R.G. Ratcliffe

Jun 2, 2015 — By R.G. Ratcliffe

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.

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.”