Bret Jaspers
ReporterBret Jaspers is a reporter for KERA. His stories have aired nationally on the BBC, NPR’s newsmagazines, and APM’s Marketplace. He collaborated on the series Cash Flows, which won a 2020 Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Investigative Reporting. He's a member of Actors' Equity, the professional stage actors union.
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A 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that dealt a setback to bail reform in Dallas County could have an impact throughout Texas and two other states. And there's even a chance the case could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. -
Bail reform in Dallas County was dealt a setback late Friday, when a federal appeals court vacated an injunction set by a lower court judge. It sent the case back to the district court, telling it to look further into whether federal courts can weigh in at all.
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Texans know even less about the COVID-19 situation in county jails than they did last spring – and researchers warn the spread of infection among incarcerated people and staff could put communities at greater risk.
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Longtime Dallas businessman J. Hutton Pulitzer once promoted triple-edged wiper blades and a device called the CueCat that found a spot in the Museum of Failure. More recently, he’s tried to sell something else – allegations of election fraud.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is charged with insuring homes in floodplains, wants to adapt its construction rules to the present reality of climate change and is seeking public input. New rules would affect Texans living near the coast as well as people far inland — including residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
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People with mental health needs who are arrested for nonviolent offenses can increase jail overcrowding – and they often don’t get the medical care they need. But Dallas County commissioners are looking hard at a different approach.
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Elected leaders at the county, city and school board level have largely avoided the scrutiny targeted at Republicans in the state legislature earlier this year when they drew state and federal lines to overwhelmingly favor white Texans. But the stakes are high in the fight over local district boundaries as well.
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Collin County, Texas, is home to some of the state and country’s fastest-growing cities. But, as in many counties, unincorporated areas are seeing significant home building as well.
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Hundreds of people accused of crimes in Dallas County are waiting a trial, languishing in jails because COVID-19 slowed down court operations.
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She's the third major Democrat to mount a campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Dan Patrick.
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The bill would bring an estimated $30 billion or more of infrastructure spending into the state. That includes money for federal highway programs, public transit and the state’s electric vehicle charging network.
