The largesse from billionaires Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks has made its way into local politics. Courtney Gore, a Republican school board member in Granbury, says it’s part of their strategy to build support for vouchers.
Dan Keemahill
Dan Keemahill gathers and analyzes data on health outcomes and access in Texas. A native of Sacramento, Dan is a graduate of Northwestern University and started his journalism career as a contributor to the Tribune's schools and government salaries explorers. He previously covered public education for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit and worked with datasets related to immigrant detention centers, elections and the COVID-19 pandemic at USA Today.
Posted in
Investigations
How shifting U.S. policies led to one of the deadliest incidents involving immigrants in Mexico’s history
A year ago, 40 men died in a detention center fire in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. An examination by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica shows that it was the foreseeable result of landmark shifts in U.S. border policies.
Posted in
Investigations
Texas school districts violated a law intended to add transparency to local elections
The Texas Tribune and ProPublica analyzed 35 Texas school districts that held trustee elections last fall and found none that posted all of the required campaign finance records.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Dark money nonprofit with ties to Texas billionaire works to defeat Midland school bond
Tim Dunn’s public policy groups have helped ensure that tax hike language is attached to every school bond ballot measure in the state. Now he is using that language to cast doubt on a bond in his hometown of Midland.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Texas schools chief took over Houston district, but has let underperforming charter networks expand
Commissioner of Education Mike Morath has repeatedly waived expansion requirements for charter school networks, allowing them to serve thousands more students, even when they don’t meet academic performance standards.
Posted inState Government
News App: Government Salaries Explorer
Our new Government Salaries Explorer reimagines our flagship salary database app. Use the explorer to review the compensation of hundreds of thousands of state and municipal employees in Texas. We will update and expand this database periodically.
Posted inState Government
Runoff Maps Show Extent of Low Voter Turnout
Dan Patrick won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor with 65 percent of the votes in Tuesday’s runoff election, but he earned votes from only 3.5 percent of registered Texas voters.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
In Cellphone Contraband Cases, Few Face Charges
While confiscations of illicit cellphones in prisons have dropped, a Tribune investigation found that few inmates or correctional officers face legal consequences for smuggling the devices.
Posted inEconomy
Interactive: Gender Wage Gaps in State Agencies
At dozens of Texas state agencies, male workers are better compensated than female workers, on average. Use our interactive to compare compensation by gender at state agencies with at least 100 employees, excluding universities.
Posted inPolitics
Interactive: Where the Candidates Won Votes
We pulled the county-by-county vote totals for each statewide candidate headed to a runoff in their primary and analyzed what parts of the state got them there. Use our interactive to compare each candidate’s performance.
