Just in case you needed an extra incentive to stay out of prison, the Texas Tribune brings us the news that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is running out of deodorant and toothpaste. “For the roughly 151,000 inmates in the Texas prison system, there are 1,800 units of deodorant…
Just before noon yesterday, police responded to an animal cruelty call in Pleasant Grove. The 911 caller reported that five dogs were being kept in cramped cages in the garage of the house at 10741 Kendall Square. It was worse than that. To reach the dogs, officers had to wade…
Angel Dobbs and her niece, Ashley Dobbs, would rather forget what happened to them on July 13, 2012. That’s when a state trooper pulled them over as they traveled north down George Bush Turnpike in Irving, purportedly for throwing a cigarette butt out the window. What happened next was broadcast…
Around 4 p.m. yesterday, a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict 19-year-old Ryan Romo, who was accused of raping a younger fellow student in the back of his Chevy Tahoe following a concert in late October. At a sparsely attended press conference this afternoon, the Romo family’s civil attorney,…
If you happened to be passing the corner of Akard and San Jacinto Monday night, the huge, blue LED lights spelling out “IDLE NO MORE” might have left you nonplussed. It was no coincidence that the demonstration, known as a light brigade, took place within a stone’s throw of the…
On Thursday night, 6-year-old John Raidy was walking a few paces ahead of his mother and younger sister as they returned home from buying candy. He stepped onto North Carrier Parkway about the same time a small black SUV was running a red light. “He got a few steps out…
Ona Marie Hendricks’ theory on urban sartorial choice is more developed than most. “There are two types of saggers,” she explained to Fox 4’s Steve Eagar a few months ago. “There is the ridiculous, nasty, disrespectful type where, like, everything is showing up under, where you can see everything, and…
It’s a business practice that’s as old as commerce: Pay some poor soul a few bucks to stand on a corner as a cartoonish chicken urging passersby to eat his crispy, fried brethren, a somber Statue of Liberty leading the masses to freedom, opportunity, and a great deal on a…
At 10:30 last night, a 17-year-old boy and two friends, a 15-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl, were playing some late-night football on a Pleasant Grove street when a neighbor, clearly drunk, emerged from a home nearby. “I’ve got a dog, too,” she shouted at the three teens, which was odd,…
Last month Biogenesis, a nondescript clinic a short hop from the University of Miami, quietly closed its doors. It purported to be an anti-aging clinic offering medical treatments to boost energy and libido, but, as our sister paper the Miami New Times reports, it also offered professional athletes a one-stop…
A Dallas County grand jury has declined to indict a prominent Highland Park High School student who was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl after a concert last fall. Ryan Romo, 18, was arrested in October, accused of raping a younger female acquaintance in the back of his Chevy Tahoe…
This year, for the first time in about a century, the University of Texas and Texas A&M did not meet on the gridiron. With the Aggies now in the SEC, the annual football matchup that fueled the long-standing rivalry is effectively over. Millions of Texans were sad. Some were outraged…
The Dallas Police & Fire Pension Fund stumbled into a PR disaster when it went all in on the allegedly-art destroying Museum Tower, but that was far from its only foray into real estate. At times, as Anna reported last year, as much of a third of the fund’s $3…
In July, Governor Rick Perry sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius explaining why the state of Texas would not be taking part in the federal government’s plans to expand Medicaid. Such an expansion would “enlarge a broken system that is already financially unsustainable” and “threaten…
Putting his time to its best and highest use, for the benefit of his constituents in Arlington, state Representative Bill Zedler has written an essential piece of legislation; a bill of our times, for our times — if our times were still, like, nearly four years ago. Proving, we suppose,…
You probably noticed that it’s been unseasonably pleasant the past few days. Short-sleeve picnic weather. Leave-the-screen-door-open weather. Or, if you prefer, pantsless-laser-pointing weather. Count 22-year-old Kenneth Santodomingo as the leader of that last group. He was arrested just after 4 a.m. today after confessing to shining a green laser pointer…
The Boy Scouts of America’s longstanding gay ban, which has grown increasingly nonsensical in light of revelations of the group’s long history of sweeping sexual abuse cases under the rug, may be coming to an end. NBC News reports today that the Irving-based youth organization is “actively considering” an end…
A friend of mine works in Austin, doing something or other for state government. Her office is right next to the Capitol building. When she arrived at work this morning, she couldn’t help but notice that the whole place was covered in bikers. The Harley kind. “Hundreds of dudes wearing…
The city’s Gas Drilling Task Force never came to a consensus on the potential impact of allowing fracking within city limits, ultimately splintering into two opposing camps. But they did spend the better part of a year researching and debating the issue’s many facets. It was curious, then, when the…
If one person can be said to be responsible for the inexplicable requirement that professional football players don pink gloves and shoes, it’s Nancy Brinker. Through the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen Foundation, she’s managed, not quite single-handedly but almost, to turn the fight against breast cancer into a global cause…
The Fort Worth Cats were rescued from the brink of insolvency 13 months ago when former Congressman John Bryant led a group of investors in purchasing the minor league ball club. And things were going swimmingly for about six months ago until, in the middle of the 2012 season, vendors…
In May of 2011, in the midst of various other anti-abortion measures, Texas lawmakers approved SB 257, authored by Representative Larry Phillips, a Republican from Sherman, and Senator John Carona, a Republican from Dallas. The bill allowed for the sale of state-issued specialty “Choose Life” license plates: For a mere…
