Julie Pettit

By Dave Montgomery For 24 days every autumn, throngs of visitors stream into the State Fair of Texas in Dallas for shows, music, exhibits, livestock judging, carnival rides and gastronomic delights such as corny dogs and fried butter. Millions worldwide know it as the home of Big Tex, the fair’s 55-foot animatronic cowboy. But for more than two years, the 131-year-old Dallas institution has attracted attention for another reason. It has been at the center of a meandering legal battle involving the Texas Public Information Act, long regarded as a national gold standard for giving citizens access to the inner-workings of [...]