A Deep Ellum beat cop, backed by his community and fellow officers but fired by the Dallas Police Department, will not face criminal charges after an arrest of an aggressive panhandler resulted in a claim he used excessive force. See also: Fired Deep Ellum Cop Jesus Martinez Gets Outpouring of…
As Amy Silverstein warned us might happen last week, the Texas Senate has moved forward with banning insurance providers from covering the nearly all abortions sought by Texas women. See also: Texas Lawmakers Want to Make Insurance More Expensive for Women Getting Abortions Larry Taylor, a Republican from Friendswood, stressed…
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attack that ended with a security guard getting shot in the ankle and two gunman with assault rifles being taken out by a Garland cop’s service pistol, according to media reports. “We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and…
When Texas lawmakers banned abortions after 20 weeks in 2013, the ban wasn’t totally devoid of compassion for women. There were a few exceptions to the 20-week ban; for instance, abortions “that are performed on unborn children with severe fetal abnormalities” would still be allowed. For Representative Matt Schaefer, a…
If you’re a poor parent (i.e. your annual household income is in the bottom quarter of earners, or south of $27,200), and want your child to have a realistic shot at upward mobility, a recently published Harvard study offers a sure-fire way to boost the kid’s chances: get the hell…
Five of the 10 best high schools in North Texas are in Dallas ISD, Children at Risk, a Houston-based nonprofit says. So are five of the 10 worst. Three of the 10 best middle schools in North Texas are in Dallas ISD. So are seven of the 10 worst. The…
Dallas Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan, who’s been involved with the city’s Trinity River project since I was in middle school, isn’t anymore. City Manager A.C. Gonzalez announced today that another of his top assistants, Mark McDaniel, will be taking over the city staff role in getting the park, and…
The U.S. Supreme Court, depending on the relative weight Justice Anthony Kennedy gives to the dignity of same-sex couples versus the millennia man-woman marriage has supposedly remained unchanged, may very well make gay marriage legal in all 50 states. That means that every state and local government, down to the…
Late at night on Santa Clara Drive, back in 2007, Carter Albrecht wasn’t acting like himself, his girlfriend would tell reporters afterward. Albrecht, a popular local musician who played in Sorta and Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, had been taking Chantix, the controversial smoking-cessation drug, and was drunk. He became…
The investigation into whether Scott Griggs criminally intimidated a member of the Dallas City Secretary’s Office is going to a disaster for someone. After Saturday’s developments, it seems, it’s not going to be Griggs. After an introduction that included ringing endorsements from City Council member Philip Kingston and former City…
Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles will live to fight another day. During a more than lenthy session of the Dallas ISD board of trustees late Friday, no action was taken with regard to his employment. The board did adopt a “letter of concern” about Miles’ performance, but the details of…
Dallas City Councilman Scott Griggs is accused of using his position to influence the actions of a member of the Dallas City Secretary’s Office, the Dallas police announced late today. In a short press release, the Dallas Police Department said it had submitted the results of its investigation into Griggs…
The problem, as we wrote the day after Dallas’ new plastic bag ordinance went into effect, is that the ordinance doesn’t ban bags, and now the city of Dallas could pay for it. A group of single-use plastic bag manufacturers has sued the city, claiming that the Dwaine Caraway-shepherded bag…
Christopher Omigie, according to federal investigators, was perceived to be someone who had mystical powers in the tribal tradition of his native Nigeria. He was a witch doctor, feds say, viewed as being capable of divining people’s futures and, if necessary, warding off law enforcement. It’s only natural then that…
Pretty soon, it will probably be legal in Texas to carry a gun openly on one’s hip. It also seems likely that carrying guns will become legal on Texas’ college campuses. This is because the Legislature, meeting right now in its biennial effort to address the state’s most pressing public…
Whether we like or not, Obamacare has led to many more Texans being insured than were before the Affordable Care Act. According to a new survey from Rice University’s Baker Institute and the Episcopal Health Foundation, Texas had a 24.6 percent uninsured rate among residents 18-64 in September 2013, the…
Jerry Jones, it seems, is headed back to court. The Cowboys owner, who in the last year has successfully fought suits claiming that he sexually assaulted a woman and defrauded ticket buyers at Super Bowl XLV who ended up without seats, is accused this time of failing to properly maintain…
What happens when the city of Dallas takes a small-time custom-home developer, one with little or no track record building publicly subsidized multifamily projects, and gives him millions of dollars to build a large affordable housing project for veterans? And then, as it becomes clear that said developer may not…
A veteran Dallas cop has been fired by the department after, the department says, he responded to an ex-girlfriend’s spurning his repeated text messages by intimidating the woman and her new boyfriend with a gun. Aaron Tolerton confronted his ex-girlfriend in March, according to media reports. When he pulled the…
It was just after sunset on March 11, and Rabbi Yaakov Rich was leading the men of Congregation Toras Chaim in a study of the Talmud, as is their ritual. They gather here every evening, shoulder to shoulder in white plastic folding chairs, heads bowed over the text, contemplating the…
There’s probably not enough time — about five weeks, give or take — left in 2015’s session of the Texas Legislature to get anything done with regard to Dallas state Representative Rafael Anchia’s dual Trinity toll road-killing bills. Wednesday, though, they did get a hearing at the state capitol, and…
Give former Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Justin Moore credit, the man sure knows how to make an exit. Cops pulled him over after he was seen weaving in and out of traffic at more than 100 mph near Ledbetter Drive and Highway 67 in Dallas in January. Moore refused…
