People who want to work for Dallas County and have a criminal record will now have a much easier time getting a foot in the door. The county will no longer ask questions about applicants’ criminal backgrounds on initial job applications. The move comes after a bill by Dallas state…
Demonstrating the frontier spirit of self-reliance so praised by Texas’ conservative lawmakers, at least 100,000 women have escaped an abortion industry reeling from a law that closed about half the state’s abortion clinics. House Bill 2, the tough anti-abortion bill the Legislature passed in 2013, has left large swaths of the…
Texas Governor Greg Abbott came out punching hard and fast after last week’s terrorist assault on Paris, making it clear Monday he would be doing everything he can to keep refugees from the humanitarian crisis in Syria, or at least not in Texas. “Given the tragic attacks in Paris and…
Trinity toll road … CONFIRMED! Hah. Not really. Relax. We’re just tossing out a little hip ‘net cultural reference for you to kick off our list of DFW’s favorite all-time vaporware. For those of you who have never played a PC game, let us ‘splain: Vaporware is a product, usually…
Dez Bryant is understandably frustrated. His team, this year at least, is bad. The Cowboys are 2-6 and the team’s November has been dominated by Greg Hardy, after the release of further evidence in the defensive end’s alleged beating of Hardy’s ex-girlfriend. Thursday, Bryant took out a lot of that…
Not only has Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy neglected to show any remorse for allegedly beating his ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder, he’s made it clear this week that he doesn’t even believe he did anything wrong. First, a brief recap. In May 2014, Holder told police that Hardy choked her,…
When it comes to prison phone calls, security is kinda a big deal. The whole premise behind the calls being recorded is security. Doing so, states and counties have argued, prevents crime both inside and outside of jail. Securus Technologies, the Dallas-based company that provides prison and jail phone services…
Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate offered little in the way of new rhetoric or tactics from Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The Canadian-born first-termer stuck to usual strident style — one picks up things like that as a college debater at Harvard — decrying the big government boogeyman, Kentucky Senator Rand…
So, the Dallas City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to fix the language in the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance to more accurately describe Dallas’ transgender residents. Essentially, the council made a tweak to clarify that gender identity an sexual orientation are not the the same things. Everybody who was protected under the…
City Council member Adam Medrano, the head of the city’s LGBT task force, wants to fix something pretty simple in Dallas’ non-discrimination ordinance. Let’s just tweak some language, Medrano says, to make sure all Dallas residents are treated equally. Medrano wants to ensure that Dallas’ transgender population is protected and…
Thanks to God’s grace, the intrepid work of a few counter-revolutionaries and a governor smart enough not to believe the lies the military was spinning, Texas, barely, survived the menace that was Jade Helm 15 this summer. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command-led operation turned out to be military exercises, just…
Last week, less than two years after taking the gig, the city of Dallas’ “bike czar” Ashley Haire abdicated her throne in favor of a working on bike and pedestrian design projects for a Denver consulting firm. Haire’s job with the city was so tough as to be nearly impossible. A…
Friday afternoon, Deadspin released the staggering body of evidence it’s collected from the state of North Carolina’s case against Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy. There are detailed, harrowing statements from witnesses, disturbing evidence of Hardy creating a cover story as his alleged assault on his ex-girlfriend was taking place…
The short of it is this: Dallas’ pension fund for police and firefighters is in big trouble. This week, the City Council heard from an outside auditor that the fund has $5 billion in commitments that it doesn’t have assets to pay, based on the new way the Governmental Accounting Standards…
Attend any pro sports event in Dallas, and you’ll be overwhelmed by patriotism. There’s red, white and blue everywhere, the national anthem gets sung with gusto and, if you’re at a Rangers game on the weekends, they’ll wheel out “God Bless America” for the seventh-inning stretch. There are color guards…
Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez has ensconced herself in Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s head. It wasn’t even that hard, really. She just slightly — and we mean slightly, none of the changes have had a tangible result yet — changed the way the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office deals with undocumented…
The hearings held by the Texas Railroad Commission to determine whether or not fracking companies XTO Energy and Enervest could continue injecting wastewater brine into the ground in Azle and Reno — towns in Tarrant and Parker County that have been hit with dozens of earthquakes in 2013 — went…
One of the vagaries of a process filled with them — suits to remove Texas public officials — is that the county in which the official serves can be charged with appointing the prosecuting attorney in the case. Normally, the choice isn’t difficult, because counties in Texas have an elected…
OK, Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs probably didn’t threaten to break a city staff member’s fingers, as he was accused of doing the infamous Affair of the Fucking Digits earlier this year. But he did call city staff a bunch of lard-asses Monday. We know, because we heard him…
Dallas County won’t be able to stop the most notorious for-profit prison operator in the United States from taking over management of a large halfway house for ex-prison inmates, but opponents of Corrections Corporation of America did manage to win a delay they hope will give them time to set conditions how…
Late last week, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn seriously cut the intrigue in the race for the District 3 seat on the Dallas County Commissioners Court. Acceding to a request made by incumbent John Wiley Price, Lynn granted a second lengthy postponement for Price’s trial on charges of corruption. The delay…
Texas has not, as it turns out, completely ended taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it might not be able to, either. Last week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott hopped on his Twitter account to crow about his belief that Texas health…
