Reverchon Park is one of Dallas’ best public spaces, an unexpectedly sylvan expanse sandwiched between Uptown and Oak Lawn. Yesterday morning, the loveliness was marred by an overpowering stench of gasoline. like someone had dumped out several gallons of fuel a few feet away. The smell had no obvious source. There…
Tonya Couch, the mother of affluenza-afflicted teen Ethan Couch, is back in Tarrant County after taking a probation-dodging trip to Mexico with her son. She and Ethan were arrested in Puerto Vallarta in late December. They’d been gone for almost a month, having ditched North Texas following discovery of a…
I’m worn out. I spent part of my day trying to get Howard Garrett, the Dallas-based national radio host known as the “The Dirt Doctor,” to take an hour or two away from his lifelong battle with Big Chem, Texas A&M and the pesticide industry and pat himself on the…
This was not the Trump show. There were far less people — 750 maybe, compared with at least 10,000 for the Donald. There was less obvious vitriol and the whole thing lacked the fever dream feeling that seeped from the pores of Trump’s September rally at the American Airlines Center…
For most of the aughts, Bryan Kilburn was the city’s Great Trinity Forest guy. He counted trees in the 6,000-acre woods and, as the forest’s senior program manager, spoke on the forest’s behalf at City Council and community meetings. He was instrumental in creating the city’s plan for preserving the…
It looks like the only thing that’s standing in the way of the Dallas Police Department and citing-and-releasing people in possession of marijuana is a formal vote. Wednesday, the full Dallas City Council was briefed on the issue for the first time, and after the meeting, it was clear that…
John Portillo, Jeffrey Pike and Justin Forster, all national leaders of the Bandidos motorcycle gang have been arrested on federal racketeering and drug charges related to a Portillo-ordered war the group waged against the rival Cossacks, according to federal authorities. Beginning in 2013, the Bandidos, under the leadership of Portillo,…
Two of the biggest names dumped by Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk during the months before she sought treatment for suicidal ideation and severe depression at a Houston mental health facility have given affidavits in the lawsuit that, if successful, will see Hawk removed from office. Bill Wirskye and…
This week’s Dallas Observer features a story on the rising use of electronic implants in high-end universities and tattoo parlors in North Texas. It turns out there are commercially available radio frequency identification (RFID) implants that people can order from the website of companies like Dangerous Things and Cyberise.me. Body hackers…
Ryan Mills snaps black surgical gloves on his hands and plucks a syringe off a paper-shrouded tray. Its 10-gauge needle gleams under the fluorescent lights. Hidden inside the tip is a half-inch long electronic implant. Mills prepares for the procedure with professional quickness and ease that come with experience. He’s…
In all the discussion surrounding Texas’ open-carry law when it was being considered by the state legislature last spring, the issue of individual liberty and Second Amendment rights came up a lot. The notion that allowing handguns to be carried en plein air might seriously reduce crime was a comparatively…
Like a lot of Texans, we here at the Observer have been looking for our first sighting of an openly carried handgun. Some are excited, some worried, but we’re all curious. Since January 1, carrying over one’s shoulder or on one’s hip has been legal, assuming the handgun owner also happens…
This latest round of catastrophic flooding on the Mississippi River and its tributaries is trying to tell us something: Don’t believe a single thing our local or federal officials tell us about flood safety. But if we were capable of learning that lesson, we wouldn’t be where we are right…
Sunday, we are sad to say, was the last day for the Dallas location of Sherlock’s Pub — the one located near NorthPark Center at the corner of U.S. 75 and Park Lane. In a statement, the restaurant group that owns Sherlock’s and its sister locations said that the bar…
On the other hand, what if the affluenza judge was right? What if Ethan Couch was raised in a moral vacuum, in an ethical deprivation chamber so devoid of worthwhile moral guidance that he couldn’t even tell drunk from sober, let alone good from evil? Is that possible? If it…
For anyone still paying attention to the Dallas Cowboys as they closed out their season with a sad loss to the halfway-trying Washington Redskins on Sunday, the failure of this past season must seem like one of the most disappointing in franchise history. Sure, there have been times when the…
Earlier this week, Eric Nicholson told you about the latest travesty in the Great Trinity Forest: a long muddy gash of felled trees, cut through the woods by a contractor working to build the private Trinity Forest Golf Club on city property. Ben Sandifer, one of the chief defenders of…
Amidst all the hand-wringing, disgust and anger, one of the most striking things about the case of Ethan Couch — the kid whose family was so affluent and free of boundaries, his lawyers claimed, that he didn’t know the consequences of his actions — is how undignified the family acted…
It’s that time of year when we look back at what was and give serious thought to what we need to do to become better people in the year ahead. Which, come to think of it, probably explains why we drink so heavily on New Year’s Eve. Either direction we…
Half of the Couch duo is back in the United States. Ethan’s Couch’s mom Tonya, having been denied the injunction against deportation granted her son by Mexican authorities, was flown to Los Angeles late Wednesday by Mexican immigration officials. The United States Marshals took her into custody at the airport…
TCU quarterback and Dallas native Trevone Boykin was charged with a felony in San Antonio early Thursday morning after a bar fight spiraled out of control. Like many brawls of its kind, it started with “some jaw jackin’ at the bar about the game” between patrons and members of the team…
Now that 2015 is drawing to a close, the time is right to continue what has become an Observer tradition: looking back at the year that was and marveling at the incredible number of traffic tickets North Texas municipalities handed out to drivers. The methodology is simple. Texas’ Office of…
