The thought is a lot like the novel coronavirus itself. Dangerous, malicious and hard to stymie. The coronavirus isn’t that bad, it starts out. It’s just another kind of flu, maybe a little nasty, but not that dangerous. It’s ridiculous that we’re all having to stay inside. You hear it…
Coronavirus isn’t the real threat to the American economy. At least, not according to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The real threat to the American economy is Granny. Your granny, our grannies, everybody’s granny. If they’d just stop being so sensitive, we could all go back outside, according to the…
Tarrant and Collin counties issued their own shelter-in-place orders Tuesday morning. Tarrant County’s is lot like Dallas County’s. Collin County’s has a hole in it big enough to drive a truck through. Dallas and Tarrant counties’ orders require residents to stay home unless they are working at an essential business.
Classrooms at colleges and universities across North Texas sat empty Monday as students returned from spring break and resumed their classes from home. College campuses across Texas and nationwide are shut down, some for a few weeks and others through the end of the semester, in an effort to contain…
Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t say anything about it last week, when he announced his ban on elective medical procedures, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made it clear Monday afternoon — abortion is banned in Texas until, at the earliest, April 3. Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, anyone seeking an…
According to one expert, the grocery store shortages in produce and frozen food are easing already. Canned goods are coming back, but we may just have to learn to live without toilet paper. OK, he didn’t say the last thing. That’s just me trying to sell newspapers. But he did…
Just like that, Travis Frederick is done as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. The five-time Pro Bowl center announced his retirement Monday afternoon at just 30 years old. Frederick chalked up his decision to walk away to the lingering effects of Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disorder with which he…
Last Tuesday, Yan Blair was supposed to be visiting a school in a village in the Republic of Georgia, observing teachers there as they walked their students through English lessons. After class, he was supposed to talk to those teachers about how to set up an after-school English language club…
How’s everybody doing? We are, collectively, about a week into a unique experience. The sun’s still — when it isn’t raining at least — coming out. Dallas’ crappy infrastructure is still crappy, but it hasn’t fallen apart. We’re still walking our dogs and getting our kids outside as often as…
Norman Siegel, a prominent New York civil rights lawyer who won a well-publicized victory on Ebola quarantines three years ago, has a new message. This is different. I talked to him last week because his quarantine victory in 2017 had an indirect connection with the 2014 Dallas Ebola scare, which…
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has ordered all county residents to shelter in place until at least April 3. All nonessential business in the county must close at 11:59 p.m. Monday. “It makes me sick that we are at this point,” Jenkins said. “God-willing, (shelter-at-home) and the mass production of…
Another day under semi-lockdown, another 19 positive tests for the novel coronavirus in Dallas County, according to a breakdown of COVID-19 cases in the county provided Friday by Dallas County Health and Human Services. More evidence, too, that everyone should be staying home as much a possible. According to the…
First, the good news: After several years of steady increases, the number of homeless people living in Dallas and Collin counties fell this year, according to the results of the city’s annual homeless census. The bad news is that Dallas’ efforts to reach out to some of its most vulnerable…
As the novel coronavirus slowly turns all of our lives into a dreary hellscape, one of the few bits of good news for workers in Texas has been Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to make the state’s byzantine unemployment insurance system a little easier to navigate. It’s about the least he…
There are going to be a lot of notices like this over the coming days. The first of whatever group to be infected with the scourge of 2020, COVID-19. One of Thursday’s firsts is a Dallas Police Department officer. According to the department, an officer working out of the Northeast…
All Texans are now living in the same world Dallas residents have been inhabiting for a couple of days now. Effective midnight Friday, all bars, restaurants, health clubs and schools in the state must shut down until at least April 3. Restaurants can still provide takeout, drive-through and delivery service…
A Richardson man in his 60s has died due to the effects of the coronavirus, Dallas County health officials reported Thursday. The man, who was not identified by health officials, did not have any high-risk health conditions. He was one of 20 new cases of the COVID-19 reported by Dallas…
Jim Anderson and his wife are living in what could be described as a very well-run, nicely appointed, accommodating, fairly friendly minimum security prison in San Antonio. They can leave their small suite at will to walk the grounds, but the area where they are allowed to walk is surrounded…
Oooh boy. Texas Sen. John Cornyn has some thoughts on the novel coronavirus. Wednesday, the man who’s running for reelection during a pandemic, the same one who tweeted out a picture of himself drinking a Corona at a bar over the weekend — he’s so funny — decided to smear Chinese…
Texas Rangers opening day shoved into May. Dallas Mavericks playoff games awkwardly played in August. Texas Motor Speedway’s NASCAR race postponed into a murky future. Golf’s Byron Nelson Classic canceled altogether. Courtesy of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, even sports — our escape from reality — can’t escape reality. “Out of an…
North Texas took several more steps down an uncharted path Wednesday, attempting to further stem the tide of the novel coronavirus. Gatherings of more than 10 people are banned in Dallas County, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax will have emergency powers until April 29 and most city meetings are canceled…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will test all residents and staff at an Arlington retirement home where a man died after after contracting COVID-19, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday. The man, Patrick James, lived with his wife at Texas Masonic Retirement Center in Arlington. James was hospitalized Thursday…
