Dashboard Cameras Catch Police Officers Breaking Law, So Officers Want To Quit Reviews: Dallas police squad cars’ dashboard cameras have two roles 1) to protect citizens against excessive force, and 2) to protect officers against wrongful accusations. But the cameras also catch officers speeding, breaking traffic laws, not turning on their lights, and other infringements that, you know, sometimes end up killing people. But who likes the man breathing down his or her neck? That’s why officers and police associations have pushed to cease regular reviews of the dashboard videos (pay wall).

Union Round-up: Lockheed Machinists To Strike, American Airlines’ Flight Attendants Picket Bankruptcy Hearings: North Texas goes Rust Belt this morning with some rare union activity. Lockheed’s machinists have thrown a wrench in the ongoing F-35 fighter jet program (you know, the ga-billion dollar debacle), refusing a new contract, in part, because of the threat to eliminate pension benefits to new employees (pensions, what a quaint concept). Meanwhile, fight attendants are picketing as American Airlines goes to court today to try to get a U.S. judge to throw out union contracts so that it can trim $1.25 billion in employee costs, including freezing pension plans. Come on people, this is the new America. It’s every old person for himself / herself. Invest in bullets, not pensions. Yee-haw! U-S-A!

Remains May Be Related to Starved Boy Case: There’s an update to that stomach-turning story involving the missing boy who was allegedly starved to death by his parents in Ellis County. Remains were found in a creek bed Saturday, but police cannot confirm their identity until after DNA testing.

Go to Source

Laura Linney

Back when actress Laura Linney starred with Kevin Spacey in The Life of David Gale, a movie about the death penalty that was set in Texas, the country’s No. 1 state for executions, Linney rebuffed questions early on about her own position on the controversial topic. David Gale was really a “murder mystery,” she said then, adding, “It’s not important what I think.” Friday night in Dallas, though, the graceful, New York City-born actress was a little more forthcoming.

Capital punishment “doesn’t sit easy with me from a humanitarian or economic viewpoint. I certainly know it isn’t an easy topic,” Linney (photographed by Jeanne Prejean) said on the “red carpet” at the Hotel Palomar, before accepting the Dallas Star Award at the Dallas International Film Festival. “I’ve never been the victim of serious crime, nor have members of my family been murdered,” she went on. “If I was sitting in a trial, I hope my convictions would stay the same. But I certainly sympathize with the families of the victims, who might feel differently.”

Go to Source

And so did I — a brand new collection of completely unfair (but that is in no way going to stop me) screen grabs that I have conveniently located after the jump.

"Why I oughta…"

"Who's got a seeeeecret?"

"I DO!!!"

"So I says to him, I says…"

"Tom, I had fun getting to know you in algebra! Have a great summer! SENIORS 2012 RULE!!!"

Go to Source

The DMN’s Robert T. Garrett is wrong about Tom Leppert’s new Senate-primary ad, where the former Dallas mayor dismisses his opponents as “empty suits.” Garrett says the spot is weak. But it’s actually the best one Leppert’s done yet, perfect for the TV-commercial genre, where a punchy, superficial, easily grasped message is prized above all. (Since Leppert’s talking about suits, though, shouldn’t he really have been wearing his trademark gangster one?)

Go to Source

Not only that, it paid the highest corporate percentage, with an effective tax rate of 42 percent. If you think paying your taxes on April 15th hurt, think about the corporate treasurer in Irving who signed a check for $27.3 billion.

No wonder Exxon has an army of lobbyists in Washington. Steve Coll at The New Yorker recently gave some background on how the company became a financing arm of the Republican Party.  Ideology had nothing to do with it. The company is as analytical in its political decisions as it is in its drilling decisions, and sometimes the methodology has not worked to its favor.

Go to Source