Lauren McGaughy
Investigative Reporter and EditorLauren McGaughy is an investigative reporter and editor for The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration of NPR stations in Texas. Her specialty areas include criminal justice, governmental ethics and LGBTQ issues.
Got a tip? Email her at lmcgaughy@kut.org or tips@kut.org. Find her on X @lmcgaughy and Instagram @laurenmcgaughy.
In 2020, she and reporting partner Dave Boucher won the Headliners Foundation Showcase Silver Award for their two-part series revealing how police in Texas for decades used hypnosis to investigate crimes. After their series published, the state police did away with their hypnosis program and Texas lawmakers gutted the practice.
She had been honored with awards from the Texas and Louisiana Associated Press Managing Editors, IRE (Investigative Reporters & Editors) and NLGJA (the LGBTQ Journalists Association). Her personal essay on the coverage of the 2017 Sutherland Springs mass shooting spurred a national conversation about media treatment of communities in the wake of tragedies.
Lauren previously covered state politics and policy for The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle and New Orleans Times-Picayune. She loves cats, cemeteries and comic books. Ask about her wig collection!
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Texans who have secured a court order to update the sex listed on their birth certificates can no longer do so at this time, according to a new state policy that blocks transgender Texans from making these changes. -
Now, Texans will not be able to change the sex on their licenses unless it is to fix a clerical error. -
Paxton, a Republican, cut a deal with prosecutors earlier this year to do community service and pay restitution in lieu of being tried for felony fraud. A copy of the deal has not been publicly released, but Paxton’s lawyer has confirmed the type of community service his client will perform. -
In a major loss for the special prosecutors, the First Court of Appeals in Houston ruled that a lower court erred in ordering the lawyers to be paid $300 an hour for their work on the Paxton fraud case. -
El estado de Texas ha sido demandado por la falta de aire acondicionado en sus prisiones, donde las temperaturas interiores pueden superar los 100 grados en verano. En el tribunal federal, personas recluidas detallaron las medidas extremas que han tomado para escapar del calor, como provocar incendios o autolesionarse. -
The state of Texas is being sued over the lack of air conditioning in its prisons, where indoor temperatures can top 100 degrees in the summer. In federal court, inmates detailed the extreme measures they’ve taken to get out of the heat, like starting fires or inflicting self-harm.
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Las autopsias que acaban de ser publicadas muestran que las temperaturas extremas en las prisiones estatales pueden haber contribuido a múltiples muertes recientes entre rejas. Pero el estado dice que el calor no ha matado a ningún preso en más de una década. Una demanda que cuestiona los protocolos de calor de las prisiones de Texas se verá en un tribunal federal el martes. -
Newly released autopsies show extreme temperatures in state prisons may have contributed to multiple recent deaths behind bars. But the state says heat hasn’t killed any prisoners in more than a decade. A lawsuit challenging Texas prison heat protocols will be heard in federal court on Tuesday.
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Greg Abbott rechazó reportes de que el presidente Biden retrasó la distribución de suministros de emergencia a Texas porque no pudo contactar a los líderes estatales. -
Greg Abbott rejected reports that President Biden delayed distributing emergency supplies to Texas because he could not reach state leaders.
