Hell Is the Dallas North Tollway This Weekend

Not content with bleeding us dry one toll at a time, the North Texas Tollway Authority plans to squeeze traffic to a near standstill in and around downtown this weekend. Starting at 10 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday, two lanes on each side of the tollway will be closed…

Dallas Anti-Fluoride Cause Now Supported by Web-Savvy Dogs

The latest salvo in the war to get the city of Dallas to stop adding fluoride to the city’s water supply comes from the canines behind dogsagainstfluoridation.com, who are urging the City Council to follow council member Sheffie Kadane’s lead on January 28 and vote to end the vicious commie…

Barrett Brown Gets 63 Months in Federal Prison

Anonymous associate and freelance investigative journalist Barrett Brown, who’s already spent more than two years behind bars, learned today that he will be locked up for three more. Brown, who admitted to being an accessory after the fact to accessing a protected computer — he linked to data obtained from…

You Should Check Out the Mayors’ Report Card on Education

DISD schools: still not great, but not that bad if you look at other really big districts. So says a report issued by the Bush library and Mayor Mike Rawlings that compares achievement and disciplinary stats across the country’s biggest urban districts. The mission of the reports is described as…

Texas Senate Republicans Kill Two-Thirds Rule, Maim Democracy

“Majority rule, minority rights.” It’s one of the first axioms you learn in civics, social studies or whatever your elementary school called it. It’s part of the American social contract, that those out of power in a legislative body have at least some means to check the actions of those…

Texas School Districts Spent $117,000 on Ebola-Inspired Cleaning

Records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman show just how far North Texas school districts were willing to go to assuage parents’ Ebola fears last fall. Seven DFW districts — Burleson, Grapevine-Cooley, Garland, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Highland Park, Hurst-Euless-Bedford and Royse City — spent money on various levels of “deep cleaning” for…

Ted Cruz Two-Take State of the Union Response Is Mesmerizing

Even for a State of the Union address, Tuesday night’s speech by President Obama was stupefying. As usual, the most fun part of the evening was the fragmented Republican response — seriously, name a Republican with any sort of national prominence and he or she issued his or her own…

Dallas Cop Arrested on Second Family Violence Charge Since 2012

Dallas Police Sergeant Paul Figueroa, a 20-year DPD veteran, turned himself in Wednesday after Collin County charged him with family assault, a Class A misdemeanor. Figueroa was charged with the same crime in 2012. After an internal affairs investigation, he was allowed to remain on the force. Now, he has…

Railroad Commission’s Explanation of Irving Quakes: ¯_(?)_/¯

Calling Irving’s Thursday City Council meeting a wasted effort wouldn’t be right. The council did award the landscaping contract for O’Connor Boulevard, after all. And on the other big issue concerning Irving — earthquakes — the SMU seismologists on hand did what little they could, too. They told the assembled…

Dallas County Sued for Violating the Voting Rights of White People

Five white plaintiffs, backed by the Dallas-based Equal Voting Rights Institute, are suing Dallas County because, they say, the 60 percent-white Dallas County Commissioner’s Court does not fairly represent them. Dallas County, for the record, is 39 percent Latino; 32 percent white, non-Latino; and 23 percent black, according the the…