Meredith Hight was just trying to host cookout to celebrate the Cowboys with her seven friends. She invited them over early Sunday afternoon, and a neighbor later reported hearing them laughing as they grilled. A few hours later, all were dead. Nine people were killed Sunday night, with one critically…
Rachel Vergara has no plan as she approaches the security checkpoint for the Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Complex on Monday afternoon. She’s simply trying to get someone from the Bureau of Federal Prisons to hear her concerns about what she hears is happening inside the federal prison in Beaumont…
A bloodbath erupted at a Dallas Cowboys watch party Sunday night in Plano when a gunman shot and killed seven people and wounded two others before police killed him. It was the largest murder scene Plano police have ever seen, according to the department. Witnesses claimed that the shooting erupted…
“I’m tired of running from hurricanes,” storm evacuee Daphne Griffin says. Griffin and her family linger this Monday afternoon outside the Walnut Hill Recreation Center on Midway Road in Dallas. She’s seeking shelter from Hurricane Harvey while experiencing flashbacks of her run-ins with Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike. Like many…
Thirteen Satanists form a crescent moon shape in front of a makeshift altar in the backroom of a local bar and restaurant in Deep Ellum. They’ve gathered this Sunday evening in late August, a day before the total eclipse, to celebrate summer’s end and the growth of their new Satanic…
Buffalo Ruckus, Saturday, Sept. 2, at Filthy McNasty’s in Fort Worth. Buffalo Ruckus plays the kind of music critics have called “the perfect blend of country and rock” that is “made by musicians who take the outlaw part of ‘outlaw country’ seriously.” It’s a sound steeped in Americana mixed with…
When I saw 23-year-old Jerry Drake Varnell’s mugshot on my Facebook newsfeed, I didn’t know there’d be a single degree of separation between us. Federal authorities arrested Varnell early Saturday, Aug. 12. He’s charged with plotting an attack on one of the largest banks in downtown Oklahoma City. He also…
Ride for Dime has yet to announce its annual celebration and ride in memory of Dimebag Darrell Abbott, but it hasn’t stopped local bands from coming together to celebrate the late guitarist on his birthday this weekend at The Rail Club.
Denton local Willie Hudspeth has spent the last decade trying to remove the confederate soldier monument on the courthouse lawn. Now he plans to run for Denton County Judge if he can get the 1,800 signatures needed to get on the ballot.
Joshua Baish looks uncomfortable in his orange jumpsuit as he tells his story in a video conference call at the Denton County Jail in early August. Fifteen video monitors line the walls inside the small visitation room, and nearly all of them are in use this Sunday afternoon. Several children patiently…
Sara Mutschlechner was the designated driver for her friends on New Year’s Eve in 2016. The 20-year-old was enrolled in the radio, television and film program at the University of North Texas. Eric Johnson was a 21-year-old Marine corporal on leave and an aspiring rapper with the moniker “Santaga Sage.” The pair met…
The Sotelo family gathers on the patio of Tia’s on the Bluff as a guitarist fingerpicks Spanish tunes. It’s a large family with roots in what was once known as the Rock Island neighborhood on the north side of Fort Worth. On this Sunday afternoon in late May, it seems…
Rustin Luther lost his battle with brain cancer. He died on Saturday evening. He was only 31.
Bruce Corbitt doesn’t move as he once did onstage. It’s usually gloriously brutal when he unleashes what he calls his “machine gun type of barking vocals” that often leave the crowd gasping for air by the end of the show. But Friday night at The Rail Club in Fort Worth, he could…
Three homeless men were living in a drain flume behind Walmart near Interstate 35 and University Drive in Denton when the flood waters struck. They’d been camping for some time, setting up tents and other items you’d expect to find at Ray Roberts Lake’s campground north of Denton. Like the…
An attorney for Albert G. Hill III, the great-grandson of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, is asking judges in Denton County to convene a special court of inquiry to investigate what he claims is a criminal conspiracy assisted by former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, four of his office’s investigators, Assistant…
The Washington Post’s recent article about the slow death of the electric guitar has caused some local North Texas artists to come forward and give their own take on the state of guitar-driven music.
It’s been six months since the Observer last spoke with Erica Tucker. She recently agreed to a plea bargain with the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office. She pleaded guilty to five counts of felony endangerment to a child in exchange for no prison sentence.
Liberty Grace isn’t sure why the Walmart in Weatherford started requiring proof of an insulin prescription before selling her syringes. When she was still shooting up methamphetamine, she could get needles at the Walmart in the small town of Graham, about 58 miles away, with little trouble. “You just walk…
Mexican authorities captured a high-ranking Beltran Leyva Cartel leader who is known as “El Mora” last week during a drug operation. He’s accused of ordering the hit on two Mexican police officers and financing the murder of Juan Guerrero Chapa.
Gov. Abbott changes the legality of carrying knives longer than five and half inches and makes it more of a location issue than an outright ban on certain kinds of knives.
Bandidos’ Fort Worth president Howard Wayne Baker heads to prison, a second home for many one percenter motorcycle clubs, after he orders the execution of Geoffrey Brady.
