Craig Watson had seen his share of hard times since leaving the military. The 51-year-old was homeless, chronically unemployed and isolated from his family, who live 1,000 miles away in Florida. Still, things had been looking up as of late. He’d been in contact with the Veterans Administration, which was…
The three weeks that have passed since the body of 6-year-old Alanna Gallagher’s was found by teenage passersby in Saginaw, naked, bound and gagged, and wrapped in heavy plastic, have been unnervingly quiet. Police have been following up on leads, rummaging through Alanna’s things, and otherwise turning over every rock…
The seven-year-long fight by the city of Farmers Branch to purge itself of undocumented immigrants may be coming to a court-ordered close. Last year, a judge ordered the city to implement single-member City Council districts, which shook up the formerly lily-white city government with the May election of Ana Reyes…
The Cedar Hill Pet Memorial Project has already saved southern Dallas County’s premiere pet cemetery once. A year ago, the threat came from years of neglect and a property developer, Fazel Rahmani, who didn’t realize the parcel of land he was bidding on at the steps of downtown’s George Allen…
We’ve given up on following the ins-and-outs of Craig Watkins’ contempt case. It has long since passed the popcorn stage and descended into the incomprehensible legal muck. The back-and-forth between Watkins and his enemies has strayed so far that the actual matter at hand — whether the DA brought mortgage…
Over the weekend, the Observer received this message via email: I’m Joe Upshaw. I don’t know if you have heard of Flyboarding, but it’s pretty amazing. It’s the coolest, newest thing in extreme water sports. It’s like a jet pack attached to your feet on the lake that let’s you…
The 1973 death of Santos Rodriguez was almost unspeakably barbaric. The 12-year-old and his brother David were picked up from their grandparents’ house in what was then Little Mexico (now Uptown) in the early hours of July 24 and taken to a Fina station on Cedar Springs Road, where someone…
The New York Times opens its sweeping, front-of-the-webpage piece on upward mobility in America with an anecdote about Stacey Calvin, a woman in Atlanta who spends hours each day on buses and trains commuting to and from her part-time job at a daycare center, barely making it home on time…
Typically, a $219,700 contract aimed at boosting parent engagement would sail past Dallas ISD’s Board of Trustees with barely a murmur. It represents, after all, a vanishingly small speck of the district’s $1.2 billion budget, and its goal — getting parents involved in their children’s education — is hardly controversial…
We’re still not sure exactly what caused Rosy Esparza’s fatal plunge from the Texas Giant at Six Flags on Friday evening. Witnesses told The Dallas Morning News that the Dallas resident told the ride operator that she wasn’t properly secured, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram talked to a couple who…
Tobacco and alcohol, like milk and cookies, Jay Z and Beyonce, and emphysema and liver disease, are perfect companions. There’s just something about going out for a drink that makes you want to light up a cigarette, and something about going out for a smoke that makes you want a…
The hydroponic marijuana-growing community has suspected for a while that they’re being watched, and for good reason. By the DEA’s own account, law enforcement has turned its attention increasingly toward indoor growing operations as a quarter century of an aggressive eradication campaign has forced an increasing number of pot farmers…
Just when you thought the shark-jumping Museum Tower imbroglio couldn’t get any more absurd, The Dallas Morning News’ Steve Blow goes and writes a column comparing the spat that has riveted the Dallas Arts District for the past year and a half with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has claimed tens…
On Thursday morning, as much of Dallas was commuting to work, a family squabble broke out in the alley behind the 1800 block of Angelina Drive in West Dallas. It’s not clear from police descriptions what sparked the fight nor, a police spokesman said, did responding officers note the family…
Mavericks were first introduced to Flula Borg way back in 2011, when the German DJ released a song, “His Name is Dirk,” and heaped praise upon his basketball-playing countryman. “He has dominated the NBA with a smooth jumper and intelligent plays,” he explained at the time. “He is like a…
Yesterday afternoon, In-Sync Exotics announced in a somber Facebook post that the canine distemper outbreak currently ravaging the Wylie animal sanctuary had claimed its fourth victim, a white tiger named Harley. “He has been very sick with this hateful virus for quite some time, and we finally made the decision…
Here’s how the Dallas Police Department described last night’s officer-involved fatal shooting in Pleasant Grove in 1:44 a.m. Facebook post: On July 17, 2013, at approximately 10:00 pm officers responded to a burglary in progress at the 1600 Block of Conner Dr. Upon arrival, officers observed one suspect inside of…
Police had a weird and somewhat wild Wednesday. Here are some highlights from yesterday’s police activity: Dining In: At some point between 1 and 7 a.m., someone broke into the banquet hall of Skyline Ranch on Wheatland Road and helped themselves to $30 worth of food. They dined in, then…
The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on FacebookLast month, Rick Perry unveiled a one-minute ad trashing New York for its high taxes and excessive regulations and inviting its people and businesses to come down to the Lone Star State. Comedian Lewis…
When center Dwight Howard spurned the Mavericks and decided to take his talents to the Bayou City, it marked the second straight year the team had epically flamed out in free agency. And, for the second straight year, Mark Cuban is trying to rewrite history. “I think we’ve put ourselves…
Stephen Paulsen is, for a few more seconds at least, the principal of Morton Elementary School in Arlington ISD. He’s spending part of the summer in Florida, partly to visit his mother and father, who has Alzheimer’s, and partly, according to Boynton Beach police, trying to seduce someone he thought…
Luminant, the Dallas-based electricity generator, doesn’t have the greenest public image. It’s aging fleet of coal-fueled power plants includes some of the dirtiest in the country. It pumps millions and millions of tons of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Then, when pushed to modernize its coal plants,…
