Angela Therese Mathew

I’ve now spent six months car-free in Dallas, and riding DART light rail nearly every day has taught me more about the city than blindly following directions on Google Maps ever could have. Using public transportation even taught me about the city's past. At DART light rail stations, the city’s very own open air museums, poetry, bronze sculptures and murals house the history of the Dallas’ railroads, changing neighborhoods and its lovers.

In Dallas County, parents pay around $11,000 a year for child care. With federal pandemic-era funding running out for child care providers across the country, that cost is expected to rise as providers raise rates to cover the lost funds. Child care businesses that can’t afford to raise tuition could be forced to shut down, leaving parents to scramble for reliable care elsewhere.

Soothing lullabies play faintly in the background as Tobitha Holmes talks about the pandemic-era federal funding her W.I.S.E. Academy child care center in Cedar Hill received. “They had to provide us with the federal funding to keep us from closing our doors,” she said, crediting the aid with letting her keep teachers on her payroll to serve the 88 kids in her day care and before and after school programs.

I love Dallas, and that has meant embracing Texas with a big, Texas-size hug. I enjoy seeing things that would be strange anywhere else but are completely normal here — like snakeskin cowboy boots peeking out under a businessman’s trousers. The one time my parents and I went to a Buc-ee’s on a road trip to Houston and tasted a brisket sandwich, we couldn’t get enough. But gun violence has now become an inseparable part of Texas’ reputation and culture, more than all the other wholesome things like the State Fair pays tribute to. I just hope that it doesn’t become the state’s legacy.

There’s a building boom on college campuses across North Texas, with over $1 billion in construction projects underway to train future nurses, scientists, biomedical engineers, doctors and business leaders.

Eden Green Technology, a company that grows lettuce for Walmart stores in indoor greenhouses in Cleburne, is embarking on a $40 million expansion that will boost its production to nearly 6 million pounds of leafy greens a year.

A $100 million facility being built at the University of North Texas at Dallas will support largely first-generation and minority students who want to work in the medical field. When it opens for the spring 2026 semester, the 130,000-square-foot, four-story building will include up to 20 classrooms, nine teaching labs and three research labs. University and political leaders broke ground on the facility last week.

I have never had a deep, personal faith. But after my first two weeks of being in the U.S., I took myself to Mass at the basilica on my college campus. I sidled into a pew in the corner, and in the quiet moments before the service, I stretched my neck back. As I stared at the blue vaulted ceiling studded with golden stars, I could feel warm tears rolling down my cheeks. I had just moved from India to college at the University of Notre Dame and it was my first time going to Mass alone. I wasn’t

Last December, Dallas City Hall transformed from a government building into a vibrant art gallery when the Mexican American Museum of Texas hosted its first ever pop-up exhibition. The exhibition featured stories about the Mexican American tradition of making tamales during Christmas. Showcasing Mexican American stories is the goal of the museum, which was founded a little over a year ago but doesn’t have a permanent home. The group is seeking funding from the city of Dallas’ 2024 capital bond

Sudhanya Basu remembers a childhood surrounded by Bengali culture. Growing up in Kharagpur, India, she spent days reading Satyajit Ray’s mystery novels and watching director Mrinal Sen’s award-winning films. Basu now lives in Coppell and has a 10-year-old daughter. Worried that her daughter would get disconnected from her Bengali heritage and history, she joined DFW Play, a local Bengali theater group. The group has around 60 members and puts on plays and traditional dance dramas across North T