Archive
New EPA Rule to Slash Cancer-Causing Emissions From Sterilization Facilities
The new rule comes after a 2021 investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed the EPA’s yearslong failure to inform communities of the risks they faced from cancer-causing ethylene oxide emissions.
Check Your State: Here Are the Active Shooter Training Requirements for Schools and Law Enforcement
No states mandate annual active shooter training for police officers, according to an analysis by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE. In comparison, at least 37 states require such training in schools, typically on a yearly basis.
Under Ken Paxton, Texas’ Elite Civil Medicaid Fraud Unit Is Falling Apart
After the chief of the attorney general’s Civil Medicaid Fraud Division was forced out last year, two-thirds of attorneys have quit the unit, leaving it at its smallest size since Paxton took office.
DOJ Blasts Law Enforcement’s Uvalde Shooting Response in New Report, Calls for Agencies to Prioritize Training
In a long-awaited report, the Justice Department found widespread failures in the official response to the 2022 shooting. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that had officers followed accepted practices, “lives would have been saved.”
Reports Analyzing the Police Response to a Mass Shooting Can Leave Unanswered Questions — if They’re Released at All
Even if an after-action investigation is released, a lack of national standards leads to wide variability in the detail of information in reports, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE found.
Why We’re Publishing Never-Reported Details of the Uvalde School Shooting Before State Investigators
Over a year after the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the community still doesn’t know what went wrong. It’s a key reason we’re publishing findings based on a trove of raw materials investigators have yet to release.
“Someone Tell Me What to Do”
Across the country, states require more training to prepare students and teachers for mass shootings than for those expected to protect them. The differences were clear in Uvalde, where children and officers waited on opposite sides of the door.
New Uvalde School Shooting Documentary and Investigation Reveal Details of Law Enforcement’s Flawed Response
The “Inside the Uvalde Response” film and related reporting by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE analyze one of the most criticized mass shooting responses in recent history and show real-time insight into officers’ thoughts and actions.
Texas Judge Orders Release of Uvalde Shooting Records
For more than a year, the state Department of Public Safety has blocked the release of records that could offer more clarity into the police response. The agency can appeal the ruling.
A Texas Billionaire’s Associates Are Trying to Sink a School Tax Election via Their Dark Money Nonprofit
Tim Dunn’s public policy groups have helped ensure that tax hike language is attached to school bonds in the state. Now, that language is being used to undercut support for a bond in his hometown of Midland.
Book Bans in Texas Spread as New State Law Takes Effect
As Texas enters its third straight school year of coordinated book banning activity, a growing number of districts are targeting library books. Caught in the dragnet: books featuring a “naked” crayon and one with a cartoon butt.
Texas Took Over Its Largest School District, but Has Let Underperforming Charter Networks Expand
The state took over Houston ISD after one of its schools continuously failed to meet academic standards. But an analysis of records shows it’s been more generous with underperforming charter schools, waiving expansion requirements at least 17 times.
The Many Times Ken Paxton Refused to Defend Texas Agencies in Court
The Texas attorney general said he’s “back to work” after his recent acquittal, but his office has repeatedly declined to fulfill one of its key duties: representing state agencies who are being sued.
The Texas Attorney General Is Supposed to Represent State Agencies. Ken Paxton Has Repeatedly Refused To.
Records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune give deeper insight into how Paxton’s representation denials often pushed agencies to look for outside legal counsel that was ultimately funded by taxpayers.
“The Reporting Gave a Number of Us Pause”: Pennsylvania Lawmakers Rethink Funding for Child ID Kits After Investigation
A bill that would require purchasing the kits is facing key opposition after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found no evidence that they’d ever been used to find a missing child. The probe previously spurred Texas to strip millions in funding.
Judge Rules Texas DPS Must Release Withheld Documents Related to the Uvalde School Shooting
The ruling marks the first step toward disclosing the extensive collection of police documents, though the state agency could choose to fight the ruling by appealing the decision.
Impeached Texas Attorney General Partnered With Troubled Businessman to Push Opioid Program
While launching a statewide program to distribute packets to dissolve opioids, Attorney General Ken Paxton worked to connect its leaders with the state’s comptroller, who oversees the distribution of millions of dollars in opioid settlement money.
Texas Pulls Funding for Child ID Kits After Investigation Finds Little Evidence of Their Effectiveness
Lawmakers were slated to spend millions of taxpayer dollars for the kits but changed course after a series of revelations in a ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation.
Texas Public Records Transparency Bill That Got Lost Amid GOP Infighting Finally Headed to Governor’s Desk
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he always intended to sign the measure but pulled it aside in response to the House playing “games” at the end of the legislative session.
Texas Bill to Increase Transparency in Public Records Law Left in Limbo Despite Passing Legislature
The bill would close a long-standing loophole in state law that allows officials to withhold law enforcement records if no one was convicted in a case. The measure was the only bill sent to the Senate that did not get signed and sent to the governor.
