An Ellis County grand jury has indicted eight people, including seven volunteer firefighters, on charges arising from the sexual assault of a trainee firefighter, who in March reported that he’d been anally penetrated with a link of chorizo as part of an initiation ritual in January. Ellis County called in…
Senator Ted Cruz went to Kentucky on Wednesday to get in on the spectacle. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis had been tossed in jail for contempt of court after refusing to perform her legal duty — issuing marriage licenses to gay couples in this case — and dadgummit, Cruz was going…
Ron Pinkston says Dallas cops are in danger. When the Dallas Police Department releases the names of officers who kill a member of the public, things get even worse, the Dallas Police Association president claims, so he wants DPD to stop doing that. Anti-police activists are “calling for the killing…
Labor Day, simply by virtue of its being in September, is a farce. International Workers’ Day — or May Day, if you’re so inclined — is Labor Day, unless you live in North America. President Grover Cleveland moved the holiday to the first Monday of September in 1887 to disassociate the…
When last we checked in on the Rangers on August 7, they were taking in their first full breaths since the end of the 2013 season. Buoyed by the acquisition of erstwhile Philadelphia Phillies ace Cole Hamels, they’d put together eight wins in nine games, hauling themselves from 47-52 to…
Same-sex marriage became legal across the United States in June and, thus far at least, there’s been very little substantive opposition. Through County Clerk John Warren, Dallas County began issuing licenses to same-sex couples the same day the Supreme Court ruled. The vast majority of Warren’s counterparts quickly fell in…
John Cornyn really, really doesn’t want you to get that copy of Catcher in the Rye you’ve had your eye on, the one signed by John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman. Texas’ senior U.S. senator graced Dallas police headquarters Wednesday to promote something that’s been a pet cause of his for…
The fight, the one that’s at least temporarily shut down all horse betting in the state of Texas, is over the ability of Texas horse track bettors to wager on the outcome of races that have already happened. Tracks want so-called historical racing terminals because they’re almost identical, at least…
Tuesday, the Dallas Police Department made good on the first part of its plan to roll out 1,000 body cameras over the next five years, announcing that 66 officers in the department’s central division began wearing the cameras this week. Additional divisions will be equipped one unit, and one week,…
Take your gun to the airport, but don’t sell any revenge porn. Texas has some new laws taking effect today. Amid what was a pretty horrid Legislative session — for women, anyone not on the farthest of the far right and those who don’t want Texas to experience the Wild…
Last week, a group of forensic video researchers strongly suggested that the videos shot at a variety of Planned Parenthood facilities by a group called the Center for Medical Progress were “substantially manipulated.” A video filmed at a Houston clinic that’s served as the fuel for a storm of conservative…
Dez Bryant, as vividly illustrated in last week’s Rolling Stone cover story, is a man who emerged, barely, from a trauma and pain-filled childhood to become one of the best receivers in the NFL. Growing up in Lufkin, Bryant dealt with a crack-addicted grandmother, a mom who sold crack and…
First the basics: Developer Tim Headington — the guy behind the revitalized Joule Hotel — wants to build an outlet of the upscale retailer Forty Five Ten across Main Street from the boutique hotel. He’s torn down a couple of old buildings abutting the similarly old Wilson Building. That building’s…
There have been two versions of each of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos released by the dubiously named Center of Medical Progress. There’s been the naughty bits version, carefully edited in an attempt to shock viewers and implicate the women’s health organization in criminal activity — usually the sale of…
Despite his campaign being so low on cash it’s no longer paying staffers, former Texas Governor Rick Perry reiterated Wednesday that he’s in the 2016 GOP presidential race for at least the medium-haul. In Austin to watch his successor Greg Abbott posthumously award the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor to “American…
For the most part, the debate over what to do with Interstate 345, the elevated strip of highway that cleaves Deep Ellum from downtown Dallas, has taken place in the abstract. Like the Trinity toll road, I-345 is a litmus test for where you stand in Dallas’ ongoing fight toward…
Zad Roumaya says people are willing to pay $880 a month to live in a complex of 320 square foot shipping containers he plans to outfit and install in The Cedars. That’s $2.75 a square foot, right in line with luxury units across the city of Dallas. The units will…
Jan Mickelson should be radioactive. Just last week, the conservative Iowa radio host issued a ringing endorsement for enslaving undocumented immigrants who refuse to leave the country. Mickelson thinks the United States should give any resident without the appropriate paperwork two months to leave. If they don’t, Mickelson says, they…
The battle over the placement of DART”s second rail line through downtown doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. At a meeting last week of the Greater Dallas Planning Council and Urban Land Institute, DART indicated that it was wholeheartedly behind some version of the Young Street alignment for the…
It should probably go without saying that the University of Texas should not have been admitting unqualified candidates. The place that anyone but an Aggie will tell you is the crown jewel of the Texas higher education system should, at a bare minimum, require that those admitted by able to…
Dallas Police Senior Corporal Marqueon Skinner has had better days than June 30. That evening, Skinner contacted Ashley Hughes through a Craigslist advertisement, according to a written statement he would later give police. Hughes, who admitted to Arlington police that she’s a prostitute, agreed to have oral sex with Skinner for…
Dallas streets are bad. It’s axiomatic at this point. When the city asked residents what it should prioritize in its new budget, the resounding first choice was road repair. The city’s awkwardly beautiful video explaining next year’s budget touts the extra $16 million to be spent on “improving streets.” Everyone…
