Good police-beat reporting from the Texas Observer

Melissa del Bosque at the Texas Observer reported that, "Embattled Hidalgo County Sheriff Guadalupe 'Lupe' Treviño—one of the border’s most powerful law enforcement officials, whose office has been roiled with allegations of corruption—formally announced his resignation Friday." Her article is filled with juicy tidbits so I won't excerpt it, just go read the whole thing.

And speaking of the Observer, congratulations to Emily DePrang for being named a finalist for a prestigious 2014 National Magazine Award for her series last year on Houston PD disciplinary practices related to on-duty shootings and beatings. Noted editor Dave Mann:

The National Magazine Awards, or Ellies, are considered the Pulitzer Prizes of the magazine industry. This is the third Ellie nomination in the Observer’s 60-year history, and the second in two years. The Observer’s Melissa del Bosque was a 2013 finalist in the reporting category.

Emily’s stories—“Crimes Unpunished” and “The Horror Every Day”—published in the July and September issues of the Observer, were the result of eight months of reporting. The stories exposed that the Houston Police Department rarely disciplines officers for misconduct and abuse. Over a six-year period, officers who left crime scenes, falsified reports, mauled suspects and shot unarmed citizens were allowed to keep their jobs and are still patrolling the streets of the nation’s fourth-largest city. Emily found that between 2007 and 2012, Houston cops were involved in 550 shootings of people and animals. The department deemed every one of those 550 shootings justified, including the killing of a wheelchair-bound mentally ill double amputee who was armed with only a ballpoint pen. Emily’s reporting was picked up by CNN, the Houston Chronicle and The Huffington Post, among others.