It’s Christmas Eve, so I’ll be brief! The Lab Report is taking a break through the end of the year, and we’ll be back in your inbox January 7 with a rundown of topics we’ll be watching in 2026.
We had a great year. We’re growing at an impressive rate, especially for a local journalism startup. (Our subscribers would fill the lower bowl of the American Airlines Center, and we’re adding more each day.) We want to say thank you for sharing your email with us, reading our work, and sticking with us as we build this new publication. We’re excited to begin 2026 with such momentum, and our full website is on track for a spring launch.
We’d love to hear from you, too. Which stories have stuck with you? What would you like to see more of? Less of? We’d love to hear whatever you’d like to share. You can reply to this email or click right here to say hello.
We’ve also taken some time to look back at the work we’ve published since we sent that first email in July. Many of you have joined us since, so we’d like to highlight a few of those pieces that may have slipped past you. You have a little time to read this holiday season, yes?
We started with nonprofits. One of our early curiosities investigated how these organizations weathered unprecedented funding cuts and unpredictability. Five months later, that launch story is still relevant. The jail spent much of 2025 near capacity, so we dug into whether the county’s alternatives to incarceration are working. We wrote about a regional initiative that involved giving pregnant women iron supplements, a simple approach to reducing severe obstetric complications. We profiled the Esperanza neighborhood in Far North Dallas, where an old school is being transformed into a community center and why that’s such a big deal. We also spent time with a city code team whose work is all about reducing crime without traditional policing and then examined what crime data tell us about violence in Dallas.
As always, you can find each of the stories we’ve published right here. Sharon, Kelli, and I hope you have a restful end to the year, and we’ll see you in a few weeks.
Read More From The Lab Report:
- Has Oak Cliff’s Deck Park Won the Trust of Its Neighbors? Halperin Park will open in the spring over Interstate 35E, near the Dallas Zoo. Residents are watching closely.
- The Safety Net Has Ripped The Lab Report's first story is an inside look at how nonprofit service providers have weathered half a year of 'unprecedented' funding cuts.
- If Not Jail, Then Where? The district attorney believes too many people are being taken to jail who need help more than punishment. Doing something about it is a different story.
- Progress, Not Prosecution How social workers and the District Attorney’s Office found a different path.
- An Unassuming Pill and the Fight for Maternal Health How a simple iron supplement can help Texas reverse its dubious distinction as one of the most dangerous states in the country to be pregnant.
- When the ‘Mayhem’ Stops In the Esperanza neighborhood near Dallas' border with Richardson, county officials envision a new future in a shuttered school.
- The Cleaners Meet the team that is helping cut violent crime by improving neighborhoods and addressing blight.
- The Perception and Truth Behind Violence in Dallas Despite numerous high-profile murders and violent crimes, the city is on pace for its largest decrease in homicides since well before the pandemic.
- When Mom Can’t Come Home Last year, a program that attracted national attention for reuniting incarcerated mothers with their kids faced closure. Angelica Zaragoza helped it expand instead.
- The Stubborn Story of a Challenged Apartment Complex Volara in Oak Cliff, once the most violent apartments in Dallas, last year became a tale of success. In 2025, police say it has returned to its old ways. What happened?
- Oak Cliff’s Steady Heartbeat Toni Johnson is too busy at Roosevelt High to recognize that she has become one of the most essential pieces in all of Dallas ISD.
- A New Approach for the Most Notorious Trail in Dallas The Cottonwood Creek Trail in North Dallas has long been an unsolvable problem. City Hall’s new partners believe they know what's been missing.
- Why Starbucks is Coming to South Dallas The announcement itself is big news. But so is the story behind the decision to invite the national chain to the Forest Theater.
