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Thank you for reading and for your support. We will miss you. 17 Jun 2013 | 09:28 pm
Regular readers to Texas Watchdog may have noticed there hasn't been much posted to the site over the past several months. The reason is simple: We've run out of money to keep delivering our award-win...
Publicly-funded gondolas a ‘viable transportation alternative’ for Round Rock, Texas? 20 Feb 2013 | 02:03 am
When one of the most innovative cities in America takes its first crack at mass transit you can bet it won’t be buses, trains or streetcars. No, Round Rock, Texas, elevation 709 feet, is thinking abo...
Austin Energy customers foot bill – $2 a month per customer for 19 years – for idled biomass plant 15 Feb 2013 | 04:33 am
Around the clock, seven days a week, in a plant 233 miles away, a full complement of energy professionals stands at the ready to provide wood-fired power to Austin Energy customers. The staff isn’t s...
Texas props up wind, solar with hundreds of millions of dollars per year, lawmakers cautious on more $ 23 Jan 2013 | 02:55 am
With a nearly $1 billion federal renewable energy tax credit in doubt, Texas Rep. Mark Strama delivered what to another audience would have been an odd message. Strama, an Austin Democrat, is an ener...
Texas couple fit to be tied in red tape, stimulus weatherization cash more trouble than it was worth 11 Dec 2012 | 08:49 pm
Viewed in one very particular way, carefully following the bureaucratic contours of a $327 million stimulus energy efficiency program, the weatherization of Brandi and Byron Hockaday’s south Austin ho...
Special districts, special favors: An insider network of favors surrounds these proliferating governments in Texas 29 Oct 2012 | 07:13 pm
For decades, Texans have relied on special districts for services that local municipalities can’t provide. Water to an isolated settlement. Crime prevention in a region that can’t afford full-service ...
Real estate insiders on board approving $37 million in development tax breaks for downtown Houston 24 Sep 2012 | 08:04 pm
The Houston management district board that approves $37 million in property development tax breaks is packed with insiders from the local real estate community, including two people connected to major...
Texas' screwy election laws: Voters in Texas claim unconventional residences; which cases amount to fraud? 19 Sep 2012 | 10:32 pm
In early 2010, Alan John Lesselyong moved from his Dallas apartment to a FEMA trailer in the middle of 1,000 undeveloped acres in Denton County. He did so at the behest of a group of developers to es...
Overweight? Smoke? Uncle Sam wants to help. Wellness programs started under 2009 federal stimulus persist, getting fatter with $1 billion in health ca... 17 Sep 2012 | 09:29 pm
Months after the grant that brought it to life ran out, Live Tobacco-Free Austin lives on. Like many of the wellness programs started with $372.8 million in stimulus funding, Live Tobacco-Free Austin...
Tornillo ISD should beef up financial controls, guard against more ‘reckless’ spending by superintendent Paul Vranish: TEA 13 Sep 2012 | 07:00 pm
The superintendent of the Tornillo Independent School District, Paul Vranish, benefitted by using his position to approve purchase of items that were not sanctioned by his contract, spent public money...
