City News Roundup

Latino Cultural Center hosts Dia de Los Muertos fest and more Dallas news

Big Dia de Los Muertos event this weekend.

Photo courtesy of Dia de Los Muertos Festival/Facebook

This roundup of Dallas news has scuffles, investigations, skulls, and tree plantings. Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

LULAC meltdown
There's a scuffle for control over the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the oldest Hispanic civil rights organization, which has two factions: Dallas and Washington, D.C. Members in D.C. are trying to oust Dallas-based Domingo Garcia, the national president who has been accused of violating LULAC's constitution. Dallas is retaliating by trying to terminate CEO Sindy Benavides and Northeast VP Ralina Cardona. LULAC has been in a "legal limbo" since its annual convention in July when they failed to elect a new president.

Hospital shooting
State Rep. Rafael Anchia is calling for an investigation into the shooting at Methodist Medical Center in Dallas where Nestor Hernandez, a violent felon who was on parole and wearing an ankle monitor, allegedly assaulted his girlfriend at the hospital, then shot and killed two nurses. The hospital is in Anchia's district. He's calling for an investigation into the State Board of Pardons and Parole who released Hernandez nearly two years early. Hernandez also violated his parole twice.

Anchia is not the only one: The Dallas Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with the Dallas Police Department, is tracking down how and where Hernandez got a gun.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who's in charge of appointing members of the Parole Board and who oversees the Department of Corrections, has refused to answer questions about the incident.

Students plant trees
Students, faculty, and volunteers at San Jacinto Elementary School planted 96 trees around campus. The event was led by the Texas Trees Foundation and its Cool Schools program, launched in 2015, which works to plant trees at Dallas ISD schools to increase the local tree canopy to 30 percent. As of 2019, the average tree canopy around Dallas ISD schools was 7 percent, making for hotter play and learning areas.

During the planting, students and teachers teamed up with staff from Texas Trees Foundation to install previously potted trees around campus, while receiving guidance and education on the benefits of trees and urban forestry. As a Cool School Neighborhood Park, San Jacinto Elementary is set to receive a new outdoor classroom, custom playground, seating, and a walking trail which will be available to the public after school hours and on the weekends.

Dia de los Muertos Festival
The Latino Cultural Center is partnering with Cascabel Group, Candelaria & Co. and Hecho con Amor to present the annual Día de los Muertos Festival & Exhibition will take place on Saturday October 29 11 am-4 pm at the Latino Cultural Center, with live performances, food vendors, and arts & crafts stations including a "decorate your own sugar skull" booth. This event is free and open to the public.

city-news-roundup

better than last year

Texas struggles on new ranking of best states to live in 2026

Photo by Stuart Seeger Wikipedia

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After earning its worst-ever ranking last year, Texas has improved couple of spots on an evaluation of the best states to live, but it's still at the bottom of the pack.

Each year, WalletHub's analysts compare all 50 states using 51 livability metrics to measure their affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, and safety. Factors that were weighed include the cost of living, homeownership rates, population and income growth rates, wealth gaps, public school system quality, road quality, crime rates, and many others.

The Lone Star State landed at No. 36 spot in 2026, making it the 15th worth state to live right now. That's on par with its 2024 ranking, and it's a two-spot improvement over its 2025 performance.

While Texas residents can brag about living in a state with the No. 1 highest number of restaurants per capita and the 7th best quality of life in the country, that's about it. Texas earned middling-to-poor scores among the four remaining livability rankings: safety (No. 33), affordability (No. 35), economy (No. 37), and education and health (No. 40).

Texas has a lot of work to do to improve its livability for all of its residents, but especially for women, according to several other 2026 WalletHub studies. Texas is the fourth-worst state for women, the ninth-worst state for working mothers, and the seventh-worst place to have a baby based on limited access to maternal and pediatric healthcare.

But the very worst states to live prove that life could be much worse. New Mexico ranks 50th overall, with Louisiana (No. 49), Mississippi (No. 48), Alaska (No. 47), and Arkansas (No. 46) rounding out the bottom of the list.

After holding on as the No. 1 best state to live for a few years in a row, Massachusetts now ranks No. 4 and was overtaken by Idaho (No. 1), New Jersey (No. 2), and Wisconsin (No. 3). New Hampshire rounds out the top five best states to live.

WalletHub's top 10 best states to live in 2026 are:

No. 1 – Idaho
No. 2 – New Jersey
No. 3 – Wisconsin
No. 4 – Massachusetts
No. 5 – New Hampshire
No. 6 – Wyoming
No. 7 – Utah
No. 8 – Minnesota
No. 9 – Pennsylvania
No. 10 – Florida

wallethub texas reports