I'm Ron Helms. Watchtower is my one-person newsroom covering matters of public interest across Texas, built on public records and on-the-record interviews, and 100% funded by readers.
Five weeks before the vote, the Italy City Council ordered staff to bring back competing bids and a priced breakdown. One bid came back, the breakdown never did, and the council approved the higher number anyway.
I asked Trinidad's council candidates and community figures what's wrong with the city. Then I went through the records: a $291,723.78 meter vote set beside a budget that's 27 days late, carries no meter line, and shows no fund balances, debts or tax rate.
Tens of millions are moving through Hubbard, Texas, a town of 1,400: data-center money into city government, a $7.6 million school bond, and municipal borrowing, with one man near the top of it all.
After days of interviews with people on every side of Tool's fire department fight, one thing is clear: this story is far more complex than it appears on the surface. Part 2 of a three-part investigation.
A Gun Barrel City clip has more than 244,000 views and a comment section at war. The next morning, I called the mayor in it. He talked for 55 minutes.
Hawk Cove has an agenda item called Public Comments that nobody was allowed to comment on, a federal lender its own attorney says is done being patient, and a council whose members say on the record that they do not know what their own city is doing.
If something in your town, your agency, or a business near you does not add up, send it. Documents help, but a date, a place, or a name is enough to start. I read every tip myself.
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