A nonpartisan, nonprofit, independent online news Web site covering state and local government in Houston.
Information
- Founded:
- 2008
Favorite Pages
Photos
2 albumsSee All
Society of Professional Journalists scholarship dinnerUpdated about 7 months ago
Harris County dead votersCreated on October 10, 2008 at 6:44pm
Events
2 past eventsSee All
- Houston-area blogger meetup
The Coffee Groundz
Tuesday, April 14 at 5:30pm - Houston-area blogger meetup
Stag's Head pub
Saturday, January 17 at 2:00pm
Notes
3 of 201 notesSee All
- Houston City Council member’s shower plan all wet 12:18pm Nov 6|1 Comment
- Politico highlights Congressional travel; make sure to check out Texas Watchdog’s story on taxpayer-funded state senato... 10:17am Nov 6
- Sen. Judith Zaffirini’s travel, per diem costs: A correction to the final tally 8:55am Nov 6
Sen. Judith Zaffirini spent about $58,800 on travel expenses and per diem payments over a year and a half period, outspending her state Senate colleagues. That’s based on a review of electronic travel records from Jan. ...
A proposal to build a shower in the women’s restroom near City Council offices in Houston’s City Hall Annex is dead, according to a councilman who opposed the project. At-Large City Councilmember Jolanda Jones, an attorney and an alum of the reality show Survivor, bikes to work each day. La...
Politico has put the spotlight on travel by members of Congress paid for by outside groups. The story highlights international trips that lawmakers, and sometimes their family members, took, and says that in 2009 outside groups have spent more than $140,000 on such travel for senators...
Texas state senators have used taxpayer money to attend a conference in Maui, stay overnight at a Ritz-Carlton in New York, and fly on charter or private planes. That's according to a Texas Watchdog review of expense reports and travel logs covering a year and a half.
(Return to story on state senators’ travel. Go to page 1 and page 2.) Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, spent more than $15,800 on flights through the state Department of Transportation or chartered through a hometown firm, Lubbock Aero. That’s according to state travel records covering Jan. 1,...
(Return to story on state senators’ travel. Go to page 1 and page 2.) Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, billed $15,100 for four flights from TxDOT’s aviation division. That’s according to a year and a half of state travel records. Get more details on the flights: * A Feb. 9, 2...
Texas Watchdog has asked the mayoral candidates for their IRS tax returns for the last three years...
The Texas Watchdog team did some digging through the receipts submitted by Texas state senators for travel on the taxpayer dime...
We wanted to tip our hat to a cool new site that launched today, the Texas Tribune. We (as in “we the people”) can’t have enough eyes on government these days, so we’re glad for their arrival. Like us, they’re a nonprofit operation. So check out their site when you get a chance.
One of our favorite blogs, the law-related site Grits for Breakfast, is putting a whipping on Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for not making public records public in cases like school districts’ police forces’ use-of-force policies and the Cameron Todd Willingham execution case: There’s just ...
Noel Freeman, candidate for the City Council At-Large Position 4 currently held by Ronald C. Green, plans to get a copy of his personal financial statement to the city secretary’s office today — in fact, he may already have done so by the time you read this. Y...
Are you tired of seeing “#txlege” and “#tcot” and “#txsboe” in Twitter messages and not being able to figure out what all this stuff means with “#” in front of it? I’ve got a qui...
Want to know what the state of Houston’s Metro system is? It’ll only cost you $65 to find out! Yep, kids, that’s right — Metro Chairman David Wolff, who may not have a job for much longer, is going to give a “State of Metro” speech next Thursday, Nov. 5, and it’ll cost you $65 to [...]
Don’t play games with taxpayers’ money — or with Wayne Dolcefino. Too bad the folks at the Spring Independent School District have been doing both. The district has coughed up about $400,000 in the name of teaching chess to the kiddos. Unfo...
Establishing that the Houston Independent School District has handed over credit cards to people with dubious credit is one thing; naming those employees with the bad credit is another. Texas Watchdog isn’t dinging those folks by name in our story today. ...
