When we said yesterday Planned Parenthood could remain part of the Texas’s Medicaid Women’s Health Program “for now,” we didn’t know “now” would last less than 24 hours. A Fifth Circuit appeals judge has overturned yesterday’s preliminary injunction blocking Texas from kicking Planned Parenthood out of the WHP. In his…
This morning, two men stood in the same courtroom where they were convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to life in prison for a rape and shooting that happened almost 30 years ago. This time, both were smiling, as they were one step closer to exiting the criminal justice hell…
The scuffle between Texas and the feds over women’s healthcare was supposed to get real tomorrow, when Planned Parenthood was scheduled to be barred from being a provider for the state’s Medicaid Women’s Health Program. But earlier today, Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel granted the non-profit its requested preliminary injunction…
Several weeks ago, two area theaters refused to show an ad for atheism, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason’s new campaign, “Our Families Are Great Without Religion.” Now the American Humanist Association, which supports DFWCoR’s parent organization, the United Coalition of Reason, has gotten involved, and they’ve brought…
A Royse City mother is claiming discrimination after being kicked out of the Grapevine Mills Mall Legoland for her body art, and she’s using social media to win support from noted activists Travis Barker, Yelawolf and, of course, Busta Rhymes. As Mr. Rhymes would say, here’s the scenario: On Sunday,…
A group of undocumented immigrants is asking a federal judge to declare unconstitutional the use of GPS ankle monitors to track immigrants who pose no threat to society. The suit, filed by Arturo Rodriguez of the Isenberg Center for Immigration Equality, targets the ICE Dallas field office and BI Inc.,…
Officially, Andrew Luck won’t become a pro until Thursday, when he and his golden egg arm are snapped up by the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL Draft. But as a lawsuit filed Friday in Dallas County Court reminds, Luck has been a commodity for years. Courthouse News unearthed the lawsuit,…
In pancake-related news that’s already gone national, four Muslim men of Arab descent are suing IHOP, claiming they were all fired from their managerial positions at DFW-area locations because of their ethnicity and religion. In the suit, filed Tuesday in federal court, Hussein Chamseddine claims that despite receiving consistently positive…
As the always fashionable friends of Unfair Park are surely aware, Nordstrom stands firmly on a reputation as the fairy godmother of customer satisfaction. If you’ve had a dress for a while and it no longer fits, they’ll likely accept the return. If you used lipstick and decided you don’t…
The state Supreme Court is considering developing a uniform, simplified do-it-yourself form for uncontested divorce filings, an effort to increase access to the justice system for people who can’t afford a lawyer. Not surprisingly, some Texas lawyers feel the legal system is too complicated to be boiled down into checked…
The number of convicts being freed after serving prison time for crimes they didn’t commit keeps mounting in Dallas County, with Friday bringing a rare triple exoneration for three men wrongly accused of robbery. On November 17, 1994, five teenagers roamed the parking lot near the Eckerd drugstore at the…
Back in 2009, Michael Scott Page of Mesquite was awaiting trial on an aggravated assault charge. He was reportedly depressed, anxious and eager to get it all over with, but delay after delay pushed his trial back. He allegedly told a longtime friend of his that he felt like “blowing…
Richard Miles was finally, officially exonerated for the crime he didn’t commit. He wants those who put him in prison to pay.
Sure, it goes against everything we learned in elementary school — cut in line and suffer ridicule and a knuckle to the shoulder — but it turns out the city of Dallas has every right to allow compressed natural gas-powered taxis to queue-jump at Love Field to improve air quality,…
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a federal district court’s order forcing the American Cancer Society to return some $240,000 donated by Irving-based Giant Operating, an oil and gas company the Security and Exchange Commission says defrauded investors of more than $13 million. The ACS donations were…
Supporters of Ben Spencer gathered yesterday on the steps of the Frank Crowley Criminal Court Building, where he was convicted for a crime they believe he did not commit. Monday marked 25 years since his arrest for the murder of retail executive Jeffrey Young at a remote industrial complex. Spencer…
After Toni and Ed Allen lost their son, Brien, in May of last year, they decided to mourn him with something called the Bronze Memories Service Package from Restland Funeral Home on St. Paul Street. As funeral packages go, “Bronze Memories Service Package” sounds like the sort of thing that…
Is Texas still racist enough to warrant hand-holding by the federal government? That’s the essence of where the voter ID debate stands now and where it’s headed. Though it may seem like a straightforward question, and one that many politicos have reduced to a “yes” or “no” sound bite, the…
We realize you’re probably too busy side-stepping puddles of green puke to give much of a shit about what’s going on in Austin. Nonetheless, we feel obliged to note that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit late yesterday against the federal government over its decision to withdraw federal…
As long as we’re on the general theme of “unpleasant events that are somehow related to the Medicaid Women’s Health Program,” let’s throw this one in there too: Abby Johnson, who was until a couple of years ago the director of a clinic that was part of Planned Parenthood of…
Kerry Max Cook, a former Texas death row inmate who was released in 1999, resumed his quest to be declared innocent when he filed motions in Smith County District Court at the end of February. Tuesday, the criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast published a letter by Cook in which…
Who’s judging the guys who judge the judges? Well, nobody, really. That’s because the legislative agency charged with evaluating other state agencies’ functionality and raison d’être, the Sunset Advisory Commission, got shut out of their meetings and denied access to confidential documents. Now, it’s easy to understand the juggling act…
