Just like 2014 and 2015, 2016 has been no disappointment for those looking for incredible quotes from those who call North Texas home. Sometimes, the quotes were inspirational, sometimes they were enraging and most often they just provided amusement, Here are the Observer news team’s favorite quotes of 2016: “The…
Late Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the state of Texas from requiring burial or cremation for any tissue stemming from a miscarriage or abortion that takes place outside of a woman’s home. Without Sparks’ order, the burial requirement would’ve gone into effect…
In 2016, the state of Texas executed seven members of its death row, marking the fewest people put to death in the state since just three were killed in 1996. Across the state, fewer people are being sentenced to death as well. According to a new report from the Texas Coalition…
As expected, the Dallas City Council voted 15-0 Wednesday afternoon to appoint Tacoma, Washington, City Manager T.C. Broadnax as replacement for Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez when Gonzalez calls it quits at the end of January. Following a closed-doors executive session of the council last Friday, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings…
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell yesterday amplified the angst the Dallas Cowboys are feeling following Sunday’s loss by refusing to put a timetable on the conclusion of the league’s investigation into running back Ezekiel Elliott. Goodell’s stance comes despite the fact that the law enforcement agencies investigating Elliott, one in Florida…
On Wednesday afternoon, a Tarrant County jury convicted Fred Couch, father of Ethan Couch, DFW’s most prominent affluenza-stricken teenager, of impersonating a police officer. Despite the conviction, he’s avoided joining his son in the Tarrant County Jail. Couch received a sentence of a year of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $260…
Almost four months after the Vatican poached Bishop Kevin Farrell, Dallas’ 1.3 million Catholics have a new leader. On Tuesday, Pope Francis appointed Edward J. Burns, currently the bishop of Juneau, Alaska, to Farrell’s vacated post. Burns, 59, will start his new gig on Feb. 7. “I am profoundly grateful…
On Monday, the Dallas City Council’s Public Safety Committee got its first look at the latest and greatest plan for city staff to address one of Dallas’ largest quality of life issues — panhandling on the city’s streets. Allan Sims, Dallas’ Neighborhoods Plus czar, proposed that the city use some…
Whole Woman’s Health and the Center for Reproductive Rights are suing the state of Texas again. This time, the team that beat the state in the Supreme Court this summer is seeking to stop the state from enforcing a new regulation that would require the burial or cremation of any…
Watching the Cowboys’ desultory performance against the Giants on Sunday, that feeling recognizable to any lifelong Cowboys fan began to seep in. No matter how good the Cowboys are, there is a game in every great Cowboys season that just doesn’t fit in. The Cowboys always lay an egg. This…
Considering the source, a state government that has at stake a large part of both its reputation and budget on preventing and restricting access to abortion, there is very little in the state of Texas’ Department of State Health Services’ new “A Woman’s Right to Know” pamphlet that comes as…
Late Friday, Moody’s Investors Service announced that, for the third time in less than two years, it was downgrading the city of Dallas general obligation bonds. In layman’s terms, that means that the city’s credit rating — its ability to borrow money through the sale of bonds — has taken…
T.C. Broadnax, currently the city manager in Tacoma, Washington, is the lone finalist for Dallas’ open city manager job, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced Friday morning. Broadnax’ nomination comes after a week of interviews with members of the city council and, at a reception Tuesday night at city hall, the…
Apparently not content to quietly leave Baylor University, Art Briles, the school’s deposed head football coach, sued university regents and a school vice president Thursday for defamation and conspiracy. Briles’ suit centers on the claim that he did not, contrary to statements made by regents and the university, know about…
Actor Judge Reinhold threw a major fit at Love Field Thursday. Dallas police arrested Reinhold, best known for his parts in Beverly Hills Cop, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and, a little more recently, Arrested Development, Thursday afternoon at Love Field after the actor took issue with being screened by…
The Cowboys are in a weird spot. With four games and a little less than a month left to play in the regular season, they’ve locked up a playoff spot with an 11-1 record and appear set to coast to the first seed in the NFC playoffs. They’re set to…
In Dallas it’s a holiday tradition right up there with the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving game, mocking the Neiman Marcus Catalog and being pissed off at being stuck in traffic during the marathon — package theft season. As the temperature drops, the number of videos posted by local police agencies and angry…
A strange thing went down at Wednesday’s Dallas City Council meeting. With little fanfare and no discussion, the council appointed Walkable DFW founder Patrick Kennedy to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board. This move came despite the council transportation committee’s previous recommendation of environmental lawyer Howard Gilberg for the post. Frustrations…
Most of the time, the interests of the Texas Association of Business and Republicans in the Texas Legislature line up pretty well. Both groups want fewer government regulations on employers, expansive at-will employment and school choice vouchers for Texas parents, among other things. Over the past couple of years, however,…
Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda will spend the rest of his life in a federal prison. U.S. District Judge Terry Means sentenced Ledezma-Cepeda on Tuesday afternoon for interstate stalking and conspiracy to commit murder. Ledezma-Cepeda is the third person sentenced for his role in the 2013 Southlake murder of Guerrero Chapa, a lawyer for…
Dallas attorney Faith Johnson is Dallas County’s new district attorney. Tuesday morning, Governor Greg Abbott announced that Johnson, previously a Dallas County district judge and assistant prosecutor for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, will serve the rest of the term Susan Hawk was elected to in 2014. Hawk resigned…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings on sued the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System Monday morning. Well, sort of. Officially, Rawlings filed his suit merely as a resident. The pension system has gone through crisis after crisis as it’s bid to escape the deep financial hole created by former fund director…
