About
A records desk for Texas.
Local Insights is an independent civic-data project based in Houston. We index public records across all 254 Texas counties — 1.84 million documents so far — and turn them into investigations, tools, and lookups that anyone can check. Nothing is paywalled. Every figure carries its source.
What we do
- Index the records. Agendas, appraisal rolls, ACFRs, EMMA filings, jail populations, permit queues — 312 GB of PDF, OCR'd and searchable.
- Publish investigations. Long-form, bylined, verified — like the 254-county homestead screen that produced 662 referral-ready leads for appraisal districts.
- Build tools. A public-records request builder, a meeting-agenda lookup, compliance monitors — free, ungated, stamped with refresh dates.
Masthead
Charles Blain — Founder & editor. Charles leads the reporting, public-records research, data verification, product direction, and publication of Local Insights investigations and tools.
Standards
Every figure sourced and dated · coverage gaps labeled on the page · records never paywalled · corrections dated and public. Read the methodology, the source registry, and the corrections record.
Contact
Send a tip, press inquiry, dataset, or project note through the contact form. Messages are addressed directly to Charles at charles@urbanreform.org. Corrections can also be submitted through the corrections page.