What to Watch for As Texas Wraps Up Its Legislative Session

There’s a little more than two weeks left in Texas’ regular legislative session. Dozens of bills will pass the Texas House and Senate and make their way to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk between now and May 27. But thanks to an annual Texas House deadline, hundreds more died as Thursday…

Why Isn’t Texas Getting Its Own Heartbeat Bill?

Last week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a piece of anti-abortion legislation that left Texas, one of the pro-life movement’s biggest hotbeds, in the dust. Thanks to Kemp’s signature, Georgia law now bans any abortion occurring more than six weeks into a pregnancy, creating an almost impossible window for women…

Mayor and Morning News Deserve No Credit for Cleaning Up VisitDallas

Sam Coats, named last week to take over as the interim leader of the scandal-plagued Dallas convention and visitors bureau, called VisitDallas, is the perfect guy. He has a deep international résumé as a fixer of broken companies and a turnaround artist. He has experience as an elected official and mayoral…

Abbott Signs Bill Tightening Up Texas’ Anti-BDS Statute

Two years ago, Texas got in line with many of its conservative sibling states and passed a law addressing one of its most pressing concerns — preventing any companies that participate in the boycott, divest and sanction movement from doing business with the state. This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott…

Texas House Votes to Limit Death Penalty for Mentally Ill Defendants

Texas House Democrats banded together with some of the chamber’s most conservative members Thursday to pass legislation that would stop Texas juries from sentencing killers with severe mental illnesses to death. Dallas Rep. Toni Rose’s bill would require juries who find that a defendant convicted of capital murder was suffering…

Controversial Dallas Salvation Army Campus Gets Unanimous Approval

After months of back-and-forth between neighborhood groups and those pushing for expanded homeless services outside of downtown Dallas, the Dallas City Council signed off unanimously on a zoning change that will a new campus for the Salvation Army to be built in northwest Dallas. The new campus, located on North Stemmons…

Dallas Makes Baby-Changing Tables Mandatory for Businesses Across the City

Dallas’ parents, its dads specifically, got a leg up from the City Council on Wednesday afternoon. From now forward, any newly built or renovated city-owned building, privately owned restaurant, theater or retail store will have to provide at least one “safe, sanitary and convenient diaper changing accommodation” in each restroom…

Phillip Jones Out as VisitDallas CEO After ‘Mutual Decision’

Following months of criticism, VisitDallas President and CEO Phillip Jones is out of a job, following what the organization is calling a “mutual decision.” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is expected to announce a new, interim CEO for the agency later this week. Jones came under fire in January after the…

Texas House Kills Governor Abbott’s Big Sales Tax Hike

Democrats flexed their newfound muscle in the Texas House on Tuesday, ending a push led by Gov. Greg Abbott to increase Texas’ sales tax, which is already one of the highest in the nation. While there’s a chance a sales tax increase could be shoehorned into another bill already making…

Texas Senate Votes to Limit Local Control Over Confederate Monuments

Texas Senate Republicans are tired of uppity cities like Dallas taking down monuments to the Confederacy. That’s the message from the state Capitol, where the Senate voted 19-12 along strict party lines to require a two-thirds, super majority vote from any municipal government that wants to get rid of their…

Here’s What We Already Know About Dallas’ June Runoffs

If the first round of Dallas’ municipal election taught us anything, it’s that nobody — except D Magazine contributing editor Eric Celeste, who went full-Nostradamus on the mayoral results — knows anything when it comes to low-turnout free-for-alls. Rumor had it before the election that the race between former Mayor…

Former Richardson Mayor, Husband Get New Corruption Trial

Former Richardson Mayor Laura Jordan and her husband Mark Jordan will get a new trial, a federal judge announced Thursday, because of improper communication between a federal court officer and a juror during the couple’s original trial, which concluded in March. The juror, No. 11, sent a note to U.S…

Setting the Morning Line for the Dallas Mayor’s Race

This weekend is about as good as get for Dallas sports fans. The Stars have critical playoff games on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, the Rangers are in town all weekend and the Kentucky Derby is Saturday afternoon. Stir in what should be an entertaining scrap between Canelo Alvarez and…