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Brandi Grissom

Brandi Grissom’s staff photo

Brandi Grissom worked at the Tribune from its launch in 2009 until 2014, rising to the rank of managing editor. In addition to editing duties, Grissom led the Tribune's coverage of criminal justice issues. During her tenure at the Tribune, she was chosen as a 2012 City University of New York Center on Media, Crime and Justice/H.F. Guggenheim Journalism Fellow and was a fellow at the 2012 Journalist Law School at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. Grissom, along with Tribune multimedia producer Justin Dehn, received a 2012 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting for work on the case of Megan Winfrey, who was acquitted of murder in February 2013 after the Trib’s coverage brought statewide attention the case. Grissom joined the Tribune after four years at the El Paso Times, where she acted as a one-woman Capitol bureau. Grissom won the Associated Press Managing Editors First-Place Award in 2007 for using the Freedom of Information Act to report stories on a variety of government programs and entities, and the ACLU of Texas named her legislative reporter of the year in 2007 for her immigration reporting. She previously served as managing editor at The Daily Texan and has worked for the Alliance Times-Herald, the Taylor Daily Press, the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung and The Associated Press. A native of Alliance, Neb., she has a degree in history from the University of Texas.

Past Contributions

  • Ted Cruz: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    Ted Cruz, recently announced GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, talks with The Texas Tribune about why he wants to go to Washington, how his experience as the state's solicitor general has prepared him for the job and about his conservative idols. Full Story 

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  • Ted Cruz: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    The former Texas Solicitor General sat down with the Tribune last week to talk about what makes him stand out in the GOP crowd running to replace U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and which Republican leaders he idolizes. Full Story 

  • Lawmakers Propose Raiding Auto Theft Fund

    By Brandi Grissom

    House and Senate budget writers have proposed closing a little-known state agency that helps prevent and solve automobile theft and burglary. The catch? While they’re planning to kill the agency, they're not planning to stop collecting the fee you pay to keep it going. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Testing the Evidence

    By Brandi Grissom

    In police departments across Texas, tens of thousands of rape kits have been sitting on the shelves of property storage rooms for years — thanks to strained budgets, overworked crime labs and a law enforcement philosophy that such kits are primarily useful as evidence if a stranger committed the assault. Victims’ rights advocates and some lawmakers say they'll work to pass legislation this year to take that evidence out of storage and create a DNA database that would help track rapists and perhaps even identify those who have been wrongly convicted. "I think we owe it to every person who has been raped," says state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Full Story 

    A sexual assault evidence collection kit
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: DPS Giving Drivers a Break

    By Brandi Grissom

    Some of the 1.2 million Texas drivers whose licenses have been suspended because they failed to pay expensive traffic ticket surcharges can catch a big break right now from the Department of Public Safety. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • How Do You Lose a 24-Foot Boat?

    By Brandi Grissom

    Or a $74,000 piece of radio equipment? Or more than 150 handguns and rifles? Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 items that the Texas Department of Public Safety reported stolen or lost in the last decade. Some of the assets might still be in the possession of DPS or possibly were sold, but the agency’s inventory system is so poor that it's hard to know what's actually missing. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman