About a year ago, I published an investigation into sexual abuse at a federal prison in North Texas and fund FMC Carswell had the highest number of allegations of sexual assault of women by staff at any federal prison.

Here's what's happened since the story's publication: Rep. Marc Veasey (@RepVeasey) called for the House Committee on Judiciary to hold an oversight hearing in North Texas to examine the Federal Bureau of Prisons' handling sexual misconduct and coverups.

star-telegram.com/news/local/cri…

Fort Worth NewsGuild press release about our strike:
"Under existing working conditions, we cannot plan for a future in Fort Worth."
Want to show support?
— Donate to the strike fund at bit.ly/fwngstrike
— Send a letter to management actionnetwork.org/letters/fair-c… Looks like we have all been locked out of our work emails and our work laptops are no longer working.

Legal, expected - but still petty.

Two mothers of Aledo students targeted by the "slave trade" created on social media spoke out to the school board tonight.
“(Our sons) were not victims. Our sons were targets of racism and a hate crime and a racially charged incident,” Mioshi Johnson said.
star-telegram.com/news/local/edu… Aledo ISD came under scrutiny in 2016 for a racist incident. A racial slur and “graphic images” were found on a bathroom stall, the district said at the time.

I’m at an Aledo school board meeting. A few days ago, the @startelegram broke the now national story about a group of students who started a “slave trade” over social media and pretended to sell Black students. “My heart aches because this not reflective of who we are as a community,” a trustee says.
“Bullshit,” someone in the crowd says.

Four women pressed charges against their doctor after they say he groped them during unnecessary breast exams.
They were let down again and again by systems that should have protected them. star-telegram.com/news/local/cri… The practice where the cardiologist worked - the Heart Center of North Texas - knew about sexual abuse complaints against him as early as 2013, according to court records. They did not report him or limit his contact with patients.

Rotten food. Threatened with riot guns and pepper spray. Quarantine where they were "treated like dogs."
Through interviews & more than 200 pages of written testimony, 73 women wrote about their experiences inside the country's only federal medical prison for women; FMC Carswell As COVID-19 spread through the prison in Fort Worth, women said they were left in infected units to catch the virus and received inconsistent care. Women said they went to the bathroom on themselves bc they weren't allowed to leave their cells. Six women have died at the prison.

Fourth protest in Fort Worth for #GeorgeFloyd. Last night, protesters were tear gassed by police. Right now we’re in front of city hall. Couple hundred people here. #protests2020 “George Floyd!” “I can’t breathe!” Protesters chant as they march down Taylor Street.
The mayor issued an 8 pm curfew for tonight. Protesters have two hours and then police wouls presumably begin arrests.

I’m at the Tarrant County courthouse where a protest is planned for 6 pm in Fort Worth over the death of #GeorgeFloyd. Many are waiting on the steps already.
This guy just pulled up and blasted this song: those on the steps joined in. Shardai South said she’s out here because her 10-year-old daughter is afraid of the police. South is a teacher and wants to teach her students that police are safe.
“But I can’t preach that if police don’t.”

I’m at the hearing today for Tinslee Lewis, a baby ok life support at @CookChildrens.
The family & hospital have been in a legal battle over her care -physicians wants to end her treatment, saying it is futile and causing suffering. Her family disagrees. amp.star-telegram.com/news/local/for… Today’s hearing should decide if Cooks can take Tinslee off life support or not.
Here’s more about the law, the Texas Advance Dircetive, that Cooks is acting under to move to end her care #txlege #tinsleelewis Via @Tessa_Weinberg amp.star-telegram.com/news/politics-…

I spent the last few weeks going through police shooting data from 12 cities, including Fort Worth, to answer the question many had after #AtatianaJefferson became the 6th person since July to be killed by a FW officer. Here's what I found. star-telegram.com/news/local/cri… 1. Compared to 11 cities of similar size, Fort Worth police shoot and kill no more often than those other police departments. They fell in the middle for total fatal shootings, and just above average for total shootings, both nonfatal and fatal.

I write a lot of stories, but one I posted last week really got to me. A police dept had dropped the ball on a case against a sex abuser, and he walked free. He raped another girl and beat her almost to death.

We posted the story, but what happened next really bothered me No one read it. The story got about 4,000 views. For context, a story about a parade being canceled the prior week got 10,000 views. A story about the first baby of the New Year got 8,000.
As reporters, we can't control our audience, but I can't stop thinking about this case.