Ninety minutes of back-and-forth on Wednesday between a House committee and representatives of the Texas Forensic Science Commission — but not its chairman — covered the besieged agency’s nonexistent enforcement power, lack of written procedural guidelines, and public records policy. Oh, and the late Cameron Todd Willingham.
Morgan Smith
Morgan Smith was a reporter at the Tribune from 2009 to 2018, covering politics, public education and inequality.
In 2013, she received a National Education Writers Association award for “Death of a District,” a series on school closures. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Wellesley College, she moved to Austin in 2008 to enter law school at the University of Texas.
A San Antonio native, her work has also appeared in Slate, where she spent a year as an editorial intern in Washington D.C.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
2010: Lubbock or Leave It
Low voter turnout means that in a downballot statewide race like that between Debra Lehrmann and Rick Green the winner could be decided by chance — whose name comes first, or whose name sounds the friendliest. Green and Lehrmann are working to combat that dynamic in an unlikely place: Lubbock.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: April 5, 2010
The April runoff is the plain, forgotten cousin of the March primary. Even so, today — the start of early voting — marks the beginning of the end for the April election cycle. That means it’s time to recap.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: April 2, 2010
Want to see some regulatory muscle in action? See Exhibit A: The Environmental Protection Agency.
Posted in
Congress
The Runoffs: CD-23
Cut through the routine Republican primary rhetoric about government spending and job creation and a narrative about the new and old guard emerges in the April 13 runoff in Texas’ 23rd congressional district.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
2010: Rick Green, With Envy
Rick Green and Debra Lehrmann face-off. And Green finds inspiration for a new campaign slogan — from The Texas Tribune.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Barely Speaking
The state says that if it has the power to ban alcohol in strip clubs, then it can levy a $5 “pole tax.” But the clubs argued before the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday that nude dancing is a form of protected speech and that the tax violates the First Amendment.
