Fourth- and eighth-grade students in Dallas and Fort Worth continue to struggle on national tests designed to give a common measure of student achievement across the country. Math and reading results for the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called “the nation’s report card,” were released on Wednesday. And Dallas and Fort Worth fared poorly — not only when …

WASHINGTON — Democrats are suing Texas in federal court, alleging a new state law banning temporary voting locations unconstitutionally depresses voter turnout among young people. The Texas Democratic Party and the party’s Senate and U.S. House campaign arms — the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in federal court in Austin, …

AUSTIN — Dallas and Tarrant counties are in the top five U.S. counties for uninsured children. Harris County is No. 1, with Bexar and Hidalgo counties also in the top 10. And the trend lines for Texas and the nation are not good: Nationwide, there about 406,000 more uninsured kids than there were just two years ago – with 30 …

  AUSTIN — Brushing past its staff’s initial reluctance, the Texas Medical Board voted last month to investigate an East Texas fertility doctor for possible “unprofessional and unethical conduct” for using his own sperm to inseminate a woman who selected another donor. On Oct. 18, the board voted to reopen and continue an investigation of Nacogdoches obstetrician-gynecologist Kim McMorries. Over …

WASHINGTON — The rancorous impeachment inquiry moves to a new phase Thursday, when the House votes on a package of rules that will govern open hearings on President Donald Trump’s alleged misdeeds and the wisdom of trying to remove him from office. Republicans have complained for five weeks that Democrats have deprived Trump of transparency and due process by taking …

1. Brushing past its staff’s initial reluctance, the Texas Medical Board voted last month to investigate an East Texas fertility doctor for possible “unprofessional and unethical conduct” for using his own sperm to inseminate a woman who selected another donor. On Oct. 18, the board voted to reopen and continue an investigation of Nacogdoches obstetrician-gynecologist Kim McMorries, who in 1986 inserted his …

A North Texas educator has been arrested on a charge of child sex abuse. Kirby Glynn Smith(Collin County Sheriff’s Office) Kirby Glynn Smith, 50, was booked into the Collin County jail Tuesday on one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child. He remained in custody Wednesday, with bail set at $100,000. McKinney police said the arrest came after a …

One of the remaining Texas 7 prison escapees had his request to delay his execution denied Wednesday. Patrick Murphy, 58, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 13 for his role in the 2003 murder of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. Murphy was serving a 50-year sentence for sexual assault with a deadly weapon on Dec. 13, 2000, when he and …

Former Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge after being accused of hitting one of his daughters last month. Hamilton, 38, a Keller resident, turned himself in to Tarrant County authorities on a single count of injury to a child 14 or younger. He was released about 3:15 p.m. after posting $35,000 bond. In a …

There’s a phrase that many in law enforcement use when explanations for potential wrongdoing don’t add up: ”It doesn’t pass the smell test.” The deeper Dallas Morning News reporters look into illegal spending of thousands of taxpayer dollars by former DeSoto city official Jeremiah Quarles, the harder it is to believe that his wife — City Council member Candice Quarles — knew …