Texas Values, an organization whose goal is to “preserve and advance a culture of family values,” has issued an open letter to the Boy Scouts of America with their thoughts on lifting the ban on gay scouts. They’re against it. “While adopting this ill-considered and wrongly devised policy might earn…
When the city released its master plan for downtown parks in 2004, the vision was to create “a series of signature parks within downtown that add identity and economic vibrancy to the heart of the city.” That’s starting to happen, as anyone who’s spent time in Main Street Garden or…
Last February, animal rights activists in South Carolina launched a small drone equipped with a camera to monitor a pigeon hunt on a private shooting plantation. The hunters promptly shot it down. The activists’ use of the drone seems to have been perfectly legal, but it’s relatively uncharted territory. Lawmakers…
The debate over whether Boy Scouts of America should allow gay members and volunteers will come to a head this week, as the organization’s board of directors descends on Irving for its regular meeting. They will be greeted by a full-page Human Rights Campaign ad in the Dallas Morning New…
In November 2010, Dallas voters firmly rejected the city’s plan to offload Elgin B. Robertson Park. The idea of selling the park, which occupies 257 acres on the shore of Lake Ray Hubbard, had been but on the ballot partly as a way to boost the Parks Department’s capital budget…
In July, reeling from state budget cuts, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department came up with a surefire way to make a bit of extra scratch: corporate sponsorships. The proposal didn’t include naming rights — no British Petroleum State Park at Galveston Island, for example — but companies who paid…
The board of Irving-based Boy Scouts of America won’t discuss a possible end to its longstanding ban on gays until next week, but the news that it’s up for discussion has been condemned as another step in the nation’s march toward moral ruin. The pronouncements, many of which have been…
Last week, in an interview with the New Republic, President Obama said something about his love for skeet shooting, the subtle art of throwing a clay disk up in the air and shooting the hell out of it. “Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time,” the…
Texas, the Second Amendment bastion of sport shooters, concealed carriers and Stand-Your-Grounders, also favors a ban on assault weapons by a surprising margin — 49 percent to 41 percent, according to Public Policy Polling. Texans oppose arming school teachers (56 percent to 31 percent), but also strongly favor putting cops…
On Tuesday, the city of Houston went live with a 311 app for smartphones. Downloadable free from the iTunes store, the allows residents to submit complaints and track their progress on the go. “Say you see a pothole on your street. Before you even leave for work you can walk…
In Austin yesterday, state lawmakers were joined by Texans whose family members were killed in texting-related car accidents for an emotional press conference in support of a texting-while-driving ban proposed by Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo. A nearly identical proposal easily passed last session, only to…
A couple years back when I was on the Preston Hollow beat, I accompanied Dallas police on what just might go down as the most boring ride-along in history. This wasn’t some Cops-style chronicle of the dangerous work of Dallas’ finest, but a plodding search for cars illegally parked in…
Ona Marie Hendricks’ theory on urban sartorial choice is more developed than most. “There are two types of saggers,” she explained to Fox 4’s Steve Eagar a few months ago. “There is the ridiculous, nasty, disrespectful type where, like, everything is showing up under, where you can see everything, and…
This year, for the first time in about a century, the University of Texas and Texas A&M did not meet on the gridiron. With the Aggies now in the SEC, the annual football matchup that fueled the long-standing rivalry is effectively over. Millions of Texans were sad. Some were outraged…
The Dallas Police & Fire Pension Fund stumbled into a PR disaster when it went all in on the allegedly-art destroying Museum Tower, but that was far from its only foray into real estate. At times, as Anna reported last year, as much of a third of the fund’s $3…
Putting his time to its best and highest use, for the benefit of his constituents in Arlington, state Representative Bill Zedler has written an essential piece of legislation; a bill of our times, for our times — if our times were still, like, nearly four years ago. Proving, we suppose,…
A friend of mine works in Austin, doing something or other for state government. Her office is right next to the Capitol building. When she arrived at work this morning, she couldn’t help but notice that the whole place was covered in bikers. The Harley kind. “Hundreds of dudes wearing…
The city’s Gas Drilling Task Force never came to a consensus on the potential impact of allowing fracking within city limits, ultimately splintering into two opposing camps. But they did spend the better part of a year researching and debating the issue’s many facets. It was curious, then, when the…
In May of 2011, in the midst of various other anti-abortion measures, Texas lawmakers approved SB 257, authored by Representative Larry Phillips, a Republican from Sherman, and Senator John Carona, a Republican from Dallas. The bill allowed for the sale of state-issued specialty “Choose Life” license plates: For a mere…
On Tuesday, the same day two men opened fire at Houston’s Lone Star Community College, a bipartisan trio of state lawmakers unveiled a plan aimed at reducing school violence. Dubbed the Texas School District Safety Act, the measure would allow voters to approve special taxing districts that would pay for…
Klyde Warren Park has drawn nearly universal praise since it opened three months ago, charming even Schutze into dropping his cynical scowl for a time. That’s what makes today’s news that KWP president Mark Banta is quitting so surprising. Banta’s not talking about why he’s leaving, offering only a brief,…
It’s clear and has been for a while that, barring a wholesale shift in the worldview of both Republicans and Latino voters, demographic shifts will turn Texas into a Democratic state. Eventually. That’s what San Antonio’s political wonderkinder Joaquin and Julian Castro were talking about on Sunday when they told…
