Legislators Guide to the Issues 2005-2006

Protecting Texas Critical Infrastructure: Prevention, Mitigation, and Recovery from Natural Disasters and State Actor and Terrorist Attacks

Protecting Texas Critical Infrastructure: Prevention, Mitigation, and Recovery from Natural Disasters and State Actor and Terrorist Attacks By: The Honorable Chuck DeVore Download the full research paper here. Key Points Texas’s critical infrastructure remains vulnerable to natural disasters and attacks. The federal government largely abandoned civil defense 50 years ago. Should key elements of Texas’s...

Michael Petrick v. City of Austin

Date Filed: July 27, 2026 Original Court: Western District of Texas, Austin Division Case Status: Active Litigation Case Summary: In August 2025, Michael Petrick purchased a home on a 0.28-acre lot in Austin, Texas, in preparation for the birth of his first child. The property contained three overgrown trees. One tree was splitting and posed...

Oakland fined this couple $915,000 for preventing fires. That’s 18 times the penalty for actual arson

Imagine buying a piece of property, being ordered by the government to clear it of fire hazards, and then being handed a near-million-dollar bill by that same government for doing exactly what it asked. It sounds like a dystopian satire of bureaucratic overreach, but for Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner, it is a harrowing legal...