About Jennifer Peebles

is a deputy editor at Texas Watchdog, a nonprofit online news site based in Houston. Her responsibilities include: reporting, editing, overseeing Texas Watchdog's education coverage, data analysis, GIS mapping and expertise in freedom of information issues. She is the host of Texas Watchdog's podcast on government transparency and a frequent host of its monthly webinar on using open government laws. She is originally from a small town outside Augusta, GA, and majored in history at Vanderbilt University. Before joining Texas Watchdog, Peebles served as the government editor of The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, overseeing an investigation into the Tennessee Highway Patrol that unearthed deep-seated cronyism and a scheme in which troopers were promoted after making campaign contributions to connected politicians. She enjoys genealogy, playing the banjo poorly, and flat-water kayaking.

• Occupation: Deputy Editor
• Organization: Texas Watchdog
• Location: Houston, TX 77002 USA
• Website: http://www.jenniferpeebles.com/
• Twitter: jpeebles
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jennifer.peebles
• Delicious: jlpeebles
• Flickr: jlpeebles
• Skype: jlp.HoustonTX (Call me!)
• Google Talk: jpintn@gmail.com
• Was accepted for Jul 17-22 2011 Multimedia Training.

Stories

Digital media stories published elsewhere by Jennifer Peebles:

• Interactive presentation: Vendors fund nearly half of incumbent Houston school trustees' campaigns [edit]
  Texas Watchdog's analysis of three years' worth of campaign donations shows that vendors and contractors to the Houston Independent School District gave nearly half of all contributions to the nine incumbent school board members in the past three years.
• Interwoven ethics problems at Houston ISD, Houston Community College, port authority, Harris County -- all one big ball of string [edit]
  There’s trouble at the Houston school district. There’s trouble at the port authority. There’s trouble at Houston Community College. There’s trouble at the Harris County government. A casual reader of Houston news might think it’s a coincidence that there’s so much controversy in four of Houston’s largest government agencies. But the ongoing ethics concerns at those four agencies include overlapping casts of characters. And officials’ relationships with contractors and vendors are a common theme in all four – in some cases, they’re the same contractors.
• Interactive map of 200+ Texas post offices being considered for closure [edit]
  We did a quick GeoCommons map of the 200+ post offices in Texas that the U.S. Postal Service is considering closing.

Writing

Content on this site written by Jennifer Peebles (includes contributory writing):

• Projects

  • The Crucible – Fired Up Camp
  • The Crucible is an industrial arts educational facility where people are encouraged to play with fire! Classes like blacksmithing, welding, fire performance, glass flameworking and foundry allow students a hands-on ...

Testimonials

This was an incredible experience. The stuff we learned is all very practical, and I know I can put it all into use immediately in my newsroom (and use it to train others). The trainers are all great. The participants were a great group, and I know I have made many new friends here. I can't wait to see what kind of creative and informative projects they'll produce now.