Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton preemptively filed suit Monday afternoon to protect Senate Bill 4, the state’s controversial “sanctuary cities” legislation. Paxton filed the suit under the federal Declaratory Judgment Act “so that the constitutionality of SB 4 may be resolved throughout Texas in a single court.” The state leadership…
The ballots in Saturday’s city election had barely been counted when The Dallas Morning News weighed in with a finger-wagging editorial scolding East Dallas, the city’s most politically active realm, for voting for the wrong person. In repeated endorsement editorials before the election, the city’s only daily newspaper had given…
An important piece of the story is missing, a kind of key, in the bleak saga of 130 or more families facing mass eviction in West Dallas on June 3. Is there any reason it has to happen? The answer is yes. If an agreement cannot be reached, the families…
While there is still a bit to be decided after Saturday’s Dallas City Council election — namely, the fate of 671 disputed mail-in ballots and three runoff elections — there are plenty of lessons to be learned. Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a look at some of the…
Nothing that happened during Saturday’s Dallas City Council election can really be called a surprise. There was certainly some intrigue, some 671 mail-in ballots remain sequestered under court order in Districts 2 and 6 after fraud concerns and several at least one incumbent, Carolyn Arnold will lose her seat on…
The unanimous Texas House approval yesterday of a bail-out bill for the Dallas Police and Fire Pension fund sets up, among other things, the lowest point so far in the political career of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. Every single thing he wanted in the bill he did not get, and…
Saturday’s Dallas City Council election is an undeniably big one. At least six council races look to be reasonably competitive and voters seem to be taking notice. As of the end of early voting Tuesday night, 23,355 Dallas residents have voted in their city council race, up more than 4,000…
Hey, got kind of side-tracked by my hobby yesterday, hope you don’t mind. I’ll get back in the saddle tomorrow. Kind of frittered away the day on my pastime – trying to guess exactly how screwed up City Hall is. I mean, we know it’s screwed up. Sure. But how…
The Texas Legislature moved one step closer to passing its fix for Dallas’ struggling police and fire pension system Wednesday night, giving initial approval to Van Republican Dan Flynn’s raft of pension fixes. Pending potential amendments during the bill’s final reading today, Flynn’s plan, which would increase the city of…
We are now 31 days out from the deadline for the mass eviction of tenant families from small single-family homes in West Dallas – a human nightmare in the making – and it’s time to get serious about whose fault it will be if it happens. This is the saga…
“I always wanted to save the world with journalism,” says Candace Evans, the challenger for Lee Kleinman’s District 11 City Council seat. Considering the last time Dallas elected a journalist to the City Council, Mayor Laura Miller, that’s either a pretty bold statement or a give-up. Miller had a habit…
In an email to supporters Monday, U.S. House Representative Joaquin Castro announced that he will not challenge Senator Ted Cruz during the Cruz’s 2018 re-election. Castro’s decision likely clears the Democratic field for El Paso’s Beto O’Rourke, who’s barnstormed the state over the last month following his decision to take…
There are a few things that are certain ahead of Saturday’s Dallas City Council election. One: Turnout will be abysmal. Dallas doesn’t turnout out for mayoral elections, much less council-only midterms, so anything above 10 percent of Dallas’ registered voters actually showing up would be massive. Two: District 10’s Adam…
Despite vigorous opposition from much of Dallas’ delegation, the Texas House of Representatives passed legislation banning so-called sanctuary cities just after 3am Thursday. The version of the bill passed Thursday is stronger that the original House draft of the bill, more in line with the strong enforcement policies supported by…
“Perception,” which usually means racism, is often taken for a 30-foot Trump wall, as if it separates whole regions of the city in ways that can never be breached. But earlier this week I wrote about the miracle or curse, depending on your view, taking place in West Dallas now:…
Let me get this straight. We’re really mad at the cops and the firefighters because fixing their pension fund is going to be expensive. So we’re just not going to have any more cops or firefighters? Or what? Hire people from the day-labor dorms? Outsource it to India? No, look,…
On Tuesday afternoon, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced a plan to help President Trump build the multi-billion dollar wall along the Mexican border that both politicians insist is essential securing America. Cruz’s proposal would fund the wall with cash seized from illegal drug proceeds and identified the assets of drug…
Certainly Matt Wood, the challenger in the District 14 City Council race, would have had a better shot on May 6 without the baggage of a clumsily heavy-handed negative ad campaign against his opponent, incumbent Philip Kingston. The fact is that the presence in the race of a richly funded…
The mayor, who has steadfastly denied any role or interest in West Dallas gentrification, is now actively working behind the scenes as a real estate broker to get a major West Dallas landholder to sell $20 million worth of land at what appears to be 10 percent of its current…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings wants to snuff out attempted voter fraud in Dallas before it starts during this Dallas City Council election season. Friday, Dallas state Representative Eric Johnson joined Rawlings to call attention to Dallas County’s efforts to investigate media reports of dozens of voters receiving mail-in ballots they…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has a lot of problems with Texas state Representative Dan Flynn’s bill to fix Dallas’ failing police and fire pension system. On Thursday afternoon, he aired them in a letter aimed at Dallas residents. The letter also laid out the fixes he believes can save the bill,…
Texans of all stripes came out in force against the Texas House’s bathroom bill Wednesday night, stretching a late-night public hearing for House Bill 2899 well into Thursday morning. City leaders from Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso called the bill discriminatory and transgender Texans from across the state…
