Caraway vs. Price: the Story So Far

Dwaine Caraway against John Wiley Price for the District 3 county commissioner seat was always going to be a fantastically entertaining election — as long as you’re the type who enjoys zero-sum political theater and doesn’t care too much about policy or people maintaining a minimal level of decorum. During…

Five Questions about DART’s Facial Recognition Plan

Late last week, DART provoked a bit of a fervor when the transit agency’s police chief told The Dallas Morning News’ Brandon Formby that the long awaited security cameras finally being stalled on DART’s light rail trains would be equipped with facial recognition software. DART is a lot of things,…

Ethan Couch Transferred to Adult Court

Ethan Couch, the affluenza-afflicted drunk driving teen who killed four people in a 2013 Tarrant County crash, is finally getting his day in adult court. Couch’s juvenile probation would’ve expired in April, on his 19th birthday. Friday morning — in front of his father, Fred Couch, and the families of…

FBI Visit Continues Grapevine Real Estate Firm’s Downward Spiral

United Development Funding is having a no good, terrible, very bad month. A visit from FBI agents yesterday is the latest trouble for the embattled firm.  During the first week of February, Kyle Bass, who runs Dallas’ Heyman Capital hedge fund, shorted UDF’s Nasdaq stock, basically betting that UDF’s stock…

Inside Wednesday’s All-Star Game for Anti-LGBTQ Texans

Ostensibly, all the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs was doing Wednesday was addressing Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s charge that, between sessions, the Texas Senate take a look at protecting religious liberties in the state — something that, it should be noted, means different things to different people. That happened…

Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Go to War in South Carolina

The GOP’s 2016 South Carolina primary is doing what primaries in the Palmetto State are wont to do: getting really, amusingly nasty really quickly. The home state of the patron saint of dirty tricks, the Boogie Man himself, Lee Atwater, wouldn’t have it any other way. Monday morning, Texas Senator…

Why Ted Cruz Is Still Pandering to Evangelicals

To untrained ears, it can sound strange, sometimes even a little threatening. Ted Cruz or one of his representatives, out on the campaign trail, will say something that sounds a lot like someone pushing for theocracy — like someone who views the constitutional separation of church and state as a…

Dallas County to Start Doing Its Own Zika Testing Today

Starting Monday, the waiting will no longer be the hardest part. Thanks in part to lab equipment installed during the fall 2014 Ebola scare, Dallas County will be able to test for the Zika virus at its facilities. Results will be available in as little as 24 hours, rather than…

Ken Paxton Faces Yet Another Misconduct Investigation

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, already facing three felony charges related to illegal lobbying in Collin County, received even more bad news Wednesday when a Texas State Bar disciplinary committee announced that it would allow to move forward a complaint about Paxton’s acts in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme…

Texas Horse Racing Is Fighting for Survival

Thanks to a last minute injunction stemming from a lawsuit filed by the Texas Greyhound Association, the Texas Racing Commission did not have to make the decision Tuesday that will decide the future of horse racing in Texas. The commission tabled a discussion that would’ve decided whether or not to keep…

Amid K2 Crisis, Dallas Might Regulate Head Shops Like Strip Clubs

The problem with K2 downtown, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Monday, might be more than the drag on resources it causes for Dallas police and firefighters or the health threat it poses to the synthetic drug’s often homeless users. The drug also could be responsible for an increase in…

Details Emerge in Johnny Manziel Domestic Violence Incident

Late last week, the Dallas Police Department received a report from Fort Worth Police about a sustained domestic assault alleged committed by Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel across DFW on January 29 and 30. Colleen Crowley, Manziel’s ex-girlfriend, had filed a request for a protective order from Manziel in Tarrant…

Dallas Police Chief David Brown Loses a Right-Hand Man

Charles Cato, long thought to be Dallas’ police-chief-in-waiting, is leaving the Dallas Police Department. The long-serving first assistant chief has been named the chief of Mesquite’s police, and will start March 7. During his time with the department, Cato served as the interim Dallas ISD police chief in 2006, was…