew and when

  —Texas Watchdog

  In an exclusive story Thursday, Texas Watchdog will shed more light on the abrupt retirement last month of the head of the Houston Airport System. The story will show: The amount of foreign travel that former Houston Airport System chief Richard Vacar undertook on behalf of a city-approved nonprofit dedicated to helping [...]
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  Posted: June 25, 2009, 11:45pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Ethics overhauls in state government all but ignored

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 1
  The Associated Press’ Jay Root has a breakdown of the ethics reforms — or the lack thereof — on Texas’ Capitol Hill this session. The ethics story was picked up by the Dallas Morning News this weekend. Texas Watchdog was quoted in the story, and Root captured our frustration perfectly. But watchdogs [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 12:00pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst makes concessions, will disclose more detail on ethics form, AP’s Jay Root reports

  —Texas Watchdog

  The Associated Press’ Jay Root lets his readers know via his Twitter feed that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst will at least disclose more of what he should on his annual ethics disclosure form. Root writes: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst finally forms a blind trust, reveals his stake in Houston investment company. That company [...]
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  Posted: April 30, 2009, 5:43pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Take a gander at Mayor Bill White’s e-mails; if you see anything that deserves looking into further, e-mail us

  —Texas Watchdog

  Texas Watchdog is publishing today 99 pages of e-mails and various corresponece between Mayor Bill White and a downtown developer. (Hit the link, go to the bottom of the story, check out the links there and go to town.) We highlight some of the interesting e-mails in our story, but we’d [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2009, 8:22pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Records unearthed by Texas Watchdog show that developer helped Mayor Bill White write marketing letter

  —Texas Watchdog

  At first glance, it looks like the documents we asked for back in January contain interesting reading concerning Mayor Bill White’s relationship with Houston developer Marvy Finger. From the Houston Chronicle’s Bradley Olsen in today’s editions: Apartment developer Marvy Finger helped Mayor Bill White craft a letter that promoted One Park Place, [...]
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  Posted: April 27, 2009, 9:27am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog thanks the Fort Worth Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists

  —Texas Watchdog

  Texas Watchdog would like to thank the Society of Professional Journalists’ Fort Worth Professional Chapter for honoring our Jennifer Peebles with its prestigious Open Doors Award. The photo above is Jennifer, holding her award, with Eddye Gallagher, president of the SPJ Fort Worth Pro Chapter. Jennifer was honored with the SPJ Fort [...]
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  Posted: April 20, 2009, 12:18pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog’s own Jennifer Peebles wins SPJ award for public records work

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 2
  The Texas Watchdog crew is taking a road trip tomorrow to Arlington, Texas, where our very own Jennifer Peebles will be accepting the Open Doors Award from the Fort Worth Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. We’re mighty proud of Jennifer. She’s the backbone of Texas Watchdog, crunching numbers and [...]
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  Posted: April 16, 2009, 4:23pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• New additions to Texas Watchdog: Rosanna Ruiz and Steve McVicker

  —Texas Watchdog

  We’re thrilled here at Texas Watchdog to announce new freelance additions to our team covering state and local government and politics. Former veteran Houston Chronicle scribe Rosanna Ruiz is joining us. She initially grabbed our attention with her hard-hitting coverage of Metro. But we also like her ability to get interviews [...]
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  Posted: April 15, 2009, 5:57pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog’s roadmap of TxDOT’s stimulus spending

  —Texas Watchdog

  If you haven’t yet, check out our package on TxDot’s stimulus spending. This is our first effort at trying to get a better understanding of what’s going to be coming to Texas from the federal government — and how state and local officials are going to spend it. We’re planning on [...]
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  Posted: April 14, 2009, 5:08pm EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Two Texas Watchdog staffers attend computer-assisted reporting conference

  —Texas Watchdog

  Earlier this week, two of our staffers – Jennifer Peebles and  Lee Ann O’Neal — returned from the CAR Conference in Indianapolis put on by the group Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc.. CAR stands for “computer-assisted reporting,” and I was thrilled they were able to go. They came back jazzed about what [...]
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  Posted: March 25, 2009, 11:15am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• More on the mess in Mesquite: Texas Watchdog featured in WFAA-TV follow-up about lavish trips on the taxpayer dime

  —Texas Watchdog

  Dallas/Fort Worth’s WFAA-TV has been doing some real digging into lavish spending at taxpayers’ expense by Mesquite city officials. The spending spree came when the officials decided that more than $70,000 worth of dinners, shows and fine hotels during two trips to New York was needed to truly experience the [...]
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  Posted: March 18, 2009, 10:22am EDT
  by Trent Seibert

• Texas Watchdog featured in WFAA-TV report exposing Mesquite officials wining and dining on the taxpayers’ dime

  —Texas Watchdog

  Channel 8 — Dallas/Fort Worth’s WFAA-TV — has been shining the spotlight on some lavish spending at taxpayers’ expense by Mesquite city officials. The big bite out of the taxpayers’ wallet came during city officials’ trips to the Big Apple. According to the investigation by News 8’s Craig Civale and Chris [...]
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  Posted: March 02, 2009, 11:56am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• The Lone Star State’s potential portion of the economic stimulus package: Texas-sized stimulus or Texas-sized pork?

  —Texas Watchdog

  That’s one of the questions Texas Watchdog gets asked a lot. Folks interested in government transparency have lots of questions about the economic stimulus package: How do we know how much of the federal money pouring like a river into states will help create jobs and build “shovel-ready” projects, and [...]
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  Posted: February 27, 2009, 4:06pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Councilwoman Pam Holm’s interview on Fox about Houston’s personal debt bailout plan now available

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 1
  Last night we noticed Houston Councilwoman Pam Holm on Fox’s Glenn Beck show talking about the city’s proposed personal debt bailout plan — a plan that appeared to be almost universally booed by all of Houston and most of the nation. Fox made the transcript of the interview and the video [...]
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  Posted: February 26, 2009, 4:34pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Houston’s personal debt bailout plan still reverberates: Councilwoman Pam Holm featured on Glenn Beck’s TV show about the issue

  —Texas Watchdog

   Mayor Bill White pulled the ultra-controversial personal debt bailout program from the city council agenda, but the issue — which captured national (and by our unscientific estimate universally negative) attention — looks like it still has legs.   Houston District G Councilmember Pam Holm was featured tonight on Glenn Beck’s program on [...]
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  Posted: February 25, 2009, 7:32pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Update on Fred Hill: A revolving door at the Texas legislature? Or a red carpet leading through the front door right into the parlor?

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 2
  We have an update on the story we broke today about former state Rep. Fred Hill. He’s the ex-chairman of the House Local Government Ways and Means Committee who recently became a lobbyist for some local governments in North Texas. Texas Watchdog found a letter from Fred Hill — dated Jan. 3 [...]
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  Posted: February 19, 2009, 5:02pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Like speaker, like sheriff? Local News 2 investigates former Harris County sheriff’s spending spree

  —Texas Watchdog

  The investigative team over at Local News 2 has been bird-dogging former Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas. The 2 crew revealed in a report last night that Thomas — soon after his defeat at the polls — began spending like mad from the department’s asset forfeiture account. From News 2’s Web site: The [...]
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  Posted: February 06, 2009, 1:39pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Update on the $1.6 million in lobbyist gifts: Check some of the documents detailing some of those gifts right here

  —Texas Watchdog

  A quick addendum to Matt Stiles’ Houston Chronicle story today that came up with the cash value — $1.6 million — of gifts that lobbyists have doled out to lawmakers and other state officials. Here at Texas Watchdog we published ethics documents late last year in which lawmakers’ and other officials [...]
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  Posted: February 05, 2009, 9:41am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Lobbyists sprinkled more than $1.6 million in gifts on lawmakers and officials over the last decade

  —Texas Watchdog

  The Houston Chronicle’s Matt Stiles has been crunching the numbers and totalling up the cash value of gifts that lobbyists have doled out to lawmakers and other state officials. The value comes to $1.6 million over the past 10 years: For the men, it’s pistols and venison. For the women, flowers [...]
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  Posted: February 05, 2009, 8:12am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Open records reveal that red-light camera study may have been skewed

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 2
  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 Press story in the Houston Chronicle: A Houston Police Department official asked the authors of a study of red-light cameras installed in Houston [...]
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  Posted: January 30, 2009, 9:09am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Chronicle: Mayor Bill White promotes the development of a campaign contributor on city stationery

  —Texas Watchdog

  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 Olson and Nancy Sarnoff: The mailing reads like a finely produced marketing brochure, touting the opening of a new downtown [...]
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  Posted: January 27, 2009, 10:26am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Problem-plagued Judson Independent School District officials kept audit findings secret

  —Texas Watchdog

  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 widespread problems has gone public after school officials tried to keep the report under wraps. From the Express-News’ Lindsay Kastner: A law firm hired by [...]
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  Posted: January 26, 2009, 8:58am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• Austin lobbyists wine and dine lawmakers to the tune of $12.8 million since 2005, including $878,098 for officials’ family members, Chron says

  —Texas Watchdog

  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 lobbyist disclosure forms that are filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. He found that lobbyists spent a cool $12.8 million [...]
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  Posted: January 25, 2009, 11:16am EST
  by Trent Seibert

• And the award for top-notch government transparency goes to … (drumroll) … Louisiana?

  —Texas Watchdog

  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 the Sunshine Review, which has been grading county government Web sites on how much information they [...]
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  Posted: January 22, 2009, 1:27pm EST
  by Trent Seibert

• No disclosure in Belton dog-shooting investigation. Don’t worry, police chief says, it’s ‘not that big of a case’

  —Texas Watchdog

  Number of comments: 4
  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 — to do its business and the dog got into an argument with the neighbor’s dog. According to The [...]
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  Posted: January 22, 2009, 10:47am EST
  by Trent Seibert