Why Texas Republicans Should Have Listened to Washington Redistricting Experts: If Texas Republican redistricting officials listened to Tom Hofeller, their maps may not have landed in court. Hofeller is a long-time redistricting guru who is a the center of this Atlantic piece that places the Texas redistricting effort in a national context, fleshing-out of the wider ramifications of contemporary gerrymandering on the American political system.
Shoplift Something Under $50? Don’t Worry About the Police Showing Up: A third of Dallas’ 12 percent drop in overall crime this year is related to shoplifting, but store owners are complaining that that number is misleading. There’s still plenty of theft, only its going unreported thanks to a new policy where police no longer respond to or take reports for Class C misdemeanor shoplifting cases.
Shots At North Lake College Stir Student Panic: When shots rang out in the hallway of North Lake College last Friday, this was the scene that followed:
“I pulled a chair over me and was grabbing bags and building a fort over it,” [a student] said. “One student checked and said there was a shooter in the hall … there was a woman around me crying.”
Turns out the whole ordeal was a drill exercise preparing for a real shooting incident. School officials said they sent out two emails, but when you start firing guns in the hallway, I’m not sure a couple emails is enough of a warning.
