News for North Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

From The Newsroom: Susan Hawk Addresses Oak Lawn Assaults; The Push For Recess

Stephanie Kuo
/
KERA News
Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk.

The top local stories this morning from the KERA Newsroom:

Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk addressed the dozen assaults and robberies in the Oak Lawn neighborhood of Dallas during a packed town hall meeting last night.

Hawk vowed to fight in court if the attacks prove to be hate crimes. But she said the hate crime standard requires a lot of evidence.

“A lot of the things she said were things I needed to hear as a concerned citizen, so it’s really good that she’s out here being vocal, being supportive,” said LGBT activist John Anderson. “It seems like she understands at least some of these are hate crimes, and she seems empathetic.”

Dallas Police arrested two suspects earlier this month in Oak Lawn, but they’ve only been linked to one of the crimes, so far.

Other stories this morning:

  • The Texas Education Agency yesterday released its Public Education Grant list, which tracks floundering schools. More than 1,500 made the list as opposed to about 1,200 last year. The Dallas Morning News reports the Dallas, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie and Richardson districts saw a rise in failing schools. 
  • Some American public schools are trying to make more room in the day for testing and academics by pushing out recess. One North Texas school is taking a different approach.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:20 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM. 

Former KERA staffer Krystina Martinez was an assistant producer. She produced local content for Morning Edition and KERANews.org. She also produced The Friday Conversation, a weekly series of conversations with North Texas newsmakers. Krystina was also the backup newscaster for the Texas Standard.