Amid the storm of fast-food worker protests for better pay, Democratic candidate for governor Wendy Davis announced late last week her plan to boost Texas’ minimum wage to $10 per hour, which is generally how much national cost-of-living studies say is necessary for struggling workers to have improved quality of…
Since 2006, the City House nonprofit has offered shelter for homeless kids and young adults in two houses in Plano, smack in the middle of residential neighborhoods. City House claims the kids’ neighbors never seemed to mind. How does City House pull this off? By operating out of existing houses…
Unfair Park has no concrete information as to whom the Rangers are going to hire to replace Ron Washington, who resigned abruptly Friday afternoon. If we had to guess, we’d say the club is likely to hire an internal candidate. Former Rangers third baseman Steve Buechele currently manages the team’s…
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and prisoner rights advocates are pushing back against a contract that would eliminate face-to-face meetings between inmates in the county’s jails and their visitors. County commissioners are set to vote Tuesday on a contract with Securus Technologies, a private company that provides video technology to…
Even without cell-phone metadata placing him near his ex-girlfriend’s San Antonio condo in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009, prosecutors may still have convinced jurors that Jon Thomas Ford was guilty of her murder. There was the testimony of their friends at the party he’d stormed out…
This morning, Texas Governor Rick Perry tweeted a photo encapsulating what is no doubt a very special approach to international relations. The picture largely speaks for itself, but let’s ponder some of the major questions…
Three people on a “cop watch” were arrested while videotaping a traffic stop by an Arlington police officer late Saturday night. The people are part of organizations Texas Cop Block and the Tarrant County Peaceful Streets Project, whose members tape police in a effort to hold them accountable for their…
In the U.S., common knowledge — that’s a polite term for bigoted slander — says the English have the worst teeth in the world. That’s an unkind thing to say, and maybe not even true, as anyone who has traveled parts of the South can attest. So to soothe hurt…
City Hall has done its part to make Patriot’s Crossing a reality. Over the past five years, it’s handed developer Yigal Lelah $4.4 million and promised another $1.3 million in HUD funds. It has endorsed him in three unsuccessful attempts to win lucrative, highly competitive low-income housing tax credits from…
Parkland has until November to fix its discharge policy and governing board, or the hospital will lose its Medicare funding, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced today. On the plus side, Parkland isn’t placing patients who dare visit the hospital in jeopardy anymore, according to the feds. “We…
Clint Peterson’s on-again, off-again girlfriend called the police on October 28 to report that he showed up uninvited to her house that morning and vandalized her car. She says she warned the dispatcher that Peterson also sometimes carried a fake gun and may have had it on him. The girlfriend…
Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington has resigned from the club to deal with an undisclosed personal matter, effective immediately. Bench coach Tim Bogar has been appointed interim manager for the rest of the season. The team has scheduled a press conference for 3:30 at which co-chairmen Ray Davis and Bob…
If an agreement between the NFL Players Association and the league can be reached before the league’s first full slate of games on Sunday, the NFL’s drug testing policy could be amended to lessen penalties for recreational drugs, as well as include blood-testing for Human Growth Hormone. And that’s good…
We have an immediate opening for an editorial assistant. This is a full-time, entry-level position, perfect for a hyper-organized self-starter who can successfully juggle tasks ranging from crafting short blog posts to managing listings to monitoring the provisions in the newsroom beer fridge, all while working independently on long-term projects…
The VA Hospital system has taken a beating in the last several months. Between the Arizona scandal unearthed this spring about veterans dying while waiting for care and continued reports of absurdly long wait times — this summer, the average veteran in Texas waited 60 days for an appointment, compared…
City Council member Dwaine Caraway might be having a bit of trouble abiding by his own “Pull Your Pants Up” initiative after losing 15 pounds since the start of his Councilman Caraway Wellness Challenge three weeks ago. Caraway checked in at 300 pounds at the press conference announcing the challenge,…
In the 2013 legislative session, state Representative Roland Gutierrez from San Antonio amended an education bill to require the Texas Education Agency to find out whether bigger Texas school districts would be better. In a word, no. See also: State Rep. Jason Villalba Threatens to Split DISD if it Doesn’t…
For years, Luminant’s Big Brown coal-fired plant has been described as one of the worst air polluters in the state, sitting at or near the top of the EPA’s list of plants spewing nitrogen oxide, which can cause respiratory illnesses. So, it would seem a ripe target for a Clean…
A study published earlier this month in the Journal of Transport and Health features some data that you might find disturbing if you enjoy many of the trappings of suburbia. According to two engineers from the University of Connecticut and Colorado University, obesity — and related conditions like diabetes and…
Todd Arko relapsed to using cocaine when he was still on probation for possessing the drug, then decided he would rather die than go back to jail. At the age of 53, he tried to hang himself. The rope broke, crushing his heels as he collapsed to the ground. Arko…
It’s a nice clinic, it really is. With more space and amenities, it’s a credit to the private donors who payed for it and continue to fuel Planned Parenthood’s response to the Texas Legislature’s crackdown on abortion. It’s just unnecessary. The large janitor’s closet, the backup generator, the locker rooms,…
Three years ago, the state rolled out the shiny new STAAR exam, the Cadillac of state tests as far as the State Board of Education was concerned. It came after decades of testing overhauls and cumbersome acronyms, from TEAMS to TAAS to TAKS, all based on TEKS curriculum requirements. Fill…
