Email Author ANNA MERLAN

2012 Stories by ANNA MERLAN

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  FEATURED STORY

  Fort Worth Senator Wendy Davis Wants to Use Strip Club Tax to Pay for Untested Rape Kits

  published Jun 01, 2012

  Fort Worth Senator Wendy Davis announced this week that she'll be teaming up with the Texas Department of Public Safety to remind state law enforcement agencies, once again, that a new law requires th... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Homelessness in County Is Down Overall, But There Are More Homeless Children Than Ever

  published May 30, 2012

  In late January, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance and a team of volunteers hit the city's streets and shelters to count the homeless . The count is something hundreds of cities do each January as part ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Americans United For Life: Texas Is Pleasingly Abortion-Unfriendly, But It Could Do Better

  published May 29, 2012

  Americans United For Life, one of the nation's largest anti-abortion advocacy groups, has released its annual report, Defending Life 2012, complete with an enthusiastic blurb from Governor Rick Perry.... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Great, Now Dallas Is One Of The Least Fit Cities In The Nation

  published May 24, 2012

  In addition to being smutty and un-hip, the DFW area is now ranking way down at number 47 on the American College of Sports Medicine's Fitness Index. And the bad news is that unlike some of the other... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  If Sarah Palin Hasn't Called You About Ted Cruz Yet, Try Not To Take It Personally

  published May 22, 2012

  Ever since Ted Cruz announced that Sarah Palin is endorsing him in his bid for Senate, we've been clustered around the office phone (we only have one), waiting patiently to hear a robo-call from ex-Al... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  "You Ignorant Slut": A Dallas Lawyer Loses His Job For Creative Insults of Opposing Counsel

  published May 22, 2012

  The practice of law is a subtle art, one which requires finesse, tact, and skill. Sometimes too, we've learned, it necessitates calling the other guy's lawyer a pansy, an asshole, an ignorant slut, an... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Why Does Dallas Keep Forgetting About its Cheese-Heroin Problemr

  published May 21, 2012

  On Friday, Dallas police reported that they were investigating the apparent overdose deaths of two students from Thomas Jefferson High School in March and April: 14-year-old Jaime Morales, who was fou... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Commission Recommends DISD Get Rid Of Metal Detectors. But Do They Workr

  published May 18, 2012

  As Matthew Haag noted yesterday over at the Morning News' education blog, DISD's Citizen Budget Review Commission made several recommendations at last week's board briefing for how the district might ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Too Many Dallas Teens are Getting Locked Up in Adult Jails, Study Says. And That Ain't Good.

  published May 17, 2012

  An exhaustive new study has found alarming conditions for Texas teenagers housed in adult jails while awaiting trial, a practice that Dallas and Harris counties use more than anywhere else in the stat... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Mark Cuban Tackles America's Student Loan Bubble, Then Roots for It to Burst

  published May 16, 2012

  In addition to sports team ownership and a sideline in media impresario-ness, Mark Cuban is quite the blogger: dishing out advice to the Occupy movement, fulminating about patent law, apologizing for ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  One Million Moms Takes Credit for GCB Getting Canceled, Almost Makes Us Wish It Wasn't

  published May 15, 2012

  You're probably still recovering from this weekend's news that GCB, the all-cartoon character depiction of Dallas's blonde and faithful, has been canceled. One Million Moms couldn't be more pleased... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  After NorthPark's Curfew, Teens Wonder: "Whts Happeningr Gay Marriage and Now Thisr"

  published May 14, 2012

  NorthPark mall can suck my ass w/ this 6 o'clock curfew bullshit!!#wtfisthis— r0V0rX'0r (@_OptimisticSwag) May 10, 2012 Last week NorthPark Center, the fanciest mall outside of Vegas, announce... More >>

• After An Exoneration, A Rape Victim and An Innocent Man Still Bound By A Terrible Crime

  published May 10, 2012

  This week's feature tells the story of Debbie Jones, a Richardson woman who was raped and robbed at knifepoint in 1985, when she was 19. Soon after the crime, Jones picked Thomas McGowan out of a p... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Victims' Families Sue Crime-Scene Cleanup Company and Crew

  published May 09, 2012

  Aftermath Inc. refers to itself as a "biohazard restoration company", more commonly known as crime-scene cleanup: The company's employees go in after murders, suicides, injuries, hoarding cases and o... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Dallas Police and Fire Pension Boss: Fund's Risky Investments "Are Building America"

  published May 09, 2012

  The Nasher Sculpture Center and the developers of the Museum Tower project are continuing to hammer out their white light, white heat debacle behind closed doors. They recently hired a mediator in l... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  How Rape Victims Cope When Their Alleged Attackers Are Exonerated

  published May 10, 2012

  When Debbie Jones saw her mother, she knew the news was bad. For weeks, Jones had been waiting to hear from the Dallas County District... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Now Dallas is the 15th "Smuttiest" City

  published May 08, 2012

  Dallas may be inhospitable to hipsters, but we're apparently a city filled with porn enthusiasts: Men's Health recently ranked Dallas 15th in a list of the 100 "smuttiest" American cities (Orlando wo... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  A Dallas Cab Driver Had Pretty Much the Worst Late-Night Hook-Up Ever Last Night

  published May 07, 2012

  Around 3 a.m. today, a cab driver called the Dallas police to report that he'd been carjacked after dropping off a passenger. He couldn't specify just where he'd been when this happened, and he didn'... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Texas Can't Kick Planned Parenthood Out of the WHP After All, Appeals Court Says

  published May 04, 2012

  Earlier this week, Judge Jerry Smith of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a preliminary injunction that kept Texas from kicking Planned Parenthood out of the Women's Health Program. It looke... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Scott Griggs Thinks The City's Being "A Little Misleading" About Its Power to Regulate Boarding Homes

  published May 03, 2012

  Immediately after Mayor Mike's extremely non-surprising show of support for the Trinity River toll road yesterday, the city council members retreated into executive session to continue talking about ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The Ongoing and (Slow-Moving) Fight to Regulate Boarding Homes in Dallas

  published May 02, 2012

  The city of Dallas has been grappling for years with how to better regulate boarding homes for the elderly, mentally ill and disabled , which are currently subject to very little oversight. About thre... More >>

• Judge: Texas Can Kick Planned Parenthood Out of the Women's Health Program

  published May 01, 2012

  When we said yesterday Planned Parenthood could remain part of the Texas's Medicaid Women's Health Program "for now," we didn't know "now" would last less than 24 hours. A Fifth Circuit appeals judg... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Planned Parenthood Wins Battle in War on Women as Judge Puts Off Exclusion from WHP

  published Apr 30, 2012

  The scuffle between Texas and the feds over women's healthcare was supposed to get real tomorrow, when Planned Parenthood was scheduled to be barred from being a provider for the state's Medicaid Wome... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The Best Signs from the War on Women Rally

  published Apr 30, 2012

  I was in Austin over the weekend, where I couldn't help but notice 1,500 people holding a rally for women's rights on the Capitol building's south steps. It was one of dozens of events across the cou... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The Humanists Now Want to Sue Over the Angelika Plano's Refusal to Show Atheist Ads

  published Apr 27, 2012

  Several weeks ago, two area theaters refused to show an ad for atheism, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason's new campaign, "Our Families Are Great Without Religion." Now the American Hu... More >>