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Travis Swicegood was the first News Apps and Data Editor, where he worked from 2010 to 2014. He previously spent nearly a decade and a half in the technology industry with a focus on the web. Originally from El Paso, he has worked for startups targeting everything from electronic medical records to customer relationship management to social networks. He came to the Tribune after a year and a half of running his own consulting company that focused on helping not-for-profits and political activists use technology to expand their reach. Before joining the Tribune, he led the technology department as Director of Technology and spearheaded development efforts on the Tribune's Armstrong Project, a Knight Foundation-funded project to create an open source news platform.
In the wake of nearly unprecedented drought, environmental advocates fear that state leaders are prioritizing thirsty cities over ecology. Our Troubled Waters series explores the history, health and future of some of the state's most important waterways. Full Story
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In honor of Labor Day, we've updated more than 40 different entities in our employee payroll database, including the Texas A&M University System, the University of Houston System and Austin ISD. The updates also include two new school districts. Full Story
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The Texas Tribune's prison inmates database, containing more than 147,000 offenders who have committed roughly 440,000 combined crimes, is now updated with the latest data available from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Full Story
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We've updated our Texas Campaign Finance Database with the most recent figures from the Texas Ethics Commission. Use it to find out how much money candidates are raising and spending heading into the 2014 campaign season. Full Story
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We're making available for download all of the 2013 STAAR exams for grades three through eight, along with their answer keys, courtesy of the Texas Education Agency. Full Story
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The 83rd Legislature's third special session is underway, and Gov. Rick Perry has only added transportation funding to the call. But that hasn't stopped lawmakers from filing bills on other subjects. You can keep tabs on all of them with our bill tracker. Full Story
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Every day this month, the Tribune will reveal a new way that the laws and budget lawmakers passed in the 83rd legislative session will affect Texans' lives come Sept. 1. See the latest stories published or use our interactive calendar for an overview. Full Story
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Use this application to explore Texas' numerous prison units, and learn more about the 147,000 inmates housed inside them. Full Story
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Today, we relaunch one of our most popular news applications: our database of all Texas state prison inmates, which we had pulled down to address inconsistencies in the state's record-keeping. Full Story
Today, we are adding and updating more than 200,000 salary records for Texas public employees — and moving forward with a new updating schedule. Full Story