LGBT activists and allies showed up early at City Hall this morning, all wearing red. One by one, they stepped to the microphone and chastised the Dallas City Council for its epic wuss-out on a marriage and workplace equality resolution. “Leadership requires action, not just words,” said Resource Center Dallas’…
Remember how Governor Rick Perry called a special session to talk about redistricting? And remember how sophisticated political observers (i.e. everyone with eyes and a functioning brain) predicted that the special session would soon turn into a huge, nasty dogfight about abortion? Yeah, that’s happening. On Tuesday, Perry added “legislation…
Dallas County established its truancy courts a decade ago with the hope that a specialized judicial system would better address the root causes of chronic absenteeism (mental health problems, family issues, etc.) than school discipline or adult courts. County Judge Clay Jenkins has declared the program a success, saying they…
Congress didn’t explicitly reference lactation when it passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978. It merely said that employers can’t fire or punish women because of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions,” which would seem to encompass the postpartum activation of the mammary glands. U.S. District Judge Lynn D. Hughes…
Because special forces training is hard. Because ground-based gunfire just isn’t sufficiently soaked in testosterone. Because helicopters. Because this is Texas, goddammit. There have always been plenty of reasons for your average (non-G.I.) Joe to shoot assault weapons from a moving aircraft. What North Texas males have lacked is a…
The Parker County district attorney is keeping an eye on the Legislature’s special session. Next month, Jake Evans’ case is scheduled to go to trial. The 17-year-old kid from a gated community in Aledo is accused of methodically gunning down his mother and his little sister then calmly phoning 911…
Sam Lee Morris was still alive when police found him. The disabled 61-year-old was laying unconscious in the road at the intersection of Sunnyvale and Cummings Street in Southeast Oak Cliff just before 10 p.m. Saturday night, having apparently been hit by a car. That’s what officers suspected, at least,…
When Joshua ISD officials cut off Remington Reimer’s valedictory speech, we thought it unlikely that it had anything to do with his mention of God. After all, district officials didn’t seem concerned later in the ceremony when another student delivered a prayer, punctuated by a lengthy recitation of scripture and…
More than a year after its fight became public, Dallas ISD is still struggling to cut ties with unscrupulous tutoring companies it’s required to contract with under federal law. A report set to be delivered Thursday to the board of trustees details the Texas Education Agency’s findings against two firms,…
Electricity issues may not get as much ink as abortion-ban legislation here in Texas, but there were a few bills filed this session — more like kale than red meat — that sure as heck would have had a bigger impact on your pocketbook. They were common-sense and pro-consumer protections…
It’s our sad duty this morning to bring you the last installment in the Case of the Psychic Who Couldn’t See Shit, aka Presley “Rhonda” Gridley. Just about a year ago, a Liberty County, Texas, couple, Joe Bankson and Gena Charlton, sued Gridley and a whole bunch of media outlets…
Exile Machine makes no bones about the fact that its primary reason for existing is to skirt California gun laws. The Irving gun manufacturer’s name is a reference to its CEO, who it says lived and worked in California for most of the past 40 years. The first product the…
Kendric Littles, 33, almost made it home safely last night. Just before 1 a.m., he was headed back to his Oak Cliff home when, less than a block from his house, he came upon a blue 2012 Hyundai parked in the middle of the street. The car was blocking the…
Fisherman from the area have known the pond for decades. Tucked away in the Joppa Preserve in South Dallas, its official, government name is West Pond, but locals refer to it as Bad Leg Fred Lake after the man who once ran a small operation selling bait and supplies to…
When the State Fair of Texas abruptly fired Bill Bragg after 11 years as the voice of Big Tex, they chalked it up to a contract dispute and spoke of making a fresh start after last fall’s tragic fire. The real reason, however, was never far from the surface: Fair…
In a weekend story previewing the City Council’s discussion today on single-use plastic bags, the Dallas Morning News ran a photo of a tattered Kroger bag snagged on a barbed wire fence, downtown Dallas looming as a backdrop. “What I want to hear is who’s going to go get these…
Right now, Eddie Ray Routh is sitting in jail in Erath County, where he has been since February, when he was accused of shooting and killing former sniper Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at a Glen Rose gun range. A recent New Yorker profile of Kyle outlined Routh’s…
Here’s how it’s supposed to work: A business or property owner buys a burglar alarm then pays the city for a permit. When there’s a burglar, police show up and make an arrest. If there are four or more false alarms in a year, the alarm owner is charged a…
We had assumed, back when Dallas police first floated their proposal to crack down on “spontaneous encampments,” that the measure was a delayed response to Occupy Dallas. Turns out, we were wrong. “This is not toward a specific group at all,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown told the City Council’s…
A week ago Sunday, Charles Lee Johnson, 46, parked his wheelchair next to the Little World Food Store on Malcolm X Boulevard and began asking passing customers for money. A store employee, unable to persuade Johnson to leave, called police, who shooed the 46-year-old away and issued a criminal trespass…
Pollution woes and lagging sales have driven battery maker Exide into bankruptcy for the second time in a decade. For the city of Frisco, the timing couldn’t be more inopportune. In exchange for shutting down an Exide smelter that had been pumping lead and arsenic into the air and nearby…
The advocacy group Equality Texas has put out its first legislative report card in several sessions, ranking Texas state legislators’ records on working for LGBT rights. The factors Equality Texas took into account include public votes, authorship (both pro- and anti-), resolutions and committee votes. They turned that into a…
