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Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.
Lobbyists are required to report everything they spend on government officials, including expensive meals at fancy restaurants. But state disclosure laws allow lobbyists to split the bills to avoid naming whom they've wined and dined. Full Story
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The best of our best content from Jan. 26-30, 2015. Full Story
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We take a look this week at how the newly formed Senate committees stack up by party ID and by gender. Women are significantly underrepresented on the Administration, Nominations and Finance committees. And in the most extreme example, there is not a single woman on the Business and Commerce Committee. Full Story
For this week’s nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about handgun laws, school vouchers and lobbyist spending on lawmakers. Full Story
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Some of the Legislature's early actions indicate some ambivalence about the agencies and people who enforce state ethics laws. Full Story
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Former Gov. Rick Perry has been fighting the clock since a Travis County grand jury indicted him last summer. With Tuesday's ruling that the indictments should proceed, he has become a candidate with a deadline. Full Story
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It's a bribe when a lobbyist gives a public official something of value in exchange for a decision or a vote or some other official act. But there's an exception in Texas law that might surprise you. Full Story
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The session stipends for legislators are set to rise, and because of a loophole in Texas law, that would mean lobbyists could spend more on legislators without saying whom they are wining and dining. Full Story
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The best of our best content from Jan. 19-23, 2015. Full Story
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Former Comptroller Susan Combs, who is off the list of statewide elected officeholders for the first time since 1999, still has a sizable political treasury and a desire to make voters out of conservative Texans who don't pay attention to politics. Full Story
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