Fort Worth Police Are Ticketing People for Not Using Parking Brakes

There was a time, back when manual transmissions were the only option and the slightest incline could potentially transform any car into an unstoppable projectile, when it made sense to have a law requiring drivers to use their parking brake. Those days have long since passed. Automatic transmissions are now…

Cornyn: Under Democrats, Texas Will Become Dystopian Failed State

So far, the turn-Texas-blue group Battleground Texas’ primary public function has been to serve as a Kim Jong-un-like bogeyman for Republican politicians to campaign against. Leave it to U.S. Senator John Cornyn, desperately trying to convince us that he’s just as crazy as junior colleague Ted Cruz, to take this…

Senator Ted Cruz: The Pied Piper of Government Shutdown

For the first time since the Clinton-Gingrich budget wars of 1995-96, hundreds of thousands of federal workers may soon be furloughed without pay, while others will be asked to work for free. The U.S. House of Representatives sent a bill to the U.S. Senate that would temporarily fund the government…

GQ: Ted Cruz Was a Self-Important Asshole in Law School

Ted Cruz did not make the cover of the October issue of GQ, an honor reserved for The Wire’s Idris Elba. That’s probably for the best. The appearance of Texas’ junior senator on the cover of a national magazine, this one not a political rag but one that defines itself…

Craig James, the “Latest Face of the War on Religious Liberty”

Craig James, former SMU running back and failed U.S. Senate candidate, has managed to alienate an impressively broad swath of humanity, including but not limited to Texas Tech fans, sex workers, the entire LGBT community, Republican primary voters, and the executives of now two major sports networks. The second of…

How Car Dealers and Their Lobbyists Crushed Tesla’s Plan for Texas

This past legislative session, billionaire Elon Musk’s push for a new law allowing electric-car maker Tesla Motors to bypass car dealers and sell directly to consumers crashed and burned. Which wasn’t a surprise. The state’s car dealers have a long, proud history of plying legislators with campaign cash and gifts…

Why Dallas’ Traffic Lights Are So Terrible

My personal traffic-signal nemesis is where Garland Road and Gaston Avenue meet at the southern tip of White Rock Lake. Woe to the southbound driver who, having hit the intersection at 6:30 p.m., and having just learned that the squirming 4-year-old in the back seat has to go potty RIGHT…

Esquire: The Right Hates Obama Like Dallas Hated JFK

Dallas will never be able to completely escape blame for killing JFK. There’s simply too much documentation of how reactionary hate-mongering gripped the city. Esquire’s Charlie Pierce dredged up one of those documents yesterday, a leaflet distributed in the streets of Dallas on the day of the assassination. Except that…