Once again, the Railroad Commission of Texas’ raison d’être has been evaluated by a commission comprising state legislators and two regular citizens. Once again, it was given a reprieve from being abolished, given the gang-busting pace of oil and gas development over the last several years. But not without a…
Angela Hunt, the term-limited City Council member representing District 14, has already made it pretty clear whom she favors as her successor. That would be Philip Kingston, a Dallas attorney who entered the race last month and whose campaign treasurer is Paul Sims, aka Mr. Angela Hunt. If you still…
We’ve officially known it was coming for a couple of months now, and we’ve assumed as much since forever, but yesterday marked the first official volley in the biennial battle to legalize gambling in Texas. State Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, filed a resolution yesterday that proposes a constitutional amendment –…
In 2003, the state of Texas took a halfhearted swing at skyrocketing childhood obesity rates when it took steps to ban the sale of soda and candy — though only in elementary schools and only during breakfast and lunch. Those rules were strengthened in 2009, but middle and high school…
Even after a gunman slaughtered a dozen moviegoers and injured scores more this summer in Aurora, Colorado, President Obama was careful not to utter anything that could be construed as anti-gun. He merely alluded, vaguely, to a need to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. His reluctance to…
It was one year and 10 days ago that Governor Rick Perry took the stage in a CNBC primary debate and promised to “do away with the Education, the, uh, Commerce, and, let’s see. I can’t. The third one I can’t. Sorry. Oops.” It made us embarrassed to be from…
This morning on my ride to work, I couldn’t help but notice that a portion of the new bike lane on Main Street is now green. This caught my attention both because of the hue — a loud, glowsticky neon — and the fact that this wasn’t the case when…
On Tuesday, Governor Rick Perry and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst announced their support for a bill filed by Flower Mound State Senator Jane Nelson, which would require people applying for Temporary Assistant for Need Families (TANF) funds to be drug tested. At the same press conference, they also announced that…
This week, to our great excitement, Texas legislators started pre-filing bills for the upcoming legislative session, which kicks off in January. Those bills will include State Senator Jane Nelson of Flower Mound’s proposal to drug test potential welfare recipients and a measure from Longview’s David Simpson that would make it…
Last week a representative of Poo Prints, a company that performs DNA tests on dog shit in order to track down the irresponsible owner who didn’t pick it up, tried to convince the City Council to adopt such a program citywide. It would be a way to reduce the ungodly…
At this point, you’ve probably heard just about enough about petitions, particularly the one lobbying the White House to let Texas “peacefully secede” from the United States . It’s got over 100,000 signatures at this point, our managing editor Patrick Williams thinks the whole thing is deeply, pants-shittingly disturbing, and…
If you want a summary of neighbors’ reasons for not allowing Dallas United Crew you can visit visit this website, which is advertised on a fair number of yard signs surrounding White Rock Lake. The boat house will destroy a beautiful, relatively pristine view of the lake, critics say. The…
Yesterday was Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s 55th birthday, and it brought with it the question of what to give a man who has selflessly devoted his life to suing the federal government. A PACER gift card to cover all those pesky filing costs? A guaranteed slot in the Republic…
As Texas awaits official word from the White House on that whole secession thing, which has 94,000 supporters and counting, some in the state aren’t sure they want to live in the Republic of Texas, Part Deux. There’s a petition for the city of Austin to remain part of the…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: There’s still some very stale, deeply discounted Halloween candy kicking around the aisles at CVS, Christmas music has suddenly overtaken your dentist’s office, and Texas legislators have begun pre-filing bills for the upcoming legislative session. The session doesn’t kick off until January,…
For at least part of the day yesterday, the house at 2818 Marjorie Ave. in East Oak Cliff was without running water, which the city had turned off for non-payment. At 3:30 p.m. Tavarius Spencer, a Dallas Water Utilities meter reader with several years’ experience, showed up to turn it…
When the budget ax falls at City Hall, the Office of Cultural Affairs is an easy target, because no matter how much economic impact the arts claim to generate, trimming grants to niche cultural groups is a lot easier than firing police and firefighters. The department is designed to cope…
To: Lovers of America From: The Republican National Committee RE: Emergency platform changes Dear Patriots: It seems that 47 percent was somewhat larger than we anticipated in last week’s election. Henceforth, we urge all Republicans to adopt these immediate policy changes. Our new platform on babes. Please refrain from any…
On Sunday, the Omni will have been opened a full year. That’s long enough that the does-the-city-have-any-business-owning-a-hotel debate has died away, replaced by artists dreaming of all the cool shit they can do with those lights. The hotel has a slate of offerings Sunday to commemorate its 11/11/11 debut. An…
At the end of October, highly watchable Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott threatened to press charges against any “U.N. poll watchers” who might “interfere with Texas elections.” Not to be outdone, state officials in Pennsylvania and Iowa also started threatening to arrest people. Those “poll watchers” were in fact election…
Yesterday, Mark Cuban joined the rest of the universe in parsing the presidential election, putting on his media-critic hat and taking to his blog to assess the state of political coverage on cable. Turns out, Cuban loves Fox News. He watched it all the time during the election cycle, though…
Every day, the dogs of Dallas leave behind an astounding amount of shit. The city mailed out a water-quality PSA over the summer that included a rough figure, which was somewhere in the range of several hundred thousand pounds per day if memory serves. Some of that is picked up…
