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Don’t Let the Pandemic (or the Freeze) Cloud Sunshine Week Share Video from a Jan. 5 officer-involved shooting won’t be made public until April, the Austin police say, because on top of everything else, it got cold in Texas in February. According to a police statement, “due to recent city of Austin weather-related closures, APD will not be releasing the video during the initial 60-day timeframe.” Last year was a bad one for the Texas Public Information Act and other government accountability (“sunshine”) laws. And 2021 isn’t starting off so well, either. Numerous government agen...

The nonprofit corporation is asking Ken Paxton’s office for permission to ignore requests seeking information on the costliest winter storm in the state’s history.

Sen. Zaffirini files suite of open government reforms proposals Courtesy of the Office of Sen. Zaffirini March 3, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Zaffirini/ Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, filed a series of bills Tuesday, March 2 to reform the state’s open government laws, specifically the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) and Texas Public Information Act (TPIA). Seven proposals were filed as Senate Bills (SB) 924-930 and also were combined into an omnibus bill, SB 923, captioned “relating to open government.” “Transparency is essential to preserving democratic governance,” Senator Zaffi...

It’s a continuous job to make sure Texas laws keep pace with modern times and that governments adhere to the letter and the spirit of our transparency laws.

By:  COVID-19 vaccine pace rises while statewide hospitalizations drop The number of people in Texas hospitalized with COVID-19 has declined more than 28 percent in the past month, according to the Texas Department of Health Services. As of Feb. 7, Texas hospitals were treating 9,957 COVID-19 patients, down from nearly 14,000 a month ago. The number of new cases in the past week was 123,239 — a 22 percent drop from the record high of 158,922 the week of Jan. 10, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University. At the same time new cases and hospitalizations were de...