Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Sunday that Ezra Blount, a 9-year-old boy who was trampled by the crowd, died from extensive injuries, making him the 10th and youngest victim. Blount’s father had tried to save the boy by hoisting him on his shoulders, but lost conciousness as the crowd pressed against him.

If you attended the Astroworld Festival and shot video, you can help us investigate what went wrong and why.

The Houston Chronicle set up a web form where fans can submit videos they shot at the chaotic concert. The timestamps and locations of the videos can help a team of reporters construct a timeline of what happened. Timestamps were incredibly useful for my colleagues Zach Despart and Dug Begley when we wrote this initial account of the mayhem:

At 9:11 p.m., concertgoer Eric Daniels, 47, began taking video of attendees trying to escape the section closest to the stage. Timestamps from the videos he and others took reveal a chronology of the mounting chaos.

At 9:23 p.m., concertgoer Ellen Elise Evans filmed fans climbing speaker rigging to escape the crush. Unable to move in the throng, she described those moments as the scariest in her life.

“People were getting pushed down or around. It was a tidal wave of human bodies,” Evans said. “I saw girls crying and wanting to leave.”

At 9:24 p.m., as Scott noticed a man who had a climbed a tree for a better view, fans to the left of the stage were screaming for a medic and waving their hands to get his attention. Scott launched into his song “No Bystanders.”

At 9:28 p.m., Daniels filmed staff performing chest compressions on an unresponsive man in the crowd.

“It was devastating because we saw people who were oblivious, enjoying the concert and celebrating, while right next to them, there’s somebody on the ground fighting for their life,” said Daniels, who attended the show with his 18-year-old son.

You can help us piece together this tragedy with video you took as a witness. Or, if you’re a first responder or concert promoter with information or documents that can shed light on what went wrong, here’s every conceivable way to get in touch with us.

The post We’re investigating what went wrong at the Travis Scott concert. Here’s how to help. appeared first on John Tedesco.

Last year the Houston Chronicle published watchdog stories about Child Protective Services unfairly taking children away from families; stories about how Texas is shortchanging students; and stories about a sexual abuse crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention, the second largest faith group in the United States behind the Catholic Church.

The list goes on. In fact, I went ahead and made a list of some of the Chronicle’s best stories in 2019. Because while lots of people still religiously read their local paper, it’s also depressingly easy to find people who don’t see the point.

The past decade has been tough on the newspaper industry. Reading habits have changed. Facebook offers a free and never-ending stream of (mis)information. Who needs an ink-stained relic from the coal age for news?

The thing is, that ink-stained relic still boasts the largest newsroom in its community. Nothing else in the media landscape even comes close. Metro newspapers still field a small army of reporters to dig up stories, editors to help keep them on track, photographers to capture compelling moments, graphic designers to make the complex easily understandable, data journalists to crunch numbers and build interactive online graphics, and web and page designers to invite readers along for the ride.

Newspapers have ample time and resources to tell you something new about the world. Sometimes these stories make the world a better place by exposing problems. Stories in the Houston Chronicle have helped protect children from sexual predators, held public officials accountable, and triggered legislative scrutiny.

I’m old enough to remember when reporters didn’t have to worry about the business side of the news business. We didn’t have to worry about telling people why it’s important to subscribe. We let our work speak for ourselves.

Times have changed.

Regional newspapers across the country are still diligently serving as watchdogs in their communities. The exercise of compiling these big stories drives home the point that there’s a lot of good stuff to read in your friendly neighborhood newspaper. The Detroit Free Press published an entire special section devoted to the impact of its journalism. It’s a great idea.

Before you point out one of the many examples out there of a newspaper falling short of its mission, let me save you some time. You’re right. Newspapers have many faults.

But even with many faults, newspapers are still worth reading.

Still skeptical? Check out some of my favorite investigative stories that ran in the Chronicle in 2019:

Abuse of Faith

Nearly two years ago, Chronicle reporter Robert Downen covered a lawsuit against former state Judge Paul Pressler, a prominent figure in the Southern Baptist Convention who had been accused in civil papers of sexual abuse. During the course of that reporting, Downen came across other cases of sexual abuse involving Baptist leaders. He started building a spreadsheet to keep track of all the cases he found. It grew steadily by the day.

Countless stories have been written about the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. But there had rarely been any big investigations of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has 47,000 churches across the United States.

Steve Riley, the Chronicle’s investigations editor at the time who is now executive editor, asked me and investigative reporter Lise Olsen to help Rob find out how often sexual abuse happens at Southern Baptist churches, and what’s being done to stop it.

Photo journalist Jon Shapley was often by our side wherever we traveled, shooting photos and videos. Our spreadsheet of Baptist offenders came to life with the help of data journalists Jordan Rubio and Matt Dempsey, who checked our work and built an online database that readers could use as a public resource. Steve kept pushing us forward with weekly meetings and marching orders.

The result, after months of reporting, was Abuse of Faith, a multipart series the Chronicle published with the San Antonio Express-News that revealed how hundreds of church ministers, employees and volunteers had sexually abused more than 700 people over the past 20 years. Most of the victims were children.

The response was staggering. National media outlets picked up the stories. Hundreds of readers contacted us, many with their own stories of abuse. Baptist leaders said they were “broken” by the findings and promised to protect the vulnerable. The series changed the conversation of the SBC’s annual meeting in Birmingham last year, where Baptist leaders urged pastors to take the issue seriously and to adopt measures to prevent abuse.

As tips and responses from readers poured in, the Chronicle continued to publish more stories. Sarah Smith, who covered sexual abuses in independent Baptist churches, joined the team and helped reveal how Southern Baptist missionaries have suffered few, if any, repercussions when they sexually abused people while serving abroad.

Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, praised the newspapers’ investigation and said people with “functioning consciences” have been “filled with rage” by the findings.

“The idea that somehow this shouldn’t be out there in public is exactly the mentality that leads to these predators being able to carry out their actions,” Moore said.

Broken Trust

Less than a month after the Chronicle published Abuse of Faith, the paper unveiled the findings of yet another investigation that was a year in the making. Broken Trust, by Susan Carroll and David Hunn, untangled the complicated purse strings of the Texas Permanent School Fund, a $44 billion piggy bank for school children. Faced with a mind-numbing financial story, Susan and David clearly explained to readers what was wrong with the fund and why people should care:

It was a grand promise, one our forefathers made 165 years ago to all Texas children, to theirs and ours and those not yet born.

With $2 million and the state’s most abundant and precious resource — its land — they created the Texas Permanent School Fund to forever support public education. It was called a “sacred trust.”

That trust, dedicated to K-12 schools, is now valued at $44 billion, bigger than even Harvard University’s endowment.

It is also broken.

The Permanent School Fund has failed to match the performance of peer endowments, missing out on as much as $12 billion in growth and amassing a risky asset allocation, a yearlong Houston Chronicle investigation reveals.

Outside fund managers have charged the endowment at least a billion dollars in fees during the past decade, records show. Some of them have had professional or personal relationships with Texas School Land Board members, who govern a portion of the fund.

And, critically, the fund is sending less money to schools than it did decades ago, in real dollars. The amount dropped to an average of $986 million annually over the past decade from an average of $1.14 billion in the previous 20 years, in inflation-adjusted dollars. Last year, the fund distributed only 2.8 percent of its value — roughly half the share paid out by many endowments.

Do No Harm

Mike Hixenbaugh, a former Chronicle reporter who now works at NBC News, and Keri Blakinger, who was just hired by the Marshall Project, spent nine months investigating doctors who specialize in providing expert testimony in suspected cases of child abuse in Texas. The project started after Keri covered a case of Child Protective Services wrongfully taking children away from their parents. Keri and Mike started investigating.

Their series, Do No Harm, has raised concerns among Texas lawmakers:

Unbeknownst to many parents who encounter them, these pediatricians, now stationed at virtually every major children’s hospital in the country, work closely with child welfare agencies and law enforcement, providing expert reports and court testimony in thousands of cases a year and helping to shield untold numbers of abused children from additional harm.

But in their zeal to protect children, some child abuse pediatricians also have implicated parents who appear to have credible claims of innocence, leading to traumatic family separations and questionable criminal charges, an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and NBC News has found.

Even critics acknowledge that the doctors’ conclusions are likely correct most of the time, particularly in cases where children have suffered extensive unexplained injuries. But when the evidence is less clear, a diagnosis of child abuse can devastate families, often with long-term consequences.

Reporters for this series spent nine months examining more than 40 such cases in Texas, a state that provides $5 million in grants each year — including $2.5 million from the agency that oversees Child Protective Services — to support the work of these physicians, deputizing them to review cases on behalf of child welfare investigators. Reporters scrutinized thousands of pages of court transcripts, government contracts and medical records. They spoke with more than 75 attorneys and doctors, and interviewed two dozen current and former Child Protective Services employees and union officials.

The reporting reveals a legal and medical system that sometimes struggles to differentiate accidental injuries from abuse, particularly in cases involving children too young to describe what happened to them. Physicians intent on protecting the most vulnerable in some instances have overstated the reliability of their findings, using terms such as “100 percent” and “certain” to describe conclusions that usually cannot be proven with absolute confidence. Child welfare workers, overworked and untrained in complex medical issues, are not always sure how to proceed when the primary evidence against a caregiver comes in the form of a doctor’s note.

A botched drug raid

Sometimes a newspaper publishes the findings of an investigation on a rolling basis as it learns more and more new information. For nearly a year, the Chronicle has published dozens of stories trying to get to the truth behind a botched drug raid by the Houston Police Department that killed Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle and injured five officers.

Related: How to contact an investigative journalist

A team of Chronicle reporters covered the shootout and the aftermath. St. John Barned-Smith and Keri Blakinger learned that an internal police investigation concluded that Officer Gerald Goines had lied about using a confidential informant to buy heroin at the home of Nicholas and Tuttle. Police chief Art Acevedo ordered an “extensive audit” of the 175-member narcotics division and an examination of Goines’ recent cases.

The Chronicle did its own digging:

HPD Chief Art Acevedo maintains the problems with the operation and deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas were the work of a pair of rogue officers.

“I don’t have any indication it’s a pattern and practice,” Acevedo said after the raid.

However, a Houston Chronicle review of police records reveals a fuller picture of misconduct by Goines and past problems in the narcotics division.

Officers filed false affidavits when they asked judges for search warrants or arrest warrants. They performed sloppy investigative work and misrepresented their use of confidential informants, according to disciplinary records and court documents.

The Chronicle’s review also raises questions about the oversight of the division. While experts say best practices call for officers to rotate out of units such as narcotics regularly, dozens of officers have spent 10 years or more in that division at HPD. HPD’s inspections division audited narcotics’ operations just once in the 20 years prior to the deadly Jan. 28 raid, according to information obtained through a public records request.

The Track

When government officials took the unusual step of suing prostitutes, pimps and johns who congregated on the Bissonnet Track, legal affairs reporter Gabrielle Banks and photographer Godofredo Vasquez took the unusual step of visiting “the Track” again and again over the course of eight months to put a human face to the problem.

“The first few visits to the neighborhood startled us both,” Gabby wrote about the project. “We’re both big city kids, we’ve both reported in an array of difficult settings, but the near-omnipresence of street hustling at night caught us by surprise.”

Here’s how she started her three-part story:

A dozen miles from downtown Houston, cars inch down an industrial side street and drivers idle by a cluster of young women bathed in streetlight, brokering primal transactions.

A middle-aged woman in stilettos and a tight-fitting shirt stretched down to her thighs crosses a feeder road on a weekday morning, flicking her tongue suggestively at commuters stopped at the light.

A few blocks away, tenants tell the building manager they’ve seen strangers having sex outside their doorways, in their complex’s laundry room and inside Range Rovers in the gated parking lot.

A kindergartner and first grader wonder aloud on their walk to school about the ladies standing around with their privates showing.

“They’re selling their body to feed their kids,” their mother says.

These scenes might raise eyebrows in sprawling suburbs and well-heeled city districts, but they are ordinary and unremarkable to shopkeepers and apartment dwellers in this urban patch on the southwest outskirts of the city. It’s known to prostitutes, cops and johns as the Bissonnet Track.

The neighborhood has earned an international reputation in recent decades for the street trafficking that permeates everyday life. Arrests have made barely a dent in the criminal activity.

Now, local officials have taken the radical step of asking a judge to declare several blocks off-limits to more than 80 people accused of engaging in prostitution — labeling them nuisances to the community and threatening fines if they return.

Denied Again

Three years ago, the Houston Chronicle revealed how Texas officials had arbitrarily denied thousands of school children access to special education services. The U.S. Department of Education ordered Texas to fix its broken system, saying the state was violating federal laws requiring schools to serve all students with disabilities.

Last year, education writer Shelby Webb and I teamed up with Laura Isensee at Houston Public Media to see how Texas has responded:

Years after Texas Education officials pledged to undo a decade worth of damage caused by a cap on special education services, the state remains in violation of federal disability laws.

School district administrators are still clamoring for guidance and funding.

And parents are still complaining that they’ve had to beg or threaten to sue in order to get their children evaluated for extra help in the classroom.

They say Texas students are being denied special education — again.

The Houston Chronicle revealed more than three years ago that the state had systematically denied tens of thousands of students special education services, triggering a federal investigation and a series of promised changes by the Texas Education Agency.

Although the state has made some progress, it has yet to deliver critical resources promised to parents and guidance overdue to districts, an investigation by the Chronicle and Houston Public Media shows.

“We have ruined a generation of kids,” said Sonja Kerr, an attorney who works on behalf of students with disabilities, “and we are about to ruin another generation with the inaction from TEA and the complete complacency.”

Covering the beat

Newspapers spend a lot of time and money on lengthy investigations. Those stories are important. But in between the big hits are stories from reporters who cover specific beats — things like City Hall and the transportation beat. If you spend any time reading the Chronicle, you can tell its beat reporters aren’t sitting around covering meetings, waiting to be spoon fed stories.

No reporter in Texas has done more to decipher the arcane billing practices of the health care industry than Jenny Deam. She’s saved customers hundreds of thousands of dollars by writing about their battles with insurance companies. Her last story of 2019 was about yet another firm — Companion Life Insurance — that reversed course and decided to pay for a patient’s mounting medical bills after Jenny wrote about the dispute.

It’s hard to pinpoint Keri Blakinger’s best story about the state’s criminal justice system. But last year, she witnessed the launch of a state-of-the art denture clinic for prison inmates. Oh yeah, Keri was the one who revealed how Texas prisons rarely provided dentures to inmates.

City Hall reporter Mike Morris’ latest story in 2019 revealed how no one is keeping track of who attends games and events at government-run suites at Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and NRG Stadium. Mike’s covered the region’s sluggish disaster response to Hurricane Harvey. He helped analyze campaign contributions from city vendors to Mayor Sylvester Turner. And he teamed up with transportation reporter Dug Begley for this interesting, well-researched story about why Houston’s roads are in such terrible shape.

Zach Despart examined the unusual conflicts of interest between the district attorney’s office and its consultant, Amir Mireskandari, a Democratic booster with ties to poker clubs that were under criminal investigation. The cases were dropped when the conflicts came to light. Zach talked to just about everyone involved in the mess, including Mireskandari.

Alex Stuckey wrote enough stories in 2019 to fill a book about NASA’s mission to land on the moon. But the story that stood out to me was one I had never read before until she wrote it — the environmental impact of NASA’s rocket launches. Alex discovered there’s an astonishing lack of research about the problem.

Shelby Webb and Nick Powell wrote about the aftermath of the Sante Fe High School shooting, and how families of victims are still searching for answers to basic questions that Texas authorities refuse to provide. Were there red flags missed? Mistakes made? Who knows. Meanwhile, in Florida, officials have not only provided answers in the Parkland shooting, but there have been suspensions and firings. “The glaring differences in information and accountability for two similar mass shootings boil down to one factor: public records laws.” Shelby and Nick wrote.

Jacob Carpenter has continually mined the education beat for interesting stories. He recently obtained data from the Houston Independent School District to reveal how thousands of students have never checked out a library book. “The paltry checkout rates are indicative of HISD’s relatively low investment in library services, which has drawn criticism for more than a decade from librarians, literacy advocates and some district leaders,” Jacob wrote. He told me he got the story idea by “reading long ass reports that no one else is reading.”

In other words, doing the grunt work newspaper reporters do every day.

I can’t say what the Chronicle will look like in the next decade. But I think this relic will stay just as relevant as it was in the last decade.

The post Top investigative stories of 2019 show why newspapers are still worth reading appeared first on John Tedesco.

San Marcos apartments where inferno killed five people lacked fire sprinkler system | San Antonio Express-News

A week after flames engulfed a building in the Iconic Village apartment complex in San Marcos, killing five people, a team of reporters examined how the tragedy unfolded and why the units lacked a fire protection system, which can save lives:

“From 2005 to 2016, 144 people died in fires in multifamily residential buildings in Texas that lacked automatic extinguishing systems, the state fire marshal’s office reports. Just two deaths occurred in buildings equipped with such systems over the same period.” Story by Peggy O’Hare, Austin Horn, Emilie Eaton, Patrick Danner and Krista Torralva

Pain and Profit | The Dallas Morning News

In a yearlong investigation, the Dallas Morning News found Texas’ Medicaid system is “protecting a booming multibillion-dollar industry while the most vulnerable Texans wait in vain for wheelchairs, psychiatric drugs and doctors’ appointments. That system has failed countless disabled adults and sick children who can’t advocate for themselves.” The newspaper reviewed 70,000 pages of documents, including material that state officials and companies tried to keep secret, and interviewed hundreds of families, doctors and policy experts.

Within days of the series’ publication, Texas lawmakers began calling for change and more regulators were hired. Story, photos and videos by J. David McSwane, Andrew Chavez and Tom Fox

Separated migrant children are headed toward shelters that have a history of abuse and neglect | Reveal and the Texas Tribune

A team of reporters covering the Trump administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” immigration policy found that taxpayers paid more than $1.5 billion to private companies operating immigrant youth shelters accused of serious lapses in care, including neglect and sexual and physical abuse.

“In nearly all cases, the federal government has continued to place migrant children with the companies even after serious allegations were raised and after state inspectors cited shelters with deficiencies, government and other records show.” Story by Aura Bogado, Patrick Michels, Vanessa Swales and Edgar Walters

Plutonium went missing in San Antonio, but the government says nothing | The Center for Public Integrity

Two security experts travelling to San Antonio lost equipment that contained small amounts of radioactive plutonium and cesium in March 2017, but authorities kept the theft secret until it was revealed by the Center for Public Integrity more than a year later.

The lack of transparency is not a new phenomenon.

“Unlike civilian stocks, which are closely monitored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and openly regulated — with reports of thefts or disappearances sent to an international agency in Vienna — the handling of military stocks tended by the Department of Energy is much less transparent,” the investigation found. Story by Patrick Malone and R. Jeffrey Smith

Flood Games: Manipulation of flood insurance leads to repeat disasters | The Houston Chronicle

Cities across the country are failing to enforce a central pillar of the taxpayer-subsidized National Flood Insurance Program: Making sure severely damaged properties are elevated or removed from flood plains.

“Thousands of such homes get rebuilt and then flood again, often for more than they are worth, costing taxpayers more than $1 billion in repeat losses,” the Houston Chronicle reported. “Seven of the nation’s 10 most frequently substantially damaged properties are in Houston. Those seven have had 107 damage claims totaling $9 million, even though the combined value of those buildings is just $426,000.” Story by Mark Collette

Decades later, mercury still poisons parts of Lavaca Bay | The Victoria Advocate

A popular fishing destination near an Alcoa aluminum refinery and plastics producer in Lavaca Bay is a federal Superfund site that has struggled for years to reduce toxic mercury in the ecosystem. Levels of mercury in red drum are twice as high as levels considered safe to consume. But some residents are still fishing in the bay and eating what they catch. Story by Jessica Priest

Trustees spending fire and police pension funds on expensive travel | WOAI

Taxpayers pay millions each year to make sure San Antonio firefighters and police officers have a secure retirement. But records obtained by the News 4 Trouble Shooters show the trustees in charge of the pension fund have spent more than $193,000 since 2015 on dozens of trips to places like Las Vegas, New Orleans and China for investment conferences.

“Of the nine pension fund trustees, the ones who traveled the most still work for the police and fire departments. When they travel the city says it often has to pay their salaries AND the salaries of people to replace them while they’re gone.”

City officials limited the travel expenses after the television station’s investigation aired. Story by Jaie Avila

Is Austin training police to be too aggressive? 10 ex-cadets say yes | The Austin American-Statesman

Interviews with nearly a dozen former cadets at the Austin police training academy reveal instructors referred to homeless people and prostitutes “cockroaches,” demeaned suspects, and said anyone who resists arrest “just earned a legal ass-whooping,” raising questions about the academy’s methods. Story by Tony Plohetski

Four Texas prison guards fired, major resigns after allegedly planting evidence in inmate’s cell | The Houston Chronicle

Prison guards are out of a job after the Houston Chronicle revealed a short-lived quota system that required them to discipline prisoners twice a day or face punishment. A grand jury later indicted some guards accused of planting screwdrivers in an inmate’s cell.

“In the weeks after news of the scandals was first reported in the Chronicle, five officials were fired, another resigned under investigation, several others — including a warden — were demoted or transferred, more than 600 disciplinary were cases tossed out, and the prison system set out to review its disciplinary policies,” the Chronicle reported. Story by Keri Blakinger

Why do Bexar County judges keep releasing domestic violence suspects on the honor system? | KSAT

A months-long investigation by the KSAT 12 Defenders found that more than 32 percent of Bexar County domestic violence suspects were rearrested after being released from custody without posting bail. Victims advocates say the findings are concerning because it’s already been a record-setting year for domestic violence-related fatalities in Bexar County. Story by Dillon Collier

Atmos’ gas leaks go far beyond one northwest Dallas neighborhood | The Dallas Morning News

A sharp increase in natural gas leaks has plagued neighborhoods across North Texas after three explosions and fires in February, including one that killed 12-year-old Linda Rogers. The Dallas Morning News analyzed public data to create a map showing areas where leaks have been detected since then.

“Our data analysis reveals potential widespread problems with aging and wear and tear in the gas delivery system running under customers’ homes and businesses all over Dallas County,” the newspaper reported. Story by Holly Hacker, Allan James Vestal and Cory Aspinwall

How a natural gas group pushed for new energy curriculum in Texas | The Austin American-Statesman

The Austin American-Statesman revealed how a politically connected Texas natural gas industry advocacy group developed classroom materials for teachers that cast fossil fuels in a softer light, avoid any mention of climate change, and raise questions about “perceived” renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power. Story by Asher Price

Federal officials investigate loss of potential habitat for endangered species | The San Antonio Express-News

After residents complained to the Express-News about a real estate developer bulldozing up to 38 acres of trees on a picturesque hillside, the newspaper discovered the developer may have mischaracterized habitat studies when he told city officials that his project wouldn’t harm any endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal agency that enforces the Endangered Species Act, is now investigating. Story by John Tedesco

Did I miss a good story? Contact me or leave a comment below. Don’t forget to sign up for blog updates and check out more watchdog journalism from the great state of Texas.

The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for August 1, 2018 appeared first on John Tedesco.

These amazing stories are being published during difficult times in the news business. Last week, the San Antonio Express-News laid off 14 journalists. That’s on top of a depressing number of lay offs at news outlets across Texas and the rest of the country.

The watchdog journalism roundup is a place to read some of the best stories Texas journalists are publishing — and to see what we’re at risk of losing.

Ballet San Antonio dancer faces sexual assault charges | The San Antonio Express-News

A week after San Antonio’s premiere ballet organization announced its artistic director was no longer with Ballet San Antonio after an internal investigation, the Express-News revealed that another employee, dancer Hugo Rodriguez, faces two felony charges of sexual assault after Rodriguez was accused of raping two fellow dancers. The turmoil at the ballet is occurring as the organization reports a $140,000 financial shortfall. Story by Dawn Kopecki and John Tedesco

St. Luke’s to Suspend Heart Transplants After Recent Deaths | The Houston Chronicle and ProPublica

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, a renowned heart transplant facility, temporarily suspended its program following two patient deaths and reports by the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica about an “outsized number of transplants resulting in deaths” and the loss of top doctors. “St. Luke’s heart transplant survival rate, the most important measure of a program’s quality, now ranks near the bottom nationally,” the “Heart Failure” series found. Story by Charles Ornstein and Mike Hixenbaugh

Blood Will Tell | ProPublica and New York Times Magazine

Joe Bryan, a small-town school principal, has spent three decades in prison for the murder of his wife — a crime he claims he didn’t commit. Bryan said he was 120 miles away the night his wife was killed in their home. But his conviction was based almost entirely on “blood splatter” analysis, a technique that authorities use with little training or scientific oversight. Anyone who takes a 40-hour class can suddenly become a courtroom expert — even an investigative reporter who signed up for such a class to learn about the case. Story by Pamela Colloff

Six months after a sex-crimes detective was fired, a woman still waits for justice | The San Antonio Express-News

The Express-News examined internal police records to learn that a San Antonio police detective bungled scores of sex-crime cases going back as far as 2010 — not 2015 as officials originally said. “Nearly six months after the detective, Kenneth Valdez, was indefinitely suspended, which is tantamount to being fired, records and video obtained by the San Antonio Express-News reveal conflicting accounts of what went wrong.” Story by Emilie Eaton

Former Congressman Steve Stockman convicted on federal corruption charges | The Houston Chronicle

Former U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman was convicted of masterminding a scheme that diverted $1.25 million in charitable donations from conservative philanthropists to cover personal expenses and campaign debts. “The criminal probe of Stockman was triggered by investigations by the Sunlight Foundation and the Houston Chronicle that examined a series of 2013 checks that straw donors made to Stockman’s tapped-out congressional campaign fund. ” Story by Gabrielle Banks

Sid Miller’s political consultant hit up campaign donor for $29K loan | The Austin American-Statesman

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s top political consultant, Todd M. Smith, told a San Antonio businessman he could get appointed to an advisory role on health care policy in return for contributing to Miller’s campaign. Then Smith hit the businessman up for a personal loan of $29,000, according to a promissory note the two signed. Story by Sean Collins Walsh

Zoo director’s departure came amid questions on finances, communication, culture | Waco Tribune-Herald

The Tribune-Herald obtained text messages and emails related to the departure of Cameron Park Zoo Director Jim Fleshman, revealing for the first time he was asked to resign under a cloud. Zoo officials tried to keep the truth from the public, with one person texting: “We need to make sure there is no discussion about the circumstances.” Story by Phillip Ericksen

The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for June 2, 2018 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Schlitterbahn co-owner plagued with financial, legal troubles before murder charge in boy’s death | The San Antonio Express-News

Express-News reporters dug through court files and state records to reveal the troubled history of Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry, who was arrested in connection with the death of a 10-year-old boy who died on a towering, 17-story tall Schiltterbahn water slide in Kansas. Story by Joshua Fechter, Zeke MacCormack and Patrick Danner

Sid Miller put ex-doctor with 2 revoked licenses on rural health panel | The Austin American-Statesman

Rick Ray Redalen, a former physician who had his medical license revoked or suspended in three states, was appointed by Texas Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller in 2016 to the state’s Rural Health Task Force after contributing $17,000 to Miller’s campaign. Buck Wood, a lawyer who helped write many of Texas’ ethics laws, said the situation “sure stinks to high heaven.” Story by Sean Collins Walsh

Silent Spills: In Houston and beyond, Harvey’s spills leave a toxic legacy | The Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press

A review of county, state and federal records by reporters reveals far more toxic impact from Hurricane Harvey than authorities publicly reported after the storm slammed into the Texas coast in late August. “Benzene, vinyl chloride, butadiene and other known human carcinogens were among the dozens of tons of industrial chemicals released throughout Houston’s petrochemical corridor and surrounding neighborhoods and waterways following Harvey’s torrential rains,” the review found. Story by Frank Bajak and Lise Olsen

City official placed on leave after newspaper investigation found he helped friend get $825,000 housing gig | The Dallas Morning News

At least eight houses, paid for by the city of Dallas for people with limited incomes, have suffered construction problems — and all the homes were built by the friend of a city official who sought special permission to help get his pal some work, a Dallas Morning News investigation found. The city official was placed on leave as a result of the newspaper’s story. Story by Sue Ambrose and Sarah Mervosh

As wait times grow, calls to the Texas abuse hotline go unanswered | The Austin American-Statesman

A newspaper investigation found that “more than 100,000 callers each year to report potential child or elder abuse and neglect in Texas are hanging up before reaching an operator because of long wait times.” The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is on track this year to exceed 180,000 abandoned calls to the agency’s abuse hotline, the most in at least a decade. Story by Julie Chang

Most homes damaged by Harvey were outside flood plain, data show | The Houston Chronicle

A new analysis by the Houston Chronicle shows most of the homes damaged by Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters were outside the federally regulated 100-year flood plains. “The findings raise questions about local government plans to prevent flooding that focus on tightening building codes inside the flood plain. They also cast further doubt on the accuracy of the maps used to identify housing most in danger of flooding.” Story by David Hunn, Matt Dempsey and Mihir Zaveri

Did I miss a good story? Contact me or leave a comment below. Don’t forget to sign up for blog updates and check out more watchdog journalism from the great state of Texas.

The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for April 9, 2018 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Uresti found guilty on all charges in end to salacious month-long fraud trial | The San Antonio Express-News

More than a year after the Express-News first revealed how state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, had persuaded a former client to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a Ponzi scheme, Uresti was found guilty last week of 20 felony charges in a month-long criminal trial. Patrick Danner, the reporter who first broke the story, covered the trial and was on hand for the verdict. Story by Patrick Danner and Guillermo Contreras

As Wolff remained free, others with fewer probation violations rearrested | KSAT 12 Defenders

Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, who is on probation in a drunken driving case, remained free despite more than two dozen probation violations that included skipping breath tests. Records show 40 other DWI defendants on probation were arrested for similar violations, according to a months-long investigation by KSAT 12. Story by Dillon Collier

Record reservoir flooding was predicted even before Harvey hit Houston | The Houston Chronicle

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knew heavy rains would overwhelm reservoirs and flood neighborhoods in Houston before Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas. But records obtained by the Houston Chronicle show the Corps did not share its predictions with the public. One lawmaker is already calling for an investigation. Story by Lise Olsen

Congressional candidate exaggerates background | The Victoria Advocate

Republican Congressional candidate Jerry Hall claims he’s “overqualified” for the job and touts a long list of credentials. But an investigation by the Victoria Advocate found there’s little support for his claims. Story by Marina Riker

Downtown nonprofit spent thousands of tax dollars to entertain, lobby | The San Antonio Express-News

Centro San Antonio, the troubled nonprofit organization that lost $291,0000 from an accountant suspected of embezzlement, spent taxpayer money on ritzy meals, cross-country trips and music festival sponsorships, according to financial records obtained by the Express-News. Story by Richard Webner

Too Big To Fine, Too Small To Fight Back | The Texas Observer

The Texas Observer analyzed a database of more than 300,000 records to determine the enforcement priorities of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The analysis found the state agency aggressively went after mom-and-pop gas stations while taking a softer approach with thousands of big-money industrial facilities. Story by Naveena Sadasivam

Women describe 14 years of Austin Opera maestro’s lewd talk, touches | The Austin American-Statesman

Seven women say a culture of permissiveness at the Austin Opera allowed conductor Richard Buckley to touch women inappropriately and engage in lewd talk. The women say executives and board members of the opera knew about Buckley’s behavior but failed to intervene because he was a star. Story by Andrea Ball

On Karolyi Ranch, gymnasts with Olympic dreams endured ‘perfect environment for abuse’ | The Dallas Morning News

The Karolyi Ranch in Texas trained the elite of the elite of U.S. gymnasts. But its severe, secretive training regimen created a culture of intimidation that enabled Dr. Larry Nassar, the women’s national gymnastics team doctor, to sexually abuse young gymnasts over nearly two decades, according to critics and two recently filed lawsuits. Story by David Tarrant and Terri Langford

Anti-Escobar PAC fails to report campaign spending on advertisements | The El Paso Times

A new political action committee targeting Democrat Veronica Escobar has spent $10,000 in advertising that went unreported to the Federal Election Commission — a possible violation of campaign finance laws. Escobar is competing with five other Democratic candidates for the seat of U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke. Story by Madlin Mekelburg

George P. Bush’s secret mansion is financed by an undisclosed loan from Texas donor’s bank | The Texas Tribune

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush took elaborate steps to hide his ownership of an Austin mansion. Financed with an $850,000 mortgage by a Republican donor’s bank that also employs Bush’s wife, the tony property doesn’t show up in Bush’s state-mandated financial disclosure report. After the Texas Tribune discovered the reporting lapse, Bush’s political director dismissed the reporting as “another absurd fake news story from the liberal media” — but the Tribune’s discovery later prompted the campaign to promise that Bush will amend his ethics filings. Story by Jay Root

Suicide and assaults: Which Dallas psychiatric hospitals have bad safety records? | The Dallas Morning News

Half the psychiatric hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have suffered at least one major safety incident since 2011, according to a review of inspection records and lawsuits. “Nearly anyone in Dallas could end up there in a crisis,” the Dallas Morning News reported. “If your teenage daughter starts cutting herself. Or your husband confesses he wants to crash his truck head-on. Or your son overdoses and ends up in the emergency room. In these emergencies, there is no easy way to check a hospital’s safety record.” Story by Sarah Mervosh and Sue Ambrose

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The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for Feb. 25, 2018 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Biting dogs are a vicious problem in San Antonio | The San Antonio Express-News

Two dog owners were on trial last week after their pit bull named “Bully” viciously mauled their neighbor, who lost part of her arm in the attack. The San Antonio Express-News examined gaps in the city’s Animal Care Services system and obtained public data to map where aggressive dogs are located in San Antonio and where they’ve attacked people. Story by Melissa Fletcher Stoeljte, Vincent T. Davis and Luke Whyte

UT declined to sanction professor who pleaded guilty to violent felony | The Austin American-Statesman

After the Austin American-Statesman revealed a professor pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of strangling his girlfriend but kept his job, officials at the University of Texas announced they’re reviewing their disciplinary policy. Story by Ralph K.M. Haurwitz and Ryan Autullo

Turner aide who used city resources for personal business resigns | The Houston Chronicle

Mayor Sylvester Turner’s press secretary, Darian Ward, resigned after the Houston Chronicle revealed she sent or received 5,000 emails discussing her personal business on her city account. Ward tried to prevent the newspaper from obtaining the messages, claiming they were confidential. Story by Rebecca Elliott and Mike Morris

ICE Arrested Nearly Three Times as Many Immigrants During Last Year’s Austin Raid Than Previously Reported | The Texas Observer

A raid last year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Austin resulted in far more arrests than previously reported, according to an internal tally obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Texas Observer. The federal agency took nearly a year to release the documents. Story by Gus Bova

Castle Hills councilman accused of pressuring staff to move his street near top of repair list | KSAT-12

Records obtained by the KSAT Defenders show that Castle Hills Councilman Douglas Gregory was accused of pressuring city employees to move his street to the top of the city’s repair list. A former city manager called Gregory a “liar and a cad” after Gregory denied the allegations. Story by Dillon Collier

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The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for Jan. 28, 2018 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Investigative journalists are still writing powerful, evidence-based stories that help us understand a complicated world.

Here are the latest examples of watchdog stories in Texas that show why facts still matter

Bigger wells, but more water | The San Antonio Express-News

“Shale wells are swallowing twice as much water as they did a few years ago — around 10 million gallons each, or about 15 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The process of making a Texas oil well has grown increasingly intense since the start of the shale boom, with more water, more sand, and more stages in the hydraulic fracturing process leading to wells that make more oil, but also require more resources, according to a San Antonio Express-News analysis of the data drillers have reported to the industry website FracFocus for the past seven years.” Story by Jennifer Hiller

Dangerous Deliveries: Is Texas doing enough to stop moms from dying? | The Texas Tribune

“Researchers were stunned by Texas, where the maternal mortality rate had apparently doubled between 2010 and 2012. That year, 148 women died as the state’s mortality rate hit its highest level since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started recordkeeping with its current disease codes in 1999. The study’s authors called the increase troubling and difficult to explain ‘in the absence of war, natural disaster, or severe economic upheaval.’ But the state’s real maternal mortality rate is now a matter of debate.” Story by Marissa Evans and Chris Essig

Emails show aide to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner repeatedly used city resources for personal business | The Houston Chronicle

“Darian Ward sent or received roughly 5,000 pages of emails about personal business from her government account over the last four years, some of which dealt with a reality series she was pitching to television networks.” Story by Rebecca Elliott and Mike Morris

As storms batter Texas, billions in state property goes unprotected | The Austin American-Statesman

“You are a responsible property owner, so you make sure to buy insurance to pay for repairs or rebuilding in the event of a disaster. Unless you’re the state of Texas.” Texas leaders erroneously claim that state-owned property is self insured, when in fact Texas is one of the few states that carries no property insurance at all. “Analysts say the unprotected system adopted by state leaders has probably cost taxpayers millions of dollars, the difference between an insurance premium and regularly siphoning general revenue fund money to cover big fixes.” Story by Eric Dexheimer

Rape allegations embroil Kingwood Pines psychiatric hospital in Houston | The Houston Chronicle

“A Houston Chronicle review of medical records, court filings, hospital accreditation reports and records from state and federal regulators, and interviews with parents, portray an understaffed facility that has failed to watch over patients, leaving the most vulnerable among them open to further victimization.” Story by St. John Barned-Smith

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The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for Jan. 21, 2018 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Investigative journalists are still writing powerful, evidence-based stories that help us understand a complicated world.

Here are the latest examples of watchdog stories in Texas that show why facts still matter.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s appointees have given him more than $14 million | The San Antonio Express-News

“Despite pleas for more diversity and less of a big-money presence, Gov. Greg Abbott’s appointments to state boards and commissions remain mostly Anglo, largely male and liberally sprinkled with donors to a giant campaign war chest years in the making, a San Antonio Express-News analysis shows.” Story by Peggy Fikac and Annie Millerbernd

Cruel and unusual: Dallas County teen inmates locked indoors for months | The Dallas Morning News

“Death row inmates in Texas are given at least an hour a week outdoors. Hardened criminals inside California’s famous San Quentin prison get 10 hours. Yet kids at a Dallas County correctional center for boys went months, sometimes more than a year, without going outdoors more than a few times.” Story by Steve Thompson and Naomi Martin

How a South Texas bureaucrat became a multimillionaire amid the rush to build a border fence | The Texas Tribune and ProPublica

“A decade ago as the federal government rushed to construct 60 miles of barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, it entrusted the chief of a little-known local agency to execute a compromise project. What it didn’t know was that he — and his family — stood to make millions from it.” Story by Kiah Collier, T. Christian Miller and Julian Aguilar

Records: County housing official tried to get herself big raise weeks after starting job |KSAT 12

“Email records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders confirm that the recently hired operations coordinator for the Housing Authority of Bexar County tried to arrange a large raise for herself, 10 weeks after starting her position. The employee, Amy Hopper, resigned in October, hours after the Defenders requested emails related to the pay increase.” Story by Dillon Collier

Bibles, boots and booze: Lawmakers go big with campaign cash gifts | The San Antonio Express-News

“It’s the season for giving. But state lawmakers already have been gifting generously all year, using campaign cash to buy spa services, alcohol, porch rockers, Bibles and other items for their staff, constituents and fellow legislators.” Story by Allie Morris

For buyers within ‘flood pools,’ no warnings from developers, public officials | The Houston Chronicle

“A Houston Chronicle review of how more than 100 subdivisions were approved shows that flooding spawned by Harvey was predicted for 26 years in obscure local and federal reports that were either ignored or not widely distributed. The record rainfall came from nature, but its impact was multiplied by man.” Story by Lise Olsen

Transportation commissioner billed taxpayers for trips while advocating for auto industry | The Texas Tribune

Texas Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff repeatedly conducted private business in Austin while the Texas Department of Transportation paid for his travel and other expenses, blurring the lines between his role as a gubernatorial appointee and his paid consulting gigs, according to a Texas Tribune investigation of government travel vouchers and agency correspondence. Story by Jay Root

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The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for Jan. 14, 2018 appeared first on John Tedesco.

At a time when it feels like facts don’t matter, there’s a sliver of good news: 

Investigative journalists are still writing stories that help us understand a complicated world.

Here are the latest examples of watchdog stories in Texas that uncovered hidden facts and held officials accountable.

Build, flood, rebuild: flood insurance’s expensive cycle | The Houston Chronicle

“The National Flood Insurance Program, designed to protect Americans from catastrophic floods, has failed in almost every way, encouraging people to buy and build in flood-prone areas while increasing the cost and magnitude of disasters.” Story by David Hunn, Ryan Maye Handy and James Osborne

3 Dallas cops indicted in death of unarmed man who had called 911 for help | The Dallas Morning News

After the Dallas Morning News spent more than a year investigating how a frantic, unarmed man named Tony Timpa died at the hands of police, a grand jury indicted three officers on misdemeanor charges of deadly conduct. Officers mocked Timpa, who was handcuffed, as he died. “Timpa’s death was ruled a homicide, and the cause was sudden cardiac death due to the toxic effects of cocaine and the stress associated with physical restraint.” Story by Tasha Tsiaperas

‘Want to F*ck With Me Tonight’: Texas Capitol Horror Stories | The Daily Beast

Two Democratic state lawmakers from Texas, Borris Miles and Carlos Uresti, are accused of groping and forcibly kissing women and making lurid cat-calls. Both men deny the allegations. “Women in Texas’ statehouse created their own online whisper network to help protect themselves — more than a year before the bombshell allegations about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.” Story by Olivia Messer

ICYMI: This was all about racism | Folo Media

A four-part series examines the lasting effects of racism, deed restrictions and educational disparities in San Antonio. “When you develop a school finance system that’s based on local property values at the exact same time that you’re explicitly segregating neighborhoods on race, then you can’t act surprised 50 years later — 70 years later — when things are unequal,” said analyst Chandra Villanueva. Story by Matt Worthington and Bekah McNeel

Builders Said Their Homes Were Out of a Flood Zone. Then Harvey Came. | The New York Times

“A New York Times examination found that in the years leading up to Hurricane Harvey, the developers of The Woodlands had used a wrinkle in the federal flood-mapping system — along with many dump trucks’ worth of dirt — to lift dozens of lots out of the area officially deemed prone to flooding. What they had done, in effect, was create gerrymandered maps of risk.” Story by John Schwartz, James Glanz and Andrew W. Lehren

Suddenly disabled, unable to work and need benefits? Prepare for financial ruin first | The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“In Fort Worth, and across the nation, the system is backlogged to the point of near-absurdity. Local applicants can wait up to two years for a hearing before a judge, with many cities facing longer waits.” Story by Jeff Caplan

Diversions and disguises: Behind Austin’s city manager search | The Austin American-Statesman

“To dodge reporters, consultants suggested the finalists to be Austin’s next city manager don wigs, pretend to be tourists or possibly even wear Halloween masks after American-Statesman reporters managed to identify several candidates during the city’s top-secret search for its next leader.” Story by Philip Jankowski

Did I miss a good story? Contact me or leave a comment below. Don’t forget to sign up for blog updates and check out more watchdog journalism from the great state of Texas.

The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for Dec. 10, 2017 appeared first on John Tedesco.