An appeals court panel rules that a March 2000 story about Dallas restauranteur Dale Wamstad's troubled family life was not libelous. Wamstad's advertising for his chain of restaurants promotes his "family man" image, which the Dallas Observer helped puncture with a story about his ex-wife's claims of abuse. The court found that Wamstad's advertising and court battles had made him a "public figure," and therefore a legitimate target for media attention.

Continue ReadingDallas Observer Wins Round One in Libel Suit
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Crisis pregnancy centers are beginning to use the language and technology of modern medicine to help soften their appeal to clients -- but not their anti-abortion aims. Independent Weekly's Barbara Solow looks at how Christian crisis pregnancy centers use ultrasound images of a first trimester fetus to turn women away abortion. "Are pregnancy centers, as their leaders portray them, valuable community service organizations providing women with support and information they can't get elsewhere?" Solow asks. "Or are they, as abortion-rights activists describe them, 'fake clinics' that lure women in with free medical services, then use one-sided information to dissuade them from having abortions?"

Continue ReadingUltra-Sound: The Newest Weapon in the Anti-Abortion Arsenal
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Coral Eugene Watts has confessed to 13 murders, and authorities in four states believe the true number of victims may total more than 50. They were all women, and they were strangled, stabbed, hanged, or drowned, all part of Watts' plan not just to take their lives, but to "kill their spirit." Today, at 49, Watts marks time in the Texas prison system, patiently waiting for May 9, 2006 -- the day of his scheduled release. Because, as Glenna Whitley of the Dallas Observer reports, Watts has made a career of staying one step ahead of authorities -- and of combining unspeakable wickedness with phenomenal luck.

Continue Reading“She Had Evil Eyes”

Orlando Sentinel says it will sue its alternative weekly competitor if it publishes the names of Sentinel "replacement workers" who may take over the jobs of unionized Baltimore Sun employees, who are threatening to strike. Both dailies are owned by the Tribune Co. Lawyers for the Sentinel argue that "the only purpose" for publishing the names is “to expose (the strikebreaking workers') families to harassment from people in Central Florida" and claim that such publication would create a "palpable threat of harm to those employees and their families." Weekly Editor Bob Whitby responds, "Trying to silence reporting on a legitimate story is the worst form of corporate behavior" and calls the Sentinel's threats "nothing short of disgraceful."

Continue ReadingLocal Daily Warns Orlando Weekly Not to Out “Scabs”