After his son and two others died in a horrific car wreck in 2004, former UT Regent Scott Caven Jr. set out to prove that his namesake, Scotty, wasn’t to blame. He eventually persuaded the Texas Department of Public Safety to change its accident report — a rare feat: In the last five years, DPS has changed the final reports in fewer than 1 percent of fatal crash investigations.
Brandi Grissom
Brandi Grissom worked at the Tribune from its launch in 2009 until 2014, rising to the rank of managing editor. In addition to editing duties, Grissom led the Tribune's coverage of criminal justice issues. During her tenure at the Tribune, she was chosen as a 2012 City University of New York Center on Media, Crime and Justice/H.F. Guggenheim Journalism Fellow and was a fellow at the 2012 Journalist Law School at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Grissom, along with Tribune multimedia producer Justin Dehn, received a 2012 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting for work on the case of Megan Winfrey, who was acquitted of murder in February 2013 after the Trib’s coverage brought statewide attention the case. Grissom joined the Tribune after four years at the El Paso Times, where she acted as a one-woman Capitol bureau. Grissom won the Associated Press Managing Editors First-Place Award in 2007 for using the Freedom of Information Act to report stories on a variety of government programs and entities, and the ACLU of Texas named her legislative reporter of the year in 2007 for her immigration reporting. She previously served as managing editor at The Daily Texan and has worked for the Alliance Times-Herald, the Taylor Daily Press, the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung and The Associated Press. A native of Alliance, Neb., she has a degree in history from the University of Texas.
Posted inState Government
2010: Smiles Instead of Fireworks in EP
Turns out it was all smiles at the El Paso County Democratic Party headquarters today afterall.
Posted inState Government
2010: Fireworks in EP?
Two El Paso candidates who had been on a collision course to run against one another now have big plans for public filing events at the same time and place. In El Paso, where politics are often a full-contact sport, it has the potential to get interesting.
Posted in
State Government
Debtors’ Treadmill: Treasure Map
Short-term, high-interest lenders are clustered in neighborhoods where the median household income is less than $50,000 a year.
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State Government
2010: Chavez Not Running for Senate
State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, announced today on a local radio show that she plans to run for reelection to the Texas House instead of making a go at the state Senate seat that Eliot Shapleigh is vacating.
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State Government
2010: Shapleigh endorses Bill White
Houston Mayor Bill White hasn’t even announced yet that he’s running for governor. But state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, is endorsing him.
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State Government
Debtors’ Treadmill, Part Two: Political Payday
Groups that offer high-interest, short-term consumer loans and want to avoid state regulation contributed more than $1.4 million to Texas politicians over the past nine years, Texas Ethics Commission records show.
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State Government
2010: Dee Margo’s in for Round Three in El Paso
El Paso Republican businessman Dee Margo said today he will run for the Texas House again, taking on Democrat Joe Moody. The campaign will be Margo’s third try for a seat in the Texas Legislature.
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State Government
Debtors’ Treadmill, Part One: Borrowed Time
Desperate Texans who get crosswise with payday lenders quickly find they get no help from the state, which hasn’t regulated the industry since 2005.
Posted in
Demographics
TribBlog: DPS: We’re Stopping the Bad Guys
The day after DPS warns parents that Mexican cartels are trying to recruit their kids to sell drugs, the agency issues a press release that says DPS efforts are pushing back drugs and preventing them from getting here.