Texas’ fight over its congressional and legislative boundaries isn’t over. Not by a long shot. On Friday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Perez v. Abbott, the state’s years-long fight with voting rights organizations that claim that Texas’ black and Latino populations have been unconstitutionally packed into some…
The woman whose sexual misconduct allegations led to the firing of Dallas County Heath and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson claims that Thompson coerced her into a series of sex acts over a two-year period that caused her to become “depressed, and, on a few dark days, suicidal.” “Zachary Thompson’s…
President Donald Trump says we should be importing more immigrants from Norway, rather than spots like Haiti or Africa and other places he diplomatically called “shithole countries” (allegedly). The obvious question, besides “Oh, God, is he really going to be in the White House three more years?” is, “What makes…
A Dallas County grand jury has indicted Wesley Mathews in the capital murder of his 3-year-old daughter. The grand jury also charged Mathews, 37, with tampering with physical evidence for allegedly dumping Sherin Mathews’ body in a culvert after killing her in the family’s garage. Mathews is now charged with…
Barring a last minute appeal, the Arlington Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade that’s stirred controversy for choosing Texas Governor Greg Abbott as its honorary grand marshal will not go forward. The organizers of the parade failed follow the steps necessary to get an events permit for the parade, the…
Dallas has a long, proud history of Summer Olympics success. Skyline High School’s Michael Johnson is one of the best sprinters of all time. Tamika Catchings starred at Duncanville High School before winning four Olympic gold medals on the basketball court. Nastia Liukin and Madison Kocian both trained at North…
Carrying a samurai sword is legal in most places in Texas since House Bill 1935 went into effect Sept. 1. Daggers, dirks, stilettos, throwing knives, poniards, spears, machetes and Bowie knives are all OK under the new law, as long as you don’t bring them to churches, bars, amusement parks,…
If white supremacist protesters want to defend the Confederate monuments at the Texas Capitol, they’re going to have to do so without their tiki torches. With one notable exception, the Texas Department of Public Safety is doing everything it can to prevent violent protests at the Capitol in 2018, banning…
Any minute now, Dallas will finally get its first significant frozen precipitation this winter. While “accumulation of snow [is] not guaranteed for everyone,” according to Dallas weather god and WFAA meteorologist Pete Delkus, Dallas is under a winter weather advisory beginning at 2 p.m, despite temperatures having been near 60…
Almost four months have passed since we tore down the Robert E. Lee statue in Dallas, and I haven’t noticed any ominous rebel armies forming on the horizon, unless you count people with Dixie flag decals on the back windows of their pickup trucks. If that’s all it’s going to…
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents targeted 98 7-Eleven locations across the U.S. on Wednesday morning as part of an investigation into illegal immigration. Six of the stores targeted are in Dallas-Fort Worth. According to ICE, the agency arrested 21 people suspected of being in the United States illegally during…
Sometime next month, Compassionate Cultivation, one of three Texas companies licensed to grow cannabis under 2015’s Compassionate Use Act, is going to roll out its first batch of cannibidiol oil, the low-THC medicine allowed under the law to patients with intractable epilepsy. It will do so despite uncertainty about federal…
Michigan’s favorite son and Dallas Observer columnist Jim Schutze was on Facebook live Wednesday afternoon, responding to readers’ questions about politics, Dallas’ future, biting dogs, The Dallas Morning News’ Texan of the Year and a whole bunch of comments about whether he’s a Texan. (Hint: He doesn’t like okra. Enough…
Five more Dallas County people have died from flu-related illness, bringing the total to 23 dead in one of the area’s worst flu seasons in decades, Dallas County Health and Human Services said Wednesday. Each of the victims, who ranged from 38 to 94 years old, had an underlying high-risk…
Lime Bike has unveiled its latest weapon in its turf war with its fellow dock-less bike share startups — electric bikes. While the bikes don’t appear to be headed to Dallas as part of their initially roll-out, Dallas bike share riders could moving around at as much as 15 miles…
Homeless encampments are a goad, a stick in the eye, a disquieting reminder that misery and chaos are only a few quick steps from the land of comfort and safety. It would be nice if the sight always opened our hearts and made us weep, but sometimes it goes the…
Now that North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump are bragging about who has the bigger nuclear button, a lot of buzz is bubbling up about nuclear preparedness, i.e., what to do in the event of a nuclear attack, besides die. Sorry, millennials, but it looks…
Dallas’ biggest sports story of 2018 isn’t going to be the Cowboys. Jerry Jones isn’t going to fire Jason Garrett, so his team won’t escape mediocrity. It’s not going to be the Mavs, who are still a couple of years away from competing in the NBA’s loaded Western Conference, or…
After a day and a half of deliberations, a Dallas County jury sentenced former Farmers Branch police officer Ken Johnson to 10 years in prison Tuesday for the 2016 murder of Jose Cruz. Johnson, 37, shot two teenagers in March 2016 after he caught them breaking into his Chevy Tahoe at…
Ever since the Texas Commission on Jail Standards reported that more than 70 percent of Dallas County Jail inmates could not afford to pay bail, the Dallas County Criminal Justice Department and local judges have been struggling to get that number down by reforming the pretrial justice system. Dallas County…
It is a strange choice. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, not exactly known for a positive record on civil or minority rights, is going to be the honorary grand marshal of Arlington’s new, Toyota-sponsored, Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade next Monday, leaving many DFW civil rights organizations wondering what the…
Right now, Dallas residents and visitors are free to panhandle whenever they want, however they want, as long as they don’t solicit from people in cars or commit another criminal offense, like assault. That’s the upshot of the Dallas Police Department’s new training bulletin on panhandling enforcement, issued in response…
