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St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️ Profile picture
St. John Barned-Smith ⚔️
@stjbs
City hall reporter @sfchronicle. Boston born, Philly trained, TX forged. RPCV: Paraguay. Call me ‘Sinjin.'
Jun 9, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I'm up in ATX for today's presser regarding the Clouse murders and the discovery that Holly Marie is alive.
It's scheduled to start shortly, so stay tuned!!!
(Background: houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…) Here we go:
Jun 9, 2022 • 20 tweets • 8 min read
🎙️🎙️🎙️ Y'all, pull up a seat because I've got an extraordinary tale for you. It starts in 1981 in Harris County, when a dog walked out of the woods, a human arm in its jaws -- and ended this week, 42 years later, with a grandma reuniting with a girl she feared had died. 🎙️🎙️🎙️ After that grisly discovery, police spent days searching and finally found two mangled corpses, a young man and woman with "beautiful teeth." But try as they might, they couldn't ID the couple. ... until earlier this year.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
May 25, 2022 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
At @GregAbbott_TX's presser presently.
He talks about how children are "a gift," of their laughter, of the joy they bring their parents.
The tragedy has shaken Uvalde "to its core" "Families are broken apart, hearts are forever shattered
all Texans are grieving with the people of Uvalde, and people are rightfully angry about what has happened," he said. Events like this they tear at the fabric of a community...."
May 25, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Good morning, Texas. Here’s what we know about the massacre in Uvalde. We will be updated throughout the day houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t… And here’s everything we know about the gunman’s weapons: Robb Elementary shooter bought AR-15 style rifle day after he turned 18 houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
May 25, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
It's been an incredibly grim day, and today will be one as well. A brief thread about what we know so far. At 11:32 a.m. this AM, police in the south Texas town of Uvalde got a call about a man who'd crashed his car into Robb Elementary School and who had a gun.
He would go on to kill 21 people.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
May 24, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This shooting comes just after the 4th anniversary of the Santa Fe school massacre, which claimed the lives of 10 teachers and students and left 13 others wounded, including former HPD officer John Barnes.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t… In the aftermath of the Santa Fe massacre, @GregAbbott_TX created a 40-point school safety plan, calling for more armed teachers, and otherwise "hardening" schools.
houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/…
May 22, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
BREAKING: Bombshell 400-page report finds Southern Baptist leaders routinely silenced sexual abuse survivors houstonchronicle.com/news/investiga… This extraordinary report follows and mirrors many of the findings of Abuse of Faith, the @HoustonChron's investigation into the SBC, authored by @RobDownenChron, @John_Tedesco and @LiseDigger
houstonchronicle.com/local/investig…
Apr 26, 2022 • 34 tweets • 10 min read
🧵Good morning. I'll be watching commissioners' court today. County officials are set to consider a resolution in support of @CrimeStopHOU.
harriscountytx.gov/Government/Cou… As many of you know, last week, @Dexinvestigates and I published two stories about Crime Stoppers organizations in Texas. Dex's focused on how organizations across the state spend their money. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Apr 22, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Reader response. As I told @bigangrylaw (who I also like and whose work I appreciate), I started working on this piece months ago. I have no problem when readers don’t agree with a piece but I would like to address one point. Frequently, I’ve worked on stories, only to discover some premise I’d been following was inaccurate. And that frequently, the explanation was far simpler.
…
Why did these stories come out the same day? Ive gotten several critiques of collusion/coordination, etc …
Dec 9, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Men of God, or men of gold? Some Texas religious leaders live in lavish, tax-free estates thanks to obscure law — read this absolutely wild investigation from @Dexinvestigates, @byjayroot and @stephanierlamm: houstonchronicle.com/news/investiga… Jesus wept
Dec 8, 2021 • 19 tweets • 3 min read
Good morning Houston. At 10 am, @SheriffEd_HCSO will be holding a press conference to address this troubling incident. I’ll cover. At HC CJC, meanwhile, @nkhensley will be monitoring the accused rapist’s first court appearance. We're underway. Sheriff discussing inmate "brutally assaulting" one of our sergeants, says it "shook him to his core."

Says jailed inmate was on his housing floor - went to scheduled Bible study class, and during that session, walked out....
Jul 12, 2021 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
🧵Last week I had the privilege to meet Arthur Jackson, a 99-year-old WWII veteran among the first wave of African-Americans to serve in the Marine Corps.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t… While a handful of Black men served as Marines during the Revolutionary War, the federal government barred them from serving in the Marine Corps when it was re-instituted in 1798.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Apr 8, 2021 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
After the deep freeze, I set out to learn about how disabled and medically fragile Texans fared in the blackout. My story is out today, but I’d like to share a couple of stories from people I spoke to but couldn’t quote in my story. houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t… This is Gary Lynn, 28, from Spring. He suffers from cerebral palsy, and can’t walk or move very well, so he needs a power chair to get around. During the storm, his feet swelled up and turned purple, and he worried he was going to lose them to frostbite.
Jan 20, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
In November, I asked the Houston Police Department for 10 years of clearance rates and annual reports for the six investigative divisions and its trucking enforcement unit. Today, the department sent me this invoice for the information: And y'all, they want 260 business days to comply with the request.
Jan 19, 2021 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
When federal agents interviewed HPD Ofc. Tam Pham, they found photos of the officer in the U.S. Capitol in his phone's "deleted images" folder. From new court docs filed in federal court in DC: BREAKING: Former HPD Ofc. Tam Pham entered U.S. Capitol with pro-Trump mob, then lied to federal investigators about the incident -- according to new charging documents filed in DC federal court Tuesday
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Dec 15, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Prosecutors: A former HPD captain faces assault charges after accosting an A/C repairman at gunpoint who he believed was involved in a ballot fraud scheme houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t… The former captain, Mark Aguirre, was fired from HPD in 2003 for his role in the Kmart mass arrests of 270 people during an operation meant to crack down on illegal street-racing and which turned into a complete debacle.
Sep 22, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Y’all I’m back in Floodtown, down near Meyerland. Bayou in its banks, water moving fast. Lmk if there are spots near you underwater/were flooded The humidity following apocalyptic rains is always a particular delight of our beloved metropolis.
Sep 21, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
In Surfside, high tide sent water 18 inches above a some roads. It’s dropped one but left debris all over the place. ImageImageImageImage And yes that’s a porta-John in the road.
Sep 17, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
For HOU CJ peeps, @dylmcguinness and I are covering today's @HOUPublicSafety meeting, where HPD is rolling out its new cite-and-release program.
Story tk.
Here's a link to the meeting agenda: houstontx.gov/council/commit… This is a topic of much interest for proponents for criminal justice reform.

Here's some background:

houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Sep 2, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Before I moved to Texas, I worked at the Gazette, a small, tight-knit weekly newspaper in suburban Maryland. Jeremy Arias was the cops reporter, a crusty, profane, no-nonsense reporter with an unforgettable sense of humor. He died this week, at 34. He was a yeoman reporter who really took immersive journalism to a new level. He wrote a whole series about cadets training to become cops -- and went through the academy with them and let them tase him.
bit.ly/3jFUvDT
Aug 30, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Here's the complaint defense attorneys are making: A defendant is arrested, spends a bunch of money, and posts bond.
They go to court. In court, the attorneys allege, Judge Franklin orders an attorney to stand in as the defendant's lawyer, and then revokes their bond, and either sets it higher or sets it at $0, a move defense attorneys say is a clear violation of their constitutional rights.