Dallas is expanding the area covered by a curfew order, city officials announced Tuesday afternoon. The newly expanded curfew zone includes Trinity Groves and West Village. It also now includes the Frank Crowley Courts Building, where a demonstration began Monday evening, and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, where police detained…
Chief U. Renee Hall on Tuesday morning defended the police department’s handling of a protest that ended in a mass detainment Monday night on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. During the demonstration, police allowed hundreds of protesters to march into the westbound lanes of the bridge at about 8:30 p.m…
A total of 257 more Dallas County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and 16 more county residents have died from the virus, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services chief Philip Huang. Both totals are the highest the county has reported in a single day. The 257 new…
A peaceful protest in Dallas against police brutality ended with hundreds of demonstrators, their hands zip-tied behind their backs, being detained by police on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. As they laid on their stomachs waiting for instructions, one protester yelled repeatedly, “We can’t win!” A last-minute change Monday night…
A few months ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to make its way to Texas, Hannah Smilie heard a joke on campus about how, if they got sick, students would probably keep coming to class. Classmates didn’t think it was anything to worry about, because the only people…
The catalyst for the last four days’ protests in Dallas is new, if horrifyingly familiar. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauven allegedly murdered George Floyd, a black man, last month by kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes. People in Dallas and around the world are angry. “I’m just enraged…
Dallas police are investigating incidents in which police officers used force against two people Sunday, putting both people in the hospital. Both incidents occurred on Main Street in downtown Dallas during Sunday’s protest against police brutality. The first incident happened at 4 p.m. near Pegasus Plaza. The second was at…
Last week, Twitter attached a link to one of President Donald Trump’s tweets, asserting that the president’s claims about voter fraud and mail-in voting weren’t true. The social media platform decision incensed Trump and many Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The president even issued…
Last week, Jimmy Fallon apologized after a video of him in blackface went viral on social media, sparking outrage nationwide. The offensive practice has also reared its ugly head in North Texas. The Observer has obtained photos of Tami Tobey, a member of the Midlothian ISD Board of Trustees, dressed…
While Dallas initially saw peaceful protests turn into violence, arrests and a curfew around downtown, the weekend ended with a vocal but placid march downtown. Clergy members from throughout Dallas gathered with residents in front of Dallas Police headquarters starting at 5 p.m. Sunday. The crowd bowed their heads as…
The city of Dallas has enacted a curfew for the Deep Ellum, downtown and Uptown areas, effective from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., beginning Sunday and continuing for the “next several days.” Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall made the announcement at a news conference Sunday afternoon after the city…
Protesters gathered in front of the Dallas Police Department headquarters on the 1400 block of Lamar St. Friday afternoon for what was initially a peaceful demonstration, but the subsequent march became tumultuous as participants clashed with police officers in riot gear all throughout downtown Dallas. The protest, organized and advertised…
Beginning Sunday, Texas pro sports teams and facilities can allow fans to attend their outdoor events at up to 25% capacity, according to a proclamation from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Motor sports events can open at 25% capacity beginning Friday. The governor published his amended rules on May 22 without…
To hear Republicans tell it, allowing a temporary expansion of mail-in voting in Texas would doom their party to a fate much like the one suffered by Texas Democrats over the last two decades. Let people stay home and vote with a pen and a stamp, rather than heading to…
When it came down to it last night, 10 or so hours into Wednesday’s City Council meeting, the political will just wasn’t there. Despite the novel coronavirus, the pandemic that’s followed its arrival on U.S. shores and the inevitable hole it will tear in Dallas’ current and future budgets, the…
Dallas is taking a shot, maybe not its best shot, but a shot, at lessening the city’s role in the global climate crisis. Wednesday, the City Council unanimously passed Dallas’ first-ever Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan. “I grew up partially in the shadow of a lead smelter plant in West…
Texas’ state courts are in agreement with federal courts, for now at least: Mail-in voting, despite the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic, remains available only to Texans older than 65, the physically ill or disabled, or those who will be out of the county in which they are registered to vote…
You’re forgiven if you’ve failed to keep track, but right now, as you’re reading this, you probably can’t get a mail-in ballot. The Texas Legislature’s rules, which say you have to be older than 65, have an illness or disability or have plans to be out of your home county…
If the NHL can figure out a safe way to start playing games again this summer, fans are going to be in for a festival of playoff hockey the likes of which they’ve never seen. The Stars, by the skin of their teeth, are guaranteed to play a big part…
Sports, like a lot of the remnants of our former lives, are creeping back into the picture. Live baseball is back on TV. So is live soccer, live NASCAR and live golf. The NFL Draft was a hopeful highlight of the spring for Cowboys’ fans, and team owner Jerry Jones…
Dallas County’s number of COVID-19 infections has been in a lull for the last couple of weeks. On May 11, the county’s Health and Human Services Department reported 253 new infections, tying for the Dallas County’s highest single day total. In the days since, the number of newly confirmed cases…
Scratch below the surface — beneath the cavalcade of supporters, piles of cash donations, President Donald Trump’s approval and Sen. Ted Cruz’s cameo “mullet” — and Dallas’ pandemic martyr has herself an optics problem. Even for Shelley Ann Luther, defiant owner of Salon à la Mode and America’s viral “hero”…
