Major portions of Senate Bill 4, Texas’ just-passed “sanctuary cities” bill, will not immediately become law after U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia blocked significant portions of it from taking effect. Garcia’s ruling, handed down late Wednesday, stops a portion of the law the would require all local law enforcement agencies to comply…
This week, largely ignored in the face of Hurricane Harvey, one of Dallas municipal politics’ biggest worms turned again when Mayor Mike Rawlings announcing a new date for the vote on the immediate removal of Lee Park’s Robert E. Lee statue. The City Council will decide the issue Sept. 6,…
Dallas’ Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center is ready for guests, Mayor Mike Rawlings said Tuesday morning, whenever they arrive. Over the last two days, city of Dallas employees and volunteers have converted the first floor of the convention center’s air-conditioned parking garage into a 5,000 capacity shelter capable of housing…
Early Monday afternoon, as volunteers inside the first floor of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center’s parking garage scurried to put together and line up 5,000 cots, two volunteers from East Texas Community Emergency Response Team sat outside on the parking garage steps, finishing off their Jason’s Deli boxed lunches…
Let’s not get fooled on the Confederate memorials question in Dallas. It’s easy to do. It’s worse than a who’s-on-first routine. This one is more like where-is-first? What may camouflage the real controversy more than anything else, especially for people who are outside the city looking in, is the recruitment…
The city of Dallas announced late Sunday afternoon that it is opening its biggest emergency shelter, adding space for about 5,000 more evacuees from Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. At the request of the state of Texas, the city is preparing the bottom floor of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention…
Last week, two court decisions came down that could change the course of electoral politics in Texas — and Dallas County — for the 2018 midterms and beyond. A U.S. District Judge in Corpus Christi tossed the state’s new voter ID law Wednesday, ruling that it unconstitutionally discriminated against the…
Want a pretty good indication where things stand at Dallas City Hall? A majority of the members of the Dallas City Council have decided the city needs to stop keeping a record of where the council gets its campaign money. Gee. What could they have in mind? I stumbled into…
A federal district judge in Corpus Christi ruled late Wednesday afternoon that the Texas’ voter ID law, in all its forms, is unconstitutional. Her decision, which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced he will appeal, says that the original 2011 law and a revamped version passed this year both…
Throughout July and August, a thought has bubbled in the back of Cowboys fans’ minds. Every time Kellen Moore, the team’s de facto backup quarterback, was on the field during the Cowboys first three preseason games, committing turnovers, stalling drives and generally getting outplayed by Cooper Rush, an undrafted free…
The Dallas Morning News ran a piece earlier in the week about a bad-blood feud between Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston and Bobby Abtahi, president of the Park and Recreation Board. The story made it sound like a nice guy versus mean guy thing. Make no mistake. At least…
Three things to say about the death of the Trinity toll road project, authorized by city voters in 1998, killed by the Dallas City Council three weeks ago — Thing 1, Thing 2 and the Big Thing. The first thing, you will find obvious, the second less so. The Big…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings changed direction Friday afternoon on his plan for the city’s four Confederate statues and monuments. While Rawlings initially called for three months of public meetings and deliberation by a task force, the mayor says now that he wants the City Council’s Quality of Life Committee briefed on the…
Earlier this year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced that it’s targeting the seat of U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, in Texas Congressional District 32. Sessions has drawn two competitive Democratic challengers, former Hillary Clinton adviser Ed Meier and civil rights attorney and former NFL linebacker Colin Allred. A little more…
The Texas House of Representatives called a close to Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session Tuesday, a day early. While the House used the session to act on about half of the governor’s cherry-picked priorities — including increasing penalties for mail-in ballot fraud and passing a bill that allows key state…
The White House announced Wednesday that Hope Hicks, an Southern Methodist University alumna, is taking over as interim White House communications director after the tumultuous 10-day reign of Anthony Scaramucci. Hicks, 28, is one of President Donald Trump’s longest-serving aides. Hicks majored in English on the Hilltop and distinguished herself…
Denton local Willie Hudspeth has spent the last decade trying to remove the confederate soldier monument on the courthouse lawn. Now he plans to run for Denton County Judge if he can get the 1,800 signatures needed to get on the ballot.
One day after issuing a statement condemning the weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced his plans for dealing with the monuments and statues of Confederate figures that dot the city. Rather than promoting teardown or removal the monuments, as other members of the City Council have…
The Dallas City Council will vote during the next four weeks on whether the city should remove all monuments to the Confederacy throughout the city and rename schools, city parks and other public facilities named after Confederate figures. The vote will occur in one of the most racially charged political…
Around lunchtime Wednesday, former Dallas City Council member Craig Holcomb, fresh off the biggest defeat in his political career, approached former council member Angela Hunt. She was decked out in her trademark red suit and fresh off the biggest win in her political career. The two shook hands. Holcomb, long…
The Dallas Stars announced their opposition Wednesday to the three bathroom bills under consideration during the Texas Legislature’s special session, becoming the first Texas sports franchise to do so. “The Dallas Stars stands strongly opposed to any legislation perceived as discriminatory, including proposed bathroom legislation,” President Jim Lites said. “We…
The Trinity toll road is dead. After limited discussion Wednesday morning, the Dallas City Council voted 13-2 to abandon Alternative 3C, the only federally approved plan for a road between the Trinity River levees. The vote received a round of applause from road opponents in the City Council gallery. For…
