When the Texas Legislature passed new rules governing the payday and auto-title lending industry in 2011, lawmakers accidentally (or not) left gaping holes large enough to drive large, cash-laden trucks through. It was little surprise, then, that that’s exactly what’s been happening. The Texas Observer’s Forrest Wilder found one of…
Two years ago, Southwest Airlines abruptly changed the rules of its Business Select program, which allows travelers to breeze through security, get to the front of the boarding line, earn extra reward points, and, most importantly, get free booze. Before August 1, 2010, could use their free drink vouchers whenever…
Yesterday afternoon, we were summoned down to City Hall via a text message from Paula Blackmon, Mayor Mike Rawlings’ chief of staff. After several long months of silence, it appeared that there was finally going to be some semi-official word on the new regulations for gas drilling within Dallas city…
The idea that the Twinkie, so long a staple of America’s culinary landscape and fat kids’ lunch boxes, would disappear forever once Hostess went bankrupt was always laughable. And now that the company is officially in the process of shutting down, a clearer picture is emerging of who might inherit…
U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, who coasted unopposed to a 10th term last month, was on Fox News today to discuss the fiscal cliff. Johnson, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, is a Democrat. Fox News host Neil Cavuto is — well he’s a Fox News host…
Two days after a Nacogdoches County man won a temporary restraining order against TransCanada, halting construction of the controversial, 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline across his land, the judge threw it out, citing a dearth of evidence indicating the company had defrauded him. County Court at Law Judge Jack Sinz said…
Josh Hamilton has been the cornerstone of the Rangers for the past four years, leading them to the first to World Series berths in franchise history. He wormed his way into our hearts with his stellar play and heartwarming triumph over adversity, then immediately tried to worm his way back…
Virgil Slay was at home in Oak Cliff on the afternoon of October 1 when his landlord arrived to kick him out of the room he’d been renting from her. His refusal sent the landlord, 42-year-old Toni Faye Taylor, into a rage. According to a DPD incident report, she first…
Donna Pulkrabek says she was pushed out of her job at UT Southwestern in May after reporting mistreatment of laboratory animals even though, as manager of the school’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), that was her job. According to a lawsuit filed by Pulkrabek, she had raised concerns…
Here’s what we know: a guy named Adam who works at the Dallas County Clerk’s office was late to the office this morning. Fourteen minutes late, to be precise, according to the “Kronos Workforce Timekeeper System used by Dallas County.” So says the rather officious form Adam was given when…
Dallas police were out in force near the Katy Trail earlier this morning, with four squad cars and at least as many officers gathered in the grassy area at Hall Street sandwiched between the trail and Turtle Creek. A few officers were by the brush along the trail, near where…
You can’t buy a gun in Venezuela. It’s illegal, and has been since the government of Hugo Chavez banned the private sale of firearms earlier this year as part of an effort to tackle the country’s sky-high murder rate: 19,336 last year, more than in Mexico, which is in the…
A little mood music to get you in that City Hall frame of mind. Earlier this week Jim Schutze racked his shotgun and unloaded some righteous thunder on City Hall’s failure to adopt a whole bunch of auditor’s recommendations aimed at helping the city do little things — like making…
The City Council’s agenda yesterday was chock full of actually interesting stuff. You can relive it any time you want through the city’s database of archived council videos. But just in case you have something better to do, we’ll summarize the high points. It’s Not Raining On Tennell Atkins’ Parade,…
Alex Galvan was in El Salvador teaching English to poor kids when he first learned about his ties to terrorism. It was last March, during the patch of the calendar most universities cut out for spring break. But instead of beer-bonging his way through a beach week or posting up…
You probably noticed that today is December 12, 2012, or 12/12/12, which depending on who you ask is the Gregorian calendar’s last repeating date this century or the last date. Period. We’ll go ahead and assume Brent Troy Bartel falls into the latter camp. Police were dispatched to Bartel’s Richland…
The last time friends saw Damien Falgoust conscious was about 1:30 a.m. Friday, when he was sharing post-game drinks with his kickball teammates at the Knox Street Pub. He left the bar, got into a taxi and set off for his condo near the intersection of Matilda Street and La…
A garbage truck was making the rounds on Fort Worth’s east side at about 6:30 a.m. today when, after emptying a dumpster behind O’Reilly Auto Parts and turning on the compactor, they heard screams coming from the back of the truck. Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for MedStar EMS, told CBS…
Yesterday, it would have been hard to imagine the Big Tex saga becoming even more absurd. Just think about it: a 50-foot-tall mechanical cowboy spontaneously bursts into flames and becomes the subject of weepy-eyed morning as if he were a Beatle. Yet today brings evidence that the story actually can…
Cathie Adams served for less than a year as chair of the Texas Republican Party before being unseated in 2010, but she’s long been a fixture on Texas’ right wing, particularly as a leader of the virulently anti-abortion Texas Eagle Forum. It was in that role that Adams spoke alongside…
In an interview with the Morning News over the weekend, Mayor Mike Rawlings qualified some of his previous statements about the potential of AT&T and SMU’s proposed Trinity Forest Golf Course to be an economic game-changer in southern Dallas. The project could spur lots and lots of economic development and…
In November 2011, a 28-year-old woman visited the Irving office of Dr. Hector Oscar Molina for an arm lift and breast implants. Molina, ignoring the fact that he had no formal plastic surgery training, that his patient was a dangerously heavy 300-plus pounds, that his office wasn’t technically sterile, and…
