250-person Texas city had 50 police officers
The story doesn't go the way you expect it will.
"Fifty cops in a town of 250 — that's an interesting story," Rogalski said. "That's a talker."
Still, Rogalski and his colleagues on the investigations team weren't sure whether it was a story for them. For one, Coffee City is more than three hours north of Houston, outside of KHOU's viewing area. Would their audience even care? Rogalski also recognized that digging into the tip would require a lot of work. He would need to submit dozens of requests for the personnel files for each of the officers.
He decided to do just that. Rogalski made nearly 100 requests to all of the officers' past departments, asking for their personnel files, including any disciplinary actions and the reasons for their departures. The requests cost roughly $1,000 and resulted in nearly 9,000 documents.
"That's how we were able to determine that this wasn't just a story about a small town writing a bunch of tickets," Rogalski said. "Coffee City, Texas, was a magnet for troubled cops, and more than half of those officers had dubious work histories."
Those dubious work histories included suspensions, demotions and terminations. KHOU found officers with histories of excessive force, public drunkenness and criminal charges that included aggravated assault and family violence. One officer was fired from their previous job for telling a citizen on Facebook, "You should kill yourself, do the world a favor."
"This project was a little ironic in that what was interesting technically wasn't illegal. Them being a 'speed trap town' — perfectly legal. Them having 50 officers on the roster — while it's unusual, not illegal," Gibson said. "When we get to part three, what is illegal is they're not paying the minimum wage. That's technically against the rules. And how interesting is that?"
To hook the viewer and "bring some energy" to the piece, Gibson wanted to start with a trope that everyone could relate to — the small town that will pull you over. He worked to make sure that the headline — a town of 250 with 50 cops — would stay with the viewer no matter how far into the weeds the story got as it explored the various issues with the department.
The reaction was swift. Within two weeks, the city council had voted to fire Portillo and disband the entire police department. In December, Portillo was given six felony charges for tampering with government records by failing to disclose his DWI charge on his Coffee City job application. Several other former Coffee City officers face felony charges.
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Thousands of fish washed up on some Texas beaches
When asked what contributed to the fish deaths, Quintana Beach County Park officials said it was a "perfect storm" of factors.
First, warm water is not ideal for fish. It tends to hold less oxygen. That is especially true in shallow water, which heats up quicker. So, a school of fish likely found themselves deprived of oxygen as they swam though shallow waters in the summertime.
Another problem was that seas near county beaches were quite calm over the past few weeks, meaning there were few waves and winds to help redistribute oxygen in the water.
Over the past few days, the skies above the the beaches were cloudy. That is an issue for phytoplankton, which help produce oxygen in the water by using photosynthesis. That process is driven by sunlight. So, the less they are exposed to the sun by way of overcast, the less oxygen phytoplankton produce.
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Texas Board of Education got proposal to call slavery 'involuntary relocation'
A group of educators in Texas proposed referring to slavery as “involuntary relocation” in second-grade classes — before being rebuffed by the State Board of Education.
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Supreme Court blocks Texas' Social Media ban