Ever wonder who the Texas governor and other statewide elected officials are talking to and meeting with in Washington? We did.

Come look at what @tombenning and @stephanierlamm found out:

"Hello, Washington? It’s Texas"

#txlege

dallasnews.com/news/2018-elec… The vast majority of those interactions happen outside the public’s view. So we used open records requests to get the official schedules for Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and others.

1/ Imagine lighting a match or flipping a light switch – the space around you ignites in a ball of flame, severely burning you or your family... 2/ More than two dozen homes have exploded in North Texas since 2006. The state could put financial pressure on the gas company to improve safety – but it usually doesn’t. interactives.dallasnews.com/2018/time-bomb/

1/ Jon Lambert was a PhD student at @Cornell. One morning, he slipped on a patch of ice and slammed his head into the pavement. He lay on the concrete and cried out. dallasnews.com/life/life/2018… 2/ “I think this scream came from a part of me that realized something I’d only considered abstractly before,” writes @evolambert.

“These bodies and brains of ours — and the lives they enact — are fragile, and can be broken in an instant.” dallasnews.com/life/life/2018…

Some personal news: We’re changing the way we rate restaurants.

Here’s why.

guidelive.com/restaurant-ope… Forty years ago, The Dallas Morning News ran its first restaurant review with a star rating. Since then, through eight chief critics and thousands of reviews, the five-star system has remained pretty much the same.

1/ Earlier this year, 18-year-old NeQuacia Jacobs, an honor student at South Oak Cliff High School, was shot to death in what appeared to be a random act of violence. buff.ly/2KNVpwr 2/ Last year in Dallas County, 63 people under the age of 25 were shooting victims. buff.ly/2KNVpwr

1/ Remember when we showed you how North Texas cities use taxpayer money to compete against each other for jobs and investment? dallasnews.com/business/econo… 2/ Now, @stephanierlamm and @JillCowan take you to the Palo Pinto County town of Mineral Wells, where a cautionary tale played out. dallasnews.com/business/econo…

1/ If you picture Jesus as a Scandinavian man with beautiful hair, it's likely due to this image. Professor @muerko digs deep into our cultural fixation with one artist's depiction of Christ.
buff.ly/2NWPYOh 2/ Warhol or Pollock might come to mind as the most popular artwork from the 20th century, but with half a billion reproductions in circulation, “Head of Christ” has the widest reach. And now you can see works from the artist in Dallas.

1/ Shetamia Taylor was shot by the man who killed five Dallas police officers on the night of July 7, 2016. buff.ly/2lVU3pc 2/ On that day, Taylor loaded her four sons into the family's white minivan and drove them from Garland to downtown Dallas to stand against those shootings. buff.ly/2lVU3pc

1/ As Republican and Democratic politicians alike warn about economic pain, Texas is now all-in on the president's trade war. Whether it likes it or not. buff.ly/2KQHCpw 2/ The state of Texas has borne the brunt of Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, and no corner of the Texas economy is likely to go untouched.

Planning to take some photos of fireworks tonight with your phone? Here’s some tips from @dallasnews staff photographer @rosebaca.

⬇️⬇️⬇️ Many smartphones allow users to take a rapid succession of images simply by holding down the capture button for an extended period.

1/ We contacted the office of every Texas member of Congress requesting comment on the zero-tolerance immigration policy.

Here’s what they had to say ⬇️ buff.ly/2MH1EnB 2/ Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, whose district contains almost one third of the U.S.-Mexico border and who recently visited a detention center in Tornillo. buff.ly/2MH1EnB

1/ Vickers “Vic” Cunningham, a former criminal district judge now in a runoff to be the sole Republican Dallas County commissioner, has acknowledged that in 2010 he set up a living trust with a clause rewarding his children if they marry a white person. dallasnews.com/news/dallas-co… 2/ “I strongly support traditional family values,” Cunningham said. “If you marry a person of the opposite sex that’s Caucasian, that’s Christian, they will get a distribution.” dallasnews.com/news/dallas-co…

1/ Today is the deadline for the @USNatArchives to release the last of the #JFKFiles. Here’s where you can download them at home. dallasnews.com/news/jfk/2017/… 2/ The JFK Records Act of 1992 set a deadline in October 2017, but @realDonaldTrump deferred to the CIA and FBI at the last minute to give agencies an extra 180 days to evaluate if the last of the #JFKFiles should be released. That clock runs out today. ⏰dallasnews.com/news/jfk/colle…

.@UofDallas researcher Ruth May is an expert in all things corporate in Russia and has worked to make connections in the trail of money flowing from Russian oligarchs to the GOP. This thread is her latest 👇 1/12 dallasnews.com/opinion/commen… According to May, digging through campaign finance reports available to the public shows troubling connections between Russian donors, Trump and a number of GOP leaders 2/12