Tag Archives: Harris County Attorney

Game room injunction lifted

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The temporary reprieve that Harris County ganerooms got from the courts has been lifted. Houston and Harris County moved one step closer Friday in their quest to crack down on illegal game rooms after a judge threw out a restraining … Continue reading →

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County enforcement of game room regulations halted for now

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Oops. A quest by the county and city to crack down on illegal game rooms has hit a legal roadblock after a civil court judge granted a temporary restraining order barring Harris County from enforcing strict, new regulations. The city … Continue reading →

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Indictments in petition forgery case

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Whoa. Four political campaign workers have been indicted by a Harris County Grand Jury in the wake of allegations of election fraud in a Harris County Justice of the Peace race, first reported by Local 2 News in January. The … Continue reading →

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Harris County threatens to sue Harris County Appraisal District

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

That headline may sound dry, but this is a big deal. Worried about the erosion of the tax base, county officials said Wednesday that they may consider suing the Harris County Appraisal District over concerns it is undervaluing certain business … Continue reading →

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Petition problems

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Every election cycle there are fights over who really did or didn’t qualify for the ballot. This one is shaping up to be a doozy. Three lawsuits over alleged ballot irregularities involving Harris County judicial candidates will be heard by … Continue reading →

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Trial date set for Wilson residency lawsuit

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Mark your calendars. County officials have dropped their request to temporarily keep Houston Community College trustee Dave Wilson from his office in favor of an expedited trial date that will allow jurors to decide if he lives in District 2. … Continue reading →

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Judge grants TRO halting Dave Wilson’s inauguration to HCC

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: A state district judge has ordered David Wilson to refrain from taking an oath of office to serve as trustee of Houston Community College System District II until a court can determine the issue of his residency. … Continue reading →

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Wilson sued over residency for HCC

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Dave Wilson and lawsuits go together like peanut butter and jelly. The Harris County attorney sued Houston Community College trustee-elect Dave Wilson on Thursday, alleging the small business owner and anti-gay activist was not a resident of District II when … Continue reading →

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County to tighten regulations on game rooms

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s sort of a crackdown, but within limits. And something that’s regulated is something that’s legal, so there’s that. The regulations, made possible by a state law passed earlier this year by the Legislature, requires an establishment housing six or … Continue reading →

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Sheriff Garcia endorses the Early To Rise campaign

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It makes sense that he would. The group attempting to get a 1-cent tax hike on the November ballot to bolster early childhood education programs got a hearty endorsement from Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia on Wednesday, and announced it … Continue reading →

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Protecting polluters

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Ridiculous. It’s never been easy fighting powerful polluters in Texas. A bill approved by a Senate committee today would make it even harder. With a big push from the Texas Chemical Council and the Texas Association of Business, the Senate … Continue reading →

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County settles with Treasures

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s over, at least for now. When city of Houston lawyers settled a public nuisance lawsuit against Treasures last December, Harris County attorneys continued to pursue the jointly filed case, saying they needed more assurances from the strip club that … Continue reading →

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City settles with Treasures, county still on the case

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Noted for the record. Prominent strip club Treasures, hauled into court as an alleged public nuisance and haven for crime by city and county attorneys seven months ago, has agreed to put $100,000 in a nuisance abatement fund as part … Continue reading →

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Constable Trevino indicted

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Lovely. Longtime Precinct 6 Constable Victor Trevino was indicted Friday, accused of failing to report cash campaign contributions, diverting money from his youth charity for personal use and using deputies to serve eviction notices and then keeping the delivery fees. … Continue reading →

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More strip club cash in the county races

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Given the prevalence of strip clubs in Houston, I’m actually a bit surprised we don’t see more of this in our elections. Four people associated with the strip club Treasures have contributed a combined $48,700 to the Republican challengers for … Continue reading →

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All the interviews for 2012

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

As we begin early voting for the November election, here are all the interviews I conducted for candidates who are on the ballot as well as for the referenda. These include interviews that were done for the primary as well … Continue reading →

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30 Day finance reports, Harris County candidates

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a look at the 30 day campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates. All reports can be found by going to the Harris County Clerk campaign finance reports page. Candidate Office Raised Spent Loans Cash ========================================================== Garcia Sheriff 192,670 … Continue reading →

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Interview with Vince Ryan

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

We return to non-referendum races as we enter the last week before early voting. For the first of my last two interviews I have for you a conversation with Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, who was elected along with Sheriff … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: For the watchdog

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron endorses County Attorney Vince Ryan for re-election. Because crime makes more headlines than drawing up contracts for bond issues or conducting reviews of county agencies, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has a much higher public profile than … Continue reading →

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SOS ups the ante against Sumners

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

It’s getting real at the Tax Assessor’s office. Harris County election officials got a bit of a surprise Friday morning when they attempted to open the county’s spending account on the Texas Secretary of State’s office website and found their … Continue reading →

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SOS versus Sumners

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

It’s not a steel cage death match, but it’ll do. In a strongly worded letter today, the Texas Secretary of State’s office told Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Don Sumners that his decision not to purge presumed-dead voters … Continue reading →

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Who wants to sue over the HCDE election?

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Depends who you ask. At a court hearing July 30, the county, both political parties and an attorney for [runoff winner Erica] Lee all said they wanted the department of education’s suit dismissed (the school board wanted it to continue). … Continue reading →

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HCDE runoff will be held

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

So ruled a judge yesterday in the ongoing lawsuit filed by the HCDE to void the Democratic primary in Precinct 1 Position 6. The Harris County Department of Education told a federal judge Monday it wants to proceed with the … Continue reading →

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July campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

You know the drill by now. Office Candidate Raised Spent Cash Loans ============================================================ Sheriff A Garcia 47,025 41,900 357,818 0 Sheriff L Guthrie 70,176 75,646 33,075 157,000 Sheriff C Pittman 11,309 11,566 5,217 24,000 DA M Anderson 73,888 60,980 33,371 … Continue reading →

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Boundary screwup could affect HCDE race

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

This is just freakin’ great. Because of a mix-up with the new district boundaries, not everyone who was qualified to vote in a school trustee race was able to and some voters who weren’t supposed to, were allowed to cast … Continue reading →

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GOP results, Harris County

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Bullet points for all these result posts, I was up way too late last night. See the numbers here and the chat transcript from last night here. – You could have sold me on any result in the GOP DA … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: Madden in HD137

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron picks Joe Madden as their preferred candidate to succeed Rep. Scott Hochberg in HD137. In the Democratic primary on May 29, an impressive slate of candidates has come forward to run for Hochberg’s seat representing the 137th District … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: The list so far

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron printed their list of primary endorsements so far yesterday. It’s more impressive for what they haven’t done yet as early voting starts. After a couple of years of getting most of their business done before actual voters started … Continue reading →

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County Attorney report on Constables

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

County Attorney Vince Ryan has completed a report his office began in December to examine some of the practices in the Constables’ offices. At that time, the FBI was investigating and was on the verge of arresting now-former Constable Jack … Continue reading →

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30 day financial reports, Harris County offices

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

Candidates for county offices who are in contested primaries are also required to submit 30 day campaign finance reports. I’ve been going through the County Clerk’s campaign finance reports page to collect what’s there; ones for Democratic races are on … Continue reading →

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Constables and eviction notices

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

This is just wrong. With the help of their taxpayer-funded offices, five Harris County constables have been using a little-known eviction fee to add thousands of dollars a year to their base $120,000 annual salaries. State law allows a constable … Continue reading →

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January finance reports: Harris County

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

January is a very busy month for campaign finance reports, since they are due for all levels of government. I’ve been busy updating the 2012 Primary Election pages for Harris County and elsewhere in Texas with reports as I can … Continue reading →

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County sues over dioxin

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

More like this, please. Harris County has filed a lawsuit in state court to recover hundreds of millions of dollars from local waste management companies and a Pasadena paper factory responsible for storage of a human carcinogen that has leaked … Continue reading →

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Investigations all around

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

There’s a second grand jury looking into Harris County DA Pat Lykos. Sources close to the investigation said a special prosecutor was appointed last week to look into claims by Shirley Cornelius, a 27-year-veteran of the office, that she was … Continue reading →

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