Politics & Government

Justin Nelson took the opportunity Thursday to put the pressure on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Trailing Paxton by single digits in multiple recent polls in their race for attorney general, the Austin attorney and University of Texas adjunct professor challenged the incumbent to a series of debates. “You and…

Throughout his insurgent campaign to depose Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke has insisted that he wants to debate the incumbent as often as possible. Initially, O’Rourke suggested six debates, four in English and two in Spanish, before eventually settling on six debates in English when Cruz said…

The new $115 million bridge upon which no person may safely set foot is not going without notice or attention at City Hall. According to good sources who speak to me regularly in return for my promise of confidentiality, the city department that brought us the bad bridge is about…

The 2019 mayoral race will have the potential to make Dallas a new kind of city because it will be the first time for a whole new generational wave of voters to have a shot at anointing the city’s only citywide elected official, effectively putting their stamp on the city…

Ofo, the China-based purveyor of the yellow bikes that overwhelmed Dallas’ urban landscape during the fall and spring, announced Thursday that it’s getting out of the city. Dallas’ newly passed bike-share rules were too much for the company, said Texas General Manager Everett Weiler, who added that the company had…

Carrollton’s Jeff Hinkle got a lot of publicity Wednesday and Thursday from one of his business cards featuring his lawn care service business, Mow Masters. Most of the time, getting viral attention on social media for one’s business would be a good thing — advertising that money can’t buy. For Hinkle, however,…

This is coming from me, a local columnist in Dallas, Texas, so basically I bring no authority, expertise or gravitas to the subject and shouldn’t even be opening my mouth. My excuse is a column I read on the op-ed page of The Dallas Morning News this morning, but between…

The workers-rights groups behind the push for paid sick leave in Dallas still believe that they turned in more than enough valid signatures to get their cause on Dallas’ November ballot. If Dallas City Secretary Billirae Johnson doesn’t recount 32,000 signatures deemed previously invalid, the advocates will consider suing Johnson…

Last week, U.S. Rep Louie Gohmert, who represents a large chunk of East Texas in the House, popped off again and said something weird. We love when that happens. It happens a lot. The latest instance occurred during a congressional grilling of FBI agent Peter Strzok. Strzok was removed from…

Dallas residents, it turns out, will not be voting on paid sick leave in November. Despite finishing a petition drive with over 119,000 signatures — more than twice what’s been required to get a sick leave ordinance on the mid-term ballot — advocates for the policy couldn’t survive a review…

The hits, according to Officer Nick Novello, just keep on coming for the Dallas Police Department ‘s Central Patrol Division. Less than two weeks after being left with only a handful of officers — six by the department’s count, five by Novello’s — to respond to calls July 4 because of…

I’m not going to get all kumbaya on you, and this is not the scene at the end of the horrible 1970s movie with the slow-mo and the violins and the running through the field of poppies and the big smooch-o-rama at the end. But I need to tell you…

Late last week, President Donald Trump opened the latest front in his ever-expanding trade war, announcing 25-percent tariffs on a long list of Chinese imports. The Chinese government responded in kind, creating similar tariffs on a bevy of U.S. agricultural products. While neither the U.S. nor the Chinese economy has…

I told you Monday about the possibility — probably remote — that the new Margaret McDermott (Santiago Calatrava) Bridge over the Trinity River downtown might wind up being demolished before it can open for its first day of traffic. In some of the responses I got, I think I was…

Texas candidates in the November midterm elections were quick to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s selection of Brett Kavanaugh, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Twitter that he…

The moment has arrived when we must expand our thinking about the new and troubled Margaret McDermott Bridge designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava on the Trinity River downtown. We’ve got to add at least one extreme outcome to the far end of the spectrum of possibilities. It may have…

For Texas Democrats, the big blow came last week. Tuesday was just the insult added to the injury. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 25 that the overwhelming majority of the congressional and legislative districts that Democrats have claimed for decades were racially gerrymandered were perfectly fine. On Tuesday afternoon,…

White Rock Lake is officially back to normal after more than a million gallons of sewage threatened the recreation spot late last week. At 5 a.m. Tuesday, the White Rock dog park will reopen, allowing the lake’s furriest visitors to get back in the water for the first time since…

Scot Miller is a nationally renowned nature photographer who happens to live in Dallas. His books of photography depict world-famous places like Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, and Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. His illustrated 100th anniversary edition of John Muir’s My First Summer in the Sierra,…