Sean Fitzgerald hated working for a big law firm. After moving to a small firm, he discovered that he hated that, too. “I finally realized I need to be out, I need to be moving, I need to be touching earth and touching sky or I’ll be suffocated.” And so,…
Business Insider last month included two Texas cities in a listicle they called, “The 15 Hottest American Cities for 2015.” Not us. Austin and Houston. But I took a look at a particular piece of research that the authors seemed to be working off, a report called “The Young and…
We’ve made our list, we’ve checked it … well, not really twice. There was a ton of bourbon in the eggnog. But now we’re ready to air our grievances with those North Texans who’ve wronged us and celebrate those who help make Dallas such a special place. It’s the official Dallas…
A new front has opened in the Texas battle over nativity scenes. Last week, we told you about the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s plan to erect a “Bill of Rights” nativity scene at the state Capitol. Texas state Representative Donna Howard sponsored the display, which depicts a few of the founding fathers…
This just in: Democracy actually works if you let it. And that’s why the Dallas Park Board shot down the deal last week with the private rowing club that wanted to build a clubhouse in a city park. The demise of the Dallas United Crew floating clubhouse on White Rock Lake…
Eggnog. Caroling. Lawsuits. It’s Christmas in Texas. Every year the legality of public nativity scenes generates court cases and headlines. San Antonio atheist Patrick Greene unsuccessfully sued Henderson County over its courthouse-fronting nativity scene in 2012, 2013 and 2014. In 2011, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) took issue with…
The city is suing low-rent landlord Dennis Topletz to have a court seize all his property, because his family name, according to City Hall, is “synonymous with dilapidated and often crime-ridden, single-family rental property located primarily in the southern area of Dallas.” (See the suit below.) So, wait. What does…
Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate could not come at a much better time for Ted Cruz. Texas’ Canadian-born junior senator is in the ascendancy. He’s currently seeing his best poll numbers of the campaign, he’s scoring points in rhetorical fights with the most visible candidate in the field and he…
Far be it from me, at this holiest period in the Christian calendar, to defend slumlords or, heaven forfend, Mr. Scrooge himself, as The Dallas Morning News has now formally characterized low-rent landlord Dennis Topletz on its editorial page. But I do have a few small questions to ask about…
The 84th session of the Texas Legislature was weird, man. The most conservative body of representatives ever elected by the people of Texas killed the two-thirds rule — the way the minority party had retained a small amount of power in the Texas Senate for almost a century — cut…
To the court of public opinion: In the matter of City Council member Scott Griggs, who is also member of the board of trustees of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Board, on the question of whether a lawyer representing Griggs as a member of said pension board ever hired…
Yesterday when WFAA was live-feeding a press conference about undocumented immigrant children to be housed in a church camp south of Dallas, I could swear I heard Ellis County Sheriff Johnny Brown say he intended to keep the camp surrounded and make sure his officers keep track of everybody who…
When Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez changed the way her office handled some detention requests from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), charges arose that she created a sanctuary county. On Thursday, she returned to the Texas Capitol to answer charges. It seems increasingly likely that there is going…
More than a year after worker’s rights advocates and members of the Dallas City Council began pushing for it, the city of Dallas has guaranteed a 10-minute rest break every four hours for construction workers. Throughout the winding process that led to the rest break ordinance being passed, proponents have…
Come and Take It Texas and Don’tComply.com are going to hold an open carry walk near the University of Texas at Austin campus on Saturday. Then they’re going to have a mock mass shooting, complete with fake blood, victims, vigilantes and gunshot reports coming from bullhorns. The festivities are the…
The chance is still alive that casual pot smokers caught by the Dallas Police Department would not get hauled straight to county jail. The Dallas City Council’s Public Safety Committee, after hearing testimony from Chief David Brown, yesterday voted to move “cite and release” policy proposal to the full council…
Hopefully, this story won’t matter. Hopefully, figuring out who’s on the hook should Dallas’ massively underfunded Police and Firefighters Pension Fund go broke won’t matter because the fund never goes broke. It’s something that would be good to know though, considering the fund is currently sitting on an unfunded liability…
I was sitting in the gallery at a City Council session last week where they were talking about the city’s deteriorating credit rating, and I felt kind of like Widda Shoots, like a little old white-haired, black-dressed, sensibly shod lady on her cane-bottomed chair with her Social Security check folded…
It’s taken some time — either a little over a year or a little over eight years, depending on how you count it — but the city of Dallas and the Dallas Police Department finally appear ready to arrest fewer people for marijuana possession. Since 2007, Texas law has allowed…
Everybody not familiar with efforts to resolve chronic homelessness, myself included, is shocked to learn what it costs to do anything effective. Part of what I have been learning this week is that it just does. Like it or lump it. Or we can do nothing, which would make us…
Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez wasn’t kidding around when she announced a change in the way her office deals with requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold some undocumented immigrants in jail until ICE can come collect them. Those charged with certain minor offenses could make bond and…
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was very upset about the New York Daily News’ Thursday cover. Released after the shooting deaths of 14 people in San Bernadino, California, the cover took issue with the claims of prominent Republicans, including Texas’ Ted Cruz, who said they were praying for the victims…
