Jay Root

How Renting Furniture In Texas Can Land You In Jail

While other businesses have to use civil remedies when customers don’t pay their debts, the rent-to-own industry has a special tool in Texas law that lets them file criminal charges.

Shannon Najmabadi
Jay Root
By Shannon Najmabadi
And Jay Root
A rent-to-company threatened to file criminal charges against Austin resident Melinda Sandlin after she stopped making payments. Sandlin looks through her rental purchase agreement and other related documents at her Austin home on August 30, 2017. (Charlie Pearce/The Texas Tribune)

When Melinda Sandlin walked out of Discount Furniture in Austin in late 2014, she was sure the store had put her on a payment plan to buy a new bedroom suite worth $2,750. A year later, after realizing she had sent in more than $3,000 for her seven-piece set, she figured she was done. So Sandlin told the store clerk she wasn’t going to be making

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Hurricane Harvey Highlights Big Money Behind Lax Petrochemical Reporting

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, an exploding chemical plant and spikes in cancer-causing emissions are highlighting how little the public knows about potential dangers from the oil and chemical industries. Critics say one reason for the darkness: tons of campaign money.

Jay Root
By Jay Root
The flooded Arkema chemical plant is seen on Wednesday. (Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle/AP)

Unlike any past storm — natural or man-made — Hurricane Harvey has exposed the fault lines between the politically powerful Texas petrochemical industry and the public’s right to know what dangers lie within their facilities. In Crosby, on the outskirts of Houston, French-owned Arkema refused to provide the public an inventory of tthe substances

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Liquor Regulators Are Partying On Texas Taxpayers’ Tab

Texas alcohol regulators know how to party: records show they’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars to travel to swanky resorts where liquor flows and industry lobbyists abound.

Jay Root
By Jay Root
This graphic humorously references a trip that top state liquor regulators took to the National Conference of State Liquor Administrators in 2015 at a cost of more than $7,000 in taxpayer money. The illustration was created by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission during work hours on a state computer with input from top agency officials, records show. Pictured from left to right are TABC Director Sherry Cook, Licensing Director Amy Harrison, Analyst Jesse Valdez and then-TABC technology contractor Jim Harrison.

No agency can kill a buzz quicker than the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, but behind the scenes state liquor regulators have shown they know how to party — all on the tab of taxpayers and members of an industry they oversee. Consider the boozy junket the top TABC brass took to San Diego in the summer of 2015 — depicted in a humorous

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Rick Perry Scrambles To Divest From Energy Sector, Wall Street Ahead Of Confirmation

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now the nominee for U.S. energy secretary, is moving to disentangle himself from potential conflicts of interest.

Jay Root
By Jay Root
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry during a ceremony for the unveiling of his portrait in the Capitol rotunda, Friday, May 6, 2016, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

(REPORT) --- Former Gov. Rick Perry, who saw a financial windfall in the private sector thanks in part to wealthy donors he cultivated while in state office, has begun to disentangle himself from assets and consulting relationships that could present a conflict of interest as U.S. energy secretary. In an ethics disclosure filed this week in

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8 Border Security Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know

Trying to get beyond the rhetoric on border security or immigration at the state or federal level is often a fool’s errand. Here are eight secrets in those often shadowy arenas.

Jay Root
By Jay Root
A family unit and unaccompanied minors encountered by Border Patrol Agents and Texas Game Wardens, wait as paper work is filled out. Wednesday, April 8, 2015.

(REPORT) --- Illegal immigration and border security were top issues in 2016, and recent pronouncements by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, President-elect Donald Trump and others suggest they will remain red-hot into the New Year. But trying to get beyond the rhetoric at the state or federal level is often a fool's errand. Want to find out what

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