Houston Chronicle Investigates

08/29/2022

For decades, Quanell X has been considered by many as the standard-bearer of social consciousness in Houston.

But a Houston Chronicle investigation found the activist repeatedly accepted cash in exchange for advocacy, then didn’t fulfill his promises.

He now owes $345,000 in court judgments.

A Houston Chronicle investigation found that longtime community activist Quanell X has...

08/13/2022

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating "multiple" Southern Baptist entities after an explosive report revealed that top officials had mishandled sexual abuse complaints.

The federal probe follows years of reporting from the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio...

05/23/2022

A groundbreaking investigation released Sunday found that Southern Baptist faith leaders systematically ignored, belittled and intimidated survivors of sexual abuse for decades while protecting churches that harbored abusers.

Confidential records show how an insular group of Baptist leaders stymied efforts to...

01/21/2022

Are you a Texas parent who sought help for your child with a school counselor or psychologist? The Houston Chronicle is working on a story about the lack of assistance for students and we're looking for people to talk about their experience.

“TEXAS PARENTS: Have you sought counseling for your child in a Texas school? and I want to talk to you! Please fill out this form and we will get back to you. https://t.co/CP3fIlxG3y”

11/18/2021

Most state laws governing tax incentives for businesses offer a way for people to keep track of where the money goes.

That's not the case with a pair of obscure Texas statutes that let cities and counties offer almost anything they want to businesses with no constraints and no oversight.

Two Texas laws let local officials hand out millions in taxpayer funds to companies with no limits, no job creation and little transparency.

11/08/2021

The emergency plan for the Travis Scott concert had procedures for handling a "mass casualty" event.

It said power could be diverted from the show to cancel it if lives were in “immediate danger.”

That step was never taken.

Read more about the plan, and contact us if you attended the show and want to share your story.

Whether promoters followed it Friday evening, when eight concertgoers died and scores...

11/07/2021

Houston officials say they halted Travis Scott's performance Friday "in the interest of public safety."

But our timeline shows Scott played his whole set. After officials declared a "mass casualty" event, the show went on for 37 minutes.

While paying respects at a memorial outside of NRG Park, some attendees raised more...

07/25/2021

Texas’ state-run veterans homes often were the deadliest places to be during the pandemic. An investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the Texas Tribune found they had more than double the death rate among COVID-19-infected residents compared to other nursing homes.

In response to the investigation's findings, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush pledged to improve care for veterans — even as families of loved ones who died say he should have done more.

Texas’ state-run veterans homes often were the deadliest places to be. The nine state...

05/12/2021

The Houston Chronicle is investigating how Texas’ property tax system helps the well-connected while everyday Texans suffer during the pandemic.

Our first story: A section of the tax code called Chapter 313 that's saving companies $10 billion.

The biggest corporate tax giveaway in Texas saves companies billions. But would they come...

04/30/2021

In the aftermath of the deadly winter blackouts, Texas lawmakers have done little to protect residents from the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Their inaction caps more than a decade of ignored warnings that resulted in Texas being one of just six states with no statewide requirement for carbon monoxide alarms in homes, according to an investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and NBC News.

They used their car to stay warm when a winter storm brought down the Texas power grid. In a state that doesn't require carbon monoxide alarms in homes, they had no warning they were poisoning themselves.

04/17/2021

Dueling lawyers Rusty Hardin and Tony Buzbee have both made mistakes in their highly publicized statements in the Deshaun Watson case. Victim advocates worry that the women behind the lawsuits are being lost in the shuffle.

As publicity mounts, the lawsuits against the Texans quarterback have been irreparably...

04/04/2021

How many people died from the winter freeze and blackouts? The Houston Chronicle contacted every county in Texas and learned the death toll so far is nearly 200 victims — far higher than the state's official count.

It's one of the deadliest disasters in the past century.

The deaths of nearly 200 people are linked to February’s cold snap and blackouts, a...

03/25/2021

The Texas attorney general's office is supposed to uphold the state's open records law.

Media outlets across Texas are asking why Ken Paxton isn't releasing his own records.

Here's what we found out:

An investigation by Texas media outlets found the Texas attorney general isn’t...

03/12/2021

After The Dallas Morning News revealed how Texas Rangers built one of the most prolific programs for hypnosis in the country, repeatedly doubling down on the practice despite scientific evidence that hypnosis can distort witness memories and lead to false convictions, state authorities say they're no longer using the technique.

Great follow-up story by Dallas Morning News reporter Lauren McGaughy:

AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Public Safety has ended the controversial practice of using hypnosis to investigate crimes. A department spokesman said...

03/12/2021

"Most farmers have better living quarters for their hogs."

This stunning, deeply reported series by Houston Chronicle reporter Sarah Smith reveals how the federal government paid a private firm, the Millennia Companies, $137 million to provide affordable housing, but left tenants in filthy, mold-infested apartments.

A Houston Chronicle investigation shows how HUD's ineffective oversight of private owners has left local officials and tenants stuck in a dysfunctional housing system.

03/09/2021

If you lost your job during the pandemic and are struggling to pay your property taxes, the Chronicle's Investigations Team wants to hear from you. Contact investigative reporter John Tedesco at [email protected] if you feel comfortable sharing your experience for an upcoming news story.

(Photo by Nam Y. Huh, STF / Associated Press)

03/04/2021

Private psychiatric hospitals provide a lifeline to Texans who need help — but they've racked up 1,100 regulatory violations and 31,000 calls to police for assaults and other crimes.

Another stunning story about Texas' broken mental health system by investigative reporter Alex Stuckey:

Between 2014 and 2019, private psychiatric hospitals in Texas racked up nearly 1,100 state and federal violations and were fined $1.4 million by the state, a Houston Chronicle investigation found.

03/02/2021

“I just wanted to see my son actually get some help. I’m a taxpayer. They needed to help him get real help. Instead, he’s dead.”

Investigative reporter Alex Stuckey spent more than a year examining the tattered mental-health safety net in Texas. Here's her latest story about defendants who can't get access to the care they need and wind up trapped in the revolving door of the criminal justice system.

Dozens of readers have contacted Alex with their own horror stories and ideas on how to fix the problem. Contact us — we're listening.

Since the 1950s, the number of state-run mental hospital beds has decreased by 95 percent. Outpatient treatment hasn't filled the gap.

02/26/2021

02/26/2021

02/26/2021

A utility enforcement division that held power companies accountable for past electrical shortages had been disbanded last year by Gov. Greg Abbott’s appointees — months before the widespread blackouts left millions of Texans in the dark and cold.

The latest article by investigative reporters Eric Dexheimer and Jay Root is part of an ongoing series of stories in the Houston Chronicle about last week's outages:

Public Utility Commission and Abbott dispute that getting rid of Oversight &...

02/25/2021

The mental health system in Texas affects all of us — and it's broken.

Investigative reporter Alex Stuckey spent more than a year examining a secretive bureaucracy that's strained beyond capacity. The numbers alone are horrifying: Texas should have 50 public psychiatric hospital beds per 100,000 residents. It has fewer than eight.

But Alex went beyond the numbers and interviewed families who said health officials kept them in the dark about loved ones who were injured or killed at mental health facilities. “We’ve received no answers,” said the sister of a man who was assaulted at Rusk State Hospital and later died.

Part 1 of "In Crisis" is online at our subscriber site at HoustonChronicle.com. If you've dealt with the mental health system in Texas and feel comfortable talking to a reporter, contact us with your tips and insights. Thanks for reading.

Funding cuts and growing demand have left hundreds of thousands of Texans to struggle with mental illness without adequate support.

02/23/2021

Our story by Investigative reporters Jay Root and Eric Dexheimer is the first of many to come about how Texas failed to prepare for last week's brutal winter storm. A few months before millions of Texans lost power, Gov. Greg Abbott’s hand-picked utility regulators parted ways with an independent monitor that enforced the state's electric reliability standards.

Do you have story tips and feedback? Contact us. We're listening.

As disaster approached Texas, the state agency overseeing the power industry operated...