When voters in Dallas County head to the polls for Texas’ March 3 primary, they’ll be using a new electronic system to cast their ballots that’s designed to combine the ease of electronic touch-screen voting with the security of paper ballots. But recent research has shown that the type of…
The basic outlines of the argument could have been surmised from any number of Dallas City Hall disputes that have gone down the last couple of decades. One faction on the City Council wants to do something that they believe could — maybe, they aren’t really sure — do something…
Two years after pushing one of its weekly meetings to the afternoon to better accommodate residents who can’t easily get off work on Wednesday mornings, the Dallas City Council is one step away from moving all of its City Council meetings back to their traditional 9 a.m. start times. Monday,…
Many adults in the United States wrongly believe this year’s census will be about citizenship status, and some worry about participating because of it, according to two recent studies. Dallas-area immigrant and refugee organizations say that concern and confusion are symptomatic of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce immigration to…
We here in Dallas must reserve some place in our hearts for the old-school white-shoe Republicans, because, after all, their leader and standard-bearer, Bush XLIII, lives quietly here among us. Perhaps it is appropriate that our city’s only daily newspaper is the one that has devised the template for white…
For more than a year, Dallas has been sitting on a report addressing the city’s trash problem. It lays out recommendations for reducing litter and illegal dumping — problems concentrated in historically underserved communities in southern Dallas. Now, according to a top official, the city will be implementing them. The…
One should be cautious, very cautious, when embarking on the journey upon which we are about to embark. There are few conclusions, legitimate or otherwise, worth drawing from early voting, much less two days’ worth of it. But the data is there, providing as close a facsimile as exists for…
Late last year, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, never one to be mistaken for a moderate, struck perhaps the most conciliatory note of his political career when he said he supported closing the so-called “gun show loophole” and mandating background checks for all gun sales between strangers. Wednesday, a coalition…
“Reform Dallas,” a Facebook group I’m still trying to figure out, lit up for a while this week with a provocative post that started out, “I see a lot of people who despise and rally against gentrification.” The post went on: “My question is how do we organize and improve…
In the next three months plus, Dallas and the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance plan to reduce the city’s count of homeless veterans by 25%. They plan to take the most direct route possible to achieving that goal — getting housing for at least 100 of the city’s estimated 400 former…
Airbnb, Vrbo and the rest of their short-term rental brethren appear set to head down the same road traveled by Uber and Lyft five years ago. The Dallas City Council wants a task force, one that will make sure the city gets its cut and will respond to concerned neighbors…
If it seems like just yesterday that the Iowa Democratic Party was making a mockery of their caucus’ treasured first-in-the-nation status thanks to their inability to count votes or name a winner — it isn’t. But it’s close. Things are just getting started and, already, Texans are about to get…
A crowd of more than 5,000 people roared as Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders stepped out from behind a curtain Friday night and made his way to the lectern at Mesquite Arena. “You know, I was thinking, I have never been to a rodeo in my life, but I do…
First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress is not a stooge. In fact, if one even raises the idea that he’s totally in the tank for President Donald Trump, providing evangelical cover for keeping kids in cages, hush money payments to porn stars and absolutely anything else Trump decides to during…
Never let it be said that Dallas isn’t doing its best to make things easier on you, dear residents. Later this month, thanks to the city’s largess, you’ll be able to experience all the fun of a municipal court proceeding, right in your own backyard. That’s right, everyone in Dallas…
Sometimes somebody just rings the damn bell. Two young guys who are smart, one an analyst at the Manhattan Institute in New York and another an urban developer here in Dallas, co-wrote an op-ed piece recently that rang the bell loud and clear on DART, our regional transit agency. The…
Sometimes somebody who actually knows a thing or two looks at a story on the TV news and just can’t stay still about it. Documentary filmmaker Dustin Grant has been working for a year on a film about Jim’s (benighted) Car Wash on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South…
Dallas’ natural gas provider, Atmos, is requesting an $18 million rate hike. It’s the biggest yet and comes on the heels of a protracted pricing dispute with the city. Atmos claims the rate increase is necessary to fund the replacement of the city’s aging pipeline network. It will raise consumer bills…
The Dallas City Council wants much tougher penalties for those caught participating in street races in the city. Dallas city staff, and its police department, appear ready to oblige. Monday afternoon at City Hall, Dallas Police Department and city staff filled in the council’s public safety committee on just what…
Thursday afternoon, Dallas got hit with a punch that’s been on its way for long time. A Dallas County jury found that the city, thanks in large part to former city manager Mary Suhm, owes drilling company Trinity East somewhere between $23 and $33 million for accepting $19 million from…
In a small town, the powers-that-be can usually handle the town’s affairs over a dinner table at the country club, because, most of the time, not that many other people in town know what’s going on or care all that much. In a big city where lots of people not…
Speaking after the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, President Donald Trump took on Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote for the president’s removal from office during his just concluded impeachment trial. “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,”…
