Just when I thought I had figured out
I was really beginning to pride myself in my ability to search records in the district clerks office. That's not really saying much -- it just means that for the past few weeks I didn't have to bother the extremely patient staff ...

When you can't get wetter
Squish. That was me, putting on my helmet this morning. We went for a ride yesterday and got stuck in the downpour. We tried to wait out the rain under a downtown awning. After 30 minutes or so, we got ...

If you want to whip up a souflet or thwart Nazis, Julia's your girl
Maybe Julia Child taught you the secrets of french cooking: making hollandaise that doesn't separate, flipping an omelet or constructing a sugar cage for a cake (spectacular, but tricky). But it turns out, Child kept a few secrets from us..... Oh, like, ...

Keeping track of FOIA requests
I'm the first to roll my eyes at Hints from Heloise (If I crush crackers it will make cracker crumbs? If I make mistakes on a crossword puzzle I should use pencils, not pens? You don't say) so if this ...

I said no mayo, brown mustard!
This from a Florida police blotter, courtesy of TheSmokingGun.com. Sometimes public records track misspent funds. Sometimes they show official misdeeds. Sometimes they reveal problems in the community. But sometimes, they just remind you that some people really need to take a ...

Some days, I look at the silver lining
When it took an AG's ruling to get use of force reports from the Victoria Police Department, I was a little grouchy. But really, that was nothing. Just an exercise in waiting out routine procedure. The Beaumont Enterprise is having ...

The things you learn from public records
Today, I realized I don't have very much stuff. I was reading a police report about a burglary. Among other things, three TVs were taken from one house. At first, I thought, "Oh my gosh, who has three TVs?" Then ...

Public debate
What do you think about criminal records being made public? The topic came up at last night's county-commissioner candidates' debate.

Good, uncleaning fun
So I started to clean house Friday night (gasp!). I didn't get very far, because I hate cleaning. Once I get sort of started, a dust bunny shaped even a little like Elvis can knock me completely off track. Needless ...

Hey! Follow that cash!
Here's an appropriate open-records site to look over this election season. Here's what I've learned, just this morning: dentists and beer distributors are alike, in that they donate scads of money  and lean Republican. The folks at AFLAC and the National ...