Politics & Government

We are now  31 days out from the deadline for the mass eviction of tenant families from small single-family homes in West Dallas – a human nightmare in the making – and it’s time to get serious about whose fault it will be if it happens. This is the saga…

“I always wanted to save the world with journalism,” says Candace Evans, the challenger for Lee Kleinman’s District 11 City Council seat. Considering the last time Dallas elected a journalist to the City Council, Mayor Laura Miller, that’s either a pretty bold statement or a give-up. Miller had a habit…

In an email to supporters Monday, U.S. House Representative Joaquin Castro announced that he will not challenge Senator Ted Cruz during the Cruz’s 2018 re-election. Castro’s decision likely clears the Democratic field for El Paso’s Beto O’Rourke, who’s barnstormed the state over the last month following his decision to take…

There are a few things that are certain ahead of Saturday’s Dallas City Council election. One: Turnout will be abysmal. Dallas doesn’t turnout out for mayoral elections, much less council-only midterms, so anything above 10 percent of Dallas’ registered voters actually showing up would be massive. Two: District 10’s Adam…

Despite vigorous opposition from much of Dallas’ delegation, the Texas House of Representatives passed legislation banning so-called sanctuary cities  just after 3am Thursday. The version of the bill passed Thursday is stronger that the original House draft of the bill, more in line with the strong enforcement policies supported by…

“Perception,” which usually means racism, is often taken for a 30-foot Trump wall, as if it separates whole regions of the city in ways that can never be breached. But earlier this week I wrote about the miracle or curse, depending on your view, taking place in West Dallas now:…

Let me get this straight. We’re really mad at the cops and the firefighters because fixing their pension fund is going to be expensive. So we’re just not going to have any more cops or firefighters? Or what? Hire people from the day-labor dorms? Outsource it to India? No, look,…

On Tuesday afternoon, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced a plan to help President Trump build the multi-billion dollar wall along the Mexican border that both politicians insist is essential securing America. Cruz’s proposal would fund the wall with cash seized from illegal drug proceeds and identified the assets of drug…

Certainly Matt Wood, the challenger in the District 14 City Council race, would have had a better shot on May 6 without the baggage of a clumsily heavy-handed negative ad campaign against his opponent, incumbent Philip Kingston. The fact is that the presence in the race of a richly funded…

The mayor, who has steadfastly denied any role or interest in West Dallas gentrification, is now actively working behind the scenes as a real estate broker to get a major West Dallas landholder to sell $20 million worth of land at what appears to be 10 percent of its current…

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings wants to snuff out attempted voter fraud in Dallas before it starts during this Dallas City Council election season. Friday, Dallas state Representative Eric Johnson joined Rawlings to call attention to Dallas County’s efforts to investigate media reports of dozens of voters receiving mail-in ballots they…

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has a lot of problems with Texas state Representative Dan Flynn’s bill to fix Dallas’ failing police and fire pension system. On Thursday afternoon, he aired them in a letter aimed at Dallas residents. The letter also laid out the fixes he believes can save the bill,…

Texans of all stripes came out in force against the Texas House’s bathroom bill Wednesday night, stretching a late-night public hearing for House Bill 2899 well into Thursday morning. City leaders from Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso called the bill discriminatory and transgender Texans from across the state…

Lackluster staffing and network issues between T-Mobile and the city of Dallas are to blame for the city’s recent spikes in 911 wait times, Dallas police officials told the City Council Wednesday, and work is still needed to fix the problem. Wait times, according to Dallas Police Chief David Pughes and…

Rapt jurors heard head-snappingly different narratives Tuesday in closing arguments by prosecutors and defense lawyers on the last day in the eight-week trial of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. The city’s highest profile black politician is accused by the federal government of bribery and income tax cheating. Price, the…

After spending much of the beginning of the 2017 Texas legislative session refusing to take a position on his state’s controversial “bathroom bill,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced his support for the legislation Tuesday afternoon. “As the debate on this issue continues, I will work with the House and Senate…

Add this up. On March 16, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told reporters that events he called “ghost calls” were crashing the city’s 911 emergency call center, causing potentially deadly backups in police and fire response times. Rawlings said solving the ghost call problem needed to be the city’s “number one…

Looks like the mayor loses this one. He has been maneuvering to stall the evictions of hundreds of poor families in West Dallas, probably hoping the hard hammer would not fall on these poor souls until after the May 6 City Council elections. But it will fall this week. Khraish…

During an impromptu press conference at Dallas City Hall on Monday morning, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax revealed that the hack that caused weather warning sirens around the city to go off early Saturday morning came via a radio frequency, not a computer network. “Our system is not software related…