Houston Evictions Are Skyrocketing. One Court Is Testing a Solution.
Last year, one in every ten Harris County renters faced losing their home. A new program aims to connect tenants with resources.
Last year, one in every ten Harris County renters faced losing their home. A new program aims to connect tenants with resources.
After 28 men and women died in custody last year, officials are throwing money at the overcrowded facility. Advocates for inmates say reforms are needed.
Long-brewing tensions between Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and District Attorney Kim Ogg have come to a head months before an election.
Houston Republicans are going on the offensive in this week's election as a trial run for November.
Documents shared with Texas Monthly reveal the thinking of some of the Harris County Judge’s staffers in awarding an $11 million bid.
The new voting law passed by the Legislature created headaches for those who cast ballots, but the problems with election administration in Harris County run far deeper.
The lawyers in the district attorney’s office say they decided to run on their own, reflecting internal Democratic divisions over public safety.
The leader of the Harris County government seemed to have weathered a controversy over a contract for vaccine outreach, but in mid-November the district attorney issued subpoenas concerning the bidding process.
Maurice Chammah’s “Let the Lord Sort Them” is a searing history of the rise and fall of capital punishment.
GOP state legislators have proposed bills that could make it more difficult to cast a ballot in 2022. Some might backfire on the party.
The county’s decision to open eight locations for round-the-clock early voting drew workers too busy to vote during the day—and others eager to send a message about voter suppression.
“Bonkers” is, of course, a technical term.
After some Houstonians had to wait in six-hour lines to vote in the March primary, new county clerk Chris Hollins is determined to help every eligible Houstonian cast a ballot this fall.
While the rest of Houston’s legal community was adapting to COVID-19, DA Kim Ogg was determined to find who leaked an internal document.
Governor Greg Abbott is letting counties decide whether to postpone certain May elections. For the general, expanded vote by mail may be necessary.
Four years ago, Ogg won election by promising to reform the county’s justice system. Now she’s getting primaried by two of her former prosecutors, who say she hasn’t done enough.
Led by a twentysomething Latina, Democrats now run Harris County, offering a glimpse at what things might look like—for better or for worse—if the party finds itself back on top across Texas.
In a landmark legal case, Harris County has agreed to release the vast majority of misdemeanor arrestees instead of locking them up. But reformers aren’t done yet.
The National Voter Registration Act prohibits removing ineligible voters from voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election. That’s just what the Harris County registrar tried to do.
That’s one way to do outreach to voters who may feel alienated by the presumptive Republican nominee for President.
That’s definitely not how anyone saw that investigation going.
According to Blanca Borrego's family, she was taken into an exam room where sheriff's deputies were waiting for her.
Lots of bad news—often caught on camera.
After the Houston Chronicle's shocking and revealing depiction of what can happen with a grand jury, the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice is pushing for change.
Mimi Swartz on how the rise of our cities will lead to a new kind of government.
Bum Steer of the Month
For years Harris County politics has been controlled by a small group of political operatives and consultants. Foremost among these is Steven Hotze, a doctor who heads an organization called the Conservative Republicans of Texas (CRT). The CRT and other groups Hotze is affiliated with send out mailers
Sheriff Adrian Garcia spent part of his week last week testifying before the Department of Justice about the rate of abuse that occurs under his watch.
Texans feted both presidential candidates Tuesday as Mitt Romney's campaign coped with the fallout from the candidate's latest blunder.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker suggested making the city's crime lab independent and adding a Innocence Project representative to the board overseeing it.
Tomball state representative Allen Fletcher is on his way to a second term. His former business associate may be on his way to the federal penitentiary.
Inside the Eighth Wonder of the World—the largest shelter ever organized by the American Red Cross—faith, hope, and charity helped the survivors of Hurricane Katrina begin the process of rebuilding their lives.
The number of people Texas executes each year is steadily declining as public sentiment in America turns against the death penalty.
Larry Swearingen has ten scientists and doctors who say he isn't a killer. He also has a new execution date.
Dr. Richard Murray, the University of Houston political scientist and TV commentator, recently posted on the Channel 13 Web site some numbers about population trends in Harris County. The latest estimates show most of the growth in Texas and the Houston metro area is driven by the increasing
Murray, the University of Houston political science professor and pollster (although he says he doesn't do much political polling any more), spoke yesterday at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. I asked him beforehand about the Thibaut-Murphy race. (His son is a consultant for Thibaut.) He said that it was
The Gallup organization released a nationwide poll last week showing the partisan preference in every state. The daily tracking poll, conducted during the election campaign, sampled 19,415 adult Texans concerning their self-identification by political party and found that 43.4% identified themselves as Democrats compared to 41.0% who identified
I am going to use this format to update daily the number of early votes cast in the fifteen counties with the most registered voters, ranked by the Secretary of State in the order of most to least registered voters. I am also going to include the numbers for the
As Dallas goes, so goes Houston. Two years after Democrats swept Republicans out of control in the Dallas County courthouse, it appears that the D’s will do the same in Harris County, with one exception: county judge, Ed Emmett, whom many will remember as a former legislator in the eighties.
In a Zogby poll taken for the Houston Chronicle to coincide with the start of early voting, the results showed Barack Obama with a 7-point lead over John McCain in Harris County and Rick Noriega with a similar lead over John Cornyn. The poll was published by the
Fort Bend County is off the charts: up 142% compared to the votes cast here in 2004. Harris County is up 117%. The lowest six of the top fifteen counties (based on registered voters) have combined to cast just 4,000 votes more than Harris County. The six are Fort Bend,
How soon before the Harris County DA makes his exit? Not soon enough.
The friendly folks at the morgue speak a body language all their own.