Despite clear Democratic gains, much will be the same when the Texas Legislature convenes for the 2019 session. Republicans will still hold clear majorities in both the Senate and the House and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, thanks to his 4-point win in his re-election race with Mike Collier, will preside…
Like a lot of things that have happened over the last two years, the idea sounded like a joke at first. President Donald Trump had just forced the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and, ha-ha, wouldn’t it be funny if he named still-indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton…
The Motel 6 hotel chain has agreed to a $7.6 million settlement with a group of individuals who sued the company earlier this year for disclosing their personal information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while they stayed at the hotel. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued…
Monday night’s debacle against the Titans wasn’t the last game of the Cowboys’ 2018 season worth paying attention to, as it turns out. Wednesday afternoon, former Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant signed a one-year deal with the New Orleans Saints. On Thursday night, Nov. 29, Bryant and the Saints come…
Monday night was bad enough. In front of an inexplicably enthusiastic crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the 2018 Dallas Cowboys capitulated, losing 28-14 to the Tennessee Titans. The Cowboys’ season is over because they gave up four touchdowns to an offense that had only scored as many as three…
Significant local and statewide races remained in the balance Tuesday night as polls closed at 7 p.m. in Dallas County and much of the rest of Texas. Results of the approximately 5 million early votes cast around the state are trickling in. In Dallas County at least, the so-called blue…
Heather Hacker, Texas’ assistant solicitor general, made it clear from the start Monday that one of the most controversial provisions of Senate Bill 8, Texas’ latest and greatest piece of sweeping anti-abortion legislation, isn’t about protecting women’s health, as Texas Republicans have so often argued when they’ve defended anti-choice laws in…
At 7 p.m. Tuesday when polls close throughout the state of Texas — with one notable exception, but we’ll get to that — only one thing will be left to do if you’re the slightest bit politically inclined. No more doors to knock on, texts to send or votes to…
Of all the races on Texas’ midterm ballot Tuesday, the one that’s built up the greatest disparity between the attention paid to it by the media, the Observer included, and its potential effect on the lives of everyone who lives in the state is the battle between incumbent Lieutenant Governor Dan…
Jon Daniels wasn’t waiting just to wait, as it turns out. Saturday, after USA Today’s Bob Nightengale broke the story, the Rangers general manager confirmed that he’d hired Los Angeles Dodgers third base coach Chris Woodward, less than a week after the Dodgers’ season ended in a five-game World Series…
While Texas Rangers fans still don’t know who’ll get the ball when the club opens its new stadium the season after next, they now know one pitcher it won’t be. Highland Park High School-ex Clayton Kershaw re-signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday afternoon, committing himself to at least…
Halloween and rain don’t make for ideal voting conditions. Just more than 26,000 people showed up to cast early votes in Dallas County on Wednesday, the second-lowest total so far in 2018. The depressed turnout was just a blip on a radar full of good news about civic participation so…
Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall fired police Maj. LaToya Porter on Thursday afternoon following a yearlong investigation into misconduct by Porter related to the department’s sergeant’s exam. Porter helped the department create the exam and operated a test-preparation company that charged fees to train officers hoping to take the…
After hearing three days of witnesses and arguments, a Dallas County jury took less than four hours to sentence a Dallas man to death for shooting a dentist in the head as part of a plot allegedly conceived by the dentist’s boyfriend’s jilted former girlfriend. Brenda Delgado allegedly paid Kristopher…
The Florida man alleged to have sent pipe bombs to President Donald Trump’s political opponents and critics around the country threatened U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke earlier this year, his campaign confirmed to the Observer on Wednesday afternoon. “We received Facebook messages from [Cesar] Sayoc threatening Beto in April,” O’Rourke…
Consider this a supplement to all the coverage we’ve done of Texas’ midterm election and all the voters who’ve shown up early to cast ballots. Like Creatine, whey protein or Weight Gain 4000, it shouldn’t be taken without considering the warning label: These numbers might mean something, or they might…
Another day, another promise from President Donald Trump to his base ahead of next week’s midterm elections. Tuesday, rather than issuing more wisdom about the caravan of Central American migrants that’s still hundreds of miles from the U.S. border, Trump declared that he’s considering ending birthright citizenship with an executive…
It’s remarkable we’re here. For decades, Texas political junkies looking for action on the eve of a general election either had to look really small, to one of the few competitive Texas legislative races that might crop up now and then, or outside the state to one of the national…
The Dallas Cowboys fired offensive line coach Paul Alexander on Monday, continuing the bye week shake-up that began with the team trading its 2019 first-round draft pick for Oakland Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper last week. Alexander got the ax seven games into his Cowboys tenure, following a number of…
A new poll from Quinnipiac University shows El Paso U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke closing in on incumbent U.S. Senator Ted Cruz as the two candidate embark on their last full week of campaigning. Quinnipiac’s previous poll two weeks ago showed O’Rourke trailing Cruz by nine, seemingly having lost his momentum…
Like their counterparts across the state, Dallas County voters have voted early and often throughout the state’s early voting period. Throughout Texas, voters are showing up as if the Nov. 6 election was for president, rather than a midterm. According to numbers released by the Texas secretary of state Sunday…
The family of Botham Jean, the 26-year-old accountant shot and killed in his own apartment by an off-duty Dallas police officer on Sept. 6, sued the city in federal court late Friday. The suit alleges that Amber Guyger, the police officer who shot Jean, used excessive force and violated Jean’s…
