It was almost two years ago that off-duty Dallas police officer Amber Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, while he was watching television in his own apartment. Guyger said she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own and thought he was a burglar. Two years later, protesters against…
A federal judge recently ordered children who have been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for more than 20 days to be released by July 17. But demonstrators protesting for immigration reform outside Dallas City Hall on Saturday say that order isn’t enough. “This is a victory, but it…
Amber Sims lives in what was once a freedmen’s town, built by people who were born into slavery and then emancipated. But very few remnants of the area’s history are left today, she said. Correcting racial inequities in Dallas starts with addressing that history, said Sims, the director of regional…
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Dallas County continues to rise, but the city’s two drive-thru test sites are set to lose federal funding at the end of the month. Texas is one of five states — the others are Illinois, New Jersey, Colorado and Pennsylvania — to have this funding cut,…
Wednesday, the Dallas City Council got its latest look at the novel coronavirus-sized hole that’s still being torn in the city’s budget. The damage, so far at least, is significant but seemingly surmountable. Amid all the numbers, however, was a stark warning from Dallas’ chief financial officer. For both the…
A year ago last Thursday, the town of Waskom in deep East Texas declared itself a sanctuary city from abortion. The move was as notable for its novelty as its glaring unconstitutionality, but it started a movement. At the urging of East Texas Right to Life director and provocateur Mark…
In the end, VisitDallas did enough. Wednesday afternoon, after months of back and forth between the city and the agency charged with marketing it, the Dallas City Council signed off on a five-year contract extension with VisitDallas by a 14-1 vote. The council’s vote came after a days-long email campaign…
Ten members of the Dallas City Council sent a letter to Dallas City Manager TC Broadnax on Tuesday with some big news for budget season: Dallas is going to take a serious look at how it budgets for public safety. For the first time in a long time, the city’s…
Everyone — the protesters, members of the Dallas City Council and the media — knows what they think happened on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge last Monday night. They experienced it themselves, heard about it from their friends and saw it on video. There are some details that need to…
More than 200 speakers and three rounds of interrogation of Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall later, and the Dallas City Council exited Friday night’s eight-hour, remote meeting with more questions than answers. Hall still can’t fully explain what happened on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge Monday night, and the…
More than 600 protesters penned in and arrested by Dallas Police Department officers during an otherwise peaceful protest Monday night will not be charged with a crime, according to Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall and Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax. After rallying at Frank Crowley Courthouse just outside of…
After days of rallies, marches and clashes with police, the Dallas protesters calling for change after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police office paused Wednesday to air their grievances in front of audience that included members of Dallas City Council, Dallas County Commissioners Court and Dallas Police…
Monday morning, fresh out of meeting with Dallas police officials, Dominique Alexander said he and the protesters he helped organize wanted a specially called meeting of the City Council to fix what they believe is the city’s lack of police oversight. Tuesday afternoon, after another protest and hundreds of arrests…
The catalyst for the last four days’ protests in Dallas is new, if horrifyingly familiar. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauven allegedly murdered George Floyd, a black man, last month by kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes. People in Dallas and around the world are angry. “I’m just enraged…
Last week, Twitter attached a link to one of President Donald Trump’s tweets, asserting that the president’s claims about voter fraud and mail-in voting weren’t true. The social media platform decision incensed Trump and many Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The president even issued…
The city of Dallas has enacted a curfew for the Deep Ellum, downtown and Uptown areas, effective from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., beginning Sunday and continuing for the “next several days.” Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall made the announcement at a news conference Sunday afternoon after the city…
When it came down to it last night, 10 or so hours into Wednesday’s City Council meeting, the political will just wasn’t there. Despite the novel coronavirus, the pandemic that’s followed its arrival on U.S. shores and the inevitable hole it will tear in Dallas’ current and future budgets, the…
Dallas is taking a shot, maybe not its best shot, but a shot, at lessening the city’s role in the global climate crisis. Wednesday, the City Council unanimously passed Dallas’ first-ever Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan. “I grew up partially in the shadow of a lead smelter plant in West…
Multiple Dallas City Council members decided not to show up to Tuesday’s scheduled meeting of the city’s ad hoc COVID-19 economic recovery committee. Without a quorum, the meeting couldn’t go on, so it adjourned without getting a briefing on “Dallas First,” an initiative favored by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, which…
There’s reopening and then there’s reopening, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson told reporters Tuesday afternoon. It’s one thing for businesses and other public facilities to be open. It’s another for Dallas residents to have the confidence to use them. Dallas’ economy, in traction thanks to COVID-19, won’t get going again until…
Four months into 2020, the year Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall was supposed to address the city’s violent crime problem, and violent crime is still up in Dallas over the same period in 2019. Things aren’t all bad, according to the chief, but Dallas’ multi-faceted plan to drive down…
This is a story about the dangers posed by spunky people. In these terrible times, this story should offer comic relief. But, uh … nah. Probably not too comic. The Trinity Park Conservancy, a very spunky private group charged with raising money for a fancy new city park on the…
