Dade Phelan’s ouster is bad chapter for a darker Texas GOP
Was the judge who issued the death warrant against Robert Roberson biased?
Dallas, TX
Dallas should study West Coast voters’ rejection of crime, homelessness
There were good reasons for the groundswell of support for criminal justice reform in recent years. People accused of low-level crimes found themselves stuck in jail solely because of their inability to make an arbitrarily decided bail amount. The deaths of unarmed Black men in encounters with police demanded accountability. So, too, did racial disparities in drug sentencing.
We think Dallas in general has tried to deal with criminal justice issues thoughtfully if imperfectly, seeking a balance between maintaining public safety and treating defendants fairly. Still, the political blowback felt on the West Coast in this year’s elections offers lessons on what happens when leaders of major cities — even progressive ones — take criminal justice reform too far.
Take Los Angeles County, where a new district attorney took office last week. His predecessor, George Gascón, who saw his mission as fighting mass incarceration, pushed for more lenient treatment of criminals, including gang members and juveniles accused of serious crimes like murder. His office dropped the number of misdemeanor prosecutions for offenses like trespassing and drug possession, frustrating residents who saw their quality of life affected. Gascón paid dearly for his policies, booted from office in November after a reelection bid that he lost by 20 points.
In the San Francisco Bay area, Alameda County recalled its district attorney, Pamela Price, for her resistance to tougher charges even against defendants involved in violent cases. According to CBS News, she refused to seek enhancements for jail sentences that she said disproportionately affected people of color.
San Francisco and Oakland voters, unhappy with homelessness, ousted their mayors in 2024. So did Portland voters, who also replaced their district attorney.
The election winners weren’t right-wingers. They were candidates who styled themselves as left-leaning moderates interested in a middle ground.
Notably, both California and Oregon voters this year reversed propositions that had loosened criminal offenses. Oregon recriminalized hard drugs after an experiment gone awry that saw its number of overdose deaths spike and its streets turned into open-air drug markets. California restored felony punishments for certain theft and drug crimes.
These developments are worth paying attention to after the successful passage in Dallas of Proposition R, an activist-led measure that strictly limits the city’s ability to police the possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana. We worry this is part of a broader agenda to erase lines in the social contract that should balance individual rights with our collective interest in public safety.
We should also remember passed propositions to hire more police and to make it easier to sue the city for not enforcing its laws.
Prop R might embolden some politicians and activists to go further. But California’s and Oregon’s rightward shift shows that even liberal communities sour on lax drug enforcement and tolerance of homeless encampments.
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Jeff Kolb and Sam Gannon welcome Cowboys insiders Clarence Hill (All City Dallas) and Calvin Watkins (Dallas Morning News) for a hilarious breakdown of the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft. Giving insight, arguments, and plenty of laughs as two of the best Dallas Cowboys writers in the business go head-to-head on what Dallas should do next.
Dallas, TX
New video of Lake Dallas explosion draws focus on order decades ago to remove old plastic pipes
The search for the next general manager or president of basketball operations of the Dallas Mavericks has begun. They terminated Nico Harrison in November, which was about nine months too late, and gave any available candidates clear notice that they were open for business.
The plan was always to wait until after the season to start the search. While names popped up as the season reached an end, they didn’t begin turning over the staff until the Monday after the season ended. However, Dallas Mavericks fans are not going to like how the team is going about the search.
Patrick Dumont Leading Search for General Manager
NBA insider Jake Fischer reported that the Mavericks are not hiring a search firm in their hunt for a new lead executive. Instead, team governor Patrick Dumont is “acting as his own point person.”
This is an… interesting decision, to say the least. Dumont is not a basketball person whatsoever, and most organizations usually hire a search firm. The Chicago Bulls hired one as they look for their replacement for Arturas Karnisovas. Just because a firm is hired doesn’t mean a team will listen, though.
The Mavericks hired a firm in their last search for a GM. They let Donnie Nelson go in 2021 after a long tenure with the Mavs. Instead of listening to the firm, though, Mark Cuban ignored it to hire Nico Harrison, who had no previous NBA front office experience. Harrison had been an executive with Nike, which gave him connections with players like Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and plenty of others.
For a while, that seemed to be working out okay. While he still had some questionable transactions, such as trading for Christian Wood and letting Jalen Brunson walk in free agency, they were still able to make a run to the NBA Finals in 2024. Then, he blew it all up, trading away Luka Doncic for an older and injured Anthony Davis, and the team hasn’t been the same since.
It’s imperative that the Mavericks get this hire correct. The interim Co-GM setup with Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley has performed admirably, but the 2026 NBA Draft is important for the Mavs to get right. It’s their best chance to pair Cooper Flagg with another young star, as they don’t own their first-round pick again until 2031 after this.
Hiring the right GM could help bring in more draft capital by bringing in bad contracts or flipping veterans into picks.
Dumont was able to convince Rick Welts, a Hall of Famer, to come out of retirement to be the CEO and lead the charge for a new arena. Maybe Dumont pulls another rabbit out of his hat for the GM.
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