Investigative Journalist in Houston, Texas
A look at enterprising journalism at the San Antonio Express-News and how it’s done.
I just got off the phone with Tammy Haby, who I interviewed for this story about the safety record of Kiddie Park. Haby’s son, Holden, had his teeth knocked out in a roller coaster accident at the old park. “Thank you for bringing this all to light and sharing it with everybody,” Tammy said. “We … Read more
This archived story was posted online for our recent investigation of the thrill ride industry, and it links to internal documents at Fiesta Texas. The documents reveal how park officials were still working out the kinks of the flagship wooden rollercoaster, the Rattler, after the park’s grand opening in 1992. They tracked hundreds of injuries … Read more
Our second story in our series about the safety record of amusement parks in Texas focused on Kiddie Park, a San Antonio landmark that opened in 1925 but has fallen on tough times. In at least three incidents, the park’s aging rides malfunctioned or broke with scared children on board. One 6-year-old boy knocked his … Read more
Ten years ago (wow, I’m getting old) I wrote a series of stories about the safety record of San Antonio’s major theme parks — Six Flags Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld San Antonio, and Splashtown. I learned state officials keep a little-known database that tracks amusement-ride injuries in Texas. The database isn’t perfect. The injuries are self-reported … Read more
It seemed like every section of today’s paper had a story that grabbed me and surprised me and told me something about the world I didn’t know before. Brian Chasnoff wrote about unregulated dog breeders selling sick puppies to unsuspecting buyers. Ariel Barkhurst checked the background of a funeral home administrator who was accused of … Read more
Not that I’m biased or anything, but my girlfriend Jennifer Hiller won two awards for a story she wrote about the Texas Residential Construction Commission, a state agency ostensibly created to help homeowners resolve disputes with homebuilders. In reality, the agency was often powerless to help consumers and it’s going to be dissolved. Jennifer spent … Read more
You can check the safety record of Texas theme parks and carnivals by searching a unique database of 1,800 reports detailing broken bones, chipped teeth and other injuries. Officials at the Texas Department of Insurance collect injury reports from amusement ride owners and type the information into a database. We obtained a copy of the … Read more
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcdfw.com/video. It had been a long time since I last heard from John Putnam. I met him in person once when we attended a court hearing at an old, eerily quiet courthouse in Llano, Texas, but we’ve had countless conversations by phone. And when the phone rang at my desk … Read more
Express-News Reporter Scott Huddleston is covering the Article 32 military hearing of Capt. Michael Fontana, a nurse at Wilford Hall who is accused of killing three civilian patients under his care. I had helped Scott cover this story when Fontana was originally charged and we learned the Bexar County Medical Examiner had performed autopsies and … Read more
Express-News Reporter Karisa King wrote a follow-up story today about mentally ill patients who are dropped off at bus stations and left to fend for themselves. There’s now a bill in the Texas Legislature that attempts to fix the problem. If the bill becomes law, it will require the state’s mental hospitals to devise a … Read more