Plano City Council member Tom Harrison is headed for a recall election unless city staff members deem about 1,500 petition signatures invalid. A group called Our Plano, One Plano turned in more than 4,400 signatures Wednesday afternoon calling for Harrison’s recall to be put on the ballot in November. Plano’s…
However things end up in November, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso has already made one thing clear in his challenge to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz: It isn’t going to be easy for the incumbent, not by a long shot. O’Rourke announced Tuesday that he raised $6.7 million during…
After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in August, there was enormous shock and dismay when thousands of homeowners learned they had been flooded out not by Harvey but by Uncle Sam. We’re in for the same trauma here someday, and I am doing my best to get ahead of it for…
The NBA announced Tuesday afternoon that Mavericks center Nerlens Noel has been suspended for the remaining five games of the 2017-18 season. According to the league, Noel violated the NBA’s anti-drug policy. The league didn’t disclose details of Noel’s violation, but the policy mandates a five-game suspension for a player’s…
In 2013, Kurt Johnsen started Simplified Genetics with $300,000. In 2017, the National Football League generated revenue of $14 billion. When a man sporting five zeroes butts heads with a corporation flexing nine, it’s no surprise who leaves with the migraine. “It’s really a shame,” Johnsen says between sips of…
Dr. Michael Phillips is a historian and author of White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001. Since December 2015, America has witnessed a tale of two cities and two mayors. One mayor educated himself about the racist history of Confederate monuments in his city and led the charge…
My beautiful dog, Dorothy, looks gross. I know that. People know that. But Dorothy doesn’t know that. If she does, she doesn’t seem to care. No dog bounces around more, bites at her leash on the floor or makes coyote howls more than Dorothy when she thinks she’s in for…
Late last week, thanks to in large part to a Deadspin-produced supercut of news anchors across the country reading from the same fake-news-bashing script, Sinclair Broadcast Group, the United States’ largest owner of TV stations, went viral. It wasn’t the first time for the company, which frequently sends its local…
Former Dallas County Schools Superintendent Rick Sorrells faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud during his time at the school bus service between 2011 and 2016. Sorrells took more than $3 million in cash and other assets from a company…
Sometime after 8:30 a.m. Monday, Ethan Couch is getting out of Tarrant County jail. The 20-year-old drunken-driving killer responsible for the portmanteau “affluenza” becoming part of the American lexicon will have served 720 days, completing a condition set by District Judge Wayne Salvant for Couch’s transfer to the adult probation…
City Council member Tennell Atkins has called a special meeting of the council’s economic development and housing committee at 9 a.m. Thursday in the first-floor auditorium at Dallas City Hall to listen to the chickens. Why? Because 9 a.m. Thursday is when the chickens come home to roost. Last week, word…
It didn’t take long Thursday afternoon for the Astros to debut their killer app for 2018. Houston broke out their new shift, designed to beat the Rangers’ best hitter and a century-plus of baseball conventional wisdom all at once, two at-bats into their season opener at Globe Life Park in…
Next Generation Action Network leader Dominique Alexander refused a plea deal Thursday in Denton County to serve four years in prison for a felony theft charge out of Flower Mound. An Oak Cliff native, Alexander has become one of the faces of the protest movement in Dallas. He’s best known…
An 18-year-old man arrested Thursday for a deadly shooting at a Plano apartment complex is also a suspect in two murders committed in Arlington on Thursday morning, Arlington police said Friday. Plano police believe Franklin Lee Barnes shot four people, killing one, at the Cross Creek Apartments on Alma Drive…
Sometimes, Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston is just flat brilliant. When? I don’t know. But sometimes he is. Yesterday, he gave me an idea that I think may be the kernel of an important national story about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, although it starts very…
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the 2020 census will include questions about immigration status for the first time since 1950. The policy change, supported by Texas officials including Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. Ted Cruz, could have a tremendous effect of the Texas’ already…
Atmos Energy failed to respond to service calls and failed to fix a haphazard system of pipes surrounding the home of a 12-year-old girl killed in a gas explosion last month, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her family Thursday in Dallas County. Linda Michelle Rogers’ family is…
Bei-jing Tashawna “Channelle” Walker wanted to protect accused killer Donnie “Lil-Debo” Ferrell. They were both from Hutchins, 12 miles southeast of Dallas, and engaged to be married. They appeared in each other’s Facebook profile photos. In a photo Walker uploaded Jan. 30, Ferrell, who worked at a home health care…
Late Wednesday afternoon, Dallas City Council member Kevin Felder made up his mind about the concrete batching plant planned for the old freedman’s town of Joppa, which sits squarely in his District 7 domain, five miles south of downtown Dallas. Felder, reported to be on the fence about the facility…
Here’s the straight news story: According to multiple reliable sources speaking off the record, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General will soon conclude a yearlong probe of Dallas City Hall with findings of financial wrongdoing in the city’s housing and economic development departments. Here’s…
It’s Opening Day. It’s not the biggest one in Rangers history, or even one of the five biggest. This Rangers team doesn’t have the talent level, expectations or big names that have come with so many recent Aprils at Globe Life Park. Still, with the first game of the season…
In a dispute over an appointment to the city’s Civil Service Board, Dallas City Council member Lee Kleinman told The Dallas Morning News this week, “I hate organized labor.” Wow. Where I came from, that’s almost hate speech. Or crazy speech. Like saying, “I hate CEOs.” C’mon. Which CEO? You…
