BY CRAIG MALISOWThe practice of a company or individual pulling dogs and cats from municipal shelters and using them in biomedical research is called “pound seizure.” Eighteen states prohibit it, but many others, like Texas, have no law regarding it. One Texas company that seems to engage in a form…
BY CRAIG MALISOW The purpose-bred laboratory beagle is a remarkably versatile animal. It can be used to ingest a toxic compound until it dies and to ascertain human safety guidelines for pesticides. Its heart, brain and prostate are easily accessible for cancer studies. It is bred to be docile and…
The state of Texas may soon mandate that prisoners in county custody be given at least two in person visits a week, a sensible move that staves off the prison complex’s ongoing effort to automate and profit from jail visits. The move comes on the heels of a series of…
In December 2012, the Dallas City Council approved the condemnation of the Trinity Park & Club, a 23-acre complex of soccer fields and cross-country trails near the Trinity River in Pleasant Grove. The owner, a wiry, Dominican-born ex-high school coach named Rhadames Solano, had spent the past 15 years turning…
The city of Dallas and the Dallas Police Department are set to take another swipe at downtown, Deep Ellum and Uptown’s panhandling problem. Over the past decade or so, the city has tried banning panhandling from sunset to sunup, banning it in areas with high pedestrian and tourist traffic and…
Three freshman-level tests are all that stand between Texas high school students and graduation after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill loosening the state’s graduation requirements. Seniors must now have passed only three of the five STAAR exams they were previously required to pass — algebra I, algebra II,…
On Saturday, Arlington residents voted by a healthy 59-41 margin to ban the city’s red-light cameras, which was surprising only in that there are 10,808 people in Arlington who apparently like red light cameras. The real questions are: When are the cameras coming down; when is the vendor, American Traffic…
Assuming the City Council approves, the Dallas Police Department intends to have a body camera at almost every crime scene within five years, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Monday. About half of the city’s 2,200 patrol officers would be equipped with the cameras, 200 at a time, each year…
A post on the Bike Friendly Oak Cliff’s Facebook page indicates that some poor, unknown soul got a parking ticket at Klyde Warren Park. Not a car ticket, but a bicycle parking ticket. If you’ve ever ridden a bike in Dallas and then unsuccessfully looked for a place to park,…
When considering the Texas Legislature, perhaps it’s just best to embrace the darkness. Because of the overwhelming majorities enjoyed by Republicans who would make Barry Goldwater blush, if you happen to be one of the large number of Texans who exist somewhere to the left of hard right on the…
Ladies of Irving, beware. A serial groper — or gropers — is on the loose. According to an Irving PD news release, at least eight women and girls in recent months have reported “being inappropriately touched on the buttocks” in the southeastern part of the city…
All that stands between Dallas and a new City Council is 11 or 12 people heading to the polls in Saturday’s potential downpour, so let’s take a look at what to watch for as results come in Saturday night. The Dead Rubber Scott Griggs (District 1), Adam Medrano (District 2),…
Of all the marijuana bills flitting about the state capitol in Austin this year, Representative David Simpson’s is the most radical. Simpson somewhat famously wants to regulate weed like any other crop because, in his words, “God doesn’t make mistakes.” It was shrewd gambit by Simpson, appealing to his Tea…
You should feel bad for Richardson Mayor Laura Maczka. As she detailed in an emotional speech at a City Council meeting late last month, her personal life has recently gone to shit. She and her longtime husband just divorced, she’s undergoing intensive treatment for a melanoma relapse and she’s had…
Normally, the Cowboys helping fill out their roster with the post-draft signing of an undrafted free agent would barely be news. With some notable exceptions, rookies not taken in the draft end up being scout team or training camp fodder. Dallas’ signing of LSU offensive tackle La’el Collins is anything…
You may or may not believe the popular theory that a second gunman targeted John F. Kennedy behind the grassy knoll, but it’s clear that another conspiracy has been brewing at Dealey Plaza. Robert Groden is the popular conspiracy-theorist author who brought the Zapruder film public in the ’70s and…
Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw does not have a sense of whimsy. Emails obtained by an attorney representing a state trooper reprimanded for taking a photo with Snoop Dogg at South by Southwest show that McCraw was both hellbent on finding the trooper and has a really…
Amid what’s been a massive bummer of a Texas legislative session, the search for silver linings has been difficult. Over the past week, though, a solid contender has developed: the chance for meaningful criminal justice reform. Specifically, a pair of efforts that would make it easier for ex-offenders to secure…
BY DIANNA WRAY None of this would have happened if the Sam Houston Race Park track photographer hadn’t been shooting from the inside rail. The $50,000 Richard King Turf Stakes on January 17 was the ninth race of the night, the eighth that jockey Roman Chapa had competed in since…
Barring a miracle, turnout for the 2015 Dallas city election is going to be absolutely miserable. Six or 7 percent. Based on past evidence, that’s it. Despite the vitriol. Despite the six open seats on the council created by term limits. Despite Scott Griggs, one of the most popular people…
Christin Bates, the Dallas Theological Seminary doctoral candidate/muscular dystrophy patient whose struggles with Texas’ health bureaucracy we chronicled here a week ago, won’t be stuck in a nursing home after all. Bates, 31, had spent the previous eight months futilely battling an alphabet soup of state health agencies in an…
One would have hoped, if one were exceedingly naive, that Governor Greg Abbott might have backed off after finally realizing how absurd it is to send the Texas State Guard to monitor the U.S. military training exercises known colorfully as Jade Helm 15. One might have thought Abbott would have…
