The good news for Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston is that he and his attorney are going to have more time to prepare their defense to an anonymous ethics complaint filed against the downtown and East Dallas representative filed earlier this year. That’s thanks to an extension handed down…
At least in terms of the public process, if not the legal one, the release of the audio recording of the 911 call in the Botham Jean killing finally takes us down to the fine point of what has been the public question from the beginning: If a white cop…
Immediately after shooting Botham Jean, former Dallas Police Department officer Amber Guyger told a city 911 dispatcher that she’d made a horrible mistake. “I’m an off-duty officer. I thought I was in my apartment and I shot a guy thinking he was, thinking it was my apartment,” Guyger said. “I…
The news was enough to make one check the calendar and make sure it wasn’t April 1. Monday morning, former Republican Texas state Sen. Konni Burton, fresh off her November 2018 loss to Democrat Beverly Powell, announced that she’s starting a news outlet “dedicated to shedding light on the stories…
It’s not decriminalization, but it’s a start. Late Monday afternoon, the Texas House of Representatives signed off on a bill that would reduce Texas’ penalty for possessing less than one ounce of marijuana to a Class C misdemeanor, the same criminal penalty reserved for traffic tickets and driving with an…
One of DFW’s longest running true-crime soap operas took another turn Friday as Tarrant County authorities arrested Tonya Couch, the mother of “affluenza” drunk driver Ethan Couch, for yet another alleged bail violation. Couch is accused of failing a urinalysis, violating the portion of her bail agreement that requires that…
Bedford Republican Jonathan Stickland has long been the court jester of Texas’ House of Representatives. Since his election in 2012, he’s positioned himself as a darling of the Tea Party and antagonistic right, never shying away from a political stunt or a chance to hear his voice projected from the House…
The political flap over Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot’s recently announced policy of reduced prosecution for certain offenses opens a window on a really interesting question in these tumultuous times: What does somebody mean when he says he’s a conservative on crime? Or a liberal? I admit, one reason…
For the Dallas Cowboys, the NFL draft went a lot like the rest of their offseason. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the rest of the front office made eight picks on Friday and Saturday, buying a few lottery tickets, getting cute in spots and working around the edges of a…
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley’s push to purge nearly 100,000 registered voters from the state’s rolls is over. Friday afternoon, a coalition of voting rights groups announced they’d reached a $450,000 settlement with the state. The groups sued Whitley earlier this year over his order that counties across the…
Turns out Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton’s hands may not have been quite as clean as she claimed they were during a February ethics flare-up over a bill she filed that would’ve changed the securities law her husband is currently accused of breaking. Paxton’s Senate Bill 860 would allow the…
A citizens subcommittee tasked with finding short-term help for homeless people in Dallas struggled Thursday to work out a plan for what to do with those people when it’s dangerously cold outside. Ultimately, the Citizens Homeless Commission’s short-term solutions committee settled on a plan to solicit proposals from groups that…
Texas’ law banning government agencies from doing business with people or other businesses that support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel is on hold Thursday night after a federal judge issued an injunction against it, ruling that it is likely unconstitutional. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement calls for…
The Dallas City Council voted Wednesday to require all employers in the city to provide paid sick time to their employees, starting in August. Whether any Dallas worker ever benefits from the new policy remains up in the air. Austin passed a similar ordinance in 2018 but still hasn’t been…
The Texas Senate unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that is designed to make sure college students lose fewer credits when they transfer from one school to another. Senate Bill 25 reorganizes lower-division courses that many students take at community colleges, making it easier for them to predict which ones will…
Dallas’ Citizens Police Review Board got meaningfully stronger Wednesday. The new board won’t be as strong as activists wanted it to be and is probably a little stronger than Dallas’ police associations would’ve preferred. Its creation is a compromise, just as Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall said it would…
Today I proudly and courageously don my tinfoil hat. I do so for you, Dear Reader, so that you will not have to wear one. First, in the Department of Problems It Seems Like Maybe We Should have Been Able to Foresee, we learned recently that the mayor’s plan for…
Even on a good day, dealing with airport parking is nobody’s favorite part of a trip. On Wednesday morning, some travelers at Dallas Love Field encountered an extra headache on top of the typical ones. A round of heavy rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning flooded the ground floor of…
Missy Shorey, the combative head of the Dallas County Republican Party, died Tuesday night at age 47, her husband said Wednesday morning. “Friends and family,” Marc Himelhoch said in a Facebook post. “It is with heavy heart that I must inform you that my beloved Missy Shorey passed unexpectedly last…
A few minutes after 10 a.m. Tuesday, C. Allen Parker, interim CEO of Wells Fargo, stepped up to a podium in a hotel conference room and began to tell the company’s shareholders what the bank is doing to rebuild customers’ trust after years of scandals. Parker soon lost control of…
For the second time in two weeks, one of Texas’ biggest political names has decided there’s no error like an unforced Twitter error to get people talking. Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz chose to mock Disney for its $5 million offer to help rebuild fire-damaged Notre Dame Cathedral Paris. Tuesday,…
Do you like having a previous speculation confirmed in black and white? I kind of do. A lot. That’s why I got such a kick out of the endorsement editorial in The Dallas Morning News last weekend urging people to vote for three people not named Scott Griggs for mayor…
