Amber Guyger trial begins, takeaways from Cowboys' win, City Hall artist: Your Monday morning roundup

With testimony scheduled to start Monday, Dallas is bracing for the verdict in the high-profile murder trial of the 31-year-old fired police officer.  [Morning roundup]( 09/23/2019 By Nataly Keomoungkhoun and Mallorie Sullivan Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day. 🌥️ Weather: Mostly cloudy and warm with a 40% chance for showers and thunderstorms. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [her]( Irving-based Fluor Corp., which built the Horseshoe in downtown Dallas and several other local highway projects, is expected to announce strategic changes Tuesday as part of a turnaround plan. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer) BUSINESS [With decision day looming, how will Fluor Corp. restore profits and credibility?]( Business columnist Mitchell Schnurman writes: How does a Fortune 500 company react to its worst quarter ever — and the loss of over half of its market value? Fluor Corp., one of the world’s top engineering and construction companies, has already replaced its chairman, CEO and chief financial officer. It has appointed new leaders to oversee two key segments: infrastructure, and energy and chemicals. Since August, three directors have left the Irving-based company. A new board member, Tom Leppert, will be most welcomed not as the past mayor of Dallas but as the former CEO of a top commercial construction company. His industry experience is needed at Fluor now. [All these moves are important, but more are coming — maybe a lot more.](  Hand in glove: [Is Trump’s trade war a grand slam for Texas’ Nokona]( the last U.S. factory making baseball mitts?   Checkpoint: The arrest of an American Airlines mechanic suspected of being sympathetic with terrorists and charged with sabotaging a jetliner [has renewed fear about the "insider threat" to aviation security.](  ADVERTISEMENT SPORTS [5 thoughts from Cowboys-Dolphins: Dallas is 3-0, but the defense's first-half performance leaves room for concern]( Based on the schedule and what they've done this season, the Cowboys were expected to start 3-0. Sunday's game against the Dolphins was the perfect contest for this to happen, and it did. Dallas knocked off Miami 31-6 at AT&T Stadium. This was the Taco Bowl. But it could have been the Robert Quinn Revenge Game. Taco Charlton, a former first-round pick of the Cowboys, is now playing for the Dolphins. Robert Quinn, a former Dolphin, is now playing for the Cowboys. Quinn had a sack, a hard hit on Josh Rosen as he scrambled to the sidelines and a few pass rushes in the game. Charlton had a sack and a few tackles. You could say Quinn, who started, had the better game as he was more active. Quinn is definitely an upgrade over Charlton, who needed a fresh start after two disappointing seasons in Dallas. [Here are four more thoughts from the game.](  Mustangs' Skillet: The upset of TCU has SMU back in college football's realm of relevancy. [Will the Mustangs make it last?](   Tweaks needed: A new policy restricting admission of Texas students to one gate Saturday made for a two-hour wait and a block-long line outside Royal-Memorial Stadium, [leaving student sections less than half full through most of the first half.](  COURTS [Tensions as high as the stakes as Amber Guyger goes on trial in Botham Jean's death]( A police shooting as perplexing as any in Dallas history, the Amber Guyger case has riveted the public's attention from the start. With testimony scheduled to start Monday, Dallas is bracing for the verdict in the high-profile murder trial of the 31-year-old fired police officer. A year ago this month, Guyger was off duty but still in her Dallas police uniform when she shot her 26-year-old neighbor Botham Jean. She told police she thought his apartment was her own and that he was an intruder. With tensions running high, Dallas officers are restricted from taking time off during the trial and have been told to have all of their safety equipment readily available. [The question is how will a deeply split community react to the verdict]( whether it's a murder conviction, a finding of guilt on a lesser charge like manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, or an outright acquittal. The case could also end in a mistrial, if jurors can't come to a unanimous verdict.  Also: [9 key people to know in the murder case against Amber Guyger](    ADVERTISEMENT EDITORS' PICKS - Death at A&M: A Frisco woman who attended Texas A&M University [has died, eight days after being struck by a driver]( who police have said was drunk and on drugs. - Blues greats: [Eric Clapton led an all-star cast]( that brought the Crossroads magic and mystery to Dallas. - Spanish-speaking leaders unite: Alarmed by the rise of hate crime in the U.S., Mexico is calling for [a summit of leaders from Spanish-speaking nations]( to develop a strategy to combat white supremacy. Sofia Bastidas poses for a photograph in an empty lot in the former Jeffries-Meyers neighborhood near Fair Park.(Shaban Athuman/Staff Photographer) FINALLY... [An artist working inside City Hall just might help solve Dallas' housing crisis]( City columnist Robert Wilonsky writes: Maureen Milligan, second in command in City Hall's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization, emailed to ask if I'd give a South Dallas tour to an artist tasked with "activating" — Milligan's word — the more than 450 city-owned empty lots pockmarking a landscape once whole, alive. Which is how I came to spend one morning last week eating and driving and walking around South Dallas with Sofia Bastidas, director of Southern Methodist University's Pollock Gallery and a guinea pig at City Hall. After we spent Wednesday morning scouring the city's trove of historic aerial surveys and maps kept at the Municipal Center on Jefferson Boulevard, I was half convinced she should be running the place. Something about fresh eyes, fresh ideas, desperately needed in a city that's awfully good at — and comfortable with — selling the same-old as brand-new. Thanks to the city's new cultural plan, which recommends installing artists in city departments for brief residencies, over the last two weeks the native of Ecuador has been "embedded" with the housing department. Specifically, Bastidas has been tasked with doing something related to Dallas' ramped-up efforts to [rebuild erased South Dallas neighborhoods using single-family houses and federal money.](  👋 That's all for this morning! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletters@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=). 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