Politics & Government

It looks as if Dallas City Hall may finally get itself out from under a billion-dollar sword of Damocles by resolving a bundle of police and fire back-pay lawsuits. After two decades of failure to get it done, what has changed? People on both sides of the dispute, speaking to…

The city of Dallas will be two-thirds of the way to escaping one of its biggest financial threats, pending a Tuesday vote from the Dallas City Council. On Friday evening, the city announced that it has reached a settlement for about $62 million in four of the six police and…

The other day in the daily paper, there was an item of a type I call a bathroom-wall story. By bathroom wall, I mean you read it and sort of get what they’re getting at, but there’s a lot of context missing, and you’re not sure why you’re reading it…

With all the anger and frustration Philip Kingston has caused his colleagues during his four years on the Dallas City Council, his critics around the horseshoe weren’t going to miss an opportunity to get in their licks when they could. And on Wednesday, with Kingston facing city ethics charges because…

Do you ever get the feeling the whole purpose of the news is to convince you we’re all screwed by problems so huge that we might as well give up and binge-watch cable until the end comes? I do, and I write news. But every once in a while, thank…

Four-term Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez is considering challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott next November. If she throws her hat in the ring, she’ll be the first major Democratic contender for the governor’s mansion in 2018. If Valdez wins, she’ll be Texas’ third female governor, first Hispanic governor and first…

This week, Texans will head to the polls for the state’s off-year constitutional amendment election. Dallas County residents, especially those who live in Dallas, will do some electoral heavy lifting as they vote on the city’s $1.05 billion bond package and a controversial measure that could change the way school…

There’s is unlikely to be any more action on Dallas’ remaining monuments to the Confederacy until 2018, according to information discussed at the latest Dallas City Council meeting about the city’s Confederate totems. Dallas quickly removed Oak Lawn Park’s Robert E. Lee statue in September but will deal with the…

If you go to the polls Nov. 7 to vote on the city’s proposed bond, you’ve got a job ahead. It’s not going to be just a straight up and down yes or no deal for the whole ballot. If you did that, you would make some bad mistakes. You…

It doesn’t do us any good to just get mad at Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the regional transit agency, for doing such a terrible job. DART is not a guy; it’s an institution. Institutions don’t have feelings. They have budgets. Nor does it do any good, even in the wake…

Robert E. Lee’s statue is gone, but it’s not forgotten. That much was clear Wednesday night as a long line of North Texas residents made their way to Dallas City Hall to tell the City Council they want the city’s other Confederate monuments left intact and, most of all, they…

Wow. This does not feel like our finest hour. Joe Straus, Republican of San Antonio, just announced he will not seek re-election in 2018 after five terms as speaker of the Texas House. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, is bailing. So is Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. They…

San Antonio Republican Joe Straus, the five-term speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, announced Wednesday morning that he won’t be running for re-election next year, giving up his seat in the Legislature and his speaker’s gavel. Straus’ decision comes after a rancorous legislative session during which he was the…

During President Barack Obama’s terms, Dallas resident and former President George W. Bush, for the most part, kept his mouth shut about matters of policy, following in a long line of ex-presidents who declined to criticize their successors despite obvious political differences. But on Thursday, Bush made his clearest stretch…

Dallas Police Department officials announced Wednesday that they’ve solved many of the issues that led to soaring 911 wait times during a crisis that stretched from last fall into the spring. Staffing levels have been increased, facilities have been improved and police officers, called into emergency duty taking 911 calls,…

Tuesday morning, during the NFL owners’ regularly scheduled meetings in New York, several NFL owners met with representatives from the NFL Players Association and the league to discuss the ongoing issues surrounding player protests and the national anthem. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is in New York, but he wasn’t…

Last week, the national PBS television program Frontline did a long story focused on West Dallas landlord Khraish Khraish, part of a series on the national affordable housing crisis. Khraish is somebody I have written about a lot in the last year, and the Frontline piece evoked strong feelings in me —…

Dallas’ prominent sports team owners are going in different directions when it comes to players protesting the national anthem. On Monday, leaders of Dallas’ African-American community excoriated Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for his stance that any Cowboys player protesting during the national anthem won’t play for the team. Later…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is vowing to continue the fight against a secular Nativity scene at the statehouse after a court served him a defeat last week.  U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled that Abbott’s 2015 decision to throw the nativity scene — which depicts Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and…