Two weeks ago, County Judge Clay Jenkins led a successful effort to change a contract that would have ended in-person visits with jail inmates while the county collected a share of the money a private company made from charging for the video visitation that was to replace it. See also:…
After last week’s trading of contemptuous memos, Unfair Park was pretty excited about a potential confrontation between Vonciel Jones Hill and Scott Griggs at Monday’s meeting of the city’s Transportation and Trinity River Committee. As far as city hall showdowns go, this one was likely to be pretty good, pitting…
An SMU freshman who accused a well-known fraternity brother of sexually assaulted him is now suing the school, saying it violated Title IX by acting “deliberately indifferent” to his report of sexual assault and to prior sexual harassment by his alleged assailant, John David Mahaffey. See also: Another SMU Student…
It’s been a banner week for the DFW sports media brain trust. First, the Star-Telegram’s Mac Engel told us why we were stupid for thinking Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was a child abuser just because he gone a little too far. Now we have Shan Shariff, a radio host…
Vice magazine posted a video expose of crisis pregnancy centers to its YouTube channel earlier this week. Beyond the standard stuff — like anti-abortion activists admitting that the best crisis centers are ones that women think are abortion clinics — the video includes undercover footage from White Rose Women’s Center…
Rather than, you know, enunciating her concerns at the city council briefing both she and Scott Griggs attended on Wednesday, Vonciel Jones Hill fired off a memo Wednesday morning chastising her fellow council member for his “inaccurate, incomplete and insulting” writing. The rest of Hill’s memo is less alliterative, but…
A.C. Gonzalez took the time at the end of Wednesday’s City Council briefing to at least wink in the direction transparency. He didn’t jump into the open government pool by any means, but he took about 15 minutes at the end of the meeting to spew jargon in the general…
In a memo prepared in advance of Dallas City manager A.C. Gonzalez’ first of what he promises to be periodic progress report to the City Council, council member Scott Griggs outlined multiple issues with the city’s Trinity office and transportation department. Among them is the stagnation of the Oak Cliff…
Vocativ, a website that claims to publish “news from the deep web,” has a post up showing pipe-bomb making instructions and suggested targets, including several tourist sites in Texas. The bombs are all standard, Anarchist Cookbook-style stuff. The forums discuss using powdered chlorine as a chemical element in the bombs,…
As they have since Midlothian ISD first received a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation about the overtly Christian plaques that adorn two of its elementary schools, community members at a school board meeting this week supported the plaques with a unified voice. See also: Midlothian Parents Protest Removal…
Some situations are not nuanced. That didn’t keep Mac Engel from making excuses for Adrian Peterson in this morning’s Star-Telegram. Peterson, he says, may have abused his two sons when he allegedly beat them to the point of bleeding and scarring, but he is not a child abuser — which…
Since 2000, Dallas Cowboys players have been arrested only 14 times, well below league average, according to a report compiled by The New York Times’ The Upshot blog from USA Today data. NFL players have had 713 reported legal run-ins since USA Today started the database in January 2000. (It’s…
Listening to the oral arguments before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday confirmed what advocates for reproductive rights feared upon seeing the three-judge panel selected to hear the Texas’ appeal of a lower-court ruling striking down two sections of House Bill 2, the 2013 legislation enacted to…
Jerry Jones capped off what’s been a representative week for him with a vote of confidence for embattled NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan. After being asked “What’s your feeling on the Ray Rice issue?,” whatever the hell that means, Jones answered from…
The 2014 Texas Rangers might not be the worst team in the club’s 42 years in Arlington — the 1972 and ’73 Rangers have at least a claim to that title — but 2014 has certainly been the worst year for the franchise as a whole. It started with the…
It’s September 11, and the harshest restriction in Texas’ new abortion law, its requirement that all abortions take place at an ambulatory surgical center, has yet to go into effect. HB2 was supposed to become the law of Texas on September 1, and the ACS rule would have immediately shuttered…
Dallas District Judge Dale Tillery denied Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ request to seal court documents related to a lawsuit brought by an Oklahoma woman. Jana Weckerly claims that Jones sexually assaulted her in 2009 before the Cowboys covered it up. In addition to denying the request to keep documents stemming…
You could see the dark clouds gathering Monday morning. Word had come down from somewhere near Michael Morris’ Arlington compound that someone from the North Central Texas Council of Governments was going to make a contribution to the city’s interminable discussion about regulating Uber, Lyft, Yellow Cab and any other…
Jerry Jones and the Cowboys are being sued for sexual assault and alleged subsequent cover-up. In a lawsuit filed in Dallas late Monday night, Jana Weckerly says that over the course of the evening documented in a series of graphic tweets posted in early August, Jones rubbed and grabbed her…
Dallas County commissioners are asking for new bids on a controversial contract for the management of visitation and phone services to jail inmates, after County Judge Clay Jenkins and inmate advocates objected to a proposal that would have ended face-to-face visits while letting the county profit off families visiting their…
Unfair Park has no concrete information as to whom the Rangers are going to hire to replace Ron Washington, who resigned abruptly Friday afternoon. If we had to guess, we’d say the club is likely to hire an internal candidate. Former Rangers third baseman Steve Buechele currently manages the team’s…
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and prisoner rights advocates are pushing back against a contract that would eliminate face-to-face meetings between inmates in the county’s jails and their visitors. County commissioners are set to vote Tuesday on a contract with Securus Technologies, a private company that provides video technology to…
