First, the good news that really isn’t good news at all, but whatever. As of late Monday afternoon’s 96-34 Texas House vote, both chambers of the Legislature have passed medical marijuana reform legalization. Texans who suffer from intractable epilepsy and are able to get their hands on low-THC cannabidiol oil…
For the past month (or, if one date the onset of disaster to the first whisperings of an untoward relationship between the mayor and a developer, for the past six months), watching Richardson politics has been like observing a slow-moving train wreck — one in which the engineer stubbornly and…
The Dallas ISD School Board saved Anna Brining Monday afternoon. Brining, the principal at Rosemont Elementary school in North Oak Cliff, is popular with parents. When Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles said he wasn’t going to renew her contract at the end of the year, parents protested and some even…
Maybe you shouldn’t read this. I could be off. You know how they say a watched pot never boils? I have been staring at the pot of Dallas politics for so damn long, it may have affected my thinking. I have even had moments of doubting the existence of the…
Grapevine police Officer Robert Clark was not indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury Monday morning. Clark is the officer who shot Ruben Garcia Villalpando, who was unarmed, during a traffic stop. Villalpando led police on a chase. When he was eventually pulled over, he can be seen on a dashcam…
Something is going to happen to Dallas’ plastic bag fee, one way or another. The minimum 5 cent charge for a carryout plastic bag has already led to the city getting sued, it might be illegal and, at least to certain people in Dallas, is not even close to being an…
Hey, let’s take this new web site’s block-quote function for a spin. Here’s a memo I sent to the staff a short while ago. If you have any ideas about what we should look for in the next Dallas Observer editor, leave them in the comments. If you suggest fictional…
Texas State House Democrats did their Republican colleagues a favor Thursday.The minority caucus managed to stave off a vote on a bill that would have banned state employees from issuing same-sex marriage licenses, regardless of any federal action. Any bill that had not been voted on by Thursday night is…
Bilal Abood, the Mesquite man arrested Thursday as part of a counter-terrorism investigation, hasn’t committed any act of violence. Nor, so far as the government seems able to prove, has he threatened to commit an act of violence; if prosecutors have evidence to the contrary, they didn’t present it to…
A little news: On Monday, we will unveil a new and much-improved website that we feel strongly will improve your experience as readers and viewers and admirers and begrudging admirers and straight-up haters. The best way to preview it is to take a spin around the site for our awesome…
Much to the delight of rabidly conservative faux-hipsters, Anita Perry, erstwhile Texas Governor Rick Perry’s wife, took to Twitter Friday morning to announce that her husband will be announcing that he’s running for president during a June 4 event in Dallas…
A teenager in Brownwood almost died after going into cardiac arrest and collapsing in P.E. class. In the hospital, the boy and his family tell CBS, he wasn’t breathing for 20 minutes. Just as doctors were ready to declare him dead, he started breathing again. “His recovery has been incredible,”…
An Iraqi-born American citizen living in Mesquite has been charged with lying to federal agents after the FBI connected him to the Islamic State in Syria. Bilal Abood — who became a U.S. citizen in 2009 — was detained at DFW airport after he wasn’t allowed to board an international…
What was already a tough road leading to Blue Bell getting its products back on store shelves just got a lot tougher. Under a voluntary agreement entered into by the creamery and the states of Texas and Oklahoma, Blue Bell must produce trial ice cream before returning to stores, submit…
Thanks to the “large-scale” rains in the last week, the severe drought that’s consumed Texas for the better part of three years has been largely slaked, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Texas no longer has any areas that are classified as “D4” by the monitor. D4 or exceptional drought…
At the end of April, Josh Gravens was testifying in Austin, lobbying to support legislation affecting the criminal justice world. One week later, Gravens was back home in Dallas, in the Frank Crowley criminal courthouse, facing his own criminal charges that may put him away for up to 25 years…
Memo to Dallas ISD teachers: The kids you are teaching have smartphones. They are more than willing to record you. Do not say anything profane or threatening to them when you can’t see their hands. For the second time since the beginning of March, a video of a Dallas instructor…
Already, in the four days or so since Saturday’s Dallas municipal election, a narrative has sprung up. Mike Rawlings, the thinking goes, was given a decisive mandate by Dallas voters, reflected in his 46-point win over attorney Marcos Ronquillo. The mayoral election was a blowout, but trying to draw any…
Three occupants of an SUV died after it flipped into a house in North Oak Cliff. The house’s occupant was unharmed, according to police. As you can see in the photo, there’s a second car lodged in the house. According to various reporters at the scene, that car was parked…
Richardson’s City Council election is over. Come Monday when the council meets to canvass the results, Mayor Laura Maczka will no longer be mayor if, as she previously announced, she declines the second term voters had no choice but to elect her to. Surely it’s past time to shut up…
As has happened with regularity over the past couple of years, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is almost out of pentobarbital, it’s drug of choice for killing condemned murderers. According to information released by the TDCJ Monday to the Texas Tribune, it has three pentobarbital doses left. That’s enough…
BY CRAIG MALISOW USDA inspectors are supposed to conduct yearly visits of facilities that use animals for research. But facilities are also supposed to monitor their treatment of animals through the use of a so-called institutional animal care and use committee. These committees oversee a facility’s experiments on animals to…
