Latest Stories By Sue Owen

Showing 1-12 of 29 items

Greg Abbott (again) doubts Wendy Davis on gun rights

Greg Abbott, running for governor, told CNN this week that campaigning with provocative rocker Ted Nugent "was a way to expose Wendy Davis for her flip-flopping on gun-related issues."

In November, before Davis announced her support for allowing licensed Texans to openly carry pistols on their hips, we took an in-depth look at her positions and votes on gun issues going back to her days on the Fort Worth City Council. Read on for more.

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Your early vote can be of primary importance

If you wait to vote till November, you could miss your chance to affect some important Texas races. Early voting for the March 4 primaries runs Feb. 18-28.

Take a trip with the Truth-O-Meter through the names of some candidates you might not see again after March 4.

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Got any questions about the candidates’ answers?

The Republican candidates for lieutenant governor faced questions on border security, abortion, education and other key topics in Monday night’s debate hosted by KERA-TV, Channel 13 in Dallas. Read on for the facts on claims they’ve made before -- and tell us what piqued your interest.

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Chain emails claim this picture’s ‘worth $678 million’

Texas readers asked us about chain emails on the contract to build Healthcare.gov going to a company linked to a Princeton classmate of Michelle Obama. FactCheck.org and Snopes.com have taken a hard look at several claims in such emails they received.

Was CGI Federal given a no-bid contract to build Healthcare.gov?

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Gun homicides down after – not due to – 1996 Texas law

Running for lieutenant governor, Jerry Patterson claims that not only did predictions of "blood in the streets" fail to come true after a 1996 law let eligible Texans get licenses to carry concealed handguns, but firearms homicides fell 40 percent.

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Sooey! Obama urges Texas to mimic Arkansas

Obama, speaking in Dallas, said a million Texans "could get health insurance right away" if the state expanded Medicaid via Obamacare.

Arkansas, he said, "reduced its number of uninsured by 14 percent -- already, just in the first month -- by signing people up for expanded Medicaid."

See how we rate his Texas claim and a version of his Arkansas claim that we'd already checked.

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Prayer not restricted at Houston National Cemetery

Conservative group ForAmerica created a catchy graphic that's been shared more than 18,000 times on Facebook. The only problem is it's False: The Houston National Cemetery is not restricting Christian prayers. However, similar allegations gained legal traction in 2011.

 

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As Holder targets Texas law, a look at our voter ID checks

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday in Philadelphia that he will ask a federal court to step in and examine Texas’ voter identification law before it’s put into place in November.

Our related fact-checks include Holder's claim that 25 percent of African Americans don’t have a government-issued voter ID, Greg Abbott saying 200 dead people voted in Texas’ May 2012 primaries and how Texas came under the Voting Rights Act in 1975, not 1965.

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Gas prices up under Obama, but had just taken epic fall

"It doesn’t take an economist to figure out how a gallon of gasoline has increased by $1.62 in four years," said U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin, in a recent newsletter to constituents. President Barack Obama's policies are holding domestic energy back, he said.

But experts said the main reason was the huge drop in gas prices right before Obama's inauguration, as the global economy went into crisis triggered by the United States' "Lehman moment," when a mega-investment bank's bankruptcy and the government's refusal to bail it out sent markets reeling.

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Austin biggest U.S. city with no ‘anchor’ in Congress

Six congressional districts reach into Austin under the interim plan imposed by federal judges. But Austin voters don't make up the majority in any of them.

We determined that State Rep. Elliott Naishtat was correct when he recently said that Austin's the largest U.S. city with no "anchor" district.

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Texas’ attorney general v. the Truth-O-Meter

State Attorney General Greg Abbott announced his bid for governor Sunday in San Antonio, and many observers already expect him to win, with at least $18 million on hand and conservative credentials that include suing the Obama administration 25 times -- the latter a claim PolitiFact rated True. See how we’ve rated Abbott on issues from greenhouse gases to voter ID.

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Rick Perry, Sam Houston, slavery–and the Boy Scouts

Rick Perry, exhorting the Boy Scouts to continue excluding gays, analogized to Sam Houston and slavery on the eve of the Civil War. We wondered about that.

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Showing 1-12 of 29 items