Highway Project
Harris County, home of Houston, sued the Texas Department of Transportation to block the expansion and widening of Interstate 45, claiming its concerns about the project’s environmental impacts were not addressed.
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Harris County
Texas’ Largest County Moves Forward With New Election Administration Office
Harris County officials Tuesday approved hiring administrative staff for its new elections management office, brushing off Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to sue the state’s largest county over its formation of the independent office.
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Federal Judge Refuses to Toss Houston Drive-Thru Votes
A bid by Republicans to get more than 127,000 drive-thru votes tossed out as illegal in Texas’ biggest county was rejected Monday by a federal judge who found they lack standing.
Read moreCurbside Voting
The Texas Republican Party sued the Democratic clerk of Harris County to block his expansion of curbside voting in the Houston area, arguing a lack of immunity to Covid-19 is not a qualifying disability.
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Texas Justices Rule Harris County Can’t Send Ballot Forms to All Voters
The Democratic election administrator of Texas’ most populous county cannot send absentee ballot applications to all its registered voters, the state’s high court ruled Wednesday, handing a victory to Republicans who said it would lead people to mistakenly believe they qualify for voting by mail.
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Texas Justices Asked to Stop Mailing of Ballot Forms to Houston-Area Voters
Texas county clerks’ authority to manage early voting is limited to things like setting the air conditioning at a comfortable level at polling sites, not mailing unsolicited absentee voting applications, the state argued before the Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday.
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Texas High Court Blocks County From Mailing Ballot Applications
The Texas Supreme Court stepped into a political firestorm Wednesday, blocking the chief of elections in the state’s biggest county from proceeding with his plans to send mail-in ballot applications to all registered voters.
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Texas Attorney General Sues County to Stop Mailing of Ballot Applications
Texas’ Republican attorney general on Monday sued the county clerk in Houston, a Democratic stronghold, seeking an order to stop him from mailing absentee ballot applications to the county’s 2.37 million registered voters regardless of whether they qualify.
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Texas Hospital Challenges Ban on Releasing Patients During Crisis
A Houston-area rehabilitation facility claims county officials have put it in the unique position of operating as a hospital but
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Houston Settlement Equalizes Pretrial Treatment of Rich and Poor
A federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement mandating most misdemeanor arrestees in Houston be released promptly from jail without paying bail, brushing off concerns of prosecutors and police that it will endanger public safety.
Read moreJudge Indicted
Harris County (Houston) Judge Alexandra Smoots-Thomas surrendered to federal agents Friday to face charges she used campaign contributions to pay her mortgage, travel and buy luxury merchandise, federal prosecutors said.
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Houston Mayoral Election Headed for a Runoff
Attorney Tony Buzbee spent $10 million of his own money to run for Houston mayor — but a pile of horse manure he used as a prop defined his over-the-top campaign.
Read moreHouston Bail Reform Deal Inches Closer to Final Approval
A proposed settlement to end cash bail for most misdemeanor arrestees in Houston emerged seemingly unscathed from a fairness hearing Monday, despite concerns from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it will give a free pass to undocumented immigrants.
Read moreRepublicans Skip Vote to Block Tax Hike in Houston
Two Texas Republicans prevented their Democratic colleagues from voting to raise property taxes in the Houston area on Tuesday by not showing up for a meeting of the county’s executive board.
Read moreHouston Bondsmen Fight to Restore Bail for Misdemeanors
A group of bail bond companies claim Harris County criminal court judges and the Harris County sheriff unconstitutionally changed bond requirements for individuals arrested on misdemeanor charges, threatening their business.
Read moreJudge Sets Juvenile Defendants Free After Election Loss
Made a lame duck by a Democratic takeover of Houston’s judiciary, a Republican juvenile court judge raised public safety concerns Wednesday when he released several youths from jail and reset their hearings for his replacement’s first week on the bench in January.
Read moreTexas Judges Ask Panel to Block Pretrial-Release Order
Misdemeanor court judges in Houston urged a Fifth Circuit panel Tuesday to scrap a federal judge’s injunction they say is to blame for a spike in people failing to show up for court.
Read moreOpioid-Tainted Handouts Alarm Sheriff in Houston
Texas sheriff warned the public Tuesday about the dangers of fentanyl after a deputy removed a flyer from her car’s windshield, began to feel lightheaded and was hospitalized, and the opioid was found on another flyer in the area.
Read moreInjunction Revisited in Houston Bail Case
Criminal justice reform in Texas’ biggest county took another tortured step forward Thursday, as combatants in litigation over the county’s bail policies laid out their differences before a federal judge who is narrowing her injunction in the case.
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