Without some action from Dallas, children attending school within the city won’t have crossing guards starting at the end of January. On Wednesday, the City Council learned about this unintended consequence of voters’ November decision to eliminate Dallas County Schools. Texas law requires all cities with populations of more than…
Dallas County suffered its sixth death of the 2017-18 flu season Tuesday, marking another low point in one of the worst flu seasons in decades, researchers say. While there are signs that Texas’ infection rate may have peaked around the holidays, the state and Dallas County aren’t out of the…
For now, as bike sharing in Dallas rolls toward the end of its unregulated Wild West phase, the game for the five companies in business in the city has been pretty simple. They’ve put as many of their bikes on the streets as they can, mostly thanks to a stream…
Late Friday night — 11:29 p.m., according to the email time stamp — the city of Dallas handed out its last news dump of the year. Along with the usual weekly detritus was a memo from the Dallas city manager’s office about panhandling. The memo appears to be directed at two…
Along with a hangover, New Year’s Day brings the chance to look forward and backward. At the Observer, that means paying tribute, for good or ill, to those newsmakers who left the DFW stage in 2017 and announcing those who stepped up to it 2017, or will step up in 2018…
If he runs for president, and if he runs as a Democrat and if Donald Trump is his opponent, Mark Cuban might win Texas, a new poll says. The survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling — say that three times fast — for Business Insider shows Mavs owner Cuban, a real…
The 2017 session of the Texas Legislature, like most recent sessions of the Texas Legislature, wasn’t a good one for reproductive rights. While lawmakers rejected some of the most stringent anti-abortion legislation, including a blatantly unconstitutional bill from state Rep. Tony Tinderholt of Arlington that would’ve banned abortion statewide, Texas…
As always, DFW proved quite quotable in 2017. Whether it was the rhetorical war over the fate of Dallas’ Confederacy-tied monuments, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price’s trial or Jerry Jones’ repeated failure to steer the Cowboys away from controversy, there was no shortage of hot air putting wind in…
From former Observer Editor-in-Chief Joe Tone, back in town for a visit, comes this photo showing a lovely East Dallas home that’s been, to coin a phrase, LimeBiked for the holidays. Here’s hoping it’s the start of a trend. Perhaps instead of environmentally unfriendly and difficult-to-remove toilet paper, teenagers and…
As the Dallas City Council continues to battle over its newest plan to address panhandling in areas of the city with the most foot traffic, the Dallas Police Department is consulting with the city attorney’s office about which of the city’s panhandling ordinances can still be enforced after constitutional challenges…
One of the biggest positive steps for marijuana reform in Texas in 2017 happened here in Dallas. On Dec. 1, the city began issuing citations, rather than making arrests, for possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana. Those busted are still subject to the same penalties as they were…
It isn’t easy to get around Dallas without a car. It’s a mantra and a statement of fact for those who live in and visit the city. Thanks to the heat in the summer, unwieldy bus system and commuter-focused light rail service, not to mention the sheer size of the…
Like the 2008, 2010 and 2015 Cowboys, the 2017 Cowboys were supposed to be different. They’d learned the lessons of a largely successful yet bitterly disappointing 2016 and were ready to play in the Cowboys’ first NFC Championship Game since the 1995 season. They weren’t different. The 2017 Cowboys, doomed…
As Dallas and the rest of Texas crept slowly to the Christmas vacation Thursday afternoon, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton addressed a matter of religion for many Texans. State law, he said, allows for people with licenses to bring their handguns into places of worship, unless a church, synagogue or…
As Christmas approaches, the legacy of the 2017 Dallas Cowboys is still in flux. If the Cowboys win their two remaining regular-season games and get some help, they’ll qualify for the playoffs, completing the resurrection of a season that appeared dead on Thanksgiving. If they miss the playoffs, this year’s…
At least U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold had someone who wanted him to seek re-election. Unfortunately for the retiring Texas GOP congressman, alleged sexual harasser and world’s worst boss, the people in his corner were the Texas Democratic Party. The Democrats sued the Texas GOP on Wednesday afternoon to keep Farenthold,…
The estranged mother of 11-time NBA All-Star and Lincoln High School graduate Chris Bosh faces felony charges. Police say Freida Bosh allowed drugs to dealt from a DeSoto home owned by her son. Freida Bosh, who was living at the home, and her ex-roommate, Johnathan Brown, are charged with exploitation…
Robert Jeffress, pastor at First Baptist Dallas, committed himself to Donald Trump and his presidency in 2016, positioning himself as the evangelical face of Trumpism. This year, for better and worse, Jeffress has reaped the consequences of that commitment, repeatedly finding himself at the center of the Trump universe because…
After nearly two days of deliberations, a Dallas County jury found a former Farmers Branch police officer guilty of murder and aggravated assault Tuesday afternoon. Ken Johnson, 37, shot two teenagers in March 2016 after he caught them breaking into his Chevy Tahoe at his Farmers Branch apartment complex. Sheriff’s…
Chief Deputy Marian Brown, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s third in command, will serve as interim sheriff until voters elect a new one in November. Valdez is stepping down to run for governor. Brown, a 29-year law enforcement veteran in her fourth year with the sheriff’s office, is running…
Bikes, first silver and mustard, then orange, green and yellow, swarmed downtown Dallas this summer before spreading out. The basics are all the same: Bikes cost $1 per hour to ride, payable via a smartphone app. After a rider pays, a hefty security device unlocks, freeing the bike’s back wheel…
The Dallas Morning News, Dallas’ daily, built on the rock of truth and buttressed by piles of Belo cash, has a problem — a festering, creeping affliction eating at the institution’s very core — since the paper moved from its longtime home on Young Street to its new digs in…
