Good morning. Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day.
Weather: Mostly sunny and pleasant. High: 69.
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Cowboys’ playoff hopes are alive after breaking three-game losing streak
Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys finally found a way to win without suspended star running back Ezekiel Elliott.
The question is whether the defending NFC East champions figured it out in time to salvage their fading playoff hopes.
Prescott threw two touchdown passes, including a franchise record-breaker to Dez Bryant, and the Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins 38-14 on Thursday night.
Throw up the X: Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant broke the franchise's all-time touchdown reception record, catching his 72nd touchdown since the Cowboys drafted him in 2010.
5 thoughts: Staff writer Jon Machota notes the good sign for Dallas heading into next week's Giants game, and more postgame analysis.
American Airlines says it's solving snafu that left many holiday flights with no assigned pilot
American Airlines said Thursday that it had covered most of the flights that a scheduling error left without an assigned pilot or pilots, bringing some calm to holiday travelers a day after the pilots union warned that the issue could jeopardize thousands of December flights.
The carrier said that "only a few hundred" flights remained without assigned pilots and that so far the issue had caused no flight cancellations.
The pilots union, however, said "thousands of flights" were still listed as unassigned. On Wednesday, the group had said about 15,000 flights set for Dec. 17 through the end of the year had no assigned pilots.
And: How American Airlines plans to change in response to NAACP's racial bias concerns.
U.S. citizenship applications soar — is it the Trump effect?
Carlos Chavez walked with great purpose, despite his cane. The 85-year-old Mexico-born immigrant and physician finally became a U.S. citizen at a recent music-filled ceremony at the iconic Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
The retired doctor is one of many immigrants pushing the number of citizenship applications to new highs — especially in Texas, which leads the nation by percentage increase.
Some call it the Trump effect. The harsh rhetoric of President Donald Trump against immigrants, including legal immigrants, is causing an unusual surge in filings that has created a huge backlog of about 709,000 people in the pipeline for U.S. citizenship.
Chavez said he filed his naturalization application “to prevent any problems” after the presidential election, even though he was here legally long before Trump moved into the White House.
Watchdog: The guy about to destroy the toughest pro-consumer arm of the U.S. government sugarcoats it with doughnuts.
Photo of the morning
Dallas Cowboys cornerback Chidobe Awuzie wears custom cleats for "My Cause, My Cleats," an NFL initiative, during warm-ups prior to Thursday night's game against the Washington Redskins at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. See what cause Dak Prescott sported on his cleats and more game photos from our staff photographers.
Around the site
Education: After receiving no guidance from the state on a new law, Dallas ISD will close four schools it had hoped to convert to charters.
Stock market: The Dow Jones industrial average's biggest gain since March pushed it past the 24,000 mark for the first time.
Crime: A Lancaster man is behind bars after a 15-year-old Irving girl said he forced her into prostitution.
Editorial: Solutions, not vengeance, are the way forward in "year of the groper."
Theater: How do you follow up America's Got Talent? Performing in Dallas, of course.
Finally,
In his latest column, Robert Wilonsky tackles the fate of a dog you may recognize from downtown Dallas, Deep Ellum or the Bishop Arts District:
Lamb of God must die. So says the Dallas city attorney's office. And a municipal judge. And Dallas Animal Services.
Lamb of God is a dog, by the way. A "dangerous dog," too, according to city officials and court records and the photo of a boy whose face had been turned into a bloody chew toy. "A ticking time bomb."
She should be dead by now, her death sentence handed down three days before Thanksgiving by a judge who concurred with the experts who said Lamb of God must be euthanized. But the dog, also known as Lamby, lives. For how long remains uncertain, her fate now in legal limbo after a flurry of filings in recent days that have confused judges in civil and criminal courtrooms and irritated city attorneys who refuse to release a dog that bites.
Downtowners and Deep Ellumites for whom Lamby has long been part of the landscape want to see her spared and sent to a sanctuary, where she can no longer be mistreated by her panhandling owner. Three women in particular -- Lee Jamison, Raine Devries and Jessica Brodsky -- have waged such a mighty email and social media campaign in recent days they've received substantial TV news coverage, which caught the attention of attorneys who wanted to help.
Read the full column here.
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