World Politics

America's Need for Immigration Reform Is on Display at a Graduation Ceremony Near You

Yesterday when my wife, son and I were driving back from Lubbock, the news on my tablet told me that Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum, Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, and Tea Party leaders in 25 states had released an open letter urging congress to dump its immigration re ... More >>

Will the Bush Library Reveal Any Secrets?

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

Hey, Rick Perry, Listen. Is That a Fat Lady You Hear Singing?

Is it too soon and maybe even bad luck to say this out loud? Is it even possible that Governor Oops could be over? I'm knocking on wood, tossing salt over my shoulder, making the sign of the cross with my index fingers and looking for garlic in the kitchen as I speak, I promise. But yesterday cons ... More >>

Greg Abbott Wants To Make Texas' Interim (And Still Probably Unconstitutional) Redistricting Plan Permanent

As you may recall, Texas' 2011 plan to redraw political boundaries was so brazenly partisan, so undeniably bent on reducing minority influence, and the evidence was so mountainous and convincing that a federal court didn't even bother cataloging it all in its ruling against the state. "The parties h ... More >>

As Supreme Court Debates Gay Marriage, Texas Politicians Explain How it Violates God's Law

The attention of the country, or at least that segment of it that's politically aware enough to pay attention, is focused squarely on the U.S. Supreme Court,which this week is debating a pair of potentially momentous cases. Hollingsworth v. Perry, which was argued today, could do away with Californi ... More >>

There's a Push for Term Limits in Austin, and It's Being Led by a Longtime Perry Ally

Right now, there's a push underway in the Texas legislature to impose term limits on the state's elected officials. A bill, filed by Representative Lyle Larson, a San Antonio Republican, is currently being mulled by a House committee. A similar proposal by Tyler Republican Kevin Eltife is being cons ... More >>

Craig Watkins Thumbs Nose at a Court Order, Unveils New Theory of White People Law

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins started out with one question to answer. Now that he has defied a subpoena, he's got at least a couple more. Last week Watkins was ordered to appear in the court of state District Judge Lena Levario to answer an accusation that he brought criminal charg ... More >>

Ron Kirk Could Come Home and Teach Texas Dems how to Win, but Don't Bet On It

What will Ron Kirk do when he returns to Dallas after leaving the Obama cabinet next month? If I had to bet, I'd say he won't return to Dallas, which will be a shame. If he did come home, maybe he could do something about these local Democrats. Former Dallas mayor Kirk is getting high marks from bo ... More >>

GOP Accuses House Candidate Robert Miklos of Sending Prostitutes and Thieves to Knock on Doors

The Dallas County Republican Party dropped something of a bombshell Tuesday on the campaign of Robert Miklos, the Democrat challenging incumbent Ken Sheets for Texas House District 107, covering East Dallas and slivers of Mesquite and Garland. Party chairman Wade Emmert sent a phone message to voter ... 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 >>

Gary Johnson, the Presidential Candidate Who 'Agrees With You 100 Percent,' Will Be in Dallas This Week

Pop quiz: Which presidential candidate, whose name will appear on the ballot in all 50 states, paid his way through college as a door-to-door handyman? Which one earned the nickname "Governor Veto" by rejecting more than 750 bills passed by his state's legislature? Which one competed in a re-enactme ... More >>

Ask a Mexican: Why Are Mexicans Always Changing Their Names?

Rep. Lon Burnam: Let's Tell Texas What Scientists Think About Radioactive Waste Site

In a letter Monday, state Representative Lon Burnam called upon Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow him to release to the public confidential documents he says indicate Texas Commission on Environmental Quality scientists fear a West Texas radioactive waste disposal facility may contaminate ... More >>

Governor Gaffe Comes Back to Texas, Wounded But No Wiser

Wait a minute. Forgive me, but I must misuse and abuse a bit of Dylan Thomas here to suggest we should not let Rick Perry go quite so gentle into that good night. I'm reading a lot of crap about how he bombed in his presidential campaign because he was "ill-prepared" and committed gaffes. It's way ... More >>

Merry Effing Christmas to Rick Perry and the Tea Party -- From the Kids

​I'm having particular trouble this year with Toys for Tots. Put it on me for being a grinch. But, look. I see this big smarmy hoopla on the TV news every night with the weatherman and a bunch of shiny-eyed volunteers in North Face parkas handing out useless plastic Big Box crap for the poor ... More >>

If Nothing Else, MALDEF's Very Happy With the Federal Court's New State Redistricting Map

​About a month ago we noted that the Department of Justice was very unhappy with how state legislators redrew Texas's congressional districts -- something to do with how the new map "actually reduced minority electoral power" in Dallas-Fort Worth, for starters. Hence the ongoing litigation in San ... More >>

The Upside of Rick Perry's Embarrassing Gaffes: Like, Everyone Wants Him to "Adios, Mofo"

​Star-Telegram Washington bureau reporter Maria Recio has a story today asking various Texas politicos how much Governor Rick Perry has embarrassed the Lone Star State. The answers don't vary a lot. If this were a story about fishing, some people would have their hands out about shoulder widt ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas Cost Taxpayers $200K More Than First Reported, Thanks to San Antonio

​We've been telling you since the summer about the estimated $400,000 the Texas governor's office agreed to pay the producers in exchange for them promoting the state's brand in the ongoing, Texas-centric season of Top Chef. Last we checked in, the producers, a California company called Magica ... More >>

Perry Sticks By His Guns on Social Security

Are you listening, old people?

Top Chef To Cost Texas Taxpayers $400,000, Give Or Take the Bacon Budget

"Mmm. Taxpayer-funded chocolate is delicious."​For several weeks now, as Top Chef crews have bounced around the state shooting next season's Texas-centric version of the popular Bravo reality show, journalists and food bloggers have wondered: How much, if anything, did the state pay for the sh ... More >>

Mayor Dwaine, Meet President Goodluck

Via.Goodluck Jonathan​One week from today, Goodluck Jonathan -- who won election last month after receiving more than 60 percent of the vote during mostly peaceful elections -- will be sworn in as president of Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa. Analysts are mixed on what Jonathan's pre ... More >>

Mass deportation, strict border enforcement, amnesty. What will comprehensive immigration reform look like if the feds take action--or if they don't?

FAIR-y Tales

Russell Pearce and Other Illegal-Immigration Populists Rely on Misleading, Right-Wing Reports to Scapegoat Immigrants and Terrify Penny-Pinched Americans.

Riddle in an Enigma: Puzzled by Austin's Odd Priorities

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

Illegal Immigrants, Desperate To Find Work In The U.S., Risk Kidnapping, Rape and Murder From Those Smuggling Them Across the Border

Sweatin' It Out With the Justice League!

Photos by Sam MertenState Senator Royce West and county judge candidate Clay Jenkins help pump up the crowd as District Attorney Craig Watkins grabs the mic Saturday afternoon.​This, in case you have not heard, is the "Summer of Justice." Which, as far as summers-of goes, ranks somewhere in betwee ... More >>

For Those Living in Ground Zero for Drug Trafficking Along the U.S.-Mexico Border, the Illegal Immigration Crisis is Personal

Badlands

Kinky Friedman Says: There'd Be No Tea Party If Molly Ivins Were Still Around

Sam MertenFriedman campaigning at Urban Dog Coffee on Oak Lawn back in February​So insists the Texas Jewboy and former gubernatorial candidate in a piece penned for Tina Brown's Daily Beast, the headline of which is "Why Democrats Should Blame Themselves for the Tea Party." Friedman, who lost to h ... More >>

What's Eating Gilberto Gil?

In the War of Attrition Waged by the Texas Attorney General Against Robert O'Donnell, There Were Unintended Consequences

Why Is Dallas City Hall Trying To Bury The Burgeoning Farmers Market Movement Under A Morass Of Municipal Regulation?

King of Campaign

Goin’ To The Chapel: When Is A Mexican Girl Ripe For Marriage

Why is Tony Montana such a li'l friend to Mexicans?

Popular Conservative Texas House Candidate Dunning Has Some Republicans Worried

Colin Crazy

DeYoung talks Powell in Dallas

Levelland

McMurtry lays it out straight

The Hunted

Minutemen train their sights on a new target: Hispanic day laborers

Back to Africa

Live 8 makes some noise. Hopefully, eight world leaders were listening.

Get on the Bus

For one fellow traveler, the road to an anti-war protest in Washington is paved with good intentions and bad politics

Green Giant

Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug is credited with saving the lives of 1 billion people. So why is a small cadre of activists bent on tarnishing his legacy?

Best Fishmonger

TJ's Seafood Market

Seeker of the Lost Ark

Vendyl Jones says he's a crusading archaeologist searching for long-lost biblical treasures. His critics sya he's more worried about self-promotion than science.

Best newspaper columnist

Timothy O'Leary, The Dallas Morning News

On holy ground

The fight over St. Ann's snares the city, Hispanics, and the Catholic diocese in a battle that tests Dallas' commitment to preserving its past

Getting dumped

Despite shoddy science, bad economics, and catastrophic health risks, a West Texas border community may become the nation's nuclear dumping ground

O little town of Bethel-sham

On the plains north of Dallas, budding revolutionaries are trying to form the newest town in Texas. But tiny Bethel isn't being founded on civic pride. It's a ploy to stop farmers like Jack England from selling their land.

Rough road ahead

NAFTA road warriors fight it out for federal funding

The B word

For women in the public eye, there's no end to the verbal abuse