The top local stories this evening from KERA News:
Former Dallas City Council member John Loza has died.
The Dallas Voice reports Loza was elected as an openly gay man to the City Council in 1997, and he served four consecutive terms, stepping down in 2005. In 2000, he announced he was leaving the Republican Party because of the GOP’s stance on LGBT and immigration issues.
Today, Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston called Loza a true friend and mentor.
"He was a really effective advocate,” Kingston said. “At the time he came into office, Dallas had not seen someone like him before, and he really did make Dallas a better place – which I think is what we all would like to have said about us.”
Loza was 54.
Other stories this evening:
- President Trump today signed an executive order, ending his controversial policy of separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. But it’s not clear yet how these children will be reunited with their parents. KERA’s Stella Chavez reports.
- Clematine Wamariya was just six years old when her home country of Rwanda erupted into civil war. She spent the next six years in and out of camps and satellite settlements before finally being granted asylum in the U.S. Today on Think, she talked with Krys Boyd about why she doesn't use the word refugee. Wamariya's memoir is called "The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After."
- Thousands of Texas Democrats are expected to pack into the Fort Worth Convention Center tomorrow for the Texas Democratic Party Convention. They’ll write their party platform and rally the faithful ahead of this fall’s midterm elections. But as KERA’s Christopher Connelly reports, the Democrats are gathering in the state's one urban county they don’t dominate.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
