Judge Sharon Keller has been pilloried as the villain of the Texas criminal justice system, but supporters credit the chief of the state’s highest criminal court with working to ensure fair trials for impoverished defendants.
state agencies
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Getting Drunks Off the Road
The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice met today to talk about ways to stop Texans from getting behind the wheel after imbibing. Judges, police and even a third-time DWI offender told lawmakers some Texas drunken driving laws could use some stiffening, while other measures take punishment too far.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: TCEQ on DISH
No other place in Texas has received as much attention from the state’s environmental agency as the natural-gas-rich Barnett Shale — and that includes the tiny town of DISH, a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said today.
Posted in
Energy
DISHed Out
As he has taken on natural gas companies and the agencies that regulate them, DISH mayor Calvin Tillman has become a media darling, an unlikely face of oil and gas reform and a public speaker crisscrossing the country. Now he’s ready to give up — and to leave town entirely.
Posted in
State Government
Sunset Finishes Workers’ Comp Fixes
State lawmakers on the Sunset Advisory Commission make final remarks after the panel unanimously approves changes to the Division of Workers’ Compensation’s medical quality review process.
Posted in
State Government
After Sunset
Sunset Advisory Commissioners unanimously approved a series of changes to the troubled Division of Workers’ Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance on Tuesday, but not before aggressively rewriting the Sunset staff’s original recommendations to improve the division’s medical quality review process.
Posted in
Energy
Leaky Pipes
A Texas Railroad Commissioner is proposing to replace steel natural gas pipes with plastic. Mose Buchele of KUT News reports.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
On the Records: How Public Servants Make Their Money
The Texas Ethics Commission recently released more than 3,000 personal financial statements — documents that detail state officials’ financial interests and liabilities. Read, download or embed them with our new application.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Brad Levenson: The TT Interview
After a series of investigative reports revealed serious problems with the quality of legal representation for indigent defendants on Texas death row, lawmakers created the Office of Capital Writs. California lawyer Brad Levenson will be moving to Texas to open the new office and attempt to restore some confidence in the state’s busy system of capital punishment.
