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Last week, Johnson & Johnson agreed to add a billion dollars to an opioid settlement that includes plaintiffs from North Texas. It brings the total to $5 billion.

Lawsuits Crack Down on Big Pharma for Its Role In Opioid Crisis

By Jacob Vaughn

Oct 20, 2020

The payback bill keeps getting bigger for the pharmaceutical companies some say had a heavy hand in causing the nation’s opioid crisis. Big pharma companies like Johnson & Johnson have been hit by crashing waves of lawsuits in recent years, accused of deceptively encouraging doctors to prescribe narcotics for chronic...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he's innocent.

Despite Calls for Resignation, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Says He's Not Quitting

By Jacob Vaughn

Oct 7, 2020

It’s not dé·jà vu. The Texas attorney general is in trouble again. Seven of Ken Paxton’s top aides filed a whistleblower complaint against their boss alleging that he is violating federal and/or state law relating to improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential criminal offenses. The letter said that...

The Reverchon Park deal was on its last leg, which was just kicked out from under it.

Reverchon Park Deal Is a Bust

By Jacob Vaughn

Oct 2, 2020

Every year, Preservation Dallas, an organization focused on preserving and revitalizing historic spaces in the city, publishes a list of local, endangered areas. The historical, nearly a century-old Reverchon Ball Park made it on the list this year because a planned entertainment venue and baseball field threatened to replace it...

A custom-made pinball machine called Denton Heat that's based on Gottlieb's Hollywood Heat sits in the now former location of Free Play Arcade's franchise in Denton.

Free Play Arcade Sued by Landlord Over Lease 'Impossible to Honor'

By Danny Gallagher

Sep 7, 2020

Things seemed to be slowly turning around for Free Play Arcade, the North Texas video game arcade chain. The company reopened all of its four locations across Dallas-Fort Worth with new safety guidelines such as mask requirements and occupancy limits, and were able hire back some of the staff that...

Three PRO Gainesville organizers made bond Thursday after they were issued arrest warrants for "obstructing a highway or other passageway" during a protest.

What, no Firehoses? Gainesville Police Try to Silence Protesters With Arrest Warrants.

By Simone Carter

Sep 4, 2020

The evening before Torrey Henderson turned herself in, her stomach wouldn’t stop turning. That was OK though, she said; she was prepared for what came next. Thursday morning, Henderson arrived at the Cooke County Jail with fellow activists Justin Thompson and Amara Ridge. The Gainesville Police Department had issued warrants...

A 1989 recording by the Dallas band Toadies, which Nick Metzger found eight months ago.

A Dallas Man Bought an Old Toadies Recording; Now the Band Is Threatening Legal Action

By Eva Raggio

Aug 18, 2020

Nick Metzger is a local business owner, a part-time DJ, and a self-described “vintage audio enthusiast.” About eight months ago, he put up an ad describing some items he was looking to buy: “Reel-to-reel players, tapes and other vintage hi-fi gear,” he remembers, though he doesn’t recall whether it was...

Bar owners aren't happy with Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

North Texas Bar Owners Continue to Fight Back Against Abbott, TABC

By Simone Carter

Jul 31, 2020

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission slapped 18 club owners with suspensions after they participated in Freedom Fest, Saturday’s statewide bar protest that aimed to challenge the governor’s latest pandemic shutdown order. Organizer Chris Polone, who owns The Rail Club Live in Fort Worth, said he's also under the gun. This week,...

Chris Polone rips up a TABC order to close. The Rail Club owner organized Saturday's Freedom Fest, during which more than 300 Texas bars will reopen.

Let 'Freedom Fest' Ring: Fort Worth Club Owner Organizes Statewide Bar Protest

By Simone Carter

Jul 23, 2020

Saturday, more than 300 bars across the state say they will participate in Freedom Fest, an event its organizer has dubbed “the biggest bar protest in Texas history.” Chris Polone, the owner of Fort Worth’s The Rail Club Live, arranged the festival to challenge an executive order that forced the...

Imagine a new world in which Lady A is short for 'Lady Antifa."

How Social Media Misconstrued Lady A, Formerly Lady Antebellum’s, Lawsuit

By Garrett Gravley

Jul 10, 2020

Here in the news business, we have a certain affinity for the internet acronym “RTFA,” which stands for “Read the fucking article” (or “read the featured article,” if you’re a softie who insists on a bowdlerized version). Misinformation in the era of “fake news” often parasitically festers because people have...

A lawsuit filed against Gov. Greg Abbott may soon allow the state's bars to reopen.

Dallas Bar Owners File Lawsuit Against Abbott

By Simone Carter

Jul 9, 2020

Texans could soon grab a freshly poured pint from their favorite watering hole. Wednesday, several club owners filed a lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott that demanded the state’s bars be allowed to reopen. Brandon Hays is joining the suit on behalf of his Dallas establishments The Whippersnapper, Tiny Victories and...

Bar owners aren't happy with Gov. Greg Abbott.

Dozens of North Texas Bar Owners Sue Abbott Over Order to Close

By Simone Carter

Jul 1, 2020

Chris Polone woke up on Friday to around 100 phone calls. The owner of The Rail Club Live in Fort Worth said they all asked the same thing: Had he heard about Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to shutter the state’s bars? Polone said he was shocked when he learned of...

Now that Dallas County's eviction moratorium has lifted, scores of tenants could soon be displaced.

End of Dallas' Eviction Moratorium Could Mean Surge in Homelessness, Tenants Advocates Warn

By Simone Carter

Jun 26, 2020

It was good while it lasted. Dallas County’s eviction moratorium ended June 15, effectively halting certain protections for thousands of North Texas tenants. Tuesday, DeSoto City Council member Candice Quarles delivered a bleak forecast for Dallas evictions during a virtual town hall meeting on Zoom. She said considering the county’s...

Another barrier falls on the path to equality for LGBT Americans

North Texans Happy About Supreme Court LGBT Decision, See More Work Ahead

By Simone Carter

Jun 16, 2020

In 2017, Mansfield ISD suspended art teacher Stacy Bailey for being gay. The two-time teacher of the year winner lost her job after she showed her elementary-aged students a picture of her fiancee. In February, a federal judge ruled Bailey’s suspension unconstitutional. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court echoed that...

A rejected mail-in ballot application from 2017's Dallas City Council election.

Texas Supreme Court Rules Against Mail-In Ballots Again

By Stephen Young

May 27, 2020

Texas' state courts are in agreement with federal courts, for now at least: Mail-in voting, despite the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic, remains available only to Texans older than 65, the physically ill or disabled, or those who will be out of the county in which they are registered to vote...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to a state Senate committee.

Ken Paxton Continues a Tooth-and-Nail Fight Against Mail-In Voting

By Stephen Young

May 14, 2020

Not content fighting just one legal battle against expanding access to mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic, Texas Attorney Ken Paxton wants the state's Supreme Court to help him force people to the polls during July's primary runoffs and November's general election. As the pandemic has continued and the elections have...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to the state Senate.

AP Report: Texas AG Ken Paxton Picked Fight With Colorado County to Help Friend

By Stephen Young

Apr 30, 2020

Three weeks ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent out a press release that seemed weird, but not too weird. The attorney general, never one to avoid a fight with the federal government or any of Texas' 49 fellow states, had a problem with an order issued by a Colorado...

Abortion-rights protesters gathered at the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of SCOTUS' ruling on Texas' last major abortion law, 2013's House Bill 2.

Aided By 5th Circuit, Texas Continues Running Out the Clock on Pandemic Abortion Seekers

By Stephen Young

Apr 20, 2020

It's starting to look a lot like the final result of the legal battle isn't going to matter very much. Regardless of whether the federal courts finally determine that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did, in fact, have the right to effectively ban abortion during the novel coronavirus pandemic, thousands of...

Dallas County came up a few boxes short on primary night.

Dallas County Set to Count Missing Votes Today

By Stephen Young

Mar 11, 2020

Given the results of last week's primary in Dallas County, whatever's in the mystery boxes discovered by county elections officials last week isn't going to matter. While a few races were close, none of them were close enough that they're going to be swung by adding 44 vote centers' worth...

The Federal Trade Commission found that Rent-A-Center broke the law with a scheme built on anti-compete agreements.

Rent-A-Center Gets Nailed for Suppressing Competition, Walks Away With a Slap on the Wrist

By Lucas Manfield

Mar 6, 2020

From 2015 to 2018, Rent-A-Center, a Plano-based rent-to-own company, signed a series of illegal agreements with its competitors to shut out competition, according to an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. It will now walk away with a slap on the wrist. At the time, the company was struggling. Its...

Texas Democrats want to bring straight-ticket voting back.

Texas Democrats Sue to Keep Straight-Ticket Voting

By Stephen Young

Mar 6, 2020

Texas Democrats are making hay out of a Super Tuesday that saw voters wait as long as seven hours to cast their ballots after polls closed in Texas. The party, along with national Democratic campaign groups, is suing the state to allow voters to continue voting a straight ticket, if...

Legal Battles

A Virtual Meeting About Shingle Mountain Got Taken Over By Porn and Racial Slurs

As Defendants Sit in Jail with No Trial Date, Jury Selection Gets Creative

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