Greg Abbott

(Updated) Jesus FTW: God-Lovin' Kountze Cheerleaders Trounce Heathens In Court Battle

Updated with statements from Governor Rick Perry and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. In a high-profile battle based on small-town football, the cheerleaders in the little East Texas burg of Kuntze have won a court battle to praise Jesus during football games. The Kountze case drew national a ... More >>

Judge Finds State at Fault for Whooping Cranes' Deaths, But Abbott Seeks Stay

In the mid-1940s, only 16 Whooping Cranes remained in the wild. Hunted for their cream-colored plumage, shot and killed for pure sport, the largest bird in North America stood all but extinct. Presaged by Passenger Pigeons and the Carolina Parakeet, it seemed that American frontiersmen would once mo ... More >>

Lesley Pehrigo: Prison For Indeceny With Four-Year-Old Boy In 1999; Gets Out & Violates Parole By Having Contact With Him

Lesley Pehrigo's career as a sex offender seems odd and details are sketchy. But if online records are correct, she went to prison for indecency with a child -- a four-year-old child. The incident, of which there aren't many details handy, happened in 1999. She did her time and got out. On Friday ... More >>

Judge Tosses Out Texas' Method Of Funding Schools, Saying It's Unfair

A state district judge ruled today the method Texas uses to fund its schools is unconstitutional and unfair and must be overhauled. Ruling in a suit brought by the Houston school district and other districts, Judge John Dietz said the state has not met the basic requirements of fairness in funding ... More >>

UPDATED Three People Shot at Lone Star College

A shooting has taken place at the main campus of Lone Star College in north Harris County. Details are scant at this point, but according to other news outlets, three people were shot at the campus around 12:30 p.m. One of the people shot may be a gunman. It's also believed that another gunman got ... More >>

George Prescott Bush, Yes, ANOTHER One, Considering Run for State Office

Honestly, I thought George Foreman had a lot of Georges in his family, but now I'm beginning to wonder if the Bush clan doesn't have him beat. First there was George H.W. Bush, then George W. Bush. Now, there's George P. Bush (maybe even P.G. if you count his second middle name), son to Jeb and gran ... More >>

Warren Jeffs, Polygamist Sect Leader Accused of Sexual Abuse, Has Ranch Seized

Attorney General Greg Abbott has moved to seize a 1,700-acre ranch in West Texas, the scene of a 2008 raid of a polygamous sect accused of rampant sexual abuse and underage marriage in the name of religion. Warren Jeffs, the one-time prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Da ... More >>

Texas GOP Slapped Again: Now Judges Toss Voter ID Law

For the second time this week, federal judges have dealt setbacks to grand plans by Texas Republicans to suppress the minority vote protect the sanctity of the ballot. Tuesday a federal panel found the state's new redistricting maps to be biased; today another panel has ruled that the new voter ID ... More >>

Feds Toss Out Texas's Redistricting Maps: Biased Against Minorities, Panel Says

The Texas GOP's lengthy effort to create redistricting maps that federal judges say don't discriminate against minorities hit another snag today when a three-judge panel in D.C. threw out the latest plan. The judges said the proposed maps failed to meet fairness standards using various tests and an ... More >>

Rick Perry: Whatchya Gonna Do With All That $$$?

Since Gov. Rick Perry abandoned the fetid remains of his failed presidential bid last January, he has socked away $1.94 million in political contributions, bringing the total amount of ching deposited with Texans for Rick Perry, his political action committee, to $3.4 million, according to recent ca ... More >>

EPA Can't Block Texas's Clean-Air Rules for Being Too Lax, Appeals Court Says

The federal Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its bounds when it rejected a Texas clean-air plan it thought was too lax, an appellate court has ruled. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the EPA was limited to reviewing whether Texas's controversial plan met the absolute minimums o ... More >>

Feds Block Texas's Voter ID Law: Unfair to Hispanics, They Say

Texas's strict new voter ID law, put in place by this past session's Tea Party legislature to stem the tidal wave of voter fraud that is actually not happening at all, has been blocked by the U.S. Department of Justice. The new law unfairly targets Hispanic voters, the feds said. "[T]he state has ... More >>

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

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 map drawn up by a pa ... More >>

Paula Harris, HISD Strangely Accuse Reporter of Unethical Behavior

HISD issues diktat on jounralistic ethics.​The Houston school district and its board president, Paula Harris, have accused Texas Watchdog reporter Michael Cronin of "unethical behavior" because, among other things, he taped a conversation with her. HISD spokesman Jason Spencer, a former Houst ... 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 >>

Ron Paul for Senate: New Poll Says Texans Demand It

Ron Paul: Let the campaign begin!​As America faces the challenges of the 21st century, it is safe to say it needs as many Pauls in the Senate as possible. And we're not talking first names, either. Texas, it seems, agrees. A new poll from PPP shows Texans are demanding that Kay Bailey Hutchi ... 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 >>

TCEQ & The EPA: Feds Again Slam Texas' Pollution-Control Efforts

TCEQ: Honeymoon with the feds is definitely over​The EPA took yet another bite out of the Texas air-pollution regulatory system on Tuesday when it decreed that some of state's rules violate federal clean air law.At issue is what's called the New Source Review Program. It deals with the permitting ... More >>

Greg Abbott Sues Obama Administration Over Clean-Air Rules

Dumb bureaucrats........​The Texas regulations on clean air, such as they are, have done a marvelous job for years, and we don't need the feds messing with our pristine environment, Texas attorney general Greg Abbott said today in a suit filed against the Obama administration.Texas' (notorious) Fl ... 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 >>

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 >>

Houston's Better Business Bureau Has No Love For Conn's, Despite What Conn's Implies

Yesterday, when we told you about Texas AG Greg Abbott going after the Conn's appliance chain for deceptive practices, we included the company's response.Conn's said "a current measure of our dedication to customer service by our more than 3,200 employees is our Better Business Bureau rating. We cur ... More >>

Craigslist To Give Up "Erotic Services" Ads

Photo by Nick VlcekCraigslist -- which we recently described in a feature as being at a crossroads -- seems to have decided which road to take.Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced the company will be dropping its "Erotic Services" ads.The ads have played a role in a series of recent murd ... More >>

Craig Newmark speaks at victim's memorial in wake of Craigslist killings.

Brazoswood High's Troy Neel Pleads Guilty To Being Deadbeat Dad

Last year we told about Troy Neel, the pride of Brazoswood High, who went on to become not only an Oakland A but, later in life, Texas' biggest deadbeat-dad fugitive. (Wonder which accomplishment leads his resume.)Neel was arrested in December at LAX as he arrived from his private South Pacific isla ... 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 >>

Memorial Hermann Gets Wrist Slapped Over Anti-Trust Claims

There's been a battle brewing for some time between the doctor-supported Town & Country Hospital and mega-health-care firm Memorial Hermann; the smaller hospital says the bigger one out of business.They claim Memorial put pressure on insurers not to do business with competitors. "At the same tim ... More >>

100th Predator Gets Sentenced, Doesn't Get Prize

The Sharks Come Out For Sunmart

UH Sweatshop Protest, Part XVII

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

The Kid Care story fizzles to a finish

Sleepovers With Uncle Jeff

The cardiologist traded on his status as a doctor to fondle young girls

Feel My Pain

A reporter goes after the online drug business and gets wasted

Feel My Pain

A reporter goes after the online drug business and gets wasted

Needling the Haystack

A 1,683-mile drive taught us that educators don't always entertain an open-door policy when it comes to public records

Houston Hold 'Em

There are plenty of opportunities for poker here, legal and otherwise

Bridging the Gap

Birders and the port are new buds seeking to block the proposed toll span at Bolivar

Watershed Election?

A new group wants to push an anti-flooding agenda

Law and Disorder

In Janice Law's quests for a judgeship, the fourth time was a charm -- and now an alarm for the rest of the courthouse

The Insider

Impeaching South Houston

South Houston Mayor Dennis Cordray has been run out of office... and his town isn't doing so hot either.