Dallas ISD wants its students and employees to be prepared in the event that the federal government allows protections provided by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to expire later this year, district Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said Thursday at event unveiling his district’s new website for DACA recipients and their…
The Dallas Mavericks, for this season and probably a couple more, aren’t going anywhere. Despite having some good players, including forward Harrison Barnes and star rookie point guard Dennis Smith Jr., the Mavs simply don’t have the talent to compete in a Western Conference that includes two championship-caliber teams —…
The 2017-18 flu season, according to both experts and rising death tolls around North Texas, is one of the worst of the last two decades. In Dallas County alone, 54 people have died from the flu. As the flu season continues to take its toll on DFW, schools around the…
Throughout the winter, much has been made about a feature in Google’s Arts and Culture app that uses an algorithm to match a user’s selfie to a piece of art from around the world. The results have ranged from amusing to terrifying, but Dallas has largely been left out on…
A final fix for Dallas County’s broken bail system is still a way off, despite a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed against the county in January, which alleges the county unconstitutionally keeps poor people locked up because they don’t have cash for bail. Meanwhile, the county’s…
Dallas County Commissioners Court refused a request for cash from Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings on Tuesday, turning down the mayor’s plea for $1.2 million to help the city make up the costs of the school crossing guard program that fell into Dallas’ lap after voters decided to disband Dallas County…
For the second time in less than a month, a man hunted around a Walgreens parking lot on Ross Avenue, searching for an unlocked car. At about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, he found one and hopped in the back seat, just as a man had early in the morning of Jan…
It’s not Groundhog Day, but it’s close. Late Monday afternoon, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, still under felony indictment and still taking on all comers, announced that his office has new plans to curb what he frames as an epidemic of in-person and mail-in voter fraud in Texas. In a…
Monday marked 30 days until the March 6 Texas primary. It was the deadline for Texans to register to vote in the primary and the second fundraising deadline for candidates running for state office. For former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, considered a favorite to make it into a runoff…
Mercifully for Cowboys fans, the 2017 NFL season is over. Like seemingly every Cowboys team with high expectations over the last decade — here’s looking at you, 2008, 2010, 2015 — this year’s team crashed and burned thanks to regressions from key players — hello, Dak Prescott and Dez Bryant…
It’s something that feels like both a really big step and a tiny one at the same time: On Thursday, Compassionate Cultivation will open Texas’ first licensed cannabis oil dispensary just outside of Austin in Manchaca. Don’t plan on skipping work. Don’t bother gassing up the car. The people who…
A little more than three weeks ago, Cowboys writer Bob Sturm — winner of the Observer’s best sportswriter award two of the last three years — made a mysterious announcement. He was leaving The Dallas Morning News, Sturm said on Twitter, the paper for which he’d written, off and on,…
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said something he wasn’t supposed to earlier this week. Commenting on the uproar over the potential release of sensitive intelligence information in a memo drafted by Republican U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, Miller compared the situation to slavery. While this isn’t the first…
Whatever you think of President Donald Trump, his racism, his behavior towards women and his unpleasant demeanor, you might have been shocked, or will be in shock, when the IRS’s new withholding tables take effect at your workplace. Those tables contain new tax rates, created by Trump’s massive new tax…
Barring a last-minute reprieve, Texas will execute one of Dallas’ most notorious murderers at 6 p.m. Thursday. John Battaglia, 62, killed his daughters, 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty, in 2001 in his Deep Ellum loft while on the phone with their mother. He’s been on death row in Livingston since his…
A Dallas County grand jury declined Wednesday to indict any of the Dallas Police Department officers who helped kill the gunman who shot and killed six Dallas officers in a July 7, 2016, ambush, according to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. The decision closes the books on an investigation…
Like clockwork, every couple of weeks since new Chief U. Renee Hall took over the Dallas Police Department, one Dallas media outlet or another has dared to ask the question: Why isn’t the chief in uniform yet? This week, it was The Dallas Morning News’ turn. As part of its…
Earlier this month, Facebook announced a series of changes to the way posts are funneled to users’ news feeds, beginning with a prioritization of content from friends and family members (like your racist Aunt Millie) over that of commercial sources (like the thoroughly open-minded, delightful, informative Dallas Observer). That’s a…
Forget the solar eclipse and get ready for the biggest, most beautiful and elegant moon of the last 156 years, one that’s only appropriate for the night after President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union Address. Early tomorrow morning, the Texas sky will play host to three phenomena that…
A controversial new state law that would’ve required Texas abortion clinics to bury or cremate any fetal tissue removed during procedures will not go into effect as scheduled on Feb. 1. San Antonio-based U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled Monday afternoon that the requirement would likely place “significant burdens on…
The Dallas city auditor’s office rolled out its final report late Friday afternoon on the four City Council incumbents voted out in last spring’s municipal elections. The results, which show hundreds of dollars in unaccounted-for meals and event tickets paid for with cash from city-funded officeholder accounts, don’t look great…
Ted Cruz told a giant lie this week. Actually, it was more like a series of whoppers, designed to roll back his essential role in the 2013 shutdown of the federal government just as Washington emerged from Shutdown 2018. Cruz’s lie came the same week as his claim that anyone…
