Texas is set to turn a very fake problem into a very real law. Monday night, the state’s House of Representatives signed off on Plano Republican Jeff Leach’s “Born Alive Protection Act” which would create civil and criminal penalties for doctors who fail to care for babies born after attempted…
If Beto O’Rourke drives to a coffee shop or college campus and cable news doesn’t mention it, does he make a sound? O’Rourke’s been running for president now, at least officially, for just more than a month. During those first 32 days, his campaign is happy to tell you, the…
Last month, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to turn over records showing exactly what state officials were up to earlier this year when they tried to purge nearly 100,000 voters from the state’s rolls. Last week, as the deadline…
You do what you want, but this is popcorn and folding chair time for me. An eye-popping little tent show is about to unfold, and I want a front-row seat. It started last week with this: Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs, running for mayor on an anti-boondoggle platform, scored…
Four candidates for mayor of Dallas agree on at least this much: Homelessness is a growing problem that the city must find a way to solve. At a public forum Thursday, candidates shared their ideas for meeting that goal, ranging from partnering with the agencies and nonprofits that are already…
A blueprint of a site plan for proposed construction is projected on a pull-down screen before me; a city official is at the podium droning through a very long litany of legalese while five bored-looking board members try to maintain the yes-I-am-too-paying-attention facial expression; and as I write this with…
You may not believe this. I can’t do anything but tell you. The same people who brought us the absurd and embarrassing $6 million fake kayak rapids fiasco in the Trinity River, the folks who brought us the $115 million bicycle bridge that’s too dangerous to use, the same social…
The headlines on reports about last week’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s raid on an electronic repairs plant in Allen were startling. In one day, ICE agents arrested 280 people at CVE Technology Group, making Wednesday’s bust the biggest in a decade. Despite the scale of the operation, however, the way…
Officials at the Salvation Army will have to wait another month before learning if they can move forward with a planned 20-acre campus in northwest Dallas. The Salvation Army hopes to build the $95 million facility to provide shelter and services to the homeless in an industrial area on North…
Friday afternoon, nearly seven months after Dwaine Caraway pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges and resigned from the Dallas City Council, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn will tell him just how long he’ll spend in prison for his transgressions. For a while Thursday, it looked like that might not happen…
The Margaret McDermott Bridge over the Trinity River in downtown Dallas is the city’s ne’er-do-well relative who shows up every year or so for yet another handout. Is it a mercy for us to give her more money, or have we just become codependent? Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava,…
When Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall rolled out her first draft of potential changes to Dallas’ Citizens Police Review Board last month, she took heat from all sides. Supporters of reforming the board felt that Hall’s changes didn’t go far enough, while opponents of the reforms worried that strengthening…
The Texas Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would offer legal protections to those who refuse to provide services on religious grounds. Senate Bill 17 bars state license-granting agencies from denying or stripping professional licenses “based on a sincerely held religious belief” of the applicant or license-holder. Critics say the…
Probably out of sheer meanness, like bug-killing, I enjoy seeing politicians pitch themselves to really loony audiences. I like to watch them wriggle. There can’t have been any other reason I interrupted a perfectly fine Monday evening and drove north to the Churchill Rec Center to witness the Citizens Matter…
North Texas’ municipal elections are just more than a month away. Anyone who’s lived here long enough knows that means a couple of things: 1. Thanks to Texas’ voter-access unfriendly laws, it’s time to register if you aren’t already. Anyone not on the books by a month before the election…
Opening Day, along with the hope and inevitable despair that await the Rangers this season, is here. It’s the real first day of spring and maybe the single best excuse to skip out on work for the afternoon that you’ll get in 2019. The Rangers and the Cubs playing their…
On most issues, there is no bridge that’s too far between Texas’ Republican majority and law enforcement officers in the state. Whether it’s the state’s slow-to-change drug laws or special protections for peace officers, the Texas GOP loves to defer to its cops, positioning itself as the state’s law-and-order party…
Maybe we need to have a little bit of Journalism 101 here. There seem to be some people around town who don’t quite know how it works. Professor Schutze is always glad to assist. A major political dust storm erupted at City Hall after my cover story appeared last week…
The early reviews for Dallas’ “End Panhandling Now” program are in and they aren’t good. Not Battlefield Earth bad, but not good. It’s going to take more than $400,000 and a Frogger-themed public service announcement, it seems, to stop people from hustling downtown residents for change and connect them with…
Texas House Democrats did everything they could to slow down their Republican colleagues’ “born-alive” bill Monday morning. But the legislation, like so many anti-abortion bills in the Texas Legislature over the last decade, chugged along as expected and looks set for a big debate on the House floor later this…
A bill that would allow licensed professionals to deny services on religious grounds advanced out of a Texas Senate committee Monday afternoon. Senate Bill 17 would bar state license-granting agencies from taking action against an occupational license holder “based on a sincerely held religious belief.” The bill passed the Senate…
After my own lengthy and exacting legal analysis of positions taken by The Dallas Morning News editorial page on official actions and decisions by newly elected Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, I have come to the following learned conclusion, which I think should be published in a legal journal,…
