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Zach Despart is reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit. Previously, as a reporter for the Tribune, his work on a team investigating the flawed police response to the Uvalde school shooting was awarded the 2024 Collier Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. He led the Tribune’s effort to become the first news organization to map the fragmented 50-mile Texas border wall, a project that also found the state struggled with holdout landowners along the route. After it was published, the Legislature stopped funding the wall. 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. His investigation on how Texas diverted Harvey aid away from areas most at risk for storms sparked a federal investigation. An upstate New York native, he received his bachelor’s degree in political science and film from the University of Vermont.
Voters elected Christian Manuel Hayes to House District 22 in Beaumont, Venton Jones to HD-100 in Dallas, Salman Bhojani to HD-92 in Tarrant County and Suleman Lalani to HD-76 in Fort Bend County. Full Story
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Republican incumbents are successfully defending their seats while the party appears to be making inroads in South Texas. Full Story
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Audio obtained by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica shows just how long police and dispatchers likely knew that children and teachers were in danger before taking action at Robb Elementary School. Full Story
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Department of Public Safety Sgt. Juan Maldonado is the first state police officer fired in the aftermath of a botched police response to the shooting. He was the highest-ranking state trooper to initially respond to Robb Elementary School. Full Story
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Nearly half of Hispanic Texans live in the state’s five largest counties, a voting bloc Democrats cannot afford to lose as they struggle to compete in the state’s vast rural areas. Full Story
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The two-term governor’s donors enjoy access, appointments to boards and commissions, and a chance to bend the ear of a politician who may harbor bigger ambitions. Full Story
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Abbott directed the Department of Public Safety to boost efforts to collect intelligence on cartels and investigate gangs in Texas that support drug and human smuggling. Full Story
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Several other Republican attorneys general joined Paxton in bashing the Biden administration, largely over previous policy decisions they disagreed with. Full Story
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The state’s top law enforcement agency has publicly criticized the actions of local police during the May shooting at Robb Elementary. But McCraw’s agency has also faced scrutiny for officers’ delay in confronting the gunman. Full Story
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State troopers outnumbered local law enforcement 2-to-1 outside Robb Elementary, but the Department of Public Safety has blocked the release of records and carefully shaped the narrative to cast local authorities as incompetent. Full Story
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