According to the Houston Chronicle, the former Dallas County sheriff owes money on seven properties in two counties.
May 2018
Posted in
Public Education
Texas education agency penalizes testing vendor over STAAR glitches
The Texas Education Agency slammed its standardized test vendor with $100,000 in damages and will re-bid the contract in June, after thousands of students were logged out of the testing system this spring.
Posted inState Government
Hundreds of harassment, discrimination allegations surface against TxDOT
The complaints and lawsuits underscore the agency’s ongoing struggle to address gender and racial disparities — and their side effects — in a culture historically and predominantly composed of white men, especially at its highest echelons.
Posted in
Environment
After Arkema chemical fires, industry needs more guidance on flood protections, federal investigators say
Workers at the Arkema chemical plant outside Houston “appeared to be unaware” that the site was at risk of flooding. Both the company and the industry’s regulators need to do more to plan for flooding, federal investigators said in a new report.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants to change school architecture to prevent mass shootings. Experts say that’s already happened.
Architects and school safety experts say that campuses are already designed with minimizing death in mind — but that architecture can only go so far.
Posted in
Demographics
San Antonio tops national list in population gain; Houston growth is sluggish
Texas suburbs claimed the top of the list of fastest-growing cities in the nation while San Antonio added the most people of any city in the country, according to new census estimates.
Posted in
Politics
A gay Texas teacher is on leave after she showed students a photo of her wife. She has few legal protections.
Texas law prohibits employment discrimination based on a host of factors, including sex, race, religion and disability. But there’s no express protection for LGBTQ employees.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
After Santa Fe shooting talks, Abbott expresses support for mental health checks, reporting stolen guns
The Republican governor said he could get behind a few proposed regulations that arose from the second day of discussions on school and gun safety after a fatal shooting in Santa Fe.
Posted in
Texas Elections 2018
Outside groups spent big backing either centrists or hard-line conservatives in GOP House runoffs. The centrists went 5 for 7.
Five of the seven Texas House GOP runoffs were won by candidates who had support from two groups aligned with retiring House Speaker Joe Straus and other establishment Republicans.
Posted in
State Government
Following Santa Fe school shooting, Dan Patrick says Texas should cut incentive funding for “violent” films and video games
The lieutenant governor said he would withdraw his support for a Texas film and video game incentives program if it funded depictions of violence, blaming school shootings on a “culture where we’ve devalued life.”
