Until Wednesday, Dallas County’s 2016 and 2017 uptick in mumps activity was contained to cases that came in ones and twos. Despite North Texas seeing two and a half times more mumps cases in 2016 than the longstanding statewide average of about 20, Dallas County had yet to see an…
As it does every half-decade or so, the time has come for Dallas Area Rapid Transit to figure out a plan to raise prices. The cost for riding DART for a full service day would, under the proposed plan, increase from $5 to $6 and rather than buying a single…
On Tuesday afternoon Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings filed a notice of non-suit in his lawsuit against the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund. That means that the mayor, who’d sued the fund as a private citizen in order to stop to fund from making payments he believes could bankrupt the…
As he promised he would to the Observer’s Jim Schutze a couple of weeks ago, Dallas state Senator Don Huffines filed a bill Tuesday afternoon to get rid of Dallas County Schools, the school district that doesn’t operate any schools. Dallas County Schools, for the uninitiated or confused, runs the…
If he needed a reminder, Dallas state Senator Don Huffines is getting one: Remember, no matter where you are, if you’re speaking to the public, someone is probably filming. During a discussion with Richardson ISD parents and students at the state capitol Monday, Huffines grew irritable when pressed about his…
As was hinted might be the case late last month, the U.S. Department of Justice will no longer support the lawsuit filed by Dallas U.S. Representative Marc Veasey and several voting rights groups against the state of Texas’ voter ID law. In a filing made late Monday afternoon, attorneys for the…
On Monday jurors heard the opening arguments in the corruption trial of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, his chief of staff Dapheny Fain. Codefendant Kathy Nealy, Price’s political consultant, will face a separate trial. Here’s what they heard from them and the case’s first witness. The Government’s Case Assistant U.S. Attorney…
In a lot of ways, the identity of the 2017 Rangers appears set. If they are going to win the American League West for the third consecutive season, this year’s Rangers will do it with a dominant front end of the rotation, an experienced middle of the order and a…
Early Sunday morning, just before 5:30 a.m., according to the Dallas Police Department, a car that a witness described as a black sports car sped past DPD’s South Central Substation on Camp Wisdom Road, spraying bullets from a handgun. The two suspects, Assistant Chief Randy Blankenbaker said Sunday afternoon, initially targeted…
On Thursday afternoon, just ahead of the NBA’s trade deadline, the Dallas Mavericks pulled off one of the week’s biggest trades, shipping center Andrew Bogut and wing Justin Anderson to the Philadelphia 76ers for center Nerlens Noel. The Mavs will also send their first round pick to the Sixers, as…
Katie Jones, according to Cedar Hill police, didn’t get to enjoy the proceeds of her Wednesday robbery for long. On Wednesday morning, police say, the 60-year-old Dallas resident hit the Chase bank just off State Highway 67 in the southwest Dallas County suburb, demanding cash and driving away with an…
On Tuesday afternoon, city staff released the results of the first year of Dallas’ so-called living wage program. In late 2015, the Dallas City Council voted to require any business with a city contract to pay its employees $10.37, about $3 more per hour than the federal minimum wage of $7.25…
After twice being left for dead, cite-and-release for low-level marijuana possession is back on the table in Dallas, with a vote by the city council expected as early as March 8. Members of the council who support cite-and-release have twice pushed for changing the way Dallas cops handle pot arrests…
A Carrollton puppy is expected to make a full recovery after a heroin overdose in the parking lot of a Carrollton Home Depot. Nina Crawford, 38, and Thomas Romero, 46, left the dog in the floorboards of their truck as the went into the home improvement store to switch price…
It was, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn said, the biggest jury panel she’d ever had in her quilt-bedecked federal courtroom. Seventy men and women from the seven counties that supply potential jurors to the Dallas division of the Northern District of Texas completely filled the courtroom’s gallery, relegating clerks, the…
Christopher Duntsch, the Dallas doctor convicted last week of paralyzing an elderly patient during a botched 2012 surgery, is going to prison for life. A Dallas County jury took a little more than an hour to sentence him Monday afternoon. Duntsch, 45, was stripped of his medical license in 2013 following…
Late Friday afternoon, the city of Dallas’ weekly memo packet featured a little gift from new City Manager T.C. Broadnax to the Dallas City Council: a map, long awaited, of each of the city of Dallas’ homeless encampments. [pdf-1]Members of the council, led by Oak Cliff’s Scott Griggs, have pushed…
Let’s start by saying this: Tony Romo is not going to play for the Cowboys next year. And that’s OK. The Cowboys have Dak Prescott, the cost-controlled quarterback of their dreams. Romo gets to chase the Super Bowl that’s eluded him throughout his otherwise stellar career. As much as the…
Thursday morning, Texas state Representative Joe Moody, surrounded by police officers and a retired judge, took a lectern at the Texas Capitol to argue for something he’s pushed hard for over the last two legislative sessions — the decriminalization of marijuana possession. “This discussion about marijuana policy in Texas has…
Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton submitted an amicus brief to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel to the United States by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. In doing so, Paxton ensured that Texas was the first state to…
Texas state Senators Konni Burton and Chuy Hinojosa aren’t going to be cowed by President Donald Trump, at least not about reforming civil forfeiture in Texas. Both senators want to fix the way the state deals with assets seized from people accused of crimes, even if the president recently promised Rockwall…
Wednesday was big day in Austin for both Texas’ staunchest advocates against reproductive choice and the organizations that have fought tooth and nail at the Texas Capitol and in the courts against the advance of legislation that seeks to limit abortion to the absolute limit of what is allowed by Roe…
