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Top Stories: 'Cite And Release' Begins Friday In Dallas County

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The top local stories this morning from ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº: In Dallas County, being accused of marijuana possession could land you a night in jail. That'll change Friday when

Under cite-and-release, officers can issue a court summons to someone caught with less than 4 ounces of marijuana. The idea is to free up officers to focus on violent crimes.

The program doesn't decriminalize marijuana.  People with outstanding warrants or who violate probation will still be arrested and if an accused person is issued a citation, he or she still has to show up in court and may face jail time.

So far, Dallas is the only city in the county to participate in cite-and-release. Houston, San Antonio and Austin have similar programs.

Other stories this morning:

  • The former special education director with the Texas Education Agency is still deciding whether to fight her termination from the job. Laurie Kash because she uncovered an illegal contract, but she also faced a lawsuit from her former employer.
  • An estimated 660,000 Texans aren’t aware they have diabetes, but far more don’t know just how they are for the disease.
  • Though the month is not yet over, North Texas is logging one of its warmest Novembers on record. According to the , we've had 17 days of above normal temperatures.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº 90.1 FM. 

Former ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº staffer Krystina Martinez was an assistant producer. She produced local content for Morning Edition and ËÄ»¢Ó°ÔºNews.org. She also produced The Friday Conversation, a weekly series of conversations with North Texas newsmakers. Krystina was also the backup newscaster for the Texas Standard.