The way the news is these days: In the middle of a storm of disgusting national stories about male sexual predators, we get our own local countercase — a fired Dallas County assistant district attorney, sobbing on camera, offering every conceivable excuse in the book for her terrible behavior with…
Mary Dozier was watching the nightly news when she saw a report about a child who was upset because she was being taken away from her foster mom and given to her birth mom. “She didn’t know the foster parent wasn’t her mother,” says Dozier, who had a child of…
The University of Texas at Arlington is one bout away from scoring its first major championship in front of a roaring crowd in a Las Vegas stadium. The only things standing in its way are the best and the brightest from Louisiana State University and their offensive line of deadly assassins…
Members of the Dallas City Council greeted Give Right-Dallas, Dallas city staff’s latest proposal to combat aggressive panhandling, with less-than-stellar reviews Monday. The plan, which would cost about $200,000, calls for a public education campaign that would encourage Dallas residents and visitors to give cash to homeless support organizations through…
It looks as if Dallas City Hall may finally get itself out from under a billion-dollar sword of Damocles by resolving a bundle of police and fire back-pay lawsuits. After two decades of failure to get it done, what has changed? People on both sides of the dispute, speaking to…
Twelve apartments are still uninhabitable after a floor collapsed at a Denton student complex early Sunday morning. According to the Denton Fire Department, the flooring of a third-floor unit at The Ridge on Colorado Boulevard caved in during a party with at least 30 guests. Officials were forced to cut…
Last week, wide-eyed technophiles, venture capitalists and hopeful market disruptors gathered in Portugal for a conference called the Web Summit. The venue may have been in Lisbon, but the news from the conference has a direct bearing on North Texas — Uber announced it was collaborating with NASA on a…
Calling in outside experts never was the Dallas way, sadly.
The first trial stemming from the 2015 shootout between rival motorcycle clubs at a Waco Twin Peaks restaurant ended late Friday afternoon when state District Judge Matt Johnson declared a mistrial. Johnson made his decision after jurors told him three times that they were hopelessly deadlocked as to whether Jacob…
The city of Dallas will be two-thirds of the way to escaping one of its biggest financial threats, pending a Tuesday vote from the Dallas City Council. On Friday evening, the city announced that it has reached a settlement for about $62 million in four of the six police and…
When new Dallas police Chief U. Renee Hall took over in September, she promised to look at the department from top to bottom. Last month, she announced plans to overhaul the Dallas Police Department’s command staff, drastically reducing the number of deputy and assistant chiefs serving under her. On Thursday,…
The other day in the daily paper, there was an item of a type I call a bathroom-wall story. By bathroom wall, I mean you read it and sort of get what they’re getting at, but there’s a lot of context missing, and you’re not sure why you’re reading it…
Dallas police announced Thursday afternoon that they’ve made an arrest in Monday’s robbery and murder of a 27-year-old woman at a Dollar General in East Oak Cliff. A yet-to-be identified 15-year-old is in police custody for allegedly killing Gabrielle Simmons, a mother of six. On Monday night, a suspect police…
Ezekiel Elliott will not take the field with his Cowboys teammates Sunday afternoon in Atlanta. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday afternoon that Elliott must begin serving his NFL-imposed suspension immediately, denying the running back’s request that the suspension be put on hold as he continues to…
Finally, as the Cowboys prepare for their week 10 clash with the Falcons in Atlanta, the biggest question mark hanging over their still-promising season is set to resolve itself. One way or another, Ezekiel Elliott’s legal battle with the NFL over the six-game suspension Roger Goodell handed him in August…
The ailing Alexander Mansion is finally getting a roof, but owners still need to raise millions of dollars more to save the historic Ross Avenue survivor. In a cover story that ran last month, the Dallas Observer documented the plight of the deteriorating 12,500-square-foot mansion. Since 1930, it’s been the…
With all the anger and frustration Philip Kingston has caused his colleagues during his four years on the Dallas City Council, his critics around the horseshoe weren’t going to miss an opportunity to get in their licks when they could. And on Wednesday, with Kingston facing city ethics charges because…
Dallas County voters cast ballots Tuesday to kill a school district — kill a school district — by a margin of almost 17 percentage points. What does that mean? All right, you and I know the backstory on this particular so-called school district — not a real school district, quarter-million-dollar…
Wednesday’s cold, rainy morning was busy as usual for Dallas ISD and all of its students who take buses to get to school. But the nine school districts that receive bus service from Dallas County Schools will have to find new transportation after voters’ Tuesday night decision to shut down…
As the final results in Texas’ off-year election rolled in last night, the city chalked up big victories for each of the 10 bond proposals placed on the ballot by the Dallas City Council. Seven amendments to the Texas Constitution were rubber stamped in Dallas and around the state, as…
Dallas police are searching for a suspect after a Monday night robbery and murder at a Dollar General store in south Oak Cliff. At about 7:30 p.m., according to police, a man walked into the store with a gym bag and a pistol. He was wearing jeans with jagged cutouts on…
These are strange times, indeed, so I find myself having to say something here at the beginning that I don’t think I could ever have imagined uttering a long time ago: I am not writing this column in order to mock, disparage or make hay somehow of the shooting deaths…
