The two-term governor’s donors enjoy access, appointments to boards and commissions, and a chance to bend the ear of a politician who may harbor bigger ambitions.
Zach Despart
Zach Despart is an enterprise and investigative reporter focusing on state government. His work on a team investigating the flawed police response to the Uvalde school shooting was awarded the 2024 Collier Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. He led the Tribune’s effort to become the first news organization to map the fragmented 50-mile Texas border wall, a project that also found the state struggled with holdout landowners along the route. After it was published, the Legislature stopped funding the wall. He previously covered Harris County for the Houston Chronicle, where he reported on corruption, elections, disaster preparedness and the region’s recovery from Hurricane Harvey. His investigation on how Texas diverted Harvey aid away from areas most at risk for storms sparked a federal investigation. An upstate New York native, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and film from the University of Vermont.
Posted in
Operation Lone Star
As fentanyl plagues Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott directs state police to focus on cartels
Abbott directed the Department of Public Safety to boost efforts to collect intelligence on cartels and investigate gangs in Texas that support drug and human smuggling.
Posted in
Politics
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tells court not to trust Biden in Trump records case
Several other Republican attorneys general joined Paxton in bashing the Biden administration, largely over previous policy decisions they disagreed with.
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Uvalde school shooting
DPS Director Steve McCraw tells CNN he’ll resign if troopers had “any culpability” in delayed Uvalde shooting response
The state’s top law enforcement agency has publicly criticized the actions of local police during the May shooting at Robb Elementary. But McCraw’s agency has also faced scrutiny for officers’ delay in confronting the gunman.
Posted in
Uvalde school shooting
91 Texas state troopers responded to the Uvalde massacre. Their bosses have deflected scrutiny and blame.
State troopers outnumbered local law enforcement 2-to-1 outside Robb Elementary, but the Department of Public Safety has blocked the release of records and carefully shaped the narrative to cast local authorities as incompetent.
Posted in
Uvalde school shooting
Five Department of Public Safety officers face a formal investigation over Uvalde shooting response
Hundreds of law enforcement officers from several local, state and federal agencies have been heavily criticized for the delayed response in confronting the gunman during the worst school shooting in Texas history.
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Uvalde school shooting
The Texas Tribune and other newsrooms sue to force Uvalde officials to release shooting records
The Tribune and other news organizations also previously filed suit against the Department of Public Safety over its refusal to release records related to the school shooting.
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Uvalde school shooting
Texas state police can keep Uvalde records secret for now, judge rules
The ruling sidestepped the question of whether the state police can withhold records concerning their response to the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School. The judge concluded that state Sen. Roland Gutierrez had not properly filed his request under Texas’ public records law.
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Uvalde school shooting
Coalition of news organizations sues Texas Department of Public Safety over withheld records on Uvalde shooting
The lawsuit alleges that the state police have unlawfully withheld records, including body camera footage and emergency communications, during the Robb Elementary shooting.
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Uvalde school shooting
“Systemic failures” in Uvalde shooting went far beyond local police, Texas House report details
In total, 376 law enforcement officers descended upon the school, according to the most extensive account of the shooting to date. It says that better-equipped departments should have stepped up to fill a leadership void after the Uvalde schools police chief failed to take charge.