Wendy Davis, the “Abortion Superstar,” is jerking our chains a little bit. She still won’t say whether she’ll run for governor in 2014 or just re-election for her seat in the Texas senate. But a Texas lobbyist with “credible sources” has posted on his blog that she’s definitely gunning to…
When City Council member Dwaine Caraway proposed a ban on single-use bags (paper and plastic) earlier this year, it seemed like another of the sweeping but ineffectual campaigns he fixes onto every so often. Sort of like the sagging-pants thing, except less entertaining. But then, in June, the measure sailed…
There’s a Tumblr waiting to be made about U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert. Maybe “Sh*t Gohmert Says” or “Texts from Louie.” Right Wing Watch, where the Tyler Republican garners only slightly fewer mentions than Glenn Beck, does a solid job, but its reports lack the proper memeiness to properly convey the…
You’re forgiven if you’ve lost track of the gas drilling debate in Dallas. It’s an arcane subject to begin with. Throw in byzantine layers of City Hall bureaucracy and city officials’ subtle push to let Trinity East Energy drill on land it leased from the city, and it reaches brain-exploding…
U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson got a few things off of her chest last week during a recent House committee hearing. Last week, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, chaired by Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, issued a congressional subpoena for the first time in more than two…
You heard it here first: The outrage that has been simmering on the right since President Obama’s election in 2008 is about to boil over. It will make the claims that he’s a crypto-Muslim communist bent on destroying America seem like trifling schoolyard taunts. It will make those early Tea…
Senator Ted Cruz wasn’t joking when he threatened last week to shut down the government if the Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, moves forward. Now, buoyed by his victory in an early presidential straw poll in Iowa, he’s doubling down on his…
In the wake of yesterday’s epic fail on transportation funding it looks like state legislators are headed back to Austin for a third month-long special session, and it won’t be cheap. As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports this morning, each extra month the legislature’s in session costs $800,000, bringing the…
House Republicans have now voted 39 times to repeal Obamacare. On a certain level, their persistence is admirable in the same way that I admire the way my dog never stops believing that this will be the time that he finally catches that squirrel. One’s esteem is diminished only slightly…
Yesterday, Councilman Dwaine Caraway issued a call for a formal, citywide discussion on race. It isn’t scheduled to take place until September 21, probably at City Hall, but it got a head start in the The Dallas Morning News’ comments section…
Chart Westcott’s campaign to replace Dan Branch as Highland Park’s representative in the Texas House is barely two months old, but he already boasts a ridiculously impressive donor list. Billionaire Harold Simmons and his wife have each chipped in $25,000, as has former Cowboy Troy Aikman. Tom Hicks and Jerry…
The seven-year-long fight by the city of Farmers Branch to purge itself of undocumented immigrants may be coming to a court-ordered close. Last year, a judge ordered the city to implement single-member City Council districts, which shook up the formerly lily-white city government with the May election of Ana Reyes…
Over the weekend, the Observer received this message via email: I’m Joe Upshaw. I don’t know if you have heard of Flyboarding, but it’s pretty amazing. It’s the coolest, newest thing in extreme water sports. It’s like a jet pack attached to your feet on the lake that let’s you…
Just when you thought the shark-jumping Museum Tower imbroglio couldn’t get any more absurd, The Dallas Morning News’ Steve Blow goes and writes a column comparing the spat that has riveted the Dallas Arts District for the past year and a half with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has claimed tens…
By the time neighbors caught wind of Walmart’s plans to build a scaled-down Supercenter at the corner of Coit and Arapaho roads in Far North Dallas, it was too late. The retailer already had the proper zoning and had just signed a long-term lease. No matter how many yard signs…
Today was supposed to be the day when we found out whether District Attorney Craig Watkins’ contempt of court citation would be upheld. State District Judge Bob Brotherton traveled here from Wichita Falls just to make the decision. What he decided instead was that the original contempt charge hadn’t been…
Dealey Plaza: A Long and Rich History from City of Dallas on Vimeo.The powers that be have made it abundantly clear that they plan on tightly controlling the message around the November anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination. They’ve made it equally clear that they are going to do…
It all comes down to this. For real this time. The Senate is just about to begin final consideration of HB 2 which, in case you haven’t been paying attention, would ban abortion after 20 weeks, require abortion clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers, and make…
The abortion debate is a Gordian knot wrapped in a koan stuck in an inescapable quagmire. It’s not, in other words, a matter that can be settled through dialogue, reasoned or otherwise, as the Texas Legislature has so amply proved over the past month. That hasn’t stopped people from trying…
As expected, the Texas House passed new, restrictive abortion restrictions this afternoon, sending them on to the Senate for final approval, but not before Democrats could launch a statewide bus tour, and not before this pro-choice protester could scream at lawmakers from the gallery. Unlike the clamor that arose after…
The Texas House just passed sweeping abortion restrictions. Once they pass the senate, the procedure will be banned 20 weeks post-fertilization, and all but five abortion providers in the state will be forced to close thanks to a medically unnecessary requirement that they meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers…
Per the rules of the Texas legislature’s special session, Governor Rick Perry can add any agenda items that he thinks need to be addressed, with abortion taking a pretty comfortable lead over anything else. Otherwise, any bills the legislators file right now are in free-floating purgatory. In a show of…
