Skip to main content

All Coverage

  • TriBlog: Harris County Jail Controversy to Be Continued

    By Brandi Grissom

    It wasn't so much a grilling as a polite discussion this morning between Harris County officials and members of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Despite continued overcrowding at the county's four facilities and ongoing concerns about inmate conditions, the county is expected in November to ask the commission for permission to continue filling the jails with hundreds of so-called "variance beds" — beds beyond the capacity for which the buildings were designed. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • The Big House Isn't Big Enough

    By Brandi Grissom

    At today's hearing of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, Sheriff Adrian Garcia will be grilled about efforts to control overcrowding at Harris County's four jail facilities, which have seen a dramatic population spike. At the urging of Houston lawmakers, Garcia will be pressed to explain why he wants to keep housing more inmates than the facilities can accommodate, and why some recommendations by the county's own consultant for ways to reduce its jail population have gone unheeded. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Weed All About It

    By Julián Aguilar

    For nearly a decade, advocates of expanded use of medical marijuana have been spurned by the Texas Legislature — but giving up isn't how they roll. So they're trying again with a limited proposal. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: Driving While Lobbying [Updated]

    By Julián Aguilar, The Texas Tribune, and Keegan Kyle, Voice of San Diego

    Former State Rep. Pat Haggerty was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in San Diego on Saturday after failing a sobriety test at a police checkpoint. State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, was in the car with Haggerty when the driver was allegedly operating a rental car with a blood-alcohol level exceeding the .08 state limit. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • Special Needs

    By Kate Ergenbright

    After a decade in which Texas has seen a 400 percent increase in the number of children with autism, lawmakers are wrestling with how best to educate the afflicted — and how to pay for it. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • T-Squared: The Kids Are All Right

    By Evan Smith

    Our remarkable crop of summer interns — optimistic and high-spirited at a low moment for our business — are the future of this thing we do. Their schools should be proud of what they accomplished over the last two months. They themselves should be. We certainly are. Full Story 

    The Trib's 2010 summer interns.
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Reservoir Dogged

    By Morgan Smith

    In 2004, two brothers thought they had found the perfect ecologically friendly business venture: create a wetlands preserve on 4,000 acres of neglected farmland along the Sulphur River in Northeast Texas and make a pile of money selling mitigation credits to developers who build over environmentally sensitive lands elsewhere. Seven years later, the only thing stopping them from realizing that dream is the state of Texas, which has plans to submerge their property under 80 feet of water. Full Story 

    The Hearts Bluff Mitigation Bank as pictured with the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir.
    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Kip Averitt: The TT Interview

    By Ross Ramsey

    The McGregor Republican — who quit the Texas Senate earlier this year — talked to the Tribune on Tuesday about politics and parties, redistricting, things left undone and how the Legislature changed during his time there. Full Story 

  • T-Squared: The Nine-Month Stats

    By Evan Smith

    Monthly uniques and page views are much higher than we projected; more of our visitors are from outside Austin than we ever could have hoped; and our search engine optimization strategy is paying off: All is better-than-well here at the Trib. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail