Late Monday afternoon, the Observer received a statement from the Dallas Police Department about a “civil rights video” filmed over the weekend at the department’s southeast patrol division. It sounded very serious. “The Dallas Police Department is aware of the video filmed at the Southeast Division over the weekend and takes…
The Dallas County Republican Party wants a slew of Democrats, candidates for offices ranging from justice of the peace to U.S. House representative — kicked off the ballot ahead of Texas’ March primary. Dallas County’s Democratic Party chairwoman failed to personally sign the candidates ballot applications before they were submitted…
A heterogeneous mass of marchers espousing support for women’s rights paid little mind to the blustery conditions muffling their chants of, “Women! United! Will never be divided!” Hovering nearby, however, were women threatening unity with ideas out of step with traditional feminism — they oppose abortion. Wind did not prevent…
Late last week, 20 cities, Dallas and Austin among them, learned that they’re finalists for what’s sure to be one of the biggest corporate developments of the decade, Amazon’s second headquarters. The city or region selected by the retail giant is in line for $5 billion in economic development and…
You don’t have to be a parent to get this, but if you are a parent, it will help. You need to look at this video. If this were a movie, it would be called “Saga of the Dumbest Cop on Earth.” This video, released by the Dallas Police Department, is of…
Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax issued Dallas’ five dockless bike-share operators a warning Thursday night. The companies, Broadnax wrote in a letter to LimeBike, ofo, Spin, VBikes and MoBike, need to relocate all bikes violating a new set of rules established by the manager. According to Broadnax’s letter, the bikes…
The world learned Thursday morning that journalist and author Michael Wolff has sold the TV rights to his searing, maybe factual, exposé of the Trump administration, Fire and Fury, for more than $1 million. For that kind of money, one can expect an A-list cast. Philip Seymour Hoffman would have…
Anybody but Philly. That’s the prayer, the mantra, the fondest hope for Cowboys fans as they struggle through another year of dashed hopes. As the Eagles take the field against Minnesota this weekend for the last stop before the Super Bowl, Dallas sports bars will be packed with a wave…
The new Dallas city manager gave the City Council a briefing Wednesday on his new scientific analysis tool for the city. I watched. I have a prediction. At some point in the not-too-distant future, the new city manager will be burned as a witch. Sorry, I am not actually taking…
Of the excuses typically asserted by establishment conservatives for their continued support of President Donald Trump, perhaps the most common is that the president is doing a good job with judicial appointments. Whether it’s the nomination of archconservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court or his selection of former Texas…
Thursday morning, Amazon announced that it has trimmed the list of 238 communities that applied to host its second North American headquarters to 20. North Texas’ regional bid made the cut. So did Austin’s, but two other Texas cities, Houston and El Paso, did not. “Getting from 238 to 20…
As far as counterfactuals go, it’s one to which Cowboys fans hadn’t given much thought before the 2017 season: What if the Cowboys hadn’t drafted Ezekiel Elliott with the fourth pick of the 2016 draft and had taken the player many experts thought they would, Florida State cornerback Jalen Ramsey?…
At some point after Dallas recovers from the current crisis of life-threatening 40-degree temperatures and snow dustings, work should begin on removing the fake kayak rapids that the city built in the Trinity River near downtown in 2011 at a cost of $4 million. And our struggle to figure out…
The Dallas City Council agreed Wednesday afternoon to pick up the tab for the now defunct Dallas County Schools’ school crossing guard program through the end of the 2017-18 school year. The city will pay $2.4 million out of its general and reserve funds to continue the program, which the…
Mike Morath inherited one of the toughest jobs in Texas when Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him Texas education commissioner in 2015. At the time, he was a Dallas ISD trustee known for his reform work. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised Morath’s ability to lead…
A conversation about racial tension and perpetual violence easily could have focused on recent events such as President Donald Trump’s comments about immigrants from “shithole countries” and turned into a collective release of tension over the racial sentiments such words have stirred. Instead, the panel of political leaders, athletes, musicians,…
Considering what happened in Dallas elections last year, one might’ve assumed something drastic was about to happen after seeing a “Request to Implement Policy Related to Mail Ballot Applications” on the County Commissioners Court agenda this week. Wrong. Last spring, a West Dallas City Council race was thrown into chaos…
Housing policy in Dallas isn’t just screwed up. It’s screwed up so deep into the ground that it’s going to take smart people with good intentions a very long time to get it unscrewed. Maybe that’s what’s going on at City Hall, but days like yesterday, it just looks like…
Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s bid for Texas’ Democratic gubernatorial nomination is off to a slow start, but her campaign says she’ll get up to speed with the rest of the field as she settles into her role as a candidate. Andrew White, son of former Texas Gov. Mark…
Last week, Donald Trump allegedly used some colorful language during a diatribe about wanting more immigrants from places like Norway and fewer immigrants from “shitholes” like El Salvador, Haiti and Nigeria. While much of the media attention on Trump’s remarks has focused, appropriately, on their xenophobia, others, like Robert Jeffress, pastor…
Sometime this afternoon, snow, or, worse, wintry mix, will descend on DFW for the second time in less than a week. North Texas’ supplications to Dallas’ weather deity and WFAA meteorologist Pete Delkus have gone unheard, and not for the first time. This time, the winter weather advisory, government speak…
From this far away, Washington is all kabuki theater. President Donald Trump appears in elaborate makeup with flamboyant hand gestures and pronounces that black nations are shitholes. Behind him, a chorus line of lovely liberals fan themselves elaborately and swoon. Please. Here, where we live, we see this stuff all…
