The favorite to replace outgoing East Dallas City Council member Mark Clayton is out of the race. Paul Sims, a former member of the Dallas Park Board and former council member Angela Hunt’s husband, announced on Facebook Friday afternoon that he is no longer a candidate, just before the city’s…
Barring a couple of changes of heart or a couple of absences, acting Texas Secretary of State David Whitley is not be confirmed, thanks to united opposition from Texas Senate Democrats. Whitley has been under fire for the last month, following his questioning the citizenship of nearly 100,000 Texas voters…
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley may have finally found the limit on just how far a Republican official in the state can go and still keep his job. Thursday, after weeks of public debate, hearings and lawsuits, the surest signs yet that Whitley’s nomination was in real trouble emerged…
There are two possible takeaways from Collin County state Sen. Angela Paxton’s recently filed Senate Bill 860: The senator is either staggeringly unethical or incredibly politically naive. SB 860 would allow the Texas Attorney General’s Office — the same one run by her husband, Ken Paxton — to oversee a…
VisitDallas CEO Phillip Jones’ long-awaited appearance before the City Council’s Government Performance & Financial Management Committee ended up seeming a lot like a mock trial. There was evidence, plenty of pleas and admonitions from both sides and some political theater, but no real stakes. Jones and his organization remain, for now…
The calendar has finally crept past February’s midpoint, and that means a bit of Dallas 2019 election-related news. The announcements — and the “she’s running, he’s running, who exactly is running” drama — are over. Across 15 races, for 14 City Council district seats and mayor office, 65 candidates will…
By the time I got there Monday afternoon, a city crew with a big power-wash truck had washed away most of the paint vandals had sprayed on the Confederate memorial outside City Hall on Sunday night or early Sunday morning. Cops on the scene told me they had no suspects…
Former Dallas mayor and Observer columnist Laura Miller is running for Dallas City Council. Miller filed paperwork with city Friday afternoon, just beating the 5 p.m. filing deadline, to challenge north central Dallas incumbent Jennifer Staubach Gates in District 13. D Magazine broke the news that Miller was considering taking another…
The Texas secretary of state’s job is a pretty good one. Whoever holds it gets an annual salary of more than $130,000 to make sure the state’s election machinery runs smoothly, which has to be satisfying. Barring any monumental screw-ups, the job is easy to keep, too. There are no…
Steve Bartlett. Ron Kirk. Tom Leppert. Eric Johnson? A who’s who of Dallas’ conservative business elite has made its presence known in Dallas’ mayoral race, throwing its considerable fundraising weight behind Eric Johnson. We’ll give you a minute to catch up from the cognitive dissonance. Johnson is a progressive, Democratic…
The pattern has repeated itself several times even in the short period Beto O’Rourke has been a national figure. The media fawning over the former U.S. representative slows down a bit, because of fatigue or outside events, and people begin to wonder whether the El Pasoan has peaked, whether in…
Barring intervention from Dallas’ preservation board, the Confederate War Memorial that towers over Pioneer Plaza downtown is coming down. The Dallas City Council voted 11-4 Wednesday afternoon to remove the statue, which was built in 1896 and moved downtown in 1961 to accommodate freeway construction. “I want to be free…
Robert Jeffress made perhaps his strongest statements yet in defense of President Donald Trump Wednesday. Given what Jeffress has said about the president in past, it should come as no shock that the First Baptist Dallas pastor’s new remarks have left him teetering on the edge of the deep end…
Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall gave the public the first look at what she and her department believe Dallas’ improved Citizens Police Review Board should look like Monday. After harsh reactions from both those who want to strengthen the board and those who believe doing so would be unfair…
If you want a preview of the road President Donald Trump intends to take when it comes to reproductive freedom at the federal level, don’t look any further than Texas. Republicans here have already proudly taken the path the president outlined during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, leading…
Texas Senate Democrats grilled new Secretary of State David Whitley on Thursday over his office’s decision to partner with Attorney General Ken Paxton on an announcement that more than 95,000 noncitizens might be registered to vote in Texas. In the two weeks since the announcement, Whitley and Paxton’s claims have…
Following a Dallas City Council discussion Wednesday, it seems clear that Dallas’ Confederate War Memorial is going to get removed from the park between Dallas City Hall and the convention center at some point. A majority of the council wants it gone, and there is little public resistance to the…
We’ve been here before, but Dallas’ Confederate war memorial, the one that dominates Pioneer Plaza between City Hall and the convention center, appears to be in its final days. Dallas city staff gave City Council members three options Wednesday for what to do with the 60-foot behemoth. The council could…
Today the Dallas City Council, after a year of crass weaseling, will try once more to decide what to do with the huge, lugubrious Confederate War Memorial that stands 400 feet from Dallas City Hall like a very bad billboard for the city. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to decide how…
Former El Paso U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke ended his vagabond run on Tuesday afternoon, emerging from the haze of dentist appointments, morning runs and road trips to sit for an interview with Oprah in Times Square PlayStation Theater. The interview isn’t set to air on the media maven’s Oprah Winfrey Network…
Repeat the words enough times and the message becomes fact: Dallas needs more cops. Ask the mayor. “Dallas needs more cops.” Ask a City Council member. “Dallas needs more cops.” Ask the cop unions. “Dallas definitely needs more cops.” Ask Dallas’ only daily newspaper. “We’re scared, so Dallas needs more…
The bad news for traffic scofflaws and anyone else walking around with a Dallas C misdemeanor warrant is that it’s warrant roundup time. The good news is, this time the city’s offering a discount on your warrant fees, if you’re willing to go through a little trouble. If you’ve got…
