It’s a science, folks: State Senator Wendy Davis is way more attractive than the rest of her colleagues in the Legislature, with the possible exception of Wayne Smith. Capitol watchers have known this for years, but it wasn’t until the rest of America set its eyes upon Davis’ filibuster that…
Compile a list of Dallas ISD’s best elementary schools, the ones that convince affluent young parents to forsake the lure of private schools or the suburbs, and Lakewood Elementary will rank at or near the top. Spend a moment browsing through the Texas Tribune’s public schools explorer. Its students crush…
Penny Terk, 73, was a former actress who’d become the toast of book review clubs across Dallas. In a few weeks, she was set to host her annual Summertime Showcase, a conclave for book club leaders and speakers, where “a LIMITED number of rectangular vending tables must be reserved in…
Thomas Tapp lives in L.A. now, but not so long ago he was doing parkour, the insanely acrobatic form of free running, on the walls and planters and pillars of downtown Dallas. A couple years back, he and his twin brother got banned from the UTD campus for being too…
Death has the habit of sneaking up on its victims, catching them unaware and robbing them of a chance to collect their thoughts and give some final, purposeful statement of celebration or regret. If they are afforded that chance, the words tend to be delivered to a friend or family…
The stars at night in Texas may be big and bright, but good luck spotting them over the glare of its increasingly sprawling cities. This picture was snapped by a crew member aboard the International Space Station, some 240 miles up. Here’s how NASA describes it:…
On April 4, 2012, in an act of mind-boggling cruelty, a 4-month-old lab-terrier mix was doused in lighter fluid and set on fire. The puppy suffered third degree burns to 70 percent of his body and died of its injuries 10 days later. Police eventually fingered four young men they…
Alan Carter is one of a dying breed. The 53-year-old’s a newspaper carrier who plies his trade every morning well before dawn, delivering some 400 copies of The Dallas Morning News to the diminishing segment of the population that still gets its news printed on paper. It’s a lonely job…
From a purely tactical standpoint, Democrats maintained momentum during this summer’s abortion debate. The impassioned testimony delivered by hundreds of pro-choice women into the wee hours of the morning, Senator Wendy Davis standing for 11 hours to deliver an epic filibuster, the party’s David vs. Goliath victory — all stand…
The weather on Sunday evening was unseasonably temperate for Dallas. The heat of the day, which barely cracked 90, faded rather quickly. By 6:30 p.m., it was pleasant enough for a quartet of diners at Campisi’s downtown location to dine al fresco. At least it was pleasant until Allen McRae…
The chances of a Lamborghini and Ferrari crashing into one another on a random stretch of Fort Worth highway have to be remote. But it appears the accident yesterday, at I-30 and Henderson, suggest it wasn’t exactly random. Judging from reports on DFW Scanner, both cars appear to have come…
The only crime Dallas police saw Fred Bradford Jr. commit when they came upon him on the night of April 21 was failure to wear a bike helmet. But, judging by the way he lurked next to the black sedan parked in the alley behind Kwick Stop Liquor in South…
There are any number of reasons to celebrate the onset of hard liquor sales in Plano over the weekend: It’s a victory for democracy. The city gets a half million dollars per year in annual sales tax revenue. Residents no longer have to drive an hour round-trip to liquor up…
At this point, putting money on where free agency will take Dwight Howard would probably be unwise. The free agent center is being courted by a significant portion of the NBA and is weighing offers from the Mavs, the Rockets, the Warriors, the Hawks, and the Lakers. He visits Dallas…
The narrative that’s emerged on the right in the wake of the defeat of sweeping anti-abortion legislation this week isn’t that Senator Wendy Davis jiu jitsued a victory with a Frank Capra-worthy filibuster. Rather, it’s that the democratic process was hijacked by an unruly mob of out-of-state agitators whose cacophonous…
Updated at 5:46 p.m.: WFAA is reporting that Ricky Don McCommas, the assault rifle-wielding man involved in a shootout at a parking lot outside of Granbury City Hall, had been charged with the alleged rape of his niece. He’d missed a court appearance Friday morning, and instead came to Granbury…
Max Kalhammer is leaving City Hall at a key time for cycling in Dallas. During four years as the city’s bike coordinator, he helped develop a very solid citywide bike plan and oversaw a remarkable expansion of bike infrastructure in the city. Downtown is now crisscrossed by shared bike lanes,…
Police aren’t exactly clear why a South Dallas 15-year-old without a license happened to be driving through Far North Dallas a half hour before midnight Thursday. Also not clear is how someone barely old enough to sack groceries part time came to be in possession of $1,000 in cash. But…
All things considered, Mary Efurd is one of the lucky ones. She walked into Dr. Christopher Duntsch’s Texas Neurosurgery Institute in Plano on July 25, 2012 and emerged with her life. The same can’t be said at least two of his former patients, who died after Dunstch botched their surgeries,…
In a perfect world, Tango Blast would be a cool, refreshing fruity beverage. But we don’t live in a perfect world and the name has instead been appropriated by a rapidly growing, extremely violent Texas gang with ties to Mexican drug cartels. It’s some 10,000 members strong, according to the…
Dallas ISD’s Board of Trustees argued into the early morning hours before approving a $1.2 billion budget for the coming year. It includes a 2-percent raise for almost all employees, as well as funding for Superintendent Mike Miles’ year-old principal training academy, which some trustees wanted to defund. It was…
The new HBO documentary The Out List was supposed to be a response to California’s Proposition 8. But it turned into something bigger, director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders told Vanity Fair, where he’s a contributing photographer. What it became is a series of interviews with 16 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender…
