The Dallas City Council is debating a new housing policy. During this period of public input and debate, you should closely monitor your banking and credit card accounts, keep all valuables in a safe and locked place, ask any so-called Girl Scouts who come to the door selling cookies for…
An op-ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times reminded me that somebody needs to write a book — maybe I’ll do it — called What White People Think Black People Think. The essay by David Leonhardt was headlined “A winning political issue hiding in plain sight.” It said political research…
U.S. District Judge David Godbey has ruled against Dallas firefighters and cops whose retirement savings were frozen by the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund board, saying that the retirees don’t have a case because they will get their savings back eventually. I am trying to get my head around…
This is intriguing. Ben Carson, who is Trump’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, has announced (see below) a new initiative imposing a system of spending controls on the agency, which spends $60 billion a year. You might wonder why somebody didn’t think of that before. We know all about…
This makes four times. Four times in the course of one week I have sent the same set of questions to the Atmos Energy public relations staff. First time, they messaged me back that they were busy. Next three times, radio silence. I just find that remarkable. This is a…
Last week The Dallas Morning News reported that the site selection team from Amazon had been in town looking at downtown Dallas as a finalist for Amazon’s new not-the-real-headquarters development. If that’s true – and you never know – I thought I should write to Amazon. But I wanted to…
Results from this week’s primary election in Dallas do not illustrate a conservative/liberal split in the city. Lots of luck even trying to get those labels to work. The outcomes in a couple of key state House districts argue more for a widening divide between people whose views are basically…
Atmos Energy has shut off gas to 2,800 homes in Northwest Dallas because of gas leaks, explosions and fires; a child is dead; thousands of people remain shut out of their homes; the company acknowledges that aging steel gas pipes in shifting soil are the problem; and yet Atmos tells…
March 5, 2018: A headline in The Dallas Morning News reads, “Where does our poop and pee go in Dallas? Curious Texas investigates.” By Jennifer Emily. June 5, 1971: With a double partial major under his belt in English literature and something else suggested by a graduation counselor two weeks before…
We talked here recently about the upcoming battle over Section 8 vouchers and how that fight may be a big factor in the larger direction of Dallas City Hall and the whole city in the years ahead. I said some progressive council members hope the city will do what it…
This is a difficult moment for Dallas where the city’s affordable housing and economic development policies are concerned, probably even a scary moment for some people. Since most of the money in question — possibly vast sums — comes from the federal government, we should be able to look to…
This is one of those excruciatingly embarrassing moments that tend to be beyond the ability of persons of civility and good taste to resolve. That’s what I’m here for. It’s time to ask the president to stop giving his condolences in mass shootings. Of course I know how horrible, coarse,…
The Dallas City Council adopted the new Please Lord Make Dwaine Shut Up Act on Wednesday, reducing the amount of time council members may speak on any issue. The Dwaine part of the title, which I made up, is for council member Dwaine Caraway. The rest of it you can…
It’s not clear yet whether there truly are dark forces gathering on the horizon against Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax or just a chain of fools, but one thing is unmistakably true: Dallas’ first city manager in living memory to come from outside City Hall had better not walk by…
OK, this is a rant, plain and simple, plus it’s way outside my wheelhouse as a local reporter, which I am sworn never to depart upon pain of humiliation by editors. But I can’t stand it. I’m like that crazy guy in the movie years ago who said, “I’m mad…
Strangest thing. I believe I’ve told you in previous years that I am annually privileged to attend the luncheon of Trinity Commons, the Trinity toll road booster group. I get to go because a generous member of the board has a robust sense of humor. Imagine my surprise last Friday…
Dallas takes a certain pride in being contrarian. At a time when the terms collusion and obstruction of justice are frequently associated with news about the Trump White House and Republicans, one of Dallas’ oldest, most stubbornly impacted legal battles rears its head again, now hurling those terms, obstruction and…
Nothing gets attention these days like denouncing people on the other side of a social issue. It’s a thing the Russians seem to have spotted in us. They are eagerly egging us on with their bot and troll campaign. I wonder if they know about Dwaine Caraway yet. The Dallas…
Last weekend I caught up with the parents of Luca Romero, the 2-year-old boy mauled by a pit bull at a dog adoption event in Klyde Warren Park last December. Because I have written about the attack here before, I thought I should share with you a little bit of…
Two things — something that happened in my neighborhood last week and the school slaughter in Parkland, Florida — have conspired to reignite a line of thought plaguing me on and off over the last year or so. I’m thinking about the principle of community policing. I used to believe…
You take whatever position you like on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. I will always think of him as an acolyte of Satan. Now he’s moving to suppress an effort by certain public school districts to increase voter show-up at the polls. Right. And the wolf admonished Little Red Riding…
I’ve got a serious case of what I believe the shrinks would call cognitive dissonance going on here, involving a conflict between local news and the news from the White House. First, the local: A suburban Dallas mother and father have been sentenced to federal prison — the mother for…
