Government Spending

Here's What Texas Stands To Lose if Congress Doesn't Compromise By March 1 Deadline

The sequester, that "Damocles sword" hanging perilously above federal spending and set to fall March 1, was supposed to be an instrument so blunt, which would cut so deeply and indiscriminately, that the cost of not reaching a bipartisan compromise on debt reduction would become unfathomable. Now, ... More >>

Texas' Lone Cloud Seeder Says Cloud Seeding Can Help Solve the State's Water Needs

Hidden deep within the bureaucratic folds of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which devotes most of its resources to overseeing cosmetologists, air conditioner repairmen, auctioneers and the like, is the state's weather modification bureau. It's not nearly as post-apocalyptic as it ... More >>

Cantor and Co. Wimped Out at the Cliff's Edge, but There's More Scary Terrain Ahead

New Year's Day was great -- saw The Hobbit with son and girlfriend, came home to prime rib, what could be better? -- but I also spent a hell of a lot of time on the iPad trying to find out if I had fallen off a cliff yet. I'm not sure which was more death-defying -- the movie or real life. The real ... More >>

In Never-Ending Battle Between Texas and Planned Parenthood, Judge Says PP Can Be Blocked From New Women's Health Program

For those of you who have been following the ongoing, never-ending, multi-court battle of Texas vs. Planned Parenthood, we'll make this quick: Planned Parenthood is out of the Texas Women's Health Program. Again. For now. Now, let's all heave a huge collective sigh and revisit the longer version ... More >>

Planned Parenthood V. Texas, Round 1,867: Judge Rules PP Can Stay in the WHP, For Now

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it's true: the argument between the state of Texas and Planned Parenthood over the Women's Health Program looks like it's never, ever going to end. This case has dragged itself through state courts, federal courts, and back down to the state level again, ... More >>

Day After Obama Talks Up Medicare Fraud Fight in Debate, Feds Say They've Taken Down $100 Million of Local Schemes

One of the things Obama took pains to highlight during last night's debate was just how aggressively his administration has gone after Medicare fraudsters. Remember Jacques Roy, the Rockwall physician accused of masterminding a scheme to bilk the government of $375 million? Probably not, since the d ... More >>

Before Council Votes to Help Uplift Sell Bonds, More Questions, Answers and Concerns

​Earlier today Rudy posted an explainer to the City Hall blog about those so-called "conduit bonds" Uplift Education hopes to sell with City Hall's backing. But long story short, per a Los Angeles Times piece last year, they "allow private entities to tap into low-cost municipal bond financing for ... More >>

$1.7 Million in State Grant Available for Your Snazzy Squash Marketing Campaign Idea

The USDA has awarded the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) $1.7 million in federal funds for a Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP). Through February 23 of this year, the TDA is accepting proposals for the funding of projects designed to raise awareness and consumption of state specialty c ... More >>

DART Wanted $130 Mil In DOT Funds For Line to DFW. It Got Much Less. But Anything Helps.

​Only yesterday we noted the Dallas Area Rapid Transit is ready to go on that final leg of the Orange Line that'll connect with Terminal A at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The price tag's steep: $149,750,000 for the third section of the Orange Line, from Belt Line Station to DFW. And t ... More >>

DART Prez: Orange Line to DFW's Terminal A Will "Complete That Big-City System"

Dallas Area Rapid TransitA rendering of the Belt Line Station on the Orange Line, the last stop before Dallas-Fort Worth Airport's Terminal A come 2014​Last night Dallas Area Rapid Transit sent word that its board of directors signed off on the design-build contract that'll push the under-construc ... More >>

Council Remains Tight-Lipped On How It Plans on Repaying Corps of Engineers That $15 Mil

​Schutze is at the council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee meeting; he didn't want to miss Trinity River Corridor Project Managing Director Rebecca Rasor's presentation Trinity River Corridor Project Update On Recreation, where -- and you won't believe this -- they still have those rend ... More >>

More Tarnish for the "Texas Miracle"

New report finds the Lone Star swimming in deep debt.

Miraculously, KNON Keeps Scraping By.

DART, East Texas Transit Officials Sign Letter They Hope Leads to Light-Rail Love Affair

DART chair Bill Velasco, left, and North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority's Jeff Austin III look at the line that could one day connect their parts of the great state.​Ever wished you could take Dallas Area Rapid Transit to ... oh ... let's say Tyler? Or Canton? Or Shreveport, even? Because ... More >>

While City Holds Our Trinity Docs Hostage, a Look at How Much Dallas Wants From Feds

Eddie Bernice Johnson's Flickr pageYou really think Mary Suhm could have gotten a much better seat at the meeting with EBJ.​Earlier this month, city officials -- among them For-Now Mayor Dwaine Caraway, City Manager Mary Suhm, about-to-be-out Trinity River Corridor Project Committee chair Dave Neu ... More >>

And Now, the Dallas Independent School District's "Budget Reduction Plan Version 3.0"

​Almost one month ago to the day the Dallas Independent School Board received an updated version of the district's budget reduction plan made necessary, of course, in the wake of the state budget shortfall emptying classrooms of teachers and filling them with more and more students. Moments ago, t ... More >>

How Bad Will Things Have to Get Before We Make Them Better?

Tom Leppert Among Republicans Urging Congress to Withdraw NPR's Funding

Who knew Leppert was so savvy with hashtags?​A couple hours after U.S. Senate candidate Tom Leppert tweeted what you see above, we contacted Leppert spokesman Shawn McCoy to find out why the former mayor supports eliminating public funding for National Public Radio. He said he'd talk to him an ... More >>

As DISD Prepares to "Declare a Financial Exigency," Super Discusses Perry-Doggett Fight

This is this weekend, incidentally.​At last week's budget town hall, Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores took a thinly veiled shot at U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who he did not name, over the $830 million in federal Education Jobs Fund money presently sitting in D.C. As Flores tol ... More >>

Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

About That Second Downtown Light-Rail Line ...

​Last night, as expected, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's board signed off on that $1.25-billion budget and 20-year financial plan, which eliminates 150 positions and some rail service, as trains will now run every 15 minutes instead of every 10. The good news-bad news details follow for those who fol ... More >>

DART Wants to Take You to the Super Bowl. But the Feds Have to Sign Off.

​I was looking at the meeting agenda for tomorrow's Dallas Area Rapid Transit board meeting and noticed a couple of items of interest on the planning committee sneak peak, chief among them: If DART wants to get folks from member cities to the Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium come February, it'll have ... More >>

Dallas ISD Investigators Find Hostile Work Environment (And, Maybe, the Worst ... Boss ... Ever)

Not Maria Silva -- but close. Very close, according to a DISD report.​Allen Gwinn over at www.dallas.org has posted a report from DISD's Office of Professional Responsibility about its investigation of Maria C. Silva, former manager of the district's Adult Basic Education Department. The typical j ... More >>

Trolley Issue Shifts Political Paradigm to North Oak Cliff; How Will City Hall React?

Courtesy the Oak Cliff Transit Authority​It will be really interesting to see how city staff handles this week's stunning announcement of a $23 million federal grant to fund a trolley connecting downtown with North Oak Cliff. This is not at all where the staff wanted to go. Last October I cov ... More >>

Just How in the Heck Does the City Decide How to Spend Federal CDBG Money Anyway?

​Tomorrow, the city council will take a long, hard look at how federal community development block grants are spent -- or, in this case, not. According to the briefing document, there are 109  already approved projects and programs still sitting on $7 million in federal money that was suppose ... More >>

Veterans Affairs Kills UT Southwestern's Gulf War Syndrome Research Contract

Dr. Robert Haley​A little more than one month after a report by Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General accused epidemiologist and longtime Gulf War Syndrome researcher Robert Haley and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center of wasting millions and failing to live up to ... More >>

DOJ to Dallas ISD: Pay Up. And Say Adios to $150 Million in Federal Funding Requests.

This just in from the U.S. Department of Justice's press department: The government and the Dallas Independent School District have settled their dispute involving the misuse of funds provided to the district for the so-called E-Rate program, created in 1996 to give "affordable access to telecommuni ... More >>

What Remains of Federal Funds Intended for Motorsports Museum Will Now Go Toward MLK Boulevard "Revitalization Program"

View Larger MapBeen a loooong time since we've written about Derrick Mitchem and his proposed Motorsports Museum across from Fair Park, in the old Bama Pie building. Been no reason to: Last I looked, oh, three weeks ago, the place looked just as it has for years and as you see above -- more or less ... More >>

Turns Out, Buying a Scapegoat Is Much Cheaper Than You'd Think

Haggling Over Who Collects Late Child Support Payments Could Leave Some Kids Without

The Other Three Indictments

Eddie Bernice Johnson's in the "Vote No!" Choir. Now, She Just Has to Learn the Words to the Song.

Enquiring Mind

Angela Hunt Sends Wick Allison a Note; Smelled a Little Like Vanilla Maybe?

Whistleblower: For Love or Money?

Oswald's folly

The city wants us to spend millions for a buddy-buddy deal at the Texas Theater

Enough is enough

Legend Airlines accuses Fort Worth of discrimination and demands that feds cut funds

Golden years

Gingrich and Wright have more in common than meets the eye