Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Ruth Ruggero Hughs as the secretary of state of Texas on August 19, 2019. She replaces outgoing Secretary of State David Whitley.… Continue Reading
More than 100 Houston Bar Association volunteers are expected to read to classes in 100 elementary schools in the Houston area today for Constitution Day. Attorneys and judges are reading and discussing the book Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio to elementary school students at 21 school districts at designated times throughout the day. Constitution Day commemorates … Continue Reading
All educators, supervisors, and regional service center personnel are welcome to attend the 2018 Annual Law- Related Education Conference on January 26-27, 2018, at the Commons Learning Center in Austin. Conference participants will explore literacy components of reading, writing, and articulating points of view through history and why it is essential to maintaining freedom.… Continue Reading
In simple terms, laws addressing electronic privacy are moving at a speed far slower than the Pony Express while businesses and law enforcement agencies grapple with who should have access to people’s data, according to experts on the South By Southwest panel “When Should My Data Become the Government’s Data?” Panelists clearly laid out the conundrums … Continue Reading
Joseph Gutheinz is a criminal defense lawyer based in Friendswood, where he practices with two of his six sons. The successful lawyer and college instructor is a former Army intelligence officer, aviator, and NASA senior special agent. But he is most famous for finding elusive moon rocks that have been missing since the Apollo 17 … Continue Reading
Champions of open government lamented incremental, compounding wounds to the Texas Public Information Act and suggested at the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas’s annual conference Thursday that state legislators need to step in to stop the bleeding. Jay Root, a reporter for The Texas Tribune, stated it plainly, calling the act “broken and taking … Continue Reading
Two Texas attorneys, Grant Sparks and B.J. Goergen, just wrapped up their year as members of the Presidential Leadership Scholars Class of 2016. This six-month educational program is jointly sponsored by the U.S. presidential centers of Lyndon B. Johnson, George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush. Of hundreds of applicants, only 61 … Continue Reading
The Texas Bar Foundation recently awarded a $3,500 grant to the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas to create a guidebook on state open government laws. “We continually try to find ways to help Texans better understand open government laws so that they can fully participate in our democracy,” Freedom of Information Foundation Executive Director … Continue Reading
The nonprofit Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas is partnering with the Texas Attorney General’s Office to host an open government seminar designed for the public, journalists, attorneys, and government employees in the Rio Grande Valley. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 9 at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, … Continue Reading
If you’ve seen news reports on suspicious state contracts or chemical waste pits or officials’ text messages in the Waco biker shootout, you may notice a recurring theme: government records obtained through the Texas Public Information Act. Fortunately, our state’s public information law, created in the early 1970s, presumes that government records are open unless … Continue Reading
