How this works

Every 15 minutes this site checks Texas news outlets and government records, groups the reports about each event, and keeps only the facts: what happened, who is involved, and what it costs.

Where the news comes from

• News outlets across Texas and the country, found through Google News headline searches on every part of Texas life (the Capitol, taxes, elections, courts, energy and the grid, water, health, weather, the border, public safety, roads, jobs, cities and counties), plus The Texas Tribune.
• Texas government records: the Governor's office, the Secretary of State, and Texas Legislature Online, including bills passed, bills filed, and the Legislative Budget Board's estimates of what each bill costs.
• Federal records that name Texas: new rules in the Federal Register, bills introduced by Texas's members of Congress with the Congressional Budget Office's cost estimate when there is one, FEMA disaster declarations, and the National Weather Service's most serious alerts.
• Outlets owned by the same company, and stories copied word for word, count as one source. News aggregators that only repost other outlets are never used.

Who leans which way, and the same for both sides

Most news on this site is found through Google News headlines. Google decides which outlets show up there, and most of them lean left. So every fact sheet says which way its outlets lean, using the AllSides Media Bias Ratings, and flags any sheet where every rated outlet leans the same way. The running count is on Who's covering Texas.

Outlets don't aim their attack stories evenly, so this site does it for them: stories that put a party in a bad light (accusations, attack ads, investigations, false claims, controversies) are shown in equal numbers for Republicans and Democrats. How many each party actually got from the outlets is counted on Who's covering Texas, along with how often the AI that writes the sheets tried to slip in the outlets' loaded words.

The rules every fact sheet follows

• Texas only. National stories appear when Texas is a real part of them, not when it is mentioned in passing.
• Two sources, or an official record. A news story is published once at least two separate outlets report it, or once it appears in a government record.
• Every fact is cited. Each fact links to the numbered sources that state it. A fact without a source is removed automatically.
• Facts and claims are kept apart. What happened goes under "The facts." What people say, predict or allege goes under "Who said what."
• No guessing about money. A tax or dollar figure appears only when a source states it. Otherwise the sheet says none was stated.
• Disagreements are shown, not settled. When sources give different numbers or details, both are listed.
• Real dates only. Every story carries the date its sources give. Anything that happened more than two weeks before we found it is marked Dated record with its real date, and a story whose sources give no date is marked Date not confirmed.
• No opinion pieces, ads, celebrity news or sports scores.

What's on this site

• Elections: key dates, who is on the ballot, and the election fact sheets.
• Session Tracker: bills in the Texas Legislature, with fiscal notes.
• Calendar: hearings, votes and deadlines that sources say are coming up.
• Dollars: every stated dollar figure and tax rate, never added up or estimated.
• Texas in numbers: the week in counts and figures.
• Today in 60 seconds: the day's fact sheets as quick cards.
• Counties: a page for each of Texas's 254 counties, and a map of where the news is. Pick your county and its stories come first; your choice stays in your browser.
• Alerts: a notice on your phone when a fact sheet touches your county. No account needed.
• Property tax rates: rates local governments adopted or proposed, exactly as stated, and what each means for a home before exemptions.
• How they headlined it: each fact sheet shows how each outlet worded its headline for the same event.
• Corrections and updates: every fix and every update, with the date. Every fact sheet has a form to report a mistake.

What is not covered

News about a single school district, such as one board vote or campus, is left to local publications. Statewide school policy, school funding and school property taxes are covered.

The red dots

A red dot beside a story means you haven't read it yet. The ring around the logo fills as you read the day's stories, and the row of seven dots under the date marks each day this week that you've read at least one. All of this is kept only in your own browser.

Limits

Fact sheets are written by AI from the linked sources and can contain mistakes. Check the original sources at the bottom of each sheet, and report an error if you find one.

Put it on your site

Any website can show the latest fact sheets for free. Copy this into your page:

<iframe src="https://reddotflow.com/embed.php?money=1&n=5" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:440px;border:0" title="Texas tax and money news" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Leave out money=1 to show all Texas news, change n=5 for more or fewer stories, and add &theme=dark for dark pages.

Feeds

Every fact sheet is also available as RSS and as a JSON feed. Add ?money=1 for tax and money stories only, or ?cat=Courts for a single section. Past daily issues are archived too.