Public Defender’s Office Wins Grant to Add More Social Workers

The Dallas County public defender’s office plans to hire social workers to help keep its mentally ill clients out of jail. It’s one more attempt to end the cycle of hospitalization, incarceration and homelessness caused by the criminalization — rather than treatment — of mental illness. Nonprofits and county administrators…

Texas Republicans End Impeachment Exactly Where They Started

In Texas, at least, impeachment didn’t mean a damn thing. Wednesday, three weeks after Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz were sworn in for the trial of President Donald Trump, both Texas representatives voted to acquit the president on both articles of impeachment with which Trump was charged — abuse…

Dallas Cop Case Opens With Victim on Trial

Former Dallas police officer Christopher Hess had no choice but to shoot Genevive Dawes on Jan. 18, 2017, his lawyers said during opening statements Tuesday. Dawes posed an immediate threat to Hess and his colleagues. She was a felon committing another felony, incapable of following officers orders’ to show her…

EPA Promises Additional Soil Testing at Southern Dallas Superfund Site

The Environmental Protection Agency has promised to test soil in neighborhoods bordering a southern Dallas Superfund site in an effort to address community concerns about the presence of heavy metals. The announcement came at a community meeting Thursday, when the EPA presented the results of an initial report showing heightened…

Dallas’ Next Big Cop Trial Begins This Week

For the last two years, Dallas’ headlines have been dominated by cops on trial. In 2018, Dallas County juries convicted ex-cops Roy Oliver and Ken Johnson on murder charges. Last year, Dallas County juries acquitted former Mesquite officer Derick Wiley of aggravated assault after he shot a man in the…

Court Reporter Shortage Looms on Horizon for Texas

Are you sick of staring at cubicle walls all day? Tired of getting stiffed on the tip after serving a table of 10? Completely finished with the thought of going to a tedious day job that never seems to change, unless it’s becoming either more tedious or simply less rewarding?…

Miss Ponytail Dallas Morning News Throws a TJ Tantrum

The Dallas Morning News editorial page is schizzy. Most of the time, it’s pretty smart, even measured and thoughtful, at least on local non-partisan issues. But every fifth Thursday or something, a whole different crazy newspaper appears on my lawn. Right toe forward, hands on the hips of its checkered…

Texas Voting Rights Groups Win Small Victory in Motor Voter Case

Three Texans are going to see the future before everyone else. Late Thursday afternoon, a federal judge in San Antonio issued a preliminary injunction requiring Texas to allow the online voter registration of three plaintiffs in an ongoing suit against the state. The court is expected to make a ruling…

Dallas’ 7 Community Colleges Plan to Become 1

The Dallas County Community College District will seek approval from its accreditor later this year to merge its seven schools into one in an effort to help more students graduate.  Joe May, the district chancellor, said he was motivated to pursue the change after realizing that thousands of students were being…

Sanctuary Cities for The Unborn Movement Sneaks Closer to Dallas

Ellis County is now, officially, a safe space for guns, fetuses and conservatives. This week, the Ellis County Commissioners Court voted 5-0 in favor of a resolution declaring itself a sanctuary city for the unborn, hopping on a bandwagon started by anti-choice activists last year in Waskom. In the succeeding…

Statue at DMA Is Just One of Nepal’s Many Pillaged Works

When a centuries-old bronze statue now on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art was stolen from a Hindu temple in Nepal 36 years ago, it became one of hundreds of ancient cultural artifacts that have been illegally removed from the country over the last six decades. Since the 1950s,…

It’s All About Bolton’s Mustache. The Rest Is Misdirection.

This may be an ill-informed and over-personal approach to a very serious matter, but I truly believe the whole Trump/Bolton imbroglio is about the mustache. Hear me out. OK, hear me part of the way out. Right after he was elected president, Donald Trump declined to hire John Bolton because…