Paid Sick Leave Q&A Session Leaves Questions Unanswered

Even before it began in earnest, a question-and-answer session about the city of Dallas’ new paid sick leave ordinance grew heated Wednesday afternoon. Before she began a presentation explaining the new ordinance, Hannah Alexander, partnership liaison with the city’s Office of Fair Housing and Human Rights, told a packed auditorium…

Perot Helped Shape Dallas’ Arts Scene

Nationwide, Ross Perot was known as an eccentric Texas billionaire who launched two unsuccessful presidential bids. In Dallas, he’s known, among other things, as the man whose name is on one of the city’s better-known museums. Perot died Tuesday after a five-month battle with leukemia, a family spokesman confirmed to…

Texas’ Biggest Presidential Flameouts

Texas, for all its grand political history, has had more than its share of bad candidates, ranging from the benign but deluded, like 2002 gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez, to the not-so-benign but totally hopeless, like Craig James. Scattered among the political graves are several Texas politicians who got too big for…

Ted Cruz Versus the Internet, Times 7

Sen. Ted Cruz exposed his Achilles’ heel again last week. During a Commerce Committee hearing, Cruz went after Google executive Maggie Stanphill, preening for the cameras about Google and its donations, or lack thereof, to President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Cruz was trying, we think, to harden the growing…

Oak Lawn Getting 10 Pride-Themed Crosswalks

Oak Lawn is getting a bit more colorful. On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council signed off on a series of street improvements in the neighborhood that includes 10 rainbow crosswalks meant to celebrate Oak Lawn’s history as a safe space for Dallas’ LGBTQ community. The crosswalks will be installed and…

We’re 41st! Texas Fails Its Kids, New Report Says

Texas kids are still suffering. They still lag behind children in other states when it comes to economic well-being, education, health and measures of family and community support, according to the 2019 Kids Count data book from Annie E. Casey Foundation. Despite limited help from the Texas Legislature in the…

Louie Gohmert Goes Full Gohmert at House Reparations Hearing

Sometimes it’s helpful to remember that East Texas U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert is just one of 435 members of the U.S. House. If he had more power, his ascientific, ahistoric and afactual view of the world would be menacing. As a back-bencher, Gohmert remains an object of curiosity and a…

Catching Up With Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Veto Pen

The Texas Legislature passed 1,429 bills in 2019. Lawmakers took swipes at problems that have plagued the state for decades, like Texas’ public school finance system, and problems that don’t exist, like doctors who regularly get away with committing infanticide. They passed many bills, the effects of which won’t be…

8 Times Pastor Robert Jeffress Was a Stooge for Donald Trump

First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress took to the airwaves Friday to make one thing clear: He and the rest of President Donald Trump’s evangelical backers aren’t being used by the president. “I agree 100 percent that no pastor should be a stooge for a political party or for a…