U.S. Department of State

The Feds Forced Texas' Printable Gun Guys to Take Down Their Downloadable Blueprints

It wasn't quite heard around the world, but the shot fired by The Liberator, the plastic gun that University of Texas law student Cody Wilson designed and fabricated using a 3-D printer, was witnessed by a lot of people. It proved beyond a doubt that the gun works. What people are still trying to f ... More >>

Will the Bush Library Reveal Any Secrets?

The new library could reveal gems about oil and the Iraq War

Mike Bishop, Hellbent on Stopping the Keystone Pipeline, Sues the Corps of Engineers

Earlier this year we introduced you to Mike Bishop, the irascible ex-Marine with 20 acres in the path of the Keystone pipeline, just east of Nacogdoches. When we met him, the retired chemist and bio-fuel tinkerer was livid, cataloging the insults to his land -- the 'dozed crops, the clear-cut woods ... More >>

In the Wake of Spills, the EPA is Urging Tighter Review of the Proposed Keystone Pipeline

Back in March, the Keystone XL pipeline's approval looked practically assured. Construction of the 1,179-mile leviathan, connecting Alberta's tar sand mines with Texas Gulf Coast refiners, was already well underway in Texas. The State Department said Canadian tar sands production would proceed apace ... More >>

State Department's New Keystone XL Pipeline Report Proves Battle to Stop Tar Sands Is Probably Already Lost

On Friday afternoon came the unheralded release of a pretty important preliminary analysis from the State Department regarding the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a conduit for diluted bitumen mined in Alberta and destined for the Texas Gulf Coast petroleum refineries. The takeaway, however, has to ... More >>

Russian Government Accuses a Texas Mother of Drugging and Murdering Her Adopted Son

In December Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a measure banning the adoption of Russian children to American families. The move was widely considered, and tacitly acknowledged as, a retaliation against a new U.S. law targeting accused Russian human rights abusers. Russian officials portrayed ... More >>

Arlington Police Bought Two Drones, Which They Hope to Start Using Very Soon

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration released a list of all the city and state entities who have applied for a license to fly unmanned aerial drones. That list was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF), an organization tha ... More >>

There Will Be Tar Sand

Tarry Canadian bitumen is barreling its way to Texas via the Keystone XL pipeline. Will it bring energy independence or environmental calamity?

Until Yesterday, the Web Site for Syria's State News Agency Was Hosted in Dallas

This morning, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the conflict in Syria had reached "new and appalling heights of brutality and violence," as the clashes between government troops and opposition forces drag on. An estimated 40,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in March 2011. The ... More >>

The Washington Post Sees Striking Similarities Between Greg Abbott and Vladimir Putin

At first blush, it wouldn't seem that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have much in common. The former is an ex-KGB agent who, through a bizarre combination of dictatorial repression and sheer animal magnetism, has cemented his status as Russia's de facto leade ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Warns Hillary Clinton to Keep European Election Monitors from Messing with Texas

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in a bit of international chest-pounding, sent a strongly worded letter to the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe threatening criminal charges if the group carried out a hinted-at plan to show up in Texas come November 6. ... More >>

Keystone Pipeline Protesters Tie Themselves to Construction Equipment, Halt Work

Three protesters tied themselves to logging equipment clearing trees for the southern portion of the Keystone pipeline early Wednesday morning. A representative of the group, which calls itself the Tar Sands Blockade, says work on the East Texas site is currently halted. "A caravan of between seven ... More >>

How to Speak Republican: Decoding the GOP

TransCanada Can Move Ahead With Texas Portion of Pipeline, But the Fight Isn't Over

Earlier this month, three East Texas hamlets with a collective population of fewer than 2,000 souls filed suit in a federal court in Oklahoma City to halt construction of the southern half of The International Pipeline Formerly Known as Keystone XL. The Keystone was to be a massive piece of infrastr ... More >>

Tiny East Texas Towns Join Fight Against Keystone Pipeline. Should Dallas?

Together, they have a population of fewer than 2,000, but the tiny East Texas hamlets of Reklaw, Alto and Gallatin have an outsized mission: To halt the southern portion of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, a conduit designed to ferry some 830,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands a day from an Oklaho ... More >>

Refugees Are Flooding to Texas

Texas has become the top destination for refugee resettlement, with Dallas the second largest hub, according to recent statistics. It became the main destination for resettlement as of last year, rising from number five in 2001. In an article earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle reported that T ... More >>

Dallas ISD Names Mike Miles, Reform-Minded Military Vet from Colorado, Lone Finalist for Superintendent Job

Prediction: The next few weeks may not be a ton of fun for Mike Miles. Miles, the superintendent of Harrison School District Two in Colorado Springs, was named the lone finalist for the top job in Dallas ISD at a meeting this afternoon. The board, which voted 8-0 (with Carla Ranger abstaining), now ... More >>

Maybe Mexico should build a fence to keep US out.

Red Bull Soundclash Returns to Dallas on October 28 with Talib Kweli and Ozomatli

​Maybe you remember back in September of last year when Red Bull hosted its first Soundclash event in Dallas, with guests Erykah Badu and Shiny Toy Guns competing for the attendees' attention out at their free show in Victory Plaza? Yeah? Maybe? It was a good time, to be sure, even if the turnout ... More >>

Unlike refugees from other troubled countries, only a fraction of Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum are accepted- no matter how horrible their wounds or their stories.

Access Denied

Defense Contractor Says Fired Worker Waited Too Long to File Whistleblower Suit

​Back on March 22 we told you about Michael Riddle, the former senior employment manager at defense contractor DynCorp International's Fort Worth outpost who claimed in court docs he was fired last September for being a whistleblower. Specifically, Riddle alleged in Dallas federal court papers tha ... More >>

DynCorp Ex Claims He Was Fired For Blowing Whistle on Wasted Millions

​Over the weekend, Newsweek and ProPublica co-published a piece that says, in short: The $6 billion the U.S. government has spent since '02 training the Afghan police force has gone to waste, and the entire program -- which has involved "buying weapons, building police academies, and hiring defens ... More >>

NYTimes Previews Dubya's Institute Speech

George W. Bush has been seen this week trying out his Thursday afternoon speech on anyone he can find at SMU.​George W. Bush has been spotted quite frequently hanging around the SMU campus since his retirement -- grabbin' a Goff's No. 2, playin' a little Frisbee golf in front of Dallas Hall, doin' ... More >>

Recession Blues Got You Down? The Folks at Get Motivated! Have a Solution: Think Happy Thoughts.

Finding Their Special Purpose With Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush

Photos by Danny FulgencioFormer New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, among those praying for motivation in Fort Worth Monday​Despite the Monday-morning rain that littered surrounding freeways with wrecked cars, by 8 a.m. yesterday the Fort Worth Convention Center was packed with some 15,0000 people ... More >>

In The Loop Is Political Satire Done Right

No Need to Secede. Because, See, Texas is Already a Foreign Country.

Time magazine wonders this morning: "What's All That Secession Ruckus in Texas?" Um, Governor Rick Perry, maybe? And, natch, his very vocal support for House Concurrent Resolution No. 50, which, as we pointed out in February, states that the "81st Legislature of the State of Texas hereby claim[s] so ... More >>

Hunting for Facts: State Department Looking Into Ray Hunt's Oil Deal

All We Are Saying

Give Wright a chance at FunAsia

Ray Hunt's Oil Deal Was Good, Even Though It Was Bad? Shocking.

Ray Hunt: Elevating Tensions Since 1974

Nancy Brinker Gets 21 News Jobs, Rolled into One Very Fancy Title

Patriot Acts

Far from his Kurdish home, Adnan Kirkuki seeks out soldiers to defend his new one in the United States

Now, This is a Channel 11 Exclusive We Can Get Behind

Shooting Blanks

Narrow Escape

Plus: Havard Pleads Guilty

Blues Notes

See the other Deep Ellum

Cockfight

A Plano homemaker finds herself in a legal pit with a very big rooster

Fallout

DART removes ads for a charity accused of links to terrorists

Fundamental Rights

The Circle is a powerhouse of a film about women in Iran

Love & Rockets

Andrew Beal spent $200 million trying to launch rockets without Uncle Sam's help. His dream went down in flames

The Lost Girl

Haifa Bale has spent three years trying to get her daughter back from an abusive ex-husband. Not even the Queen of Jordan can make it happen.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Did a business deal with Bell Helicopter doom a resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide?

Letters

Falling down; One deluded man; Family matters; The Stick Men speak

From Russia, with bugs

Scientists from the former Soviet Union's top-secret biological weapons lab join with Dallas researchers to fight a common enemy: the deadly Ebola virus

The kids aren't all right

The Americanized culture of undocumented immigrants finds the doors to higher education closed

Elián's choice

Should a 6-year-old decide his own fate? Lisa Singh, kidnapped by her father at age 6 and taken from America to a small village in India, says yes.

Unsettled

War refugees in Dallas find themselves in the crossfire of a another battle -- with the people in charge of welcoming them to America

Letters

Left to right

Thoughts on GATT, retraining, corporate welfare, and Bosnia