Redrawing school district lines is a controversial issue that has been getting plenty of attention this year from Baton Rouge to Salt Lake City. Now state Representative Jason Villalba says he might propose splitting Dallas ISD into separate districts during the next legislative session if smaller reforms fail to pass…
Maybe the University of Texas at Austin and its many passionate defenders had reason to beware of Wallace Hall when Governor Rick Perry appointed him to the UT System board of regents in 2011. Perry was pushing some plan he got from a rich oilman to eliminate research as a…
In what is being called (by me) the greatest public-safety threat to strike the popular walking path since a proposed high-rise threatened to blot out Highland Park’s view of the sun, the Katy Trail has been overrun with feral cats. So says a WFAA story from last night, though maybe…
Tuesday night, in the packed chambers of the Dallas City Council, the public had its biggest say yet in the ongoing struggle to develop new regulations for car and taxi services in Dallas. Many in the crowd wore pink shirts in support of Lyft and one group brought along one…
The number of homeless people in a city on any given night varies, and is difficult to measure. Most cities perform random periodic counts to determine the number and demographic of homeless individuals. In Dallas, counts over the last 10 years indicate that the general population is going up, but…
Football-wise, it seems obvious by now that the Cowboys defense is destined to be so incredibly bad, they could use all the help they can get. By this point, you and I are viable candidates for the Cowboys defense, let alone Michael Sam, a man who, physical pending, will arrive…
Mike Cantrell, it seems, got what he wanted again. He’s never going to succeed in getting the County Commissioners Court to appoint an outside attorney to investigate District Attorney Craig Watkins’ use of forfeiture funds in an out-of-court settlement stemming from a February 2013 Dallas North Tollway accident for which…
After the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion on Friday in Kinney v. Barnes, Robert Kinney’s attorney declared victory. Kinney, an Austin businessman, had sued his former boss to force the removal of online postings accusing Kinney of taking bribes. “This is a win for Robert and other people who…
Few people outside of public health advocates and consumer groups used to pay much attention to the Food and Drug Administration’s confusing, shadowy process for approving medical devices to the market. When patients find themselves suffering after a surgery that was supposed to help them — like, say, a hip…
Last week’s ruling by a state judge in Austin reaffirming that Texas’ method of financing public schools is unconstitutional gives the Legislature a chance to repair a “resource gap” that’s failing a growing population of impoverished children, Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles says. On Thursday, Judge John Dietz issued a…
I’m sitting next to a well-dressed home-schooled high schooler from just outside of Lafayette, Louisiana, watching failed Senate candidate and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina talking about the dignity of jobs that don’t pay a living wage. Why Fiorina is speaking at Defending the American Dream isn’t really clear. She…
The irony that Americans For Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream summit is being held in a hotel paid for with taxpayer funds can be a little overwhelming. Everyone you talk to opposes regulation and taxes with a religious fervor while at the same time praising the setting and the glory…
Friday and Saturday, the Omni Dallas hosts Americans for Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream” conference. Featured speakers include Governor Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Jeb Hensarling and Indiana governor Mike Pence. We sent two of our reporters to get the full experience. Political rhetoric on both sides has the…
It’s been more than two years since a federal administrative judge told Tricare, the Department of Defense-run healthcare program for military families, to pay for Kaitlyn Samuels’ physical therapy. And for more than two years, Tricare has been stubbornly ignoring the decision. That’s Tricare’s prerogative. The administrative ruling carries all…
Friday and Saturday, the Omni Dallas hosts Americans for Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream” conference. Featured speakers include Governor Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Jeb Hensarling and Indiana governor Mike Pence. We sent two of our reporters to get the full experience. This is one of their dispatches: Unlike…
Parkland’s psychiatric services division has been getting a hell of a lot of bad press lately, and it continues today, with reports that an elderly woman in Parkland’s psych wing ended up with broken bones after she claims she was forced out of her wheelchair. Earlier this week, the Center…
Since August 10, Dallas police officers have shot six people, killing four of them. Most were armed and a threat to others. One, Andrew Scott Gaynier, was unarmed, though police say he lunged at the off-duty officer who shot him. The events surrounding the shooting of an unarmed teen in…
Do you often arrive at a fast-casual restaurant and get pissed that they don’t have valet? Do you feel cramped in your 3,300-square-foot house? Do you tell friends and relatives that Tex-Mex is better than Mex-Mex? And do you actually sort of believe it? If you answered yes to any…
Midlothian ISD Superintendent Jerome Stewart said Thursday that two overtly Christian plaques attached to elementary schools would remain uncovered for the time being. The plaques, which have adorned the schools for 17 without complaint, are the subject of a June 30 letter to the district from the Freedom from Religion…
There’s something fascinating happening in Collin County. Residents are voicing an opinion on an issue — in this case they loathe the idea of tolled “managed lanes” running down their portion of Central Expressway — and, lo and behold, their duly elected leaders, including Collin County’s entire legislative delegation and…
With around 2,000 students in the district’s three campuses, Argyle ISD is a small, quiet district located smack dab in the middle of Denton and Fort Worth, off Interstate 35. And this school year, some teachers at Argyle ISD have a secret: Several of them have a guns hidden away…
Earlier this year, Judge Roberto Cañas initiated a countywide program to increase gun surrenders from domestic abusers. It’s a law whose lack of enforcement has a history of deadly consequences in Dallas. On Tuesday, the county commissioners court voted to fund nearly a third of the project and approved Cañas’…
