DPS in South Dallas, Texas House turmoil, data driving Dallas' future: Your Thursday evening roundup

City Council member Adam Bazaldua on Thursday asked the Dallas Police Department to boot Texas Department of Public Safety troopers out of South Dallas while officials come up with a new crime-fighting strategy.  [Evening roundup]( 08/01/2019 By Wayne Carter Good Evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here.]( Adam Bazaldua (right), who represents Dallas City Council District 7, leads a press conference with city and county officals calling for the withdrawal of Texas DPS troopers assigned to assist police in South Dallas. (Ben Torres/Special Contributor) DALLAS [City Council member wants Texas DPS troopers out of South Dallas]( City Council member Adam Bazaldua on Thursday asked the Dallas Police Department to boot Texas Department of Public Safety troopers out of South Dallas [while officials come up with a new crime-fighting strategy.]( "What is happening right now is wrong and I'm asking that it stop," Bazaldua said. Other council members and Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot joined Bazaldua, who represents South Dallas, were at Dallas City Hall for the news conference to lament the tactics of the troopers. Police in a statement defended their efforts, saying the DPS has helped reduced violent crime in a high-crime area. But the news conference came a day after Bazaldua said he received an overwhelming number of complaints from his constituents, including at a South Dallas community meeting, about what they believe to be petty traffic enforcement that unfairly targets people of color. Editorial: Dallas needs DPS troopers on our streets. [But we need them on the right streets.]( ADVERTISEMENT TEXAS HOUSE TURMOIL ['They will have to resign': Texas lawmakers allege House Speaker said he'd pull credentials from media outlet]( Two lawmakers who listened to a conversation that a conservative activist secretly recorded with top GOP leadership said the Texas House speaker [suggested he would take floor access away from a credentialed media outlet.]( Reps. Jonathan Stickland Steve Toth said they listened to the audio of the meeting between Speaker Dennis Bonnen, Texas House Republican Caucus Chairman Dustin Burrows and Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texans, a political group that targets GOP lawmakers it deems not conservative enough. Bonnen said he could strip House media credentials from Scott Braddock, editor of the insider political website and newsletter the Quorum Report, and give media access to Empower Texans' writers at its website the Texas Scorecard, both said. Sullivan had previously alleged the credentials were offered if Empower Texans agreed to target a list of 10 Republicans the speaker wanted ousted. Bonnen did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday, and Burrows has not commented publicly since the news broke last week. Bonnen has denied providing a list of Republicans to target and called for the audio's public release.   Editorial: Texas GOP [must drop the hammer on Empower Texans]( after the Dennis Bonnen-Michael Quinn Sullivan dustup.   Commentary: Dennis Bonnen could learn some things from Donald Trump [about listening to voters]( writes Joe Arlinghaus.  ARTS [Data is shaping the future of Dallas, but be careful what you wish for]( From architecture critic Mark Lamster: Does this scenario frighten you? A secret organization hacks into the city's computer system and infects it with a virus that shuts it down until its demands are met. The city does its best to quarantine the infection, but it can't stop it entirely and services ground to a halt. The choice: Pay a ransom or wait it out for months until cyber-security teams can restore systems to order. It sounds like some future dystopian nightmare, but it is not fiction: it is happening in Baltimore, right now. The city was hit by a ransomware attack in May, and it's still recovering. It could just as easily happen here. Indeed, it already has, though on a less punishing scale. Recall that in April 2017 all 156 of the city's emergency sirens were set off by hackers on a Friday night. The city managed to turn them off, but that is small consolation. These attacks on information technology are offered here as [a bit of context for Mayor Eric Johnson's campaign pledge to make data a centerpiece of his administration.]( This seemed a bit of a political dodge to me, a means of evading policy questions — "we need more data" — in the name of a seemingly uncontroversial, motherhood-and-apple pie issue. Who doesn't think more data is a good thing? Be careful what you wish for.  The Auction Whisperer: For Dallas' Capera Ryan, [friendship comes before the handshake.](   Years in the making: Dallas exhibition of art star francesco Clemente [was worth the wait]( writes contributing critic John Zotos.  ADVERTISEMENT (Lynda M. Gonzalez/Staff Photographer) PHOTO OF THE DAY Four-year-old Dylan Gutierrez (left) and 10-year-old Melanie Gutierrez greet hippo Boipelo and her baby hippo, Adanna, on July 18 during the Dallas Zoo's annual summer Dollar Day. From July 4 fireworks to Cowboys training camp, [here are DMN photographers' best pictures from the month of July.]( EDITORS' PICKS - Suspect arrested: A 24-year-old man is in custody [in connection with an assault on an autistic man]( more than two months ago at a McDonald's in Hurst. - Technology: [How safe are those apps]( you're loading on your smartphone? - On their dime: Here are six Dallas-area restaurants [where kids eat free in August.]( FINALLY... [Trying to outdo each other, Democratic primary candidates enter the Twilight Zone]( From former DMN Washington Bureau Chief Carl P. Leubsdorf: The two debates this week on CNN produced conflicts on issues like immigration and health care, including the contrast between the Medicare for All approach championed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren; plans by Biden, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and several others to build on Obamacare, rather than displace it; and Sen. Kamala Harris' attempt to split the difference. Beyond the specifics, they revealed an underlying philosophical gap between pleas by Klobuchar, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and several others for realism and those by Warren for "big structural changes" and Sanders "to transform the country." But as the moderates pointed out, the latter may be giving the overall debate an air of unreality with [proposals more appealing to the Democratic primary electorate than the general election voters and suggestions the next president will have far more leeway than is likely to institute sweeping changes.]( That's also true of some of the more sweeping proposals that other candidates made on the issues on which they agree. 👋 That's all for this afternoon! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? 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