The Texas Department of Public Safety is in the running for an award from a national journalism organization as one of the most secretive government agencies in America.
R.G. Ratcliffe
Articles by R.G. Ratcliffe
May 31, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
With eyes filled with tears, state Representative Sylvester Turner bid his House colleagues farewell today after 26 years of service.
May 31, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Words just cannot describe this video by Representative Jonathan Stickland.
May 30, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Homeowners in October will receive property tax bills that include an inducement to vote for the proposed homestead exemption increase in November.

May 28, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The Legislature is leaving unspent $18 billion that could go to further tax cuts or repairs to infrastructure or even, perhaps, to education.

May 27, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
This was a night in the House that left no one happy.

May 26, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The opposition of faith-based adoption agencies making placements with same-sex couples hits the House floor today in an amendment that could take down the overhaul of the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services.
May 25, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Texas Monthly’s Best and Worst Legislators. Any nominations?
May 25, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Lawmakers had a busy day Sunday fighting over veteran benefits, abortion and making the airways safe for Amazon drones.
May 24, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The Legislature’s efforts at ethics reform this year have been more about petty paybacks and creating lawmakers as a special class of citizens than about improving government.
May 22, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The kind of backlash I feared from the hidden camera investigation of the American Phoenix Foundation.
May 21, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Higher education critic Jeff Sandefer wants the $200,000 back that he gave to the American Phoenix Foundation.
May 20, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
So far this legislative session, Texas lobbyists have spent $1.8 million feeding members of the legislature, their staffs and other state officials.

May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The leaders of the American Phoenix Foundation claim their hidden-camera investigation of the Legislature has just one goal: Disrupt the narrative.
May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Hannah Giles and Joseph Basel explain why their hidden-camera investigation of the Legislature is focused on sexual infidelity.
May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Hannah Giles, who has been leading a hidden-camera investigation of the state legislature, appeared in the past on Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s talk radio show, and Senator Paul Bettencourt once raised money for her.

May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The American Phoenix Foundation employees who are aggressively questioning legislators have created an aura of mystery and distrust around the organization’s hidden-camera investigation.
May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The American Phoenix Foundation leaders say their hidden-camera investigation of the Legislature is not meant to disrupt the balance of power in the House.
May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Activists Hannah Giles and Joseph Basel say they have been disillusioned by the conservative movement in America.
May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The American Phoenix Foundation founder Hannah Giles in 2012 delivered a speech in which she describe the goals of her advocacy journalism group.
May 19, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
State Representative Jonathan Stickland says the Texas Department of Public Safety has cleared him of any wrong-doing in the investigation of people signing up to testify for his bill banning red-light cameras.
May 15, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The leadrs of the American Phoenix Foundation told the Houston Chronicle lawmaker infidelity is a major focus of their undercover, hidden-camera investigation.
May 14, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The American Phoenix Foundation’s undercover hidden camera video taping of Texas Legislators is not the first project of this kind. The last one received awards from the Investigative Reporters & Editors as well as the Society of Professional Jouranlists.

May 14, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The debate on new restrictions on judicial bypass for teens to receive an abortion may have played a key role in killing a bill to block same-sex marriages.
May 13, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Open carry of licensed handguns and border security are the hostages in the tax-cut debates.
May 12, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The people behind the hidden camera investigation of the Legislature have more of a history of political activism than of journalism.
May 11, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
In a time of diminishing expectations, politicians are avoiding the term “middle class.”
May 8, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
If you go to work sleepy next March 14, you can thank the Texas House for keeping the state on Daylight Savings Time
May 8, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Comptroller Glenn Hegar has sent the legislative leadership a letter reminding them that tax cuts might feel good but they also have obligations to face.

May 8, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
They are both libertarian Republicans, but while Jonathan Stickland makes noise in the House, David Simpson is getting things done.
May 7, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw apparently has been pushing back against media investigations questioning his agency operations.

May 6, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Greg Abbott is on the edge of whether his first legislative session as governor will end in success or failure.
May 6, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright has died at age 92.
May 5, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a right wing political group has been secretly recording Texas legislators, apparently with an aim at unseating Speaker Joe Straus.
May 5, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
A bill on the House calendar for today would establish how Texas chooses delegates to a national constitutional convention, if or when one ever occurs.

May 5, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
A report in today’s Austin American-Statesman shows the Texas Department of Public Safety was responsible for just 10 percent of all the drug seizures along the Texas border despite the state surge.
May 4, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The Texas Senate today sent Governor Greg Abbott legislation to prohibit cities from passing total bans on oil and gas drilling in the municipal limits.
May 4, 2015 — By Dave Mann and R.G. Ratcliffe
One of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s grassroots advisory committee members apparently was a promoter of the Garland event that came under gunfire on Sunday. According to his Facebook page, Ken Emanuelson, a member of Patrick’s advisory panel, was present at the event when the shooting occurred and was locked down inside the Curtis Culwell Center.
May 1, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The Texas House earlier today removed from the Internet video of Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett ejecting Representative Jonathan Stickland from a meeting Thursday night over allegations of false witness registrations for Stickland’s bill to ban red light cameras.
May 1, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The House General Investigating & Ethics Committee will look into whether witnesses affirmations were improperly filed for a bill carried by Representative Jonathan Stickland.
May 1, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
With more than 200,000 federal military personnel already in Texas, paranoia over the Jade Helm 15 exercise in Bastrop seems absurd.
Apr 30, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett apparently had Representative Jonathan Stickland escorted out of his committee tonight, according to the Austin newspaper.
Apr 30, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
A new study found federal subsidies helped reduce the percentage of Texans lacking health insurance from about 25 percent to 17 percent, but a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could suddenly end those subsidies.
Apr 30, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
With oil and gas production declining, state legislators are unwise to chase tax cuts.
Apr 29, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The insurance industry backed by Texans for Lawsuit Reform is taking on the state’s trial lawyers over hail damage lawsuits.
Apr 28, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Senator John Whitmire accuses two Republican senators of trying to use a new ethics bill as political payback.
Apr 28, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
The Texas House today is taking up its sales tax cut package, setting up a showdown with the Senate and its property tax cuts.
Apr 27, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
If the 2012 GOP primary results between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst are any indicator, tea party strength in the Texas Legislature has peaked.
Apr 23, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
Democrat Bill Hobby was lieutenant governor in the 1970s when the current state spending cap was adopted. Today, he argues against making it tighter.

Apr 22, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe
A contentious breakfast between the state leadership today ended with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick declaring he was tired of Governor Greg Abbott and Speaker Joe Straus “picking on me.”