The Trib staff on the sweeping cuts in the proposed House budget, Grissom on what’s lost and not found at the Department of Public Safety, Galbraith on the wind power conundrum, Hamilton on higher ed’s pessimistic budget outlook, Stiles and Swicegood debut an incredibly useful bill tracker app, Ramsey interviews Rick Perry on the cusp of his second decade as governor, Aguilar on a Mexican journalist’s quest for asylum in the U.S., Ramshaw on life expectancy along the border, M. Smith on the obstacles school districts face in laying off teachers and yours truly talks gambling and the Rainy Day Fund with state Rep. Jim Pitts: The best of our best from January 17 to 21, 2011.
Public Information Act
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: AG to TWIA: Make Numbers Public
The Texas attorney general’s office is weighing in on the back-and-forth between the Texas Windstorm Insurance Agency and Democratic attorney Steve Mostyn, who has been fighting in the courts to keep Hurricane Ike settlement details private.
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Criminal Justice
Data App: Even More Salaries
This week we added more than 20 new public agencies to The Texas Tribune’s government employee salary database. The application now features payroll data on more than 620,000 employees from 88 school districts, cities, community colleges, universities, state agencies and transit authorities.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: What Candidates Buy
A new rule that took effect this summer allows — for the first time — real categorization of campaign spending.
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Criminal Justice
2010: Perry Provided “Political Schedule” By Mistake
Texans weren’t supposed to see Gov. Rick Perry’s Sept. 15 schedule after all. The governor’s office says it mistakenly released the governor’s “political schedule” — as opposed to his schedule of official state business — to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White’s campaign.
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Criminal Justice
Not-So-Spare Schedule
Gov. Rick Perry apparently keeps a more detailed schedule than what his office has previously released to the public. In what might have been a mistake, a more detailed version came out in response to an open records request from Democrat Bill White’s campaign.
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Criminal Justice
Judge Orders TWIA Settlement Kept Private
In an issue that’s sparked a nasty political fight, attorneys for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and attorneys for the homeowners who sued them appeared at a Monday hearing to argue whether the legal fees in a record $189 million Hurricane Ike settlement should be kept private. Judge Susan Criss ultimately sided with homeowners’ attorney Steve Mostyn and granted a new temporary restraining order that keeps TWIA from releasing settlement details, at least for now.
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Criminal Justice
Greg Abbott vs. Google
The Texas Attorney General is investigating suspicions that the Internet giant is gaming search results to harm competitors. Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports.
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Criminal Justice
Jail the Jail Official?
The head of the state’s Commission on Jail Standards could do time for being too open about a suicide in the Nueces County lockup. Is the indictment of Adan Muñoz retaliation by a sheriff his lawyer describes as a “crazy little bastard”? Regardless, an open government advocate calls it “outrageous.”
