Mike Morris

Mayor John Whitmire launches “pay to play” ethics investigation into Controller Chris Hollins’ decision to solicit sponsorships for a financial conference.

Houston Mayor Whitmire is 'making good' on campaign promises to clean up corruption after arrest of Midtown Redevelopment Authority official, spokeswoman says.

Top Harris County health official fired as $6M contract is scrutinized

4 takeaways from the Chronicle investigation of CenterPoint’s lobbying

Everyday Houstonians aren’t the only ones fed up with CenterPoint Energy’s inadequate communication about its work to restore power after Hurricane Beryl. Even senior officials at City Hall, records show, have struggled to get the utility’s help powering up “life safety critical infrastructure,” including water and sewer plants. In a 1 a.m. Thursday email, Houston TranStar director Brian Mason urged CenterPoint officials to help restore power to a south side water plant — “needed ASAP to preven…

A former Midtown Redevelopment Authority official and two vendors are facing felony corruption charges, accused of misusing some $8.5 million in public funds meant to build affordable housing in Third Ward. Todd Edwards, the agency’s former real estate manager, is facing four first-degree felony charges: theft, abuse of official capacity, money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property. Midtown vendors Veronica Ugorji of Cortez Landscaping and Kenneth Jones of KCK Demolition and Lands…

Here’s a breakdown of the crucial decisions that laid the foundation for the extreme outlier approach to law enforcement that Harris County uses today.

The Midtown Redevelopment Authority has spent millions of tax dollars acquiring almost 500 lots in and around Third Ward, hoping to slow gentrification in the historic Black neighborhood and build affordable housing on the land. And for years, residents have complained that hundreds of the agency’s still-vacant lots have become overgrown, homes only for tires and trash, drug deals, even an open-air brothel. How could this be, residents wondered, when Midtown was paying companies millions of doll…

The Houston Police Department is responding to top-priority calls at the slowest rate since the 1990s, an investigation found. Read the series here.

A Chronicle investigation finds the Houston Police Department is responding to Priority 1...