The Texas Ethics Commission and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts are opening up more of their data to the public at no charge.
Public Information Act
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Criminal Justice
Reform Follows Function
The federal push for accountability at “persistently low-achieving” schools across Texas is running smack into the hard, slow work of improvement at the local level.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: Combs Studying Open Data
Her office is studying efforts to release raw data in New York and San Francisco for ideas.
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Criminal Justice
2010: White, Perry Lead in Fundraising
The latest campaign finance reports show that both candidates raised more than $700,000 in January. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison spent more than any other candidate: $3.3 million.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: Donations App Updated
We’ve added a few new features to our campaign donations app, including the ability to filter the search results by the donation amount, year and donor type.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: Data Decisions
Some deep-pocketed trial lawyers didn’t make the Twenty Who Gave Plenty list. Why not?
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Criminal Justice
Twenty Who Gave Plenty
Houston homebuilder Bob Perry tops the list of the biggest donors to Texas candidates in the last half of 2009. McAllen developer Alonzo Cantu and Dallas businessman Ross Perot Sr. also gave large sums.
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Criminal Justice
Guest Column: The 2010 Agenda: Open Government
Compared with other states, Texas alternates between merely OK and downright bad in rankings of how transparently government bodies conduct open meetings and respond to requests for public information. But we can fix that.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: Per-Capita Money Maps
The governor’s race candidates fill their campaign coffers disproportionately from some rural areas, according to a per-capita calculation. Each Dallas resident gave $1 to the race in 2009, for example, while those in Blanco donated $57.
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Criminal Justice
Mapping the Money Race
To better understand the geography of the money race, we mapped the candidates’ contributions by city, using graduated symbols to highlight their most lucrative areas. The bubbles in the maps get larger based on the percentage of a candidates’ total take.
