News

As the COVID-19 pandemic has unwound around the world and in North Texas, there’s been a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The only surefire way out of our new confines, according to epidemiologists and public health officials, is researchers finding a vaccine for the novel coronavirus…

Today’s the day you can finally take your dog back to the park. The city of Dallas is reopening dog parks, skate parks and disc golf courses starting today. Those facilities had been closed since late March in an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Those openings are…

Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmates are testing positive for the novel coronavirus at significantly higher rates than Texans who aren’t incarcerated, according to new data from the agency that oversees Texas’ prisons. Late Tuesday, the department reported that, of the first 1,635 inmates tested as part of the state’s…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is ready to for Texas schools to reopen. Monday, he said students could return to the state’s school buildings on June 1. Wednesday afternoon, the Texas State Teachers Association said the week after next is too early to consider bringing kids back. “With the COVID-19 pandemic…

One day after a U.S. District judge in San Antonio cleared the path for all Texans who want to vote by mail and avoid potential COVID-19 exposure later this year, a three-judge panel at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked their way. Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery…

Jerry Jones is off his yacht and back at the office. Video released Tuesday afternoon by the Cowboys from The Star revealed the team’s owner carefully abiding by physical distancing and face covering guidelines as he reopened his team’s headquarters. Being the owner of one of the world’s richest sports…

Vote-by-mail for all Texans who want it is back on after a U.S. District Court Judge ruled Tuesday night that fear of the coronavirus is reason enough to ask for an absentee ballot. The Texas Attorney General’s Office and plaintiffs including the Texas Democratic Party have gone back and forth…

As Texas eased another round of coronavirus restrictions Monday, people across the Dallas-Fort Worth area — some of them, at least — headed to the gym. Gyms and fitness centers were allowed to reopen Monday with a number of precautions in place, including operating only at 25% occupancy, keeping at least 6 feet of…

Dallas County officials are reporting 14 new COVID-19 related deaths Tuesday, the largest single-day death total in the county since the pandemic began. Dr. Philip Huang, the head of Dallas County Health and Human Services, told the Dallas County Commissioners Court Tuesday morning that the county would be making the…

Texas has been mixing results from test results for active COVID-19 infections with numbers from another test for antibodies that shows whether those tested had the disease anytime in the past, according to a news report. The result is further muddying of the flood of numbers used to measure how…

Daycare centers, bars, professional sports and summer camps are the headliners of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s newly announced plans to continuing reopening the state as it navigates its way through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Childcare facilities and personal care businesses like massage parlors and tattoo shops can open immediately. Bars…

Mail-in voting, at least for the time being, is once again limited to Texans over the age of 65, those with physical disabilities or illnesses and those who will be out of the county in which they are registered to vote for the duration of early voting and election day…

Eduardo Flores was looking forward to next. He was looking forward to getting his cap and gown and sitting in a roomful of his friends, hearing his name called, walking across the stage and getting his diploma. He was looking forward to having proud family members take his picture. Flores,…

Let’s take a moment, as we start week 39 or so of COVID-related quarantine, to mourn the brain power we’ve collectively wasted worrying, hoping and strategizing about the potential return of sports. It turns out the key to getting baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer back on our TVs and back…

Refugees in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the organizations that work with them worry that the coronavirus pandemic and the economic turmoil it’s causing will make life harder for an already-vulnerable group of people. “My parents’ work is no longer safe, and they don’t have many hours to work,” says…

Thanks to the design of the American healthcare system and Texas’ failure to expand access to Medicaid, the results of a new Kaiser Family Foundation study into COVID-19’s effects on access to health insurance aren’t surprising. It doesn’t make them any less of a crisis or Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s…

Wednesday’s twist in Texas’ ongoing, coronavirus-inspired battle over mail-in voting was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton attempting to enlist the help of the Texas Supreme Court to stop counties who want to expand ballot access. In Thursday’s turn in the same sage, a state appeals court affirmed that, during the…

Texas’ mandatory end-of-year tests are canceled this year, but state education officials have come up with a way for parents to make their kids take them anyway. The Texas Education Agency is rolling out an optional online end-of-year test that school districts and parents across the state can use to…

The tug-of-war between Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Texas’ state leadership is getting rougher. Monday, Jenkins introduced the county’s own system for determining when it’s safe for residents to get back to their daily lives, thumbing his nose at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is opening up the state…