Last week, Dallas published the first draft of its plan to address climate change. The 139-page document, produced by a consulting firm in consultation with dozens of local advocacy groups, governmental agencies and businesses, provides a road map for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lessening the impact of climate change…
In a small town, the powers-that-be can usually handle the town’s affairs over a dinner table at the country club, because, most of the time, not that many other people in town know what’s going on or care all that much. In a big city where lots of people not…
Speaking after the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, President Donald Trump took on Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote for the president’s removal from office during his just concluded impeachment trial. “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,”…
In 2018, Dallas set an ambitious goal to speed up medical emergency response times: get to the scene within five minutes at least 90% of the time. The new goal — based on guidelines set by the National Fire Protection Association — was a reaction to growing dissatisfaction with how long it took ambulances to…
Dallas’ Reverchon Park fight, already voted on twice by the Dallas City Council, isn’t over. Thursday afternoon, a group of the park’s neighbors announced a lawsuit intended to stop the city’s deal to give the reins of the park to a private group led by Dallas Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson…
In light of Wednesday’s vote in the U.S. Senate to acquit President Donald Trump of a pair of impeachment charges, former U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards said Thursday that voters might reasonably wonder whether it’s possible for there to be such a thing as a fair, bipartisan impeachment process. There’s a…
Finally, after a court case that’s moved up and down the appellate ladder in fits and starts since 2014, Dallas is going to have to pay Trinity East back for all those drilling rights the city never let the energy company use. Thursday afternoon, according to The Dallas Morning News’…
Just after 1 p.m. Thursday, Dallas firefighters received a call about a burning upholstery warehouse in the 2400 block of Irving Boulevard in the Design District. Lots of smoke was coming from the building, but no one was inside when firefighters showed up. After a roof collapsed, the fire department…
The Dallas County public defender’s office plans to hire social workers to help keep its mentally ill clients out of jail. It’s one more attempt to end the cycle of hospitalization, incarceration and homelessness caused by the criminalization — rather than treatment — of mental illness. Nonprofits and county administrators…
The Observer’s news vertical is, for the most part, a local concern. We do our best to stay focused on DFW, while occasionally allowing our eyes to wander further afield to the rest of Texas. So we are, for the purposes of this article at least, going to disregard about 99.8%…
Last week an attorney for indicted Dallas housing developer Ruel Hamilton filed a federal court document (see below) describing “outrageous government conduct” by FBI agents going after Hamilton. Outrageous government conduct is a legal term. But let me tell you what’s outrageous to me as a non-lawyer. I’ve been out…
In Texas, at least, impeachment didn’t mean a damn thing. Wednesday, three weeks after Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz were sworn in for the trial of President Donald Trump, both Texas representatives voted to acquit the president on both articles of impeachment with which Trump was charged — abuse…
The Dallas City Council is requesting a review of a city contract to develop nearly 100 units of affordable housing in southern Dallas after a member accused the developer of having a conflict of interest. Notre Dame Place, the nonprofit that submitted a bid for the project, is led by…
The ground being fought over is getting smaller, but, five years after the fact, the Dallas County Commissioners Court is still fighting among itself and with activists over phone calls at the Dallas County jail. Tuesday, a plan that would’ve seen Dallas inmates paying some of the lowest per-minute rates…
The document by which Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall announced the outcomes of a two-year crooked-cop investigation of the vice squad reads like it was written by Joseph Heller, the guy who wrote Catch-22. Only Heller was funny. The memo made public a week ago makes Hall look far worse…
Former Dallas police officer Christopher Hess had no choice but to shoot Genevive Dawes on Jan. 18, 2017, his lawyers said during opening statements Tuesday. Dawes posed an immediate threat to Hess and his colleagues. She was a felon committing another felony, incapable of following officers orders’ to show her…
The Environmental Protection Agency has promised to test soil in neighborhoods bordering a southern Dallas Superfund site in an effort to address community concerns about the presence of heavy metals. The announcement came at a community meeting Thursday, when the EPA presented the results of an initial report showing heightened…
For the last two years, Dallas’ headlines have been dominated by cops on trial. In 2018, Dallas County juries convicted ex-cops Roy Oliver and Ken Johnson on murder charges. Last year, Dallas County juries acquitted former Mesquite officer Derick Wiley of aggravated assault after he shot a man in the…
It’s officially put up or shut up time for all of you out there who consider yourselves true, degenerate pro football fans. With Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs having put the cherry on top of the NFL’s 2020 sundae, it’s time, this weekend,…
Are you sick of staring at cubicle walls all day? Tired of getting stiffed on the tip after serving a table of 10? Completely finished with the thought of going to a tedious day job that never seems to change, unless it’s becoming either more tedious or simply less rewarding?…
The Dallas Morning News editorial page is schizzy. Most of the time, it’s pretty smart, even measured and thoughtful, at least on local non-partisan issues. But every fifth Thursday or something, a whole different crazy newspaper appears on my lawn. Right toe forward, hands on the hips of its checkered…
“Pod Bless Texas,” like a lot of ideas, was born out of failure. It was election night 2018 and Kendall Scudder, fresh off a suicide mission against incumbent Texas Sen. Bob Hall, no longer had anything to run for. Lillian Salerno, Scudder’s future co-host, had lost her own race a few…
