Christian McPhate

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City of Denton Reporter, Denton Record-Chronicle

Dallas, Texas

Crime and Justice, U.S. Regional

As seen in: Denton Record-Chronicle, Rolling Stone, Substack, Flipboard, Miami Herald, The Dallas Morning News, Washington Times, The Sacramento Bee, MYSA, D Magazine, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and

Covers: Crime, environment, government, mental health, music

Doesn't Cover: Fashion

Part-time professor, full-time writer. Bylines at @Dallas_Observer, @DentonRC, @CI_Magazine, @keranews, @RollingStone, etc.

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Christian McPhate’s Biography

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I've been working as a journalist for several years, writing for many more. For more information, visit my LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmcphate/

Christian McPhate’s Journalist Portfolio

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The Heavy Metal Grifter

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Bringing Back Some Pot Edibles From Colorado? Texas Has a Nasty Surprise for You.

Mary Jane preferred animals to people "10 out of 10 times," she says. She grew up in southern Louisiana, a pl…

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Chronic Pain Sufferers Say They're Paying the Price for Opioid Epidemic

The pain felt as if someone took an ice pick, stuck it in a fireplace, and rammed it between Scott Garrett's …

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Relatives of a Former Fort Worth Drug Kingpin Open a Restaurant to Try to Bring their Brother Hom...

The Sotelo family gathers on the patio of Tia's on the Bluff as a guitarist fingerpicks Spanish tunes. It's a…

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Denton's Scandal-Prone Sheriff

Denton County Sheriff William B. Travis sits in his office, surrounded partially by confiscated weapons, clin…

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Articles

Chris Watts sworn in as Denton mayor; Gerard Hudspeth delivers a final goodbye

Jun 23, 2026 |

By Christian McPhate

| Denton Record-Chronicle

After six years leading the city, Gerard Hudspeth took his final bow as Denton’s mayor on Tuesday during a packed council meeting as supporters gathered for the oaths of office for newly elected Mayor Chris Watts and Place 5 representative George Ferrie. Hudspeth's final action as mayor included joining a unanimous Denton City Council to canvass the June 13 runoff election.

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Absentee ballots helped decide Watts-Beck runoff for Denton mayor — but mail hindered some voters

Jun 22, 2026 |

By Christian McPhate

| Denton Record-Chronicle

Novelist Bonnie Friedman's mail ballot should have arrived in Brooklyn well before Denton's June 13 runoff election. Friedman, a former English professor at the University of North Texas, had been staying in New York to promote her new novel, Don’t Stop. After having no issues voting by mail in the May 2 election, she had no reason to suspect her ballot wouldn’t arrive in time for the runoffs between Brian Beck and Chris Watts for mayor and George Ferrie and Erica Garland for Place 5.

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A year later, Denton HOA, landlord still battling for compensation for ponds contaminated with raw sewage

Jun 18, 2026 |

By Christian McPhate

| Denton Record-Chronicle

Nearly a year has passed since Mike McCormick and neighbors waded into a retention pond contaminated with raw sewage to save what fish they could among hundreds that had been killed. Foam had gathered atop the water near the storm drain outlet due to the contamination, although the neighbors didn’t know at the time it was raw sewage. They soon learned that a sewage line behind a shopping center in the 2400 block of Interstate 35E had ruptured upstream at an apartment construction site.