House Will Investigate Stickland Witness Fight
The House General Investigating & Ethics Committee will look into whether witnesses affirmations were improperly filed for a bill carried by Representative Jonathan Stickland.
R. G. Ratcliffe began working for Texas Monthly as a freelance writer in 2011 and joined the staff as a senior editor for politics in 2017. After retiring in 2019, he became one of the magazine’s writers-at-large. Drawing on 22 years of experience as a political and investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle, Ratcliffe was on the Texas Monthly team that produced the Best and Worst Legislators list from 2015 to 2021. Ratcliffe covered seven presidential campaigns, as well as the classic gubernatorial races when Democrat Ann Richards defeated Republican cowboy businessman Clayton Williams, in 1990, and when she was defeated, four years later, in an election that put Republican George W. Bush on the path to the presidency. Ratcliffe was featured in the HBO documentary about Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, Journeys With George. He also was a key source in the Bill Moyers documentary Capitol Crimes, about the political corruption of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Republican House majority leader Tom DeLay. A native of Dallas, Ratcliffe earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and in American history from the University of Missouri.
The House General Investigating & Ethics Committee will look into whether witnesses affirmations were improperly filed for a bill carried by Representative Jonathan Stickland.
With more than 200,000 federal military personnel already in Texas, paranoia over the Jade Helm 15 exercise in Bastrop seems absurd.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett apparently had Representative Jonathan Stickland escorted out of his committee tonight, according to the Austin newspaper.
A new study found federal subsidies helped reduce the percentage of Texans lacking health insurance from about 25 percent to 17 percent, but a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could suddenly end those subsidies.
With oil and gas production declining, state legislators are unwise to chase tax cuts.
The insurance industry backed by Texans for Lawsuit Reform is taking on the state’s trial lawyers over hail damage lawsuits.
Senator John Whitmire accuses two Republican senators of trying to use a new ethics bill as political payback.
The Texas House today is taking up its sales tax cut package, setting up a showdown with the Senate and its property tax cuts.
If the 2012 GOP primary results between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst are any indicator, tea party strength in the Texas Legislature has peaked.
Democrat Bill Hobby was lieutenant governor in the 1970s when the current state spending cap was adopted. Today, he argues against making it tighter.
A contentious breakfast between the state leadership today ended with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick declaring he was tired of Governor Greg Abbott and Speaker Joe Straus “picking on me.”
The final sweet spot in Governor Mark White’s 1986 re-election campaign was a trip to Blue Bell Creameries.
Representative Jonathan Stickland apparently is the mastermind behind an amendment that would bar police from actively enforcing bans on the unpermitted carrying of handguns.
The unlimited billionaire funding of Republican presidential candidates may actually keep the race alive until the Texas primary next March.
The Environmental Defense Fund has put out a Wanted poster for Senator Troy Fraser over his effort to end wind energy incentives.
Drug cartel violence in Reynosa on Friday is not necessarily an argument for passing the Texas border security bill.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott paid only $1,718 in federal income taxes in 2014 on an income of $131,118.
Legislative influencer Michael Quinn Sullivan is running a pro-Senate property tax cut telephone campaign to convince Republican legislators who voted for Speaker Joe Straus to support Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s plan over the House sales tax cut. But there’s also a back-door link to the state ethics bill.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw today proved he can be every bit as political on ethics issues as any Travis County district attorney.
Governor Greg Abbott insisted today that he is more involved in the legislative leadership than some people think.
Governor Greg Abbott already has warmed up his signature pen by turning two bills into law.
The Texas House this week will debate a bill that puts gas driller property rights ahead of homeowner rights.
A quick look at General Revenue spending by the House and Senate.
The fight between Tesla and the Texas Automobile Dealers Association is about anything but free markets.
High dollar deer hunting is in the news, and so are some of the state’s political bad boys.
The wealth the Texas House and Senate want to share is expensive but small when spread statewide.
The pressure is mounting on Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw to quantify exactly what his officers are achieving on border security.
If the Collin County district attorney won’t investigate Attorney General Ken Paxton for securities violations, a rogue grand jury will.
With the Legislature in session, Governor Greg Abott is worrying about Congress and the president.
Texas Senate votes 20-11 to turn prosecution of state officials corruption cases over to hometown judges, juries and prosecutors.
The Senate today is set to consider a bill that could end all ethics prosecutions in Texas.
Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond’s appearance at a news conference of Democrats and human rights activists to oppose anti-gay legislation raises the question: Has the Republican Party moved too far to the right?
The Senate Subcommittee on Border Security today heard legislation to eliminate in-state college tuition for undocumented children who graduate from Texas high schools.
This week’s Texas political scandal roundup.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has faced questions about whether the border surge made the rest of the state less secure and whether it is taking credit for other law enforcement agencies actions, but now the DPS has announced a major border bust all of its own.
State Representative Stuart Spitzer wants Texans to abstain from sex out of wedlock, but the statistics show the teens have their cars a-rockin’ in his district.
The strange dynamics of this Legislature started moving from simmer to boil with Tuesday’s House debate on a $209.8 billion budget.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw needs to come clean on just what his agency is doing on the border.
The House takes up its proposed $209.8 billion budget at noon Tuesday. I’m offering up some essential documents you may need to follow the proceedings.
From a statue of Jefferson Davis to license plates with the Confederate battle flag, Texans just can’t seem to let go of the Civil War.
Border security was the battle cry of Texas politicians in 2014. Will the theme become “misplaced priorities” in 2016?
The House and Senate are tying themselves into budget and tax cut knots just to avoid spending the money they have.
Ted Cruz proved you don’t have to be a millioinaire or an elected officeholder to grab the brass ring in Texas.
A new federal disaster preparedness rule is threatening to withhold hazard mitigation money from Texas if state leaders do not embrace climate change as a factor in weather disasters.
Fundamentalist Christians rallied at the Texas Capitol today, preparing themselves for the expectation that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn bans on same-sex marriage.
As U.S. Senator Ted Cruz launches a presidential big, will he have to explain his gay marriage money to social conservatives?
As Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz launches a presidential campaign, he may have to explain how he started his political career with $260,000 in donations from gay marriage supporters.
A couple of exchanges during debate in the Legislature this week are unlikely to find their way into etched stone.
Texas as a terrible history of low voter turnout. Should the state follow President Obama’s suggestion to make voting compulsory?
The debate Wednesday on HB 11 for border security revealed that last year’s surge of DPS troopers and National Guardsmen concentrated on just two counties on the Mexican frontier.