A Cow, a Car Crash and the Absurdity of Tort Reform in Texas

One night in August 2011, a half dozen cows escaped their pasture and wandered onto a semi-rural stretch of road in Amarillo. The driver of an approaching pickup slamed on the brakes, but not quite soon enough to keep the truck from entering a terrifying barrel roll. Bobby Tunnell, the…

Income Inequality in Dallas Is Rising Fast

In a rather unsurprising turn of events, Dallas’ rich are getting richer while its poor are getting poorer. According to census data crunched by the Brookings Institution this week, the income of the top 5 percent of earners rose by a impressive 12.2 percent between 2012 and 2013, jumping from…

Former DA Craig Watkins Can’t Even Ambulance-Chase Correctly

We’ve previously noted that ex-Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins — former political wunderkind, a crusader for the innocent and the scourge of the guilty — had sunk to trolling for DWI clients using a Hotmail (?!?) account. That’s no longer the case; as of 1:32 a.m. today, he is…

Collin County Will Be Bigger Than Dallas in 35 Years — Maybe

We have glimpsed a vision of Dallas’ future, and it is bleak. By 2050, according to the Dallas Business Journal’s read of new data from the Texas Office of the State Demographer, Collin County will have ballooned to 3.8 million people. Dallas County, once upon a time the “urb” in…

Dallas Bride-to-Be Courageously Recounts Harrowing Doily Mixup

Natalie Degraffenreid and Cory Teague’s wedding is in 37 days, and, according to the couple’s website on TheKnot.com, it’s going to be perfect. She’s a nurse, he’s a firefighter; the Hallmark Channel couldn’t have cast it better. The ceremony will be at The Milestone, an idyllic plantation-style house outside Denton…

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller Is the Best

It’s only natural for Texas’ urban/suburbanites to assume that the choice of agriculture commissioner has little bearing on their lives. This is false. City dwellers eat food, which is grown on farms. They fill their cars at gas pumps and weigh their produce on grocery scales, both of which the…

The Texas Horse Park Is Almost Open, Is Still an Awful Idea

The sky over the Texas Horse Park on Thursday morning was clear and blue, unblemished by even a wisp of cloud; weather would not be dampening the morning’s ribbon-cutting celebration, which has been nearly two decades in the making. On the ground, the forecast was equally sunny. All the gathered…

The Uneasy Business of Selling Slot Machines in Gambling-Free Texas

Unless you are wagering on horses, within the boundaries of the Kickapoo Indian reservation or placing bets directly with the state, gambling is illegal in Texas; after all, vice cops need to have something to do when they’re not busting hookers, and besides, the lottery functions much better without private…