The Dallas Police Department wants to start patrolling the space between its cops on the ground and its helicopter unit, DPD Assistant Chief Paul Stokes said Monday. The department wants drones, he said, to keep officers safe and provide better surveillance of protests, demonstrations and other large events. Stokes compared…
Former Dallas City Council member Larry Duncan faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced Monday. In court documents, Duncan admits that he took $245,000 in…
Monday night in Houston, Texas’ junior senator, governor and lieutenant governor will take the stage with the president of the United States, two weeks and a day ahead of the Nov. 6 mid-term election. At almost any other point in American history, the rally wouldn’t be a surprise or even…
Let me ask you something. Do you remember ever reading a column by Jim Schutze in which I said that I was a prince? Yes or no. Did I say that? Did I put myself up as some kind of knight in shining armor on a white horse? On a…
A little over a year ago, Kaitlin Bolger was in jail for gun smuggling — a felony in Texas. She was released in April 2017 and was expected to re-integrate into society with the mismatched men’s clothes on her back and a $50 check that she received upon release. “I…
Last week I told you a story about Dallas City Hall that made no sense whatsoever — nothing new there — but this week I have it sort of figured out, and I want to share. Last week I said the city had formed a special taxing district to raise…
The waiting, at least, is over for Cowboys wide receiver Terrance Williams. Thursday afternoon, the NFL announced that the sixth-year enigma has been suspended three games for his behavior before, during and following an arrest for public intoxication this spring. Frisco police arrested Williams after he flipped head first over…
In the Muslim community, an imam is someone followers trust, a leader in the community to whom Muslims turn for consolation and counseling. But at one of the largest mosques in North Texas, Imam Zia Ul-Haq Sheikh is accused of breaching that trust when he began an illicit relationship with…
As of Thursday afternoon, Tonya Couch is a mostly free woman again after spending four months in Tarrant County jail. A Tarrant County judge revoked the affluenza mom’s bail in June, after she tested positive for amphetamine or methamphetamine, according to the county. Couch, the mother of Ethan Couch, is…
There’s probably a more delicate way to put it, but former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez is getting molly-whopped by incumbent Greg Abbott in their race to be Texas’ governor. That’s the only takeaway one can draw from the new gubernatorial forecasts published by polling guru Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight on Wednesday…
The Texas Legislature’s 2017 “sanctuary cities” bill, which requires local law enforcement and elected officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities or face loss of state funding or removal from office, is already harming the health of Texas children and their families, according to new research from Human Impact Partners,…
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price gave local Republicans a gift earlier this month when he sent out a mailer encouraging his constituents to vote a straight Democratic ticket in the mid-term elections by comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. Predictably and rightfully, much of the local media, led…
After two debates in their race to the U.S. Senate, it’s hard to imagine what Texas voters might’ve learned about U.S. Senator Ted Cruz or U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke that they didn’t know going in. Tuesday night in San Antonio, as they did in Dallas a couple of weeks ago,…
I may join the Republican Party and start pinching women on elevators. I swear I’ll do it. The one thing that could drive me to it, the only thing that might actually push me out of the Texas Democratic Party for good is the Texas Democratic Party. It’s the party…
DFW Airport recorded about 9 inches of rain between Oct. 1 and 15, a record-breaking number the likes of which hasn’t been seen since 1959, when 8.68 inches of rain fell in the same time period. Meteorologist Bianca Villanueva from the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said the heavy…
Anyone planning to gather outside Dallas City Hall early today and cheer as council members pedal their bikes into work for the Bike to City Hall event can sleep in instead. The event has been canceled because of inclement weather. What Bike to City Hall event, you ask? Beats us…
Monday, more than a year after the Texas Legislature, the Dallas City Council and the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund struck a deal to give the city some breathing room from the threat posed by a massive shortfall in the retirement system, Dallas residents got a peek at what’s…
Throughout his campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, El Paso U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke has remained unrelentingly positive. Cruz and his campaign have, in ads or in person, called him a socialist, insinuated that he supports flag-burning and painted him as an enemy of law enforcement, but O’Rourke has…
Since about 10 a.m. Monday, AT&T internet service in Dallas has suffered from widespread outages, according to the company and user reports on downdetector.com. An AT&T spokesperson told the Observer that a fire caused the outage, but declined to provide any further details or say when service might be restored. “Damage…
Dwaine Caraway’s City Council district is about to do the same thing again: elect somebody who owes her or his soul to outsiders. It’s the tragic flaw in Dallas’ system of city government. Nobody who might really represent a poor district, who might truly stick up for it, can beat…
Over the last 90 days, Democrat Beto O’Rourke raised more cash in a three-month span than any U.S. Senate candidate since there have been U.S. Senate candidates. He raked in $38.1 million, more than three times as much as his Republican rival, incumbent Ted Cruz. Despite the El Paso U.S…
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission announced Friday afternoon that it is ending its contract with an anti-abortion group receiving millions from the state to provide women’s health services as part of multiple programs. The Heidi Group, according to the state, repeatedly failed to serve the number of patients…
