Free Republic

The nation's fourth-largest city has a big problem when it comes to conducting criminal investigations. It's getting worse. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner resigned last week. There is no way he could have remained in his position after the scandal of 260,000 incident reports labeled “Suspended — Lack of Personnel”, or SL were discovered. Two assistant chiefs have been demoted and one executive has resigned. The new mayor, John Whitmire, has a real disaster on his hands. Whitmire said that the “dumb person that came up with that code” is no longer at HPD. Advertisement I don't care what the...

Houston’s police chief has resigned after emails obtained by a local news outlet appear to show that he knew about massive failures in the department well before he said he did. Within hours of issuing a statement about the findings, he resigned. In February, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner first announced that the Houston Police Department dropped 264,000 crime reports, including violent crimes and sexual assaults, which weren’t investigated because a “lack of personnel” code was assigned to them, The Center Square reported. In March, new Houston Mayor John Whitmire appointed an independent panel to review an internal HPD investigation...

Emails obtained by a local news outlet appear to show that chief knew about massive failures in the department well before he said he did. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Article Dig Deeper (The Center Square) - Houston’s police chief has resigned after emails obtained by a local news outlet appear to show that he knew about massive failures in the department well before he said he did. Within hours of issuing a statement about the findings, he resigned. In February, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner first announced that the Houston Police Department dropped 264,000 crime reports, including violent crimes and sexual assaults, which...

Texas State Sen. John Whitmire and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee are advancing to a runoff election for Houston mayor since neither cleared the 50% threshold. Both stood out in a crowded field for their high levels of name recognition, decades of public service, and in Whitmire's case, a prodigious campaign war chest that enabled him to blanket the airwaves with commercials. Jackson Lee is widely considered the more progressive of the two leading candidates.

AUSTIN — A former bartender at a Texas Capitol-area bar has sued her old employer, claiming she was fired because she refused to serve state Sen. John Whitmire when he was drunk. A top aide to Whitmire, D-Houston, said she was present that night at the Cloak Room and called the bartender's allegations about the senator a "complete fabrication." In her lawsuit, Rebekah L. Lear said she lost her job at the bar because she refused to serve Whitmire a second scotch on the night of March 8. Lear also alleges that Whitmire threatened to have her fired. Lear claims...

By KELLEY SHANNON Associated Press Writer AUSTIN Dominance was the magic word for Texas politics in 2003. Republicans dominated the political landscape as they made deep budget cuts, placed limits on civil lawsuits and pushed through a GOP congressional redistricting plan despite the protests and road trips of Democrats. ”Texas politics? Year of the elephant,” summed up Tony Proffitt, a veteran political consultant who was an aide to the late Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock. The GOP already held all the statewide offices and had the edge in the Texas Senate before the 2002 elections. With a sweeping victory, Republicans...

Senators: We were led to N.M. by will of people By STATE SENS. RODNEY ELLIS, MARIO GALLEGOS and JOHN WHITMIRE Aug. 5, 2003, 7:43PM To paraphrase one of the greatest civil rights activists of the 20th century, "We are sick and tired of being sick and tired." Fannie Lou Hamer uttered these infamous words during her crusade in the 1960s and 1970s to encourage political participation and the right to vote by African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities. We and our fellow senators are in Albuquerque, N.M., because the same important issue faces the citizens and state of Texas. What we...