Greg Abbott

UH Sweatshop Protest, Part XVII

The Sharks Come Out For Sunmart

AG Says Two Motels Gouged Ike Victims

Watershed Election?

A new group wants to push an anti-flooding agenda

Houston's Darque Tan, Leading The Fight Against Cancer

A new group wants to push an anti-flooding agenda

A Different Kind Of Traffic Problem For Houston

Harris County, be proud -- you're a leader in...well, in human trafficking. Maybe you shouldn't be so proud, on second thought. Texas AG Greg Abbott released a lengthy report today on human trafficking in Texas, and the news isn't too good. Up to 17,500 people are brought into the US as victims ... More >>

La Grange Hotel Liked Ike, AG Says

La Grange has been heretofore known mostly as the home of the fabled "Chicken Ranch" immortalized by ZZ Top and The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. Now it can be known as the home of The Most Heartless, Coldest Bastard of a Motel In Texas (Allegedly). Texas AG Greg Abbott charged the Cottonwo ... More >>

At Least A Little Payback Against A-Hole Debt Collectors

If you've ever been harassed by a debt collector, deserved or not, Texas AG Greg Abbott has just stood up for you (As Joe Biden might put it, since Abbott's in a wheelchair).Abbott's office announced a settlement this morning against NCO Financial Systems, one of the world's biggest debt-collection ... More >>

From The Oakland A's To Texas' Biggest Deadbeat Dad -- The Pride of Brazoswood High

Troy Neel, of Brazoswood High, had one good year in the majors: as an Oakland A, he batted .290 in 1993.So he was never an All-Star. Today he earned a new title: The newly arrested Biggest Deadbeat Dad in Texas.Attorney General Greg Abbott's office announced that Neel was arrested yesterday at LA In ... More >>

TDCJ Comes Up Against The Cell Phone Companies

A lot of people who read about the epidemic of cell phones in Texas prisons had a basic question -- if you can't discover and confiscate the things, why not just block them? Set it up to jam transmissions in the prison?It turns out TDCJ has thought about that, but it's easier said than done.The pris ... More >>

Local Attorneys Help Hit Drugmaker Hard

$800 million is a ton of money to settle a civil suit, but two Houston attorneys helped win a settlement of that size this morning.Joel Androphy, who specializes in whistleblower suits, worked with Sarah Frazier and won a big one as the drug giant Eli Lilly agreed to pay that whopping amount to sett ... More >>

Breaking News: Candy Bars Can't Cure Alzheimer's

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced this morning that he's charging a Fredericksburg company called Nature's Candy with violating the Texas Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. (Woe to the person who violates the "cosmetic" part of the first act. Grandma ... More >>

Another Hotel Gets Slammed For Ike Price-Gouging

Attorney General Greg Abbott has hit yet another hotel for price-gouging during Ike.This time it's the Sealy Rodeway Inn. And if you're going to be staying in lovely Sealy, in a lovely Rodeway Inn, why not be gouged while you're at it?Abbott's office says the hotel "charged evacuees a higher, 'speci ... More >>

You Weren't Cured Of Down Syndrome, But You Can Get A Refund

Photo courtesy AGs officeGuess what? You can't take a pill with something called "glyconutrients" and cure Down Syndrome or cystic fibrosis.But if you're a Texan who thought you could, you can at least get your money back.Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced a settlement today against Mannat ... More >>

Texas 1, Evil 0

Photo by Indigo GoatFor at least one brief, shining moment, the world has stopped going to hell in a handbasket.Against all the forces of dark and evil, against Satan, Pazuzu, Belial and the ACLU, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stood up and declared that the moment of silence in Texas s ... More >>

The AG Vs. Don McGill Toyota: Those Wily Salespeople

Lesson Number One if you're dealing with Don McGill Toyota in West Houston, especially if you're not really fluent in English: Read all the fine print, even the parts where salespeople have folded the contract over so you can't see it.Texas AG Greg Abbott announced today a $78,000 settlement with th ... More >>

AG Declares Revolutionary Gas-Saving Device Not So Revolutionary

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has bravely defended Texans from being....incredibly, incredibly stupid?Abbott announced today that his office has obtained a temporary restraining order shutting down a business called Media Dime Marketing. MDM sold something called the "MPG Device," which promise ... More >>

Kid Care, Carol Porter, Wayne Dolcefino, Weighing Marijuana and Stopping on Red

The Kid Care story fizzles to a finish

Business as Usual

Despite a deregulated energy market, Houston is sticking with the home team

Tale of Two Cities

Kid-Care's former leader says the attorney general is playing favorites

Craigslist At A Crossroads

Criminals being dubbed the latest "Craigslist Killer" seem to be popping up everywhere.There was Michael Anderson in Minnesota, who lured to her death a woman answering an ad for a nanny; a 16-year-old S/M enthusiast who killed a New York City radio newsman who posted an ad; and a yuppie who used th ... More >>

Conn's Uses High-Pressure Tactics To Dupe Consumers, AG Says

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has taken on a big local retail chain today, charging that Conn's Appliance stores have used high-pressure tactics to force consumers to buy defective products and then refused to live up to their warranties."According to the state's enforcement action -- and infor ... More >>

Houston Airport System Won't Release Salaries....Because Of National Security Issues

A while back we wrote about the Houston Airport System exporting its vast knowledge of running airports to countries all over the place. HAS wasn't too forthcoming about the financial aspects of it all.A couple of months later, Mayor Bill White suddenly forced out the HAS director -- at least partly ... More >>

Eight-Liner King Enters Guilty Plea

​A major operator of the 8-liner machines that are so popular (and illegal) around here and the rest of Texas has entered a guilty plea that will cost him over $1 million, state attorney general Greg Abbott announced today.Gordon Graves, the 72-year-old founder of Aces Wired, entered the plea in a ... More >>

Radnofsky's Claim About Texas Marriages Is Quite A Stretch

​Houston lawyer Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who plans to challenge Greg Abbott as a Democratic candidate in next year's Attorney General race, must feel that the spotlight isn't shining bright enough from her speaking gig at tonight's Tarrant County Young Democrats Gubernatorial Forum at Texas Christia ... More >>

How Not To Repair Your Credit

​You might think that a business couldn't squeeze much money out people who are tens of thousands of dollars in debt, but where there's a will, and perhaps a paucity of ethics, there's a way.This week's Houston Press cover story takes a look at a rift between two "debt invalidation" companies, in ... More >>

You May Be Dead, But You Can Still Get A (Too Late) Pardon, Texas AG Rules

​Good news if you were wrongfully imprisoned by the state of Texas for a long, long time, but you then died before you could be pardoned -- and face it, in those circumstances you could use some good news -- state attorney general Greg Abbott ruled today that you can be pardoned posthumously!!Yay? ... More >>

You Get Promised Thousands Of Wild Hogs To Kill, You Get Tame Pigs Instead

​It may be difficult to believe that some internet advertising claims are exaggerated, but Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott insists such is the case in an action filed today. Worse, the victims of the alleged false claims are Texas hunters. It's almost sacreligious.All the hunters wanted to do w ... More >>

Mugshots: Sheriff Adrian Garcia Doesn't Want You To See Them

This mugshot would be highly secret information in Harris County, says the sheriff​Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia's office has announced a new policy where they will no longer provide the media -- or you, the public -- with mugshots of arrested people until they have been convicted of a crime ... More >>

Bally Fitness Tricked Ex-Members Into Renewing, AG Says

They just really wanted ex-members back​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit today claiming Bally Total Fitness had tricked former members into renewing contracts by sending them "past due" notices.More than 1,000 Texans were duped into renewing, Abbott said, after receiving the notices." ... More >>

Rep. Pete Olson, Standing Up Against Those Pesky Pollution Rules

Texas can police its own air, thankyouverymuch.​Republican U.S. Congressman Pete Olson may not officially be the poster boy for the oil and gas industry, but one could argue that he's really bucking for the job. Last week, Olson of Sugar Land announced that he and a few other politicians on Capit ... More >>

Greg Abbott Blames Obama For Bullets Hitting El Paso's City Hall

El Paso City Hall -- in the crosshairs, thanks to Obama​In the ever-escalating battle between Governor Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott to see who can put out the most shameless press releases exploiting the hot-button issue of "protecting our borders," today's A-for-effort goes to Abbo ... More >>

Greg Abbott Goes After Google. Next: Justin Bieber, Lindsay Lohan and Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga: Greg Abbott will get to the bottom of this, even if it means headlines​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has gotten a lot of ink with his investigation into Google's search rankings.Abbott usually spends his time on right-wing causes like fighting the Obama health-care plan or battling ... More >>

SunMart: Jury Hits Gas-Station Chain For $30 Million For Cheating At Pumps

Not all gallons are created equal​SunMart is a Houston-based company that runs convenience stores across the Southwest. If you regularly got your gas from there, a Houston jury said this week, you got ripped off. You paid for a gallon but got less, through some pump trickery. A jury hit SunMa ... More >>

TCEQ Gets Slammed: Feds Take Powers Away From Texas' Air-Pollution "Watchdog"

TCEQ step aside, feds say​Is an agency a "watchdog" when it doesn't watch? Apparently the feds don't think so. In a bold move today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was taking over the job of issuing greenhouse-gas permits in Texas because the Texas Council on Environmental ... More >>

Texas To EPA: Keep Your Hands Off Our Rubber Stamp!!

Texas goes to court​As expected, Texas state officials are not just going to roll over and accept the Obama administration's taking away their right to rubber-stamp every application to let companies pour greenhouses gases into the air. Texas AG Greg Abbott went to court today, filing a petit ... More >>

Texas Gay Divorce: Court Rules Against Abbott, But on Technical Terms

Greg Abbott's attempt to grandstand is rejected​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott intervened as fast as he could in a lesbian divorce case in Austin, but it wasn't fast enough, an appeals court has ruled. Abbott wanted to intervene in the suit because God knows if he didn't it would have led ... More >>

Sexting: Parents to be Punished for Their Kids' Naughtiness if Bill Passes

Sexting: The love song of the modern J. Alfred Prufrock​If you're the parent of a tween/teen who's dumb enough to sext, you've got enough problems. You don't need to add to them by being forced to attend a class on the whole thing. But according to a bill announced today by state Attorney Gen ... More >>

Duct Tape Holding Pollution Equipment Together: So Bad Even Texas AG Acts

Greg Abbott goes after polluters!!! Take that, Obama!!​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott took precious time off from suing the federal government to get it to stop forcing Texas to enforce Clean Air provisions in order to do a little Clean Air-ing of his own. Abbott's office charged Gulf Che ... More >>

Japanese Disaster Relief: AG Warns Against Fake Charities

Check before you give​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a warning today to anyone thinking of donating to Japanese earthquake relief: Be careful who you're giving to. "By doing a little research, well-meaning Texans can ensure their dollars actually help the recovery effort and aid vi ... More >>

UTMB Forced to Give PETA Documents on Animal Experiments

UTMB must hand over more than 1,000 pages, AG says.​Attorney General Greg Abbott has ruled that the UT Medical Branch in Galveston must turn over documents sought by PETA regarding experiments done on animals. A PETA whistleblower alleged in January that animals were used in painful and dead ... More >>

Texas Publishes Their Social Security Numbers, Now Someone's Trying to Scam Them

Just give 'em John Doe's number, he won't mind.​Attorney General Greg Abbott is warning any Texans whose Social Security numbers were inadvertently exposed by the state government to, ummm, not just hand out that info to anyone calling to try to "confirm" things. More than three million emplo ... More >>

Osama Bin Laden Mission: Rick Perry & Greg Abbott Weigh in Without Mentioning Obama

Neither went so far as the New York Daily News.​The world has presumably been waiting breathlessly for the chance to know exactly what Governor Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott think about the death of Osama Bin Laden. The wait is over. Both politicos issued statements this morning ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Grabs The Spotlight In Fight Against EPA's Tailpipe-Emissions Rule

Greg Abbott leads a mostly southern uprising​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wants everyone to know that he is doing everything he can to stop the federal Environmental Protection Agency from trying to implement greenhouse-gas limits on cars and trucks. In the latest of a series of lawsuit ... More >>

EPA Hits Texas, Other States With Tougher Air Pollution Regulations: Cue Outrage From Rick Perry, Greg Abbott

Feds up the ante in battle against TCEQ, Perry​The Environmental Protection Agency announced stricter rules on air pollution, rules that will especially affect Texas, whose politicians have been fighting tenaciously to avoid federal regulation of the state's many pollution producers. The EPA ... More >>

Texas Cities and Nonprofit Entities to Get About $3.5 Million in National Settlement of JPMorgan Suit

Settlement helps, a little.​Financial giant JPMorgan has agreed to pay $228 million to settle charges that it manipulated deals involving the government bond market, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says the state's portion of it will be about $3.5 million. The money will go to Texas mu ... More >>

AG Sues to Preserve Galveston's Fort Crockett

​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a suit on behalf of Texas's state historical officer, asking a judge to order the owners of Fort Crockett to fix the buildings and not demolish them. The state is asking for a temporary restraining order against Max Bowen Enterprises and Juan Hijo ... More >>

BP to Pay $50 Million in Civil Penalties for Pollution Connected to Texas City Blast, AG Says

The Texas City blast​Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has announced that BP has agreed to pay a $50 million fine "for unlawfully emitting pollutants during and after the March 2005 explosion" at its Texas City plant. The civil penalties come two years after BP paid $50 million to resolve fe ... More >>

Is Texas Going to Have a Primary? Redistricting Maps Go Back to Drawing Board

Maps are hard.​The Texas primary is allegedly a little more than two months away, but some people still don't know what congressional or state-legislature district they're in, and the people running for those seats don't know who to court. The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a redistricting ... More >>

The Super Bowl Prostitution Hoax

Indianapolis mobilizes for an epic battle with an urban legend.