News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News

03/12/2010

Editorial: Got potholes? Oh, yes!
Granted, Dallas isn't Chicago, where entire cars disappear into roadway sinkholes. But navigating Dallas' newly pitted roads is like the old-school toy that challenged curious kids to maneuver a metal ball around holes in a maze toward a finish line.

Editorial: Hits and Misses
Thoughtful commentary disguised as snap judgments on a big win for Booker T. Washington High, a good response by a big bank and an ill-considered ruling by a Houston judge.

Editorial: Voters should look beyond rhetoric of Perry, White
As Texans settle in for the next stage of the 2010 gubernatorial race, we offer this suggestion: Prepare now for a dizzying set of claims and counter-claims. The pace already has accelerated for a pivotal race that's certain to attract national attention.

Editorial: Accommodating drug cartels never works
Shockingly, it turns out that a bunch of murderous drug traffickers aren't living up to their word. For Mexican officials who subscribed to an ill-conceived notion of "live and let live," this is a predictably rude awakening.

Editorial: Preserving Texas' open spaces has many benefits
One of the joys of living in Texas is appreciating our state's vast expanse. But that also makes it difficult for Texans to think as seriously as they should about land conservation. Why preserve our lands when there's so much of it?

Editorial: We recommend Lehrmann in Supreme Court runoff
Neither Debra Lehrmann nor Rick Green was our choice in the crowded March 2 Republican primary Place 3 on the Texas Supreme Court. But we have no hesitation in recommending Lehrmann in the runoff, based on her far superior credentials.

03/11/2010

Editorial: 10 drops in the bucket
Too often, when a business goes bust in southern Dallas, the abandoned building begins a slow decline. Residents complain about structures that have sat empty for years, falling into disrepair. Neighbors ask, why can't the city do something?

03/10/2010

Editorial: Moving school start dates is a slippery slope
Some Texas school districts remain miffed that the state has mandated a late-August start date. And when lawmakers convene next year, lobbying for local calendar control is likely to follow. But this is one area where firm state guidance is needed.

Editorial: Unreasonable drug sentence
In sending defendants off to state prison, every county pushes the incarceration cost, about $50 a day, onto the rest of us. And so it got our attention when a Tyler jury sentenced a man to 35 years for possessing 4.6 ounces of marijuana.

03/09/2010

Editorial: DISD must act now to fix or close failing high schools
TAKS time has arrived again in Dallas, and never has it been more critical for 10 high schools that have nothing less than their futures riding on the outcome of the state's annual test, which the federal government uses in evaluating schools.

Editorial: Iraqi election offers pleasant surprise
Sunday's national election marked a major milestone in overcoming skeptics of Iraq's ability to self-govern and provide for its own security. Despite multiple bombings and deaths as polls opened, Iraqis voted in exceptionally high numbers.

03/08/2010

Editorial: UAE's model behavior on women's rights
So much loud anger has emanated from, and been directed at, the Muslim world in recent years that significant developments marking true progress are easy to overlook. Progress, of course, is a relative term.

Editorial: Why the census is worth your time
We cringed a few weeks ago when we heard Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., briefly call for a boycott of the 2010 census, which she apparently thought would ask too many nosy questions yet not ask about U.S. citizenship or resident status.

03/05/2010

Editorial: Federal streetcar grant boosts north Oak Cliff hopes
The track's not laid, and the money's not in the bank. Still, there's plenty of reason to cheer Washington's selection of Dallas – and particularly north Oak Cliff – as a place to invest money in a streetcar line.

Editorial: No need to add Dallas County toll authority
Sorting out regional priorities for transportation is a tough political balancing act that doesn't need another layer of politics, certainly not the level of decision-making linked to the Dallas County Commissioners Court, the definition of political dysfunction.

Editorial: Hill and company are a sad but not-so-sorry bunch
At last, after months of defiant bravado, defendants in the City Hall corruption scheme seemed sorry. But incredibly, they did not apologize for their misdeeds or for violating the public trust. They clearly were sorry about something else: that they got caught.

Editorial: Chile shows why infrastructure deserves care
Chile's earthquake released about 500 times more destructive energy that Haiti's did, and yet Chile's death toll was only in the hundreds, compared with more than 200,000 estimated dead in Haiti. That wasn't just luck.