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Zach Despart is a politics reporter for The Texas Tribune. He investigates power — who wields it, how and to what ends — through the lens of Texas government. He has extensively covered the Uvalde school shooting, including a groundbreaking investigation on the role the gunman’s rifle played in the disastrous police response. He previously covered Harris County for the Houston Chronicle, where he reported on corruption, elections, disaster preparedness and the region’s recovery from Hurricane Harvey. An upstate New York native, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and film from the University of Vermont.
State records show Iesha Greene was fired in 2020 from a state juvenile facility for having inappropriate relationships with children. The Refuge said it was aware of her previous work there, but it never requested her publicly available personnel records. Full Story
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The charges stem from Hotze’s hiring of more than a dozen private investigators to look for voter fraud in Harris County ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Full Story
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The felony charges are misuse of official information and tampering with a government record. Hidalgo, who oversees Harris County, has the largest constituency of any elected Democratic executive in the state. Full Story
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Hidalgo, the Harris County judge, says a criminal probe into a contract her office awarded is a political hit. But as a potential future statewide candidate, does the episode expose a flaw in her approach to politics? Full Story
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