In Texas, at least, only two real skirmishes left in the battle to actually get the state’s recalcitrant state officials and county bureaucracies to acknowledge the United States’ new reality and issue marriage licenses to any couple who wants to get married. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, after initially feeling…
Ostensibly, Texas justices of the peace can do two things now that same-sex marriage is legal in the state: They can either stop performing marriages entirely — they aren’t legally required to officiate ceremonies — or they can marry anyone who wants who wishes to get married in their courts…
Forest City is not happy about Tim Headington’s plan to install luxury goods purveyor Forty Five Ten on Main Street downtown. The apartment management company — which owns the Wilson Building next door, as well as the Mercantile, Continental and Element buildings nearby — says it was misled about the height…
You can almost hear the echo of John C. Calhoun, Ross Barnett or George Wallace reading Molly Crimer’s statement. The county clerk of Irion County, smack dab in the middle of the middle of nowhere in West Texas said late Monday that she will not be issuing same-sex marriage licenses…
Katie (not k.d.) Lang made sure she was going to get sued last week. Flouting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, but backed by a legally dubious opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Hood County Clerk decided initially that her office just wasn’t going to issue…
On Earth, everything is connected. The streams and wetlands feed into larger lakes and rivers, and so federal regulators want to protect the smaller bodies of water in order to keep the larger bodies, and ultimately, our water supply, clean. But in business-friendly states such as Texas, corporations are not…
Last week was not good for John Wiley Price. Christian Campbell and Karen Manning, charged in connection with Price’s federal corruption case, pleaded guilty to single counts and agreed to testify against Price. Campbell admitted funneling cash to Price’s political consultant Kathy Nealy. Manning admitted to filing a false income tax…
Texas, or at least tiny, tiny part of it named Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, responded to last Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage across the country with bluster and defiance. Patrick spurted out that he didn’t care if he was on the…
The federal bribery and tax evasion case against John Wiley Price got a human face Wednesday. Christian Campbell, one of the Dallas County commissioner’s co-defendants, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to commit bribery concerning a local government receiving federal benefits. Put simply: Campbell admits he funneled money to…
In 2013, D Magazine published a story under an anonymous byline, “Anonymous Park Cities Parent,” that trashed another Park Cities parent for being on welfare. While the author of the piece had the luxury of anonymity, the subject, a woman named Janay Bender Rosenthal, did not. Called “The Park Cities…
There was about a half-decade stretch, covering roughly the back half of the ’00s, when Mike Ribeiro was one of the Dallas Stars two best players. He was also, alleges a Collin County woman who babysat for Ribeiro and his wife, a handsy drunk who sexually assaulted her as she…
The corruption charges unveiled in New York last month against more than a dozen international soccer bigwigs shook FIFA to its core, but the long arm of American justice somehow missed longtime FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, the world’s most notorious sportocrat. Those hoping that Blatter will experience a comeuppance…
In early 2011 then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott moved to bring down the hammer on Midland Funding, one of the country’s more rapacious debt-collection outfits. Every year the company would buy billions of dollars in debt from banks and credit card companies for pennies on the dollar (in 2010 those…
All that separates Texas and mandatory in-person visits for most of the state’s county jail inmates is Governor Greg Abbott’s signature. Working through the Memorial Day weekend, the Texas Senate approved a bill requiring county jails in the state to offer inmates at least two 20-minute, in-person visitation opportunities a…
Jonathan Paul died in March, his family says, because officers at Arlington City Jail put him in a chokehold and then failed to act when Paul could no longer breathe. Paul was picked up by Arlington police for outstanding warrants after he created a disturbance at his home in an…
We’re trying. That’s the gist of a letter sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch regarding Texas’ compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) last week. “I cannot yet certify that the state is in full compliance with Prison Rape Elimination Act (“PREA”),…
At the end of April, Josh Gravens was testifying in Austin, lobbying to support legislation affecting the criminal justice world. One week later, Gravens was back home in Dallas, in the Frank Crowley criminal courthouse, facing his own criminal charges that may put him away for up to 25 years…
Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw does not have a sense of whimsy. Emails obtained by an attorney representing a state trooper reprimanded for taking a photo with Snoop Dogg at South by Southwest show that McCraw was both hellbent on finding the trooper and has a really…
Amid what’s been a massive bummer of a Texas legislative session, the search for silver linings has been difficult. Over the past week, though, a solid contender has developed: the chance for meaningful criminal justice reform. Specifically, a pair of efforts that would make it easier for ex-offenders to secure…
A Deep Ellum beat cop, backed by his community and fellow officers but fired by the Dallas Police Department, will not face criminal charges after an arrest of an aggressive panhandler resulted in a claim he used excessive force. See also: Fired Deep Ellum Cop Jesus Martinez Gets Outpouring of…
The problem, as we wrote the day after Dallas’ new plastic bag ordinance went into effect, is that the ordinance doesn’t ban bags, and now the city of Dallas could pay for it. A group of single-use plastic bag manufacturers has sued the city, claiming that the Dwaine Caraway-shepherded bag…
Jerry Jones, it seems, is headed back to court. The Cowboys owner, who in the last year has successfully fought suits claiming that he sexually assaulted a woman and defrauded ticket buyers at Super Bowl XLV who ended up without seats, is accused this time of failing to properly maintain…
