Politics & Government

Irving’s Matt Rinaldi celebrated being named one of the Observer’s worst representatives of the 2017 session with a bang Monday, when he called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a group of people protesting Texas’ new anti-sanctuary city law at the state capitol. During an ensuing skirmish on the Texas floor,…

In addition to being Memorial Day, Monday is also the 140th — and last — day of official business for Texas’ 85th Legislature. As the session wound down, the Observer evaluated the performances of representatives throughout North Texas. Here’s our list of the best and worst DFW had to offer this…

The Federal Elections Committee, like many in Washington, is a pretty partisan body, and usually the way it rules reflects this. But FEC issued a unanimous decision Thursday that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas failed to properly disclose the source of four loans given to his 2012 Senate campaign. In…

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings doesn’t usually cast that long of a shadow on social media. He’s content to let his staff run his Facebook and Twitter feeds, which usually stick to general news posts about city business or mayoral appearances. Thursday afternoon, however, Rawlings decided to mix things up on…

I know politics is politics, and the game goes on. But sometimes a foul ball has to be called foul. I’m not accusing anybody of lying. I just want to make sure we set the record straight. On Tuesday night at a speech celebrating the fifth year of his campaign…

Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs, a careful student of structures, has been keeping track of the City Hall organization chart since the January departures of former City Manager A.C. Gonzalez and former City Attorney Warren Ernst. Their retirements were followed a month later by the arrival of new City…

The whole thing, Jose Barrientos says, comes down to his running his mouth. If he hadn’t shot off about how someone could go about stealing the election for Dallas City Council District 6, he says, he wouldn’t be in the trouble he is now. But he did tell Sidney Williams,…

News reached me when I was out of town that the Dallas City Council will approve a cheaper partial removal of a failed concrete recreational feature in the Trinity River, opting to scrape out the guts of the Standing Wave but leave its ugly bones in place to save $5…

On one hand, you could argue that Monday’s development in West Dallas was a topsy-turvy turning of the tables. The person the mayor has repeatedly slimed as a slumlord turns out to be the knight in shining armor, the only one with a plan to protect a deep-rooted but embattled…

The 3.2-acre lot bracketed by Pacific Avenue and St. Paul and Harwood streets has become an eyesore. To say it’s poorly maintained is an understatement. The uneven layer of asphalt is littered with freshly broken glass and shards from an earlier generation of destroyed beer bottles. Walking the perimeter on…

On Monday afternoon, after two more days of debate, the Texas House of Representatives passed a “bathroom bill.” Reps tacked an amendment requiring that public schools ban transgender kids from using multi-occupancy restrooms of their choice onto another public school bill, one that requires schools to draw up plans for…

In a startling turnabout in the deadlocked West Dallas war over low-income housing and gentrification, Khraish Khraish, a landlord locked in a battle with the mayor over hundreds of low-rent houses, turned the tables Monday by announcing he will sell 130 of his properties to the current tenants. Mayor Mike…

One thing is clear two weeks after the 2017 Dallas City Council election: Something went wrong with absentee voting in West Dallas. While rumor and innuendo have been plentiful, very little has emerged in the way of fact, especially since many key players in the drama have clammed up because…

Dallas City Council member Jennifer Gates has a great idea. Really. She’s right. The city should strongly consider pulling its elections out from under the aegis of the county elections department and run them itself. The county elections department as constituted was born in sin. Its structure is the result…

Reform to the Dallas Police and Fire Pension system is taking shape after a day of negotiations, mutual agreement and statehouse votes. On Thursday afternoon, Dallas police and fire associations agreed to a deal with the system and the city of Dallas. After that, the Texas Senate’s State Affairs Committee…

The Trinity River’s infamous Standing Wave feature, installed by the city of Dallas at a cost of more than $4 million in 2011, has never worked as planned. Six years later, it seems it will take at least $2 million more to remove the envisioned whitewater park.

Wednesday afternoon’s Dallas police memorial ceremony downtown, despite the contentious debates currently embroiling the Dallas Police Department and the city, wasn’t about politics, pensions or retention. Instead, the services held in front of the city’s monument to officers killed in the line of duty focused on the past the 84 Dallas…

When it comes to pivotal figures in Dallas, Robert Decherd is both iconic and unknown. He served as the president and CEO of A.H. Belo Corporation, owner of The Dallas Morning News, from 1987 to 2013, devoting himself to philanthropic public park projects after he left the company. This has led…

The Dallas City Council will decide next week whether the city of Dallas should join with the city of Austin in its legal battle with the state of Texas over the state legislature’s recently signed “sanctuary cities” bill. The bill, set to go into effect Sept. 1, threatens sheriffs, constables and…

Over the last four years, Atmos Energy, the company that provides natural gas to residents of the city of Dallas, has come to the city for more than $18 million in rate increases. On Monday they aske for another $7.8 million from the city, an amount they say represents a…