John Tedesco

Scott Huddleston’s story reveals how some caretakers of the Alamo are splitting from the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the nonprofit organization that oversees the historic mission:

Tensions within the group running the Alamo have fueled an unprecedented schism, casting uncertainty on the future of the Shrine of Texas Liberty.

Two members of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas are forming their own nonprofit to benefit the Alamo, despite the DRT’s objections.

“I think the split has been a long time coming,” said Erin Bowman, the San Antonian leading the effort.

Conflicts within the DRT, which has run the state’s top tourist attraction since 1905, are frequent. But some say in-fighting among the Daughters is the worst it’s been in years, amid the pressure of raising a record $60 million for the state-owned Alamo in a down economy.

Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin praised one of our stories about thrill ride injuries and criticized another in this letter to the editor published today.

The Legislative session in Texas officially starts today, which means lawmakers will be filing thousands of bills dealing with topics ranging from the trivial to the profound.

This year, bills have been filed that prohibit human cloning; expand the definition of college hazing; and encourage more “green” jobs in Texas, just to name a few topics.

You can find and track bills at the Legislature’s excellent web site. It allows you to look up proposed legislation by entering a bill number or keyword search. As the bills endure their rite of passage like salmon swimming upstream, you can find out which legislative committee the bills are sent to, and watch the actual committee hearings where supporters and critics testify.

You can also look up bills by author and sponsor, which is what Reporter Greg Jefferson did when he wrote a good profile last Sunday of state Sen. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, who was elected speaker of the House today.

Day 2 of “Texas’ Deadliest Export” is out. The series shows how easy it is for Mexican drug cartels to buy guns in Texas. Sunday’s story by Reporter Guillermo Contreras focuses on the straw buyers — the people with clean criminal histories who buy guns that wind up being used in cop killings and gun battles in Mexico:

“Anyone who can legally buy a gun can get caught up in the scheme,” said Mark Siebert, resident agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in San Antonio. “It’s college students, girls, guys, grandmothers. It’s anybody.”

In Houston, ATF agents uncovered one network of more than 30 straw buyers who spent more than $400,000 on guns, said J. Dewey Webb, agent in charge of the office there, which oversees San Antonio and much of south Texas.

“A lot of straw purchasers say, ‘Hey I’m not hurting anybody. I’m just making a few dollars,” Webb said. “But that AK killed someone in Mexico. It’s all connected and it’s all relevant.”

The value of this series of watchdog stories is how they help people understand a complicated problem. We’ve all heard the violence in Mexico. It seems like a vague, distant problem with no connection to us. But the Express-News stories are answering some fundamental questions, such as, where do the guns come from? And who actually supplies them?

Guillermo names names and shows readers how Texas is connected to the drug violence. He give readers some surprising answers, which is what a good investigative news story is supposed to do.

Anton Caputo, the environmental reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, won this year’s Risser prize for his series about the impact of climate change in Texas.

The $3,000 prize is named after James Risser, a Pulitzer-prize winning journlist who wrote about environmental problems that are unique to the Western United States.

Anton wrote about shrinking Texas coastlines, long droughts, and how state officials are ignoring the problem.

Here’s how the first story starts out:

SURFSIDE BEACH — Charles Watson stands by the side of the road smoking a cigarette and snapping photos with a digital camera. He seems transfixed as he watches his family’s longtime beach home jacked off its pilings and rolled slowly down the street.

Several neighboring houses in this sleepy coastal town will meet the same fate this very day.

Forty years ago, 200 feet of sandy beach buffered Beach Drive from the sea. But today, the surf runs freely between the pilings and over the remains of concrete foundations.

The erosion has become so severe that Texas declared the property a public beach and gave the owners a choice: Take state money to cover the cost of moving the house or go to court.

The stories sparked a heated response from readers.

Click here to check out Day 1 of the entire series.