R.G. Ratcliffe

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.”

Apr 22, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe

The final sweet spot in Governor Mark White’s 1986 re-election campaign was a trip to Blue Bell Creameries.

Apr 22, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe

Representative Jonathan Stickland apparently is the mastermind behind an amendment that would bar police from actively enforcing bans on the unpermitted carrying of handguns.

Apr 21, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe

The unlimited billionaire funding of Republican presidential candidates may actually keep the race alive until the Texas primary next March.

Apr 20, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe

The Environmental Defense Fund has put out a Wanted poster for Senator Troy Fraser over his effort to end wind energy incentives.