She was excited about the trip and seeing her old friends. This would be her fourth year learning about horseback riding, archery and what life was like before TikTok. She was already plotting which bunk bed to snag to secure a spot near one of her besties. 

Then, at 8:47 a.m., an email from the camp landed in my inbox, addressed to all families.

“We’re heartbroken to share that a devastating flood has caused catastrophic damage to camp,” the message said. No children were on site and no employees were injured. But phone lines were down and it was unclear when the camp would re-open.

The devastation of the Texas flood soon became horribly clear. At nearby Camp Mystic, the raging river swept away 27 children and counselors and the camp’s longtime owner. At last count, 120 people in Central Texas were killed in one of the deadliest floods in state history — and many more are still missing.

In disasters like this, the scale can be overwhelming. So many numbers, so much destruction. But behind each data point is a person. A memory. A future abruptly upended.

That’s why the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News and the Austin American-Statesman are doing something different. We’re collecting and sharing the stories of every flood victim. Our goal is to ensure every person is remembered. So far, we’ve published more than 50 beautifully written vignettes.

Everyone deals with grief differently. We’re not here to pressure anyone into talking to the media if they’re not ready. But I’ve learned over the years that many people want to share the memories of their loved ones. If you’re one of them, contact me or senior education reporter Megan Menchaca. Each newsroom has a team of reporters working on this project. 

We can’t change what happened. But we can remember the lost by telling their stories.

The post Remembering victims of the Texas flood: How local newsrooms are telling their stories appeared first on John Tedesco.

We’ll be exploring topics such as transportation and commuting, the ever-changing demographics of our region, and the far-reaching impact of extreme weather and climate change. We’re committed to uncovering stories that not only inform, but also spark conversations and inspire action.

We’re eager to hear from you. Do you have a story idea? Have you witnessed something that needs to be brought to light? Don’t hesitate to contact me. We value your contributions and believe that the best journalism is driven by strong connections with the community we serve.

Please share your thoughts and ideas. We’re listening!

The post The Houston Chronicle is launching a new ‘Key Topics’ team. Here’s how to send us story ideas. appeared first on John Tedesco.

Now that digital newsroom has a name, a website and a growing roster of journalists — including yours truly.

The name of this ambitious news operation is the Houston Landing, a nod to the Bayou City’s origins at Allen’s Landing in 1836 and NASA’s mission to the moon more than a century later. Our full website will launch later this spring, but you can visit the early version of the site to sign up for updates, search for job openings, get to know our growing team of award-winning journalists and read the types of stories we’re going to be digging into.

Longtime readers of this blog (hi, Mom!) know that I’ve always been a fan of newspapers. That hasn’t changed. I worked for three years at the Houston Chronicle and for more than two decades at its sister paper in San Antonio, the Express-News. I still believe if you don’t subscribe to your friendly neighborhood local newspaper, you’re simply missing out.

But I’m also a fan of good journalism wherever it exists. And these days, nonprofit newsrooms are emerging across the country to fill the void created by budget cuts and layoffs plaguing the media industry.

A not-so-new revenue model

Ever since the Texas Tribune announced it was hiring a team of veteran reporters in 2009 to launch a digital, nonprofit news operation, I’ve watched from afar, maybe a little enviously, as it tried new things and got people excited about the civic importance of journalism. So when the yet-to-be-named nonprofit newsroom in Houston hired my boss at the Chronicle to be its first editor in chief in August after a national job search, my interest piqued.

Mizanur Rahman was a longtime editor at the Chronicle, most recently leading the investigations team where I worked. He’s a thoughtful journalist who always made our stories better and he’s simply an incredible human being.

After he left the paper, Miz and I met at Campesino Coffee House and I thought we’d talk about all the things I should be doing as I desperately tried to fill his shoes as his temporary replacement on the I-Team. Instead, he told me about his vision for the nonprofit and asked whether I wanted to join him and help build something new as his second in command.

A focus on local news

We both agree the greater Houston area has no shortage of media outlets producing exceptional journalism. But Miz said there is a shortage of in-depth local news that’s accessible to everyone. You can read about our goals for the Landing and the problems we want to fix in his announcement letter to the community:

The American Journalism Project, which helps build nonprofit newsrooms, conducted surveys, interviews and focus groups with residents of Greater Houston. The message was clear: People do not feel they have access to the trustworthy, local and deeply reported stories they need for their daily lives.

We’re trying to fix that.

The Houston Landing will provide trusted reporting about local issues important to our region, stories that offer solutions to pressing problems and investigative journalism that keeps the powerful accountable.

I trust Miz and decided to join him as the Landing’s managing editor. Our full site will launch later this spring as we grow into one of the largest nonprofit newsrooms in the U.S. that’s devoted to local news. We hope to collaborate with other media outlets in the Houston area and share their top stories.

Meanwhile, you can check out our preliminary site and learn more about our founding team of award-winning journalists: investigative reporter Alex Stuckey; columnist Maggie Gordon; diverse communities reporter Monique Welch; and our photo editor, Marie D. De Jesús.

I hope you’ll join us on this journey. If you have any questions or ideas about our next moves, we’re listening. I’ve always believed journalism should be a two-way conversation. The Houston Landing is making good on that promise.

The post The Houston Landing has big plans for local news. Join us. appeared first on John Tedesco.

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.

Isolating ourselves is the best way to guard against the coronavirus, but it’s more important than ever for journalists to make connections with real people like you during this crisis and listen to your stories.

Maybe we can’t meet in person for the foreseeable future. Maybe the only way we can communicate is through a Zoom video conference while my kids play Minecraft and yell insults at each other.

That’s OK.

Journalists at the Houston Chronicle created this online form to make it easier for you to contact us. If you feel comfortable talking to a reporter and sharing how COVID-19 has directly affected you, your job or your loved ones, please fill out this form and a Houston Chronicle reporter will get in touch with you.

Thanks for reading, and keep in touch.

The post Journalists want to hear your coronavirus story. Here’s how to reach the Houston Chronicle 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.

Abuse of Faith: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms | The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News

A team of reporters compiled news stories and court records to document cases of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest coalition of Baptist churches in the United States. The journalists discovered that church pastors, employees and volunteers sexually abused more than 700 people — most of them children — in the past two decades. Stories by Robert Downen, Lise Olsen and John Tedesco

Spirit of Fear: Hundreds of sex abuse allegations found in fundamental Baptist churches across U.S. | The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Women and children have faced rampant sexual abuse while worshipping at independent fundamental Baptist churches around the country. The network of churches and schools often covered up the crimes and helped relocate the offenders, an eight-month Star-Telegram investigation has found.” Stories by Sarah Smith

Unwatched | The Austin American-Statesman

“A yearlong American-Statesman investigation for the first time reveals in stark detail the dangerous conditions that exist inside many Texas daycare sites, leaving hundreds of children with serious injuries and nearly 90 dead as a result of abuse or neglect since 2007.” Stories by Andrea Ball and Tony Plohetski

Houston police officer in drug raid had previous allegations against him | The Houston Chronicle

Before a deadly drug raid in Houston left two civilians dead, Houston Police Officer Gerald Goines had been involved in “multiple shootings, racked up a smattering of written reprimands, faced several lawsuits and is currently accused of fabricating a drug deal then lying about it in court to win a conviction against a man who has long maintained he’s innocent, according to a Houston Chronicle review of internal police records and court documents.” Story by Keri Blakinger and St. John Barned-Smith

Serial crimes, no hard time | The San Antonio Express-News

Repeat DWI offender James Preston Green managed to stay out of jail for years, even though he repeatedly violated conditions of his probation, lied to law enforcement and berated and threatened the officers who chased and arrested him. After the Express-News published an investigative story about Green, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Story by Brian Chasnoff

Amid historic flooding, Austin water systems sank | The Austin American-Statesman

Records obtained by the American-Statesman shed new light on the water crisis that caused Austin to issue a rare, citywide boil-water notice last year. Story by Elizabeth Findell

Section 8 vouchers are supposed to help the poor reach better neighborhoods. Texas law gets in the way | The Texas Tribune and Reveal

“While states and cities across the U.S. have outlawed discrimination against voucher-holders, Texas is one of just two states that’s done the opposite. In 2015, Texas passed a law that ensured landlords cannot be punished for discriminating against families with vouchers. The law essentially legalized a long-standing practice among landlords that blocked voucher-holders, who are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic, from moving to better neighborhoods.” Story by Edgar Walters and Neena Satija

Signs and blunders | The Texas Observer

The Texas Observer investigated the sudden opposition to a proposed Texas historical marker detailing how, in 1918, Texas Rangers and other vigilantes massacred 15 unarmed civilians in the border town of Porvenir. “An Observer investigation, involving dozens of interviews and hundreds of emails obtained through an open records request, reveals a county still struggling to move on from a racist and violent past, far-right amateur historians sowing disinformation and a state agency that acted against its own best judgment.” Story by Daniel Blue Tyx

He’s built an empire, with detained migrant children as the bricks | The New York Times

An investigation of the nonprofit Southwest Key Program, which provides housing to migrant children, reveals how chief executive Juan Sanchez “built an empire on the backs of a crisis.” Sanchez was paid $1.5 million — twice as much as his counterpart at the Red Cross — and his organization has a record of “sloppy management and possible financial improprieties.” Story by Kim Barker, Nicholas Kulish and Rebecca R. Ruiz

Texas police made more than $50 million in 2017 from seizing people’s property. Not everyone was guilty of a crime | The Texas Tribune

“Last year alone, law enforcement agencies and prosecutors throughout Texas grew their coffers more than $50 million by seizing cash, cars, jewelry, clothing, art and other property they claimed were linked to a crime.” Some of those seizures involved people who were never charged with a crime, but Texas officials don’t keep track of how often that happens. Story by Edgar Walters and Jolie McCullough

Rape suspects walk free. Victims don’t get justice. And police get to count it as a success | Reveal, Newsy and ProPublica

“Across the country, dozens of law enforcement agencies are making it appear as though they have solved a significant share of their rape cases when they simply have closed them, according to an investigation by Newsy, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica based on data from more than 60 police agencies nationwide.” Story by Mark Greenblatt, Mark Fahey, Emily Harris and Bernice Yeung

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 Texas watchdog journalism roundup: Sexual abuse in Baptist churches appeared first on John Tedesco.

If you’re wondering how your neighborhood voted in the November 2018 election and want to see hard numbers in San Antonio, the wait is over.

Every voter is assigned to a voting precinct. And after every election, the Bexar County Elections Department releases voting results for every precinct in the county.

When you plug those numbers into a map, you get to see a detailed, neighborhood-level view of how each race was decided.

For the November 2018 election, I was wondering how these precinct maps would look for the contentious city charter amendments pushed by the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association. It turns out one of the most striking maps is for Proposition B.

It’s one thing to know that nearly 60 percent of voters wanted to cap the salary and tenure of future San Antonio city managers. It’s another thing to see those results on a map. Here’s an interactive version — you can zoom in and click on a precinct to see the vote tally:

Against

For

Tie

A majority of voters in almost every San Antonio voting precinct, from the wealthiest to the poorest areas of the city, supported Proposition B. The measure was widely viewed as a rebuke of City Manager Sheryl Sculley, who makes a base salary of $475,000 with a potential bonus of up to $100,000.

Related: Interactive map shows how Bexar County voted in the 2016 presidential election

Voters on the outer edges and North Side of San Antonio tend to lean conservative, and more progressive voters live in the other parts of San Antonio, such as neighborhoods inside Loop 410.

Clearly the firefighter union’s proposal had resonated.

“There’s rarely an issue where all four sides of town unite,” said Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project.

Check out my full story about the precinct results, with maps to the other charter amendment proposals and what voters said about the election.

That was my takeaway after viewing the precinct results. What’s yours? Here’s my contact info with every known way to get in touch with me.

The post Interactive maps: How San Antonio voted in the 2018 election appeared first on John Tedesco.

Immigrant who sued, won back pay, now in hiding for his life | The San Antonio Express-News

Trapped between the Rio Grande and border checkpoints, Sandro Garcia Moreno is among thousands of undocumented immigrants being ripped off by unscrupulous employers. The Express-News analyzed a database of federal wage-theft investigations and found the Rio Grande Valley is a prolific source of worker complaints.

“Since the Labor Department began keeping public records in 1984, three of the five cities with the highest number of wage theft investigations are in Texas. And eight of the top 20 ZIP codes in the country with the most investigations are in South Texas. Five of them are in the Rio Grande Valley.” Story by Luke Whyte

Out of Control | The Houston Chronicle

Traffic deaths kill hundreds of people every year in the Houston area, which leads the nation in fatal crashes involving drugs and alcohol, but little is done to stop the carnage. The Houston Chronicle analyzed traffic data and police records and interviewed scores of experts and victims to put the staggering problem in perspective.

“The death toll is the equivalent of three fully-loaded 737s crashing each year at Houston’s airports, killing all aboard. Losing that many planes and passengers would lead to federal hearings, but the Houston roadway deaths are met largely with silence, other than the occasional warning from public safety officials to drive safely and be careful crossing the street.” Story by Dug Begley and St. John Barned-Smith

How Atmos Energy’s natural gas keeps blowing up Texas homes | The Dallas Morning News

A review of thousands of regulatory records, lawsuits and news reports by the Dallas Morning News revealed that more than two dozen homes across North and Central Texas have blown up since 2006 because of leaking natural gas, killing nine people and injuring 22 others. The investigation focused on old, corroded gas pipes owned by Atmos Energy. Story by Cary Aspinwall and Holly K. Hacker

What do we owe her now? | The Washington Post

Elizabeth Bruenig visited her old high school in Arlington, Texas, to learn the real story behind an ugly memory — rumors of a student who was raped, ostracized and forced to leave the school. Bruenig reviewed police documents, interviewed witnesses, and talked to the victim, Amber Wyatt, to find out what really happened and why the case was never prosecuted.

“Making sense of her ordeal meant tracing a web of failures, lies, abdications and predations, at the center of which was a node of power that, though anonymous and dispersed, was nonetheless tilted firmly against a young, vulnerable girl.” Story by Elizabeth Bruenig

Inside Texas State’s year of hate: neo-Nazi propaganda fight | The Austin American-Statesman

Internal emails obtained by the Austin American-Statesman reveal how Texas State University struggled to respond to dangerous hate speech spreading across campus. The emails, which the university tried to withhold from the newspaper, showed the problem wasn’t entirely coming from outside agitators as school officials claimed — students were actually behind some of the inflammatory fliers being posted on campus and inside dorms. Story by Jeremy Schwartz

Breaking all the rules: Lax oversight undercuts Houston housing program goals | The Houston Chronicle

An investigation of the Houston Land Bank revealed there was “little to no oversight” from city officials who said they had no idea how many reduced-prices homes actually went to low-income buyers.

“It was not until the Chronicle started asking questions last year that housing department leaders grasped the rules surrounding the program, and it took them a year to take steps to begin enforcing them, undercutting Houston’s housing goals at a time when rising prices are putting homeownership out of reach for an ever-growing share of families,” the investigation found. Story by Mike Morris

Federal agency sent immigrant kids to dangerous youth facility, despite warning signs | Reveal from the Center for investigative Reporting

Despite multiple deaths and complaints at the Shiloh Treatment Center south of Houston, the federal government has signed lucrative agreements worth $33 million with the center to hold immigrant children.

“The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement continued to send immigrant children to Hill’s care after another teenager was killed during a restraint and the state of Texas shut down one of his facilities, deeming it unsafe for children,” the investigation found. Story by Will Evans, Lance Williams and Matt Smith

Farenthold tried to steer federal contract to Calhoun port chairman | The Victoria Advocate

Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that former Texas Congressman Blake Farenthold tried to steer a federal contract to a business owned by the chairman of the Calhoun Port Authority. The authority later hired the former congressman after Farenthold resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal. Story by Jessica Priest

Dallas housing agency gave deals worth at least $50,000 to its board members | The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas City Council stopped the Dallas Housing Finance Corporation from awarding contracts to its board members after a newspaper investigation revealed the obscure city housing agency had been awarding thousands of dollars to members of its board. Story by Sue Ambrose

El Paso police overtime policy doesn’t stop dangerous shifts, big payouts | The El Paso Times and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting

An analysis of El Paso Police Department overtime data shows that some officers worked dangerously long hours and dramatically increased their taxpayer-funded salary. The officers have crashed cars and at least one was accused of being asleep at the wheel. Story by Elida Perez

Texas prisons often deny dentures to inmates with no teeth | The Houston Chronicle

The Texas prison system is changing its policies after the Houston Chronicle revealed that prisoners with few or no teeth are routinely denied dentures and must eat pureed food.

“In 2016, prison medical providers approved giving out 71 dentures to a population of more than 149,000 inmates, many of whom are elderly, have a history of drug use or came from impoverished backgrounds with sub-par dental care to begin with.” Story by Keri Blakinger

Unpaid: Inside the ‘lawless jungle’ of worker exploitation after Hurricane Harvey | The Dallas Morning News and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting

In the blitz of construction and rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey, state officials were ill-prepared to handle claims of wage theft from workers who said they were shortchanged or never paid by their employers.

“Texas’ process for investigating unpaid wages is ill-suited to tackle the problem,” the investigation found. “Over the last nine years, the commission investigated an average of 13,180 wage claims annually. Splitting the claims among the 19 labor law investigators on staff gives each one nearly 700 cases a year.” Story by James Barragan

Dallas police sergeant collected millions for fallen officers. A fraction went to the families | The Dallas Morning News

After a gunman killed five Dallas police officers in 2016, millions of dollars were raised in donations for the fallen officers’ families. But most of that money instead went to telemarketing companies and obscure charities overseen by a Dallas police sergeant named Demetrick Pennie.

“Last year, for every $100 donated to Pennie’s Texas Fallen Officer Foundation, just $5 went to families, while $74 went to telemarketers, $15 to cash reserves and $6 to travel, meals and expenses for Pennie and his team,” the Dallas Morning News reported. Story by Naomi Martin Ariana Giorgi

Even after Harvey, Houston keeps adding new homes in flood plains | The Houston Chronicle

An analysis by the Houston Chronicle shows that one in five new homes being built in Houston in the year after Hurricane Harvey is in a flood plain — even as new rainfall data showed existing flood maps understate the risk posed by strengthening storms. “The city just lets it happen over and over again,” one resident complained. Story by Mike Morris and Matt Dempsey

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 Texas watchdog journalism roundup for Oct. 21, 2018 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.