Tag Archives: open records

Who watches the private police departments?

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Not good. A veteran state lawmaker said Monday he is outraged by televised images of Rice University police officers striking a suspected bicycle thief with batons and appalled the university can refuse to release details because it is a private … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

“Poopgate” is a big load of…

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Well, you know. Documents released Monday by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s provided no new evidence that officers found one jar of urine and 18 containers of feces at the Capitol before a July 12 debate on a controversial … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Texas Watchdog followup on HCC reports

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

So after I published those HCC Trustee campaign finance reports, I got an email from Jennifer Peebles of Texas Watchdog, who asked me if I had redacted the files to hide the mailing addresses of the trustees and their donors. … Continue reading →

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DA clears Metro

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Nice. Months after prosecutors took boxes of documents from Metro’s downtown headquarters and experts examined the agency’s computers, the investigation into allegations that Metropolitan Transit Authority administrators illegally destroyed public documents has ended, Metro officials said today. In a letter … Continue reading →

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The Metro settlement agreement

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I presume we’ll get some more details in the morning, but for now I wanted to highlight one aspect of the story of Metro’s settlement agreement with Lloyd Kelley. The suit accused Metro and several of its top officials, including … Continue reading →

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More on the Metro lawsuit settlement

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, the Metro document shredding lawsuit has been pulled from the court docket in anticipation of a settlement agreement. The Chron has more on what that settlement agreement might entail. The proposed settlement of an open-records lawsuit against … Continue reading →

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New frontiers in open meeting laws

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

There’s an awful lot here to think about. The Texas Legislature may become the first in the nation to tackle whether tweeting and texting is being used to circumvent open meetings laws and whether the private devices of public officials … Continue reading →

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Got evidence?

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

If you saw Wednesday night’s rather sensational coverage of the allegations that Metro CEO Frank Wilson had an “improper” relationship with an employee, you would have come away with the impression that things were about to go all Chuck Rosenthal … Continue reading →

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Kelley claims Metro is holding out

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

So now the Metro document shredding case gets more interesting. Documents supplied by the Metropolitan Transit Authority in response to Houston attorney and former City Controller Lloyd Kelley’s open records request were incomplete and “sanitized,” Kelley said Friday. “I know … Continue reading →

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Please don’t shred the documents

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This isn’t good. At a crucial moment in the development of its light rail system, Metro confronted accusations Wednesday that it shredded documents sought in an open-records request, then fired two attorneys who objected to its handling of the request. … Continue reading →

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Chron sues Perry over clemency files

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Good for them. The Houston Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers LLC are suing Gov. Rick Perry in an effort to force the release of a clemency report Perry received before denying a stay of execution to Cameron Todd Willingham. The report … Continue reading →

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HISD set to hire Grier

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

But not without some drama first. The Houston school board is expected to officially hire Terry Grier as superintendent Thursday and offer him a multiyear contract that is likely to top $400,000 a year in salary and perks over time. … Continue reading →

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Craddick’s cleanup

Posted on February 6, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

I’m amused by this. Before the House voted Speaker Tom Craddick out of his powerful job, state officials wiped his computers clean and deleted scores of electronic files, raising concerns that important public records may have been destroyed. Files on … Continue reading →

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