News
Homes for All
A recent city ordinance change is designed to boost affordable and low-income housing.ERIC GRIFFEY
For years, getting apartment developers to include affordable housing in their plans was like buying a used car –– it took a lot of haggling on the part of city officials. The best leverage the city had was tax incentives, ...
Wage Slaves
The minimum wage fight makes waves with Texas candidates for governor.DAVE McNEELY
Raising the minimum wage suddenly became a hot issue in the Texas governor’s race just after Labor Day, with Democrat Wendy Davis endorsing it and Republican Greg Abbott opposing it. The national campaign by fast-food workers...
Hire CCA, See No Evil
STATICImmigration policies, the drug war, and lobbyists are keeping the private prison industry humming. No matter what sins a private prison company has committed, there seems to be no shortage of states willing to give it a second,...
Negative Charge
Its owner disagrees, but the PUC has pulled the plug on Proton Energy.ERIC GRIFFEY
In a cramped office inside a Shell station at the corner of North University Drive and Jacksboro Highway, Ramzan R. Ali’s phone was ringing off the hook. The Pakistani native in his mid-50s has been in the U.S. for 40 years. ...
The Other End of the Pipeline
On the Texas coast, natural gas export development threatens the tourist economy.DAVID ROBLEDO
I’m kayaking the bay that separates Port Isabel and South Padre Island when a large dorsal fin breaks the water. Another fin surfaces, and several more. My heart skips a few beats. And it looks like I’m surrounded … by on...
Davis Gets Help
STATICNot many people gave Democratic candidate Ann Richards a prayer of winning the Texas gubernatorial race in 1990 against the deep-pocketed Republican rancher Clayton Williams. But Richards pulled off a victory and became only th...
The Unbearable Lightness of Being White
KEN WHEATCROFT-PARDUEOnce in the late 1970s, I was returning home on foot from a night of as much debauchery as I, a poor college student, could then afford, when I was stopped — it was about 8 a.m. — by a representative of the law. He waved me...
Ticket to Ride
Phone apps and start-ups are bringing new options for getting around Fort Worth without a car.EDWARD BROWN
When Texas Christian University sophomore Kirina Awamoto moved to Fort Worth two years ago, she made the tough choice to leave her car in California. With insurance, parking, maintenance, and gas, the costs would have been too ...
General Rick’s Hospital
The governor’s refusal to expand Medicaid coverage in Texas is costing lives and — even closer to his heart — jobs.PETER GORMAN
Patters Barnes works two jobs, running the register at a retail store and cooking at a fast-food restaurant in Dallas. Neither employer provides her with health insurance, but they do influence her healthcare choices: Combined,...
Gambling on History
Stockyards supporters fear that a new zoning scheme could open the door to casinos.JEFF PRINCE
The man with the big cowboy hat who manages Leddy’s boot store in the Stockyards presents a sharp figure. Mark Dunlap’s clothes are starched and ironed. His white hat is clean, creases sharp. The store is immaculate. He run...