Dallas DA Creuzot Takes Heat from Council Members Over New Theft Policy

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot defended his recent decision to stop prosecuting certain quality-of-life crimes over the objections of members of the Dallas City Council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee on Monday. The reforms, Creuzot said, are meant to make Dallas a safer, more equitable city, not to…

Dallas Sick Leave Ordinance Back From the Dead

Nine months after a petition drive to get an ordinance requiring paid sick leave for everyone who works in Dallas went down in flames, the Dallas City Council will take up a similar ordinance. Wednesday, the council will decide whether city code will require all Dallas employers to credit their…

Attacks on Griggs, Attacks on Kingston, All Have Same Scary Shadow

Sometimes you learn more about people in politics from their shadows than their faces. Serial efforts over a period of years to take down two progressive Dallas City Council members have cast the same kind of shadow consistently. In the effort, mostly failed I think, to dirty up council members…

Texas’ ‘Born-Alive’ Bill Close to Becoming Reality

Texas is set to turn a very fake problem into a very real law. Monday night, the state’s House of Representatives signed off on Plano Republican Jeff Leach’s “Born Alive Protection Act” which would create civil and criminal penalties for doctors who fail to care for babies born after attempted…

Texas AG’s Office Slow Rolls Release of Voter Purge Records

Last month, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to turn over records showing exactly what state officials were up to earlier this year when they tried to purge nearly 100,000 voters from the state’s rolls. Last week, as the deadline…

Dallas Mayoral Candidates Offer Divergent Views on Homelessness

Four candidates for mayor of Dallas agree on at least this much: Homelessness is a growing problem that the city must find a way to solve. At a public forum Thursday, candidates shared their ideas for meeting that goal, ranging from partnering with the agencies and nonprofits that are already…

What Happened Before and What Happens After the ICE Raid in Allen?

The headlines on reports about last week’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s raid on an electronic repairs plant in Allen were startling. In one day, ICE agents arrested 280 people at CVE Technology Group, making Wednesday’s bust the biggest in a decade. Despite the scale of the operation, however, the way…

Salvation Army’s Plan for Homeless Campus Delayed by 30 Days

Officials at the Salvation Army will have to wait another month before learning if they can move forward with a planned 20-acre campus in northwest Dallas. The Salvation Army hopes to build the $95 million facility to provide shelter and services to the homeless in an industrial area on North…

Seven Million Bucks and Three More Years To Open New Bridge. Maybe.

The Margaret McDermott Bridge over the Trinity River in downtown Dallas is the city’s ne’er-do-well relative who shows up every year or so for yet another handout. Is it a mercy for us to give her more money, or have we just become codependent? Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava,…

Religious Refusal Bill Passes Texas Senate

The Texas Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would offer legal protections to those who refuse to provide services on religious grounds. Senate Bill 17 bars state license-granting agencies from denying or stripping professional licenses “based on a sincerely held religious belief” of the applicant or license-holder. Critics say the…

Best, Worst and Other of The Dallas Morning News’ Voter Guide

North Texas’ municipal elections are just more than a month away. Anyone who’s lived here long enough knows that means a couple of things: 1. Thanks to Texas’ voter-access unfriendly laws, it’s time to register if you aren’t already. Anyone not on the books by a month before the election…