A group of photojournalists is challenging a Texas state law that restricts how they can use drones, arguing the law represents a violation of the First Amendment. The law imposes fines and possible jail time for photographers caught using drones to shoot photos of people or private property, regardless of…
Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, as a parade of witness talked about the scene at the South Side Flats apartments, the forensic results of Amber Guyger’s decision to shoot Botham Jean and investigative procedure, prosecutors’ case came into clearer focus: Guyger might not be a cold-blooded murderer, but she was…
The state’s lead investigator in the Amber Guyger case, David Armstrong, said today in court that he didn’t think she committed a crime in the shooting of her neighbor, Botham Jean. But the judge, Tammy Kemp, didn’t allow the jury to hear that part of Armstrong’s testimony, ruling that his…
Monday, one of Dallas’ biggest trials of the 21st century is set to begin at the Dallas County Courthouse on Riverfront Boulevard. Amber Guyger, a former Dallas Police Department officer, is charged with murdering Botham Jean, a 26-year-old PriceWaterhouseCoopers employee. Guyger shot Jean, who lived in the apartment immediately above…
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has charged 58 Texans as part of an interagency crackdown on illegal opioid distribution and insurance fraud. The “strike force operation” resulted in 21 cases, including one against a Dallas medical device company that made millions of dollars in false Medicare…
Dallas County District Judge Tammy Kemp ruled late Monday afternoon that the trial of former Dallas Police Department officer Amber Guyger will remain in Dallas, denying a defense motion for a change of venue. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean as Jean hung out in his own apartment on Sept…
One might have hoped, with the Texas House’s powerful General Investigating Committee getting in on the action Monday, that a little light would have been shed on what exactly transpired between Texas Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen and Empower Texans gadfly Michael Q. Sullivan on June 12. The committee, led…
Never fear, those of you who worried Dallas might actually sort out its paid sick leave situation without state intervention. Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton formally thrust his nose into the lawsuit brought against the city over its ordinance, keeping his longstanding record of supporting local control, except all…
Former Dallas County Schools Superintendent Rick Sorrells is going to spend the next seven years in prison. Sixteen months ago, Sorrells, 73, pleaded guilty to taking more than $3 million in cash and other assets from a company that stocked DCS with cameras for a program that ticketed drivers who…
Whatever happens over the next 15 months, whether President Donald Trump gets reelected and continues his slow-burn destruction of American political norms or a Democrat wins the White House and immediately begins trying to throw 2017-20 way down the memory hole, one piece of the president’s legacy that will endure…
The Dallas Morning News and NBC5 won a three-year campaign Monday for the release of Dallas Police body camera footage showing the last minutes of 32-year-old Anthony Timpa’s life. The video shows the events of the detainment and death of the unarmed man on Aug. 10, 2016. According to the…
The 2019 offseason continues to be about anything but football for the Dallas Cowboys and their star running back, Ezekiel Elliott. Tuesday afternoon, Ronnie Hill sued Elliott and the team for interfering with police during the aftermath of a 2017 crash near the Cowboys headquarters at The Star in Frisco…
The other proverbial shoe finally dropped Tuesday. Two Collin County companies, set to be subject to Dallas’ new paid sick leave ordinance because of the amount of time their employees work in Dallas, sued the city with the help of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Dallas’ ordinance violates the companies’…
Wednesday’s decision from a three-judge panel in federal court in San Antonio reads like a really good joke. There’s the buildup, in which they repeatedly blast Texas’ Republican-controlled legislature for its racially discriminatory 2011 redistricting, that gets you leaning in one direction. Then there’s the punchline that nearly gives you…
There was never any way Dallas was going to make it all the way to Aug. 1 without a legal challenge to its paid sick leave ordinance, but now it’s official: the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the conservative think tank helping represent business groups suing to stop similar ordinances in…
After about two years on the lam, Nathan Hawkins is back in Dallas County’s jail, but he likely won’t be there for long. Hawkins, 36, had been on probation for 12 years, stemming from a 2007 charge for burglary of a building, a state jail felony. His case was the…
Although a proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census appears dead for good and all, the long legal battle over it may have done lasting damage in Texas, the head of a nonpartisan think tank said Thursday. While she welcomed President Donald Trump’s announcement that his administration was backing away…
Last week, right after a Dallas County grand jury indicted him for the murder of Juan Moreno Jr., Farmers Branch Police Department officer Michael Dunn turned himself in, quickly made $150,000 bail and was released from custody. Standard operating procedure as far as North Texas cops are concerned — see…
Barring something truly unforeseen, Texas is officially out of the woods when it comes to a potential citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census. In an email sent to opposing counsel in the ongoing legal fight over the question, lawyers for the Department of Justice said Tuesday that the “decision…
It took a little digging through federal court documents and a helpful tweet pointing us in the right direction, but the Observer had the distinct pleasure of witnessing the origin story of Texas’ newest civil rights icon Monday. Turns out, he’s been sitting right in front of us the whole time…
There’s a chance, somewhere between a small- and a medium-sized one, that Tuesday ends up being one of the defining days of the Cowboys’ 2019 season. According to reports from the Cowboys beat reporters at ESPN and The Dallas Morning News, star running back Ezekiel Elliott is meeting with NFL…
In the end, it wasn’t a definitive or even particularly clear statement, but it might have been just enough from the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts. Joining with court’s four liberals, Roberts wrote that the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the…
