As is ordained in the city charter, the first Monday following the 30th calendar day after the final canvass of the general election is Dallas’ inauguration day. The city’s 14 City Council members and mayor each took an oath of office at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in the morning…
Yesterday, Dana Goldstein, who covers a lot of things for The New York Times, including education, took note of Dallas schools in a story about reform efforts here, calling Dallas, “a national leader in trying to figure out how to encourage students of all backgrounds to willingly go to school…
Dallas state Representative Victoria Neave’s month just went from bad to worse. Court documents released Monday afternoon reveal that the freshman Democrat, fresh off the completion of her first regular session in Austin, had a blood alcohol level of at least .15 when Dallas police arrested her just before 11:30…
Gov. Abbott changes the legality of carrying knives longer than five and half inches and makes it more of a location issue than an outright ban on certain kinds of knives.
Revolution never happens in one fell swoop. It’s a process. I think what we just witnessed in our recently completed Dallas City Council election was a very early stage in the process. This election was the local equivalent of the 1825 Decembrist revolt against Czar Nicholas. Not the full-tilt boogie…
On June 28, the Dallas City Council will have the chance to sign off on the city’s first permanent memorial to the five Dallas police officers killed July 7 last year. The proposed memorial sculpture will sit in front of the flagpoles at Jack Evans Police Headquarters in the Cedars,…
On Friday, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia announced its finalists for its 2017 awards. The Dallas Observer is nominated in five different categories, chosen from 817 entries from 67 publications across the United States and Canada. The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland judged the entries. In…
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ensured Thursday afternoon that Dallas County voters will have the final say on the fate of Dallas County Schools, the bureaucracy that doesn’t operate any schools but only provides bus service. The school district is a relic of a time when countywide districts, rather than city…
All the talk has been good so far about a new regime at Dallas City Hall under recently hired Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax and the new city attorney, Larry Casto. Their new byword is supposed to be transparency. You could fool me. On my first real challenge to them,…
Dallas still hasn’t shaken the Exxxotica monkey off its back. Although the case was dismissed, the Dallas City Council committed Wednesday to spending at least another $157,000 on its lawsuit to keep the porn convention away from the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center. This new expense brings the city’s total…
Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Imagine your neighbor has a burned-out VW van, six broken, badly stained toilets and part of a rotten skateboard ramp in his front yard. You call the city on him. How would you like it if the city inspector told the guy he…
On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council voted to spend nearly $2 million to remove a whitewater feature in the Trinity River. The infamous Standing Wave, installed at a cost of more than $4 million in 2011, has never worked as planned. The wave was intended to have a challenging middle section for…
Bandidos’ Fort Worth president Howard Wayne Baker heads to prison, a second home for many one percenter motorcycle clubs, after he orders the execution of Geoffrey Brady.
In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive. They must have consent from male guardians to pursue education, get jobs and receive hospital treatment. In 2011, Manal al-Sharif had enough. She posted a YouTube video of her driving. Saudi authorities arrested her and confiscated her car. Her public action inspired a…
For a variety of reasons, Major League Baseball’s annual draft takes place with considerably less fanfare than those of the country’s three other major sports leagues. While the NFL, NBA and NHL drafts are offseason showcases, MLB’s takes place with little pomp and ceremony every June, with picks announced as…
Now we know. We can predict future local elections. Based on the outcomes in the just-concluded Dallas City Council elections, we have a reliable yardstick by which to know in advance who’s going to lose, who’s going to win and what the real issue is. To know who’s going to…
U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay sentenced the owner of a Dallas home health care company to 17 years in federal prison Tuesday for his role in what authorities have called the biggest instance of home health care fraud in the history of Medicare and Medicaid. Lindsay also ordered Wilbert James…
Last Thursday morning, the Facebook page for downtown Dallas’ Serj Books announced that the bookstore and coffee shop was closed for the summer. “Do not look for us,” the message said. “September is just days away. We love you all. Respect.” There may have been a reason the shop’s owner,…
Let’s make sure we don’t lose sight of one extremely interesting aspect of the big local political turnover that just happened. One of the most surprising outcomes in last Saturday’s City Council runoff elections, the victory of challenger Omar Narvaez over incumbent Monica Alonzo in District 6 in West Dallas,…
On Saturday afternoon, a couple of hours before the first results would be released in Dallas’ three City Council runoffs, the specter that had hung over Dallas municipal elections all spring reared its ugly head again. Dallas County Elections Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole announced that the vast majority of mail-in ballots…
In just a week, Dallas’ newest City Council will be inaugurated at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. After some pomp and circumstance in the morning, the City Council will convene that afternoon to draw for seats and offices. Thanks to the events of Saturday night, the City Council also…
The street racers thundered down the stretch of roadway near an industrial area in the 8400 block of Eastpoint Drive last Saturday night. They drove mostly foreign cars, but Mustangs and other American-made muscle cars sometimes made an appearance. When the racers appeared again last Monday, Dallas police’s Southeast Deployment and Crime…
