“Majority rule, minority rights.” It’s one of the first axioms you learn in civics, social studies or whatever your elementary school called it. It’s part of the American social contract, that those out of power in a legislative body have at least some means to check the actions of those…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings recently released his semiannual campaign finance report, detailing the money he’s received for his re-election campaign and what he’s doing with it. There are no smoking guns in the report, no examples of obvious corruption that everyone can feel righteously outraged about. Most disappointingly, there is…
Five white plaintiffs, backed by the Dallas-based Equal Voting Rights Institute, are suing Dallas County because, they say, the 60 percent-white Dallas County Commissioner’s Court does not fairly represent them. Dallas County, for the record, is 39 percent Latino; 32 percent white, non-Latino; and 23 percent black, according the the…
Not content after losing a local battle against Plano’s LGBTQ equal rights ordinance, a group of four local state representatives plan to introduce legislation that would nullify any municipal equal rights ordinances passed anywhere in the state, including Dallas’ March 2014 ordinance. See also: Plano Ignores Cries of Hometown Liberty…
Tuesday, as she was sworn into the Texas Senate seat formerly occupied by erstwhile gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, Colleyville Republican Konni Burton left no doubt that she’d be a vast departure from Davis’ moderation. Seemingly mocking the pink Mizunos Davis made famous during her filibuster of House Bill 2, Texas’…
Randolph Glenn is about to get at least a little of what he deserves for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Glenn was shot by Dallas Police Officer Bunthavuth Te after failing to remove his hands from his pockets while Te and other officers looked for Donnell…
The city of Dallas got in on the earthquake hysteria Monday. The takeaways: Chances of a significant (5.0 or higher on the Richter scale) quake are small, but we all need to start putting together our emergency kits — the city recommends we stock them with bottled water, several days’…
I moved into a new apartment on New Year’s Day. Wednesday, as I was making my way down the stairs, I saw the door you see in the photo. It stopped me cold. “Surely, it couldn’t be this easy,” I thought. Had Wylie H. been hiding in plain sight –…
Big cities are threatening to turn the state’s economic miracle into a nightmare, according to Texas Governor-elect, Greg Abbott. Regulations drafted by cities with regard to fracking, plastic bags and cutting down old trees are a grave threat to the state’s well-being. If cities like Dallas lead the way, we…
All of Vanity Fair reporter Bryan Burrough’s portrait of Dallas in the hours, days and weeks after the arrival of Thomas Eric Duncan is worth reading, but we thought it’d be worthwhile to highlight some of the most interesting stuff in his piece for those who can’t afford to read…
Acknowledging that maybe the tear down first, ask questions later policy with regard to old buildings that aren’t protected landmarks might not be the best thing, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and District 14 City Council member Philip Kingston have teamed up to form the most Dallas of all pseudo-governmental units…
Starting with the adoption of a an equality resolution by the City Council in March, 2014 saw the city of Dallas continue to inch its way to becoming one of the most inclusive municipalities in the country. The city added health benefits for transgender city employees, made it possible for…
A little less than a year ago, the city of Dallas adopted a drought contingency plan to mitigate damage from increasingly low water levels at the city’s lakes and reservoirs. The first stage of that plan kicks in when levels are down 35 percent. In December that line was crossed;…
I’m just going to pay the nickel. That’s what I realized, staring at a 7-Eleven sign on New Year’s Eve warning of the coming enforcement of City Council member Dwaine Caraway’s baby, the city’s carryout bag ordinance. I’m going to pay the nickel, because remembering reusable bags is hard and…
As the start of 2015 approaches, so does our state’s biennial circus, the regular session of the Texas Legislature. This session, the 84th, will feature the usual bickering over just how far social services can be slashed without turning Texas into an anarcho-libertarian hellscape and the inevitable crushing of any…
Let’s set aside for a moment the niceties of due process and innocent-until-proven-guilty and take Dallas police at their word. We’ll take without further cross-examination the claim that they conducted a five-month investigation of Eternal Eden, a regular, all-night rave at Northwest Dallas’ Jaguars strip club, and that undercover officers…
Mike Rawlings is going to finish the job he set out to do after his 2011 election whether the nattering nabobs of negativity like it or not. That’s the message set out in the mayor’s end of year address, posted on his office’s Vimeo channel over the brief Christmas respite…
The news just keeps rolling on, and not every story has a neat ending. Sometimes it pays to stop and take a look back to see what’s happened with stories we reported during the year. That time is the day after Christmas, when all the new newsmakers are sneaking in…
One thing is clear from Dallas attorney Marcos Ronquillo’s first mayoral campaign press release: He’s looking to make his May 2015 contest with incumbent Mike Rawlings a single-issue showdown, a third referendum on the Trinity toll road. “The proposed Trinity River toll road project has been controversial from day one,”…
Last Friday, the day Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins was ticketed for shaking a 61-year-old city employee while screaming, “Do you know who I am” in her face, the security camera that should have recorded the incident wasn’t working. The city of Dallas says it had been out of order…
A bill filed Monday in advance of the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature would make the maximum penalty for the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a $100 fine. The fine would not count as a criminal conviction and could not considered as such by anyone performing…
Update: 12:54 p.m.: Atkins has issued a statement about the incident. He admits that he was “a little upset” but denies touching Hultquist. “I regret that the two ladies feel I was too aggressive in my comments and that I ‘shook’ one of them,” he says. (You can check out…
