Sheriff Lupe Valdez made the announcement quietly last week while visiting with a small gathering of local Muslim Democrats: The Dallas County jail is now serving halal meals to Muslim inmates and making arrangements to better accommodate their fasts during the month of Ramadan. Maybe she felt the policy change…
Senator Wendy Davis, the first legitimate Democratic aspirant to statewide office in years, couldn’t vote without first signing an affidavit verifying her identity Monday morning. That’s because a state law passed in 2011 requires for the first time that voters provide a valid photo ID. So why did Davis get…
As his bid to become Texas’ next governor ramps up, Attorney General Greg Abbott is turning to constituents for ideas for “making Texas even better.” Since Abbott is a serious candidate, and since he wants serious suggestions, he turned to the premiere forum for nuanced political discourse and reasoned policy…
The highly anticipated investigation commissioned by Mayor Mike Rawlings has dropped. And, as expected, it boils down to this: Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. Most significantly, the report reveals that the charges against Uber drivers snared in undercover ops by Dallas vice officers have been tossed. Given the…
You know the Lawn Whisperer. He’s the vaguely irritating bearded gentleman, inexplicably decked out in safari garb, whose mug is plastered on buses, billboards and television sets by way of encouraging North Texans not to water their yards so much. Philip Kingston, the freshman member of the Dallas City Council,…
The flier after the jump is for a fundraiser to benefit Railroad Commission of Texas Chair Barry Smitherman, who is vying to replace Greg Abbott as our next state attorney general. We point this out not because it is illegal or in any way surprising, but because it is legal…
Interim Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez is now acknowledging what’s been clear to everyone else for two months: City Hall really stepped in it with its Uber crackdown. “I made a mistake. Please accept my apology,” he wrote this morning in a memo to the City Council. “I regret the…
In a new book that’s been making the rounds this week, federal appeals court judge Richard Posner expresses regret for writing a 2007 opinion upholding Indiana’s tough voter ID statute, which he now describes as “a type of law now widely regarded as a means of voter suppression rather than…
Congress has kicked the can down the road for a couple of months until the next round of full-faith-and-credit brinksmanship. Ted Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas, maintained his cherished ideological purity by voting against increasing the debt limit and reopening the federal government — this time without obstructing the…
For a few months at least, you can rest a little easier thanks to Congress’ eleventh-hour decision to reopen the federal government, lift the debt ceiling, and not send the country plunging over the cliff it’s been careering toward so ominously. The last-minute display of sanity came with no help…
The good news for Child Care Associates, a major Tarrant County Head Start provider that serves 10,000 low-income kids, is that Congress seems to be inching toward a last-minute deal to avert a default on the federal debt and end the government shutdown. If that doesn’t happen, the Fort Worth…
Sitting on 19 acres of Collin County pastureland, Storybook Ranch is part nonprofit, part for-profit kids camp and dude ranch, with horseback riding, a petting zoo, and a faux-Western saloon — a place where exurbanites can indulge in their nostalgia for a simpler time. And that’s the feel the city…
Senator Ted Cruz may be the pied piper of the government shutdown, but it’s the House Republicans following behind him like some sort of maniacal conga line who have actually thrown the wrenches in the gears. And none of them is congaing quite as maniacally as Tyler Congressman Louie Gohmert…
To the political novice, a federal government shutdown sounds like an excuse to get crazy. Anarchy in the streets! Do more than the usual drugs in Deep Ellum! Operate a bandit taxi service from the same 1993 minivan you use to transport DISD students to school! But that’s not how…
It’s happened. Ted Cruz, mere months after joining the U.S. Senate, has transcended grubby terrestrial politics and ascended into the realm of celebrity. Want proof? This puff piece by People magazine should provide all you need. In it, we learn that Cruz is a “self-described ‘movie buff,'” wears black, ostrich-skin…
It tends to get overwhelmed by the reek of humiliating ineptitude that still wafts from Rick Perry’s disastrous 2012 presidential campaign, but there was a moment when he took a principled stand and defended a position that was wildly at odds with the Tea Partiers he was trying so desperately…
It’s not yet clear who will become Texas’ next lieutenant governor. David Dewhurst, though tarnished by his defeat at the hands of Wendy Davis and her “unruly mob,” could hang onto the seat. Or he could be out-flanked to the right in the Republican primary by a trio of challengers:…
The announcement by Klyde Warren Park officials back in February was unequivocal. Come November, Dallas’ premiere urban green space would be home to an outdoor ice-skating rink. They used the term “ice” loosely. Visitors would actually skate on a synthetic substance called Super-Glide. But then-Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation chairman Jody…
An NBC5 report last night shows just how desperate Yellow Cab Co. was to run Uber, the rider-summoned, smartphone-app car service, out of its territory. In emails dating as early as May, a lawyer for the biggest taxi company in North Texas hectored the city manager’s office about citing Uber…
It’s easy enough to make a new development look lively and inviting in computer-generated renderings. Throw in a couple dozen people strolling along a broad, tree-lined sidewalk and dining on restaurant patios, all brightened by a warm evening glow, and voila: You have a thriving, modern commercial and residential hub…
It’s official. Wendy Davis, the Fort Worth Democrat who rose to national prominence during her summer filibuster of abortion legislation, is running for governor. She made the announcement just now in the Haltom City auditorium where she graduated from high school. Already, pro-life groups are readying ads that will portray…
Randy Neugebauer, a Republican congressman from West Texas, didn’t have work yesterday. So he went to the park. Unfortunately, the park was closed. Neugebauer was confused. “How do you deny them access?” Representative Neugebauer asked the park ranger. They were standing outside of the World War II Memorial in Washington,…
