Dallas City Staff Rolls Out Cold-Weather Shelter Plan

One of Dallas’ oddest but still really consequential fights limped through another round at City Hall on Tuesday, as city staff, council members and advocates for the homeless pushed, pulled and tugged at a proposed ordinance that will finally codify just who, and who isn’t, allowed to provide shelter for…

Abbott’s Refugee Ban Concerns Dallas Organizations

Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision last week to reject all new refugees to the state of Texas has left Dallas area refugee and immigrant organizations confused and frustrated but committed to reversing the decision. “We’re in the largest refugee crisis since the Holocaust, and in response to that our country is…

City Coughs Up 414 Pages of 911 Calls from Car Wash Begging Cops to Come

Study after study blames violence and social dysfunction in poor, racially segregated neighborhoods on a roster of causes, from extreme poverty to environmental pollution to segregation itself, but the elected leadership of old South Dallas has insisted for 15 years that their crime problems are caused by a car wash…

Missing Records, Lax Security and Ignored Complaints: City Audit Skewers DPD Handling of Alleged Misconduct

The Dallas Police Department is promising reform in the wake of a new city audit, which uncovered widespread faults in the department’s processes for investigating and addressing misconduct complaints. Last year, auditors found hundreds of inexplicably missing records in an internal database that tracks misconduct complaints. Internal Affairs Division officials…

Texas Abortion Patients Seeking to End Pregnancies on Their Own

However a government might seek to restrict abortion, people with pregnancies they don’t wish to carry to term are going to seek the procedure out. It’s a fact one will hear again and again from pro-choice researchers and activists, and a new study from TxPEP, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project,…

Dallas Mayor Rolls Out Violent Crime Task Force Recommendations

Thursday morning, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson trotted out his task force’s four recommendations for curbing violent crime in Dallas. The mayor, with the support of key members of the City Council, wants to clean up abandoned buildings and lots in areas with high levels of violent crime, provide better lighting…

Three Changeroos, and City Council Flip-Flops on Reverchon Giveaway

A proposal to turn over 105-year-old Reverchon Park to a commercial sports operation — defeated at the Dallas City Council a month ago –- passed yesterday after East Dallas member David Blewett engineered a revote. He got his way. The deal to change the 46-acre park just north of downtown…