The Texas Tribune and ProPublica have submitted about 70 requests to state and local agencies for emergency response documentation surrounding the mass shooting at Robb Elementary. Most likely won’t be released publicly for months, if ever.
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit uncovers big stories that matter to Texans and the nation, taking aim at corruption, injustice and malfeasance across the state. Read on for the latest stories, and be sure to sign up to get the latest on the people and policies shaping the future of Texas with the Tribune’s weekday newsletter.
A Texas teen driving to his mother’s house was unlawfully arrested over pandemic restrictions, lawsuit says
The lawsuit cites findings from a ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation that showed a small border town issued far more tickets for violations of stay-at-home orders in April 2020 than two major cities combined.
Settlement reached over private border wall, but experts say it won’t stop the environmental damage
Federal authorities have reached a deal that gives builders of the privately funded fence control over where to inspect for damage and leeway over which issues they choose to repair.
Why 18-year-olds can buy AR-15s in Texas but not handguns
This week’s massacre in Uvalde highlights disparities in how federal laws regulate rifles and handguns. The shooter bought two rifles days after his 18th birthday.
Problems remain for We Build the Wall group after founder’s guilty plea
Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage faces more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding donors to the private wall effort.
Fact-checking Texas leaders’ claims about Operation Lone Star
As reporters investigated Gov. Greg Abbott’s border initiative, they repeatedly found situations in which Abbott and Department of Public Safety officials cited accomplishments that lacked crucial context or did not match reality. Here are a few examples.
Texas has spent billions of dollars on border security. But what taxpayers got in return is a mystery.
Since 2005, Texas Govs. Rick Perry and Greg Abbott have launched a multitude of widely publicized and costly border initiatives, which usually kicked off during their reelection campaigns or while they were considering bids for higher office.
Texas’ border operation is meant to stop cartels and smugglers. More often, it arrests migrants for misdemeanor trespassing.
The largest share of Operation Lone Star arrests were of people accused only of trespassing on private property. Many spend months in prison, but the strategy does not appear to have slowed immigration.
North Texas superintendent orders books removed from schools, targeting titles about transgender people
The Granbury superintendent’s comments, made on a leaked recording, raise constitutional concerns, legal experts said.
Gov. Greg Abbott brags about his border initiative. The evidence doesn’t back him up.
Arrests of U.S. citizens hundreds of miles from the border. Claiming drug busts from across the state. Changing statistics. The data that Texas leaders use to boast about Operation Lone Star raise more questions than answers.

