Fort Worth Report

As a Muslim and board director for a Fort Worth Islamic nonprofit, El Hamad asked city leaders and residents to help him build a different kind of bridge — one focused on interfaith relationships.

Trinity Metro launched its revamped $2.3 million program with Lyft Urban Solutions in January with a fleet of 400 new bicycles, including 340 electric models. New smart stations, powered by electricity or solar power, have been installed at 20 locations around Fort Worth.

After two weeks of legal back and forth over paused federal refugee resettlement funding, Catholic Charities Fort Worth has received $47 million that has been in limbo since January, according to court records.

A yearslong spike of in-custody deaths in the Tarrant County Jail could come under scrutiny by the Texas Legislature with a bipartisan pair of bills filed by Tarrant County House members Nicole Collier and David Lowe.

The City Sports complex — a one-story, 83,620-square-foot facility that will be built on nearly 8 acres at 401 Golden Triangle Blvd. — will be located at the northwest corner of Keller Sports Park, currently under renovation.

Of the charity’s 29 partner agencies, 24 have had to lay off staff or furlough employees, leading to a 64% drop in staffing capacity in cities like Dallas and Houston.

The charity, which operates the Texas Office for Refugees, filed a notice March 10 with the Texas Workforce Commission’s Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification, also known as WARN. The federal government requires employers to give 60 calendar days’ advance notice of a mass layoff to affected employees and government entities.

Fort Worth officials are looking to hold the U.S. Department of Defense, industrial conglomerate 3M, chemical company DuPont and other manufacturers liable for $420 million in damages related to water contamination from “forever chemicals.”

Some of the world’s best pianists between the ages of 18 and 30 soon will play their first notes in Fort Worth in hopes of securing a spot in the 17th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

As school board trustees debate the idea of breaking Keller ISD into two separate school systems, Lowe introduced a bill that would require voters to weigh in before the move goes into effect.

In a March 7 letter Hermes shared with the Report, Miriam Byrd, the chair of UTA’s Department of Philosophy and Humanities, informed Hermes of his leave and cited “numerous complaints” about his teaching as the reasoning behind the move.

The executive director of the United Educators Association told trustees during a special school board meeting March 11 that he feels something for the district he hasn’t in a long time: