On Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott put forward the “Texas Plan,” a radical proposal to reshape the U.S. Constitution and shift power from the federal to state governments by calling what’s known as an Article V Convention. Under the Constitution’s Article V, a two-thirds super-majority of state legislatures can call…
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…
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…
Tuesday, it appeared that that “affluenza” teen and DWI killer Ethan Couch would be back in Tarrant County to face the limited music stemming from his flight to Mexico sometime late this week. He and his mother Tonya, who appears to have aided her son’s absconding following a missed probation…
For what it’s worth, Texas is still the death-penalty capital of the United States, which in turn employs capital punishment more frequently than any other western country. Only Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and China — none of them shining beacons of human rights and individual liberty — kill more prisoners. In 2015,…
The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments today — again — in Fisher v. University of Texas, so colleges and universities all over America will be on edge — again — to see if UT has bollixed up all affirmative action admissions programs for good. But “for good” has been a…
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas did what’s been inevitable for a couple of weeks and sued the state of Texas in federal court Monday. The suit comes after Governor Greg Abbott and officials at the Texas Office of the Inspector General said in October that they would stop any Planned…
Late at night in January 2014, a group of teenage boys walked into the bedroom of a neighbor without being invited, claims a Southlake police report. They asked for a grinder, which, the Southlake PD’s report explains, “is commonly used with marihuana.” The boys left and the neighbor called 911…
On Friday morning in the bowels of the Frank Crowley Courts building, Dallas County’s leading criminal justice policymakers reminisced about the bad ol’ days at the Lew Sterrett jail. County Commissioner John Wiley Price recalled the time five years ago when the county, faced with a choice between drastically trimming…
You’re forgiven if you have trouble keeping straight all the times that the Johnson & Johnson has gotten in trouble. In recent years, the pharmaceutical maker has faced an FBI investigation over a surgical device that caused doctors to accidentally spread cancer in women, multibillion-dollar criminal penalties for marketing a…
Now that she has returned from the lengthy mental-health sabbatical that put a bold-faced exclamation point on her remarkably tumultuous first several months in office, Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk is projecting an air of super-competence. Not only is she fielding the public’s questions (and quite deftly, by all…
When it comes to prison phone calls, security is kinda a big deal. The whole premise behind the calls being recorded is security. Doing so, states and counties have argued, prevents crime both inside and outside of jail. Securus Technologies, the Dallas-based company that provides prison and jail phone services…
One of the vagaries of a process filled with them — suits to remove Texas public officials — is that the county in which the official serves can be charged with appointing the prosecuting attorney in the case. Normally, the choice isn’t difficult, because counties in Texas have an elected…
The trial that could remove Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk from office is developing, but it isn’t really coming into focus. It has a judge, David Peeples, who was assigned the case after two local judges removed themselves. It has filings on both sides that indicate where the case’s…
I get that Hillary kicked ass in that Benghazi hearing, but in national politics I’m strictly a peanut gallery guy. I know that The Christian Science Monitor asked recently if it’s already inevitable that Hillary Clinton’s running mate will be Julian Castro, HUD secretary and former San Antonio mayor, and…
If you want to understand why the Justice Department is making the historic move to release 6,000 federal drug inmates on November 1, do not read any stories clearly intended for terrified gated-community-dwelling suburbanites, like this AP report, warning that “one inmate whose punishment was cut was described in 2012…
Now that Susan Hawk is back to work as Dallas County’s DA after seeking treatment for clinical depression, she should offer her prosecutors paid maternity leave. Because why not? It’s a decent thing to do, but even better for Hawk, it would be a badass political move. Hawk is the…
Same-sex marriage became legal across the United States in June and, thus far at least, there’s been very little substantive opposition. Through County Clerk John Warren, Dallas County began issuing licenses to same-sex couples the same day the Supreme Court ruled. The vast majority of Warren’s counterparts quickly fell in…
Fariha and Mohammad Ashfaq’s marriage was brief. They wed in their native Pakistan in December 2007 but spent only a few months together before Mohammed returned to his home in Fort Worth. They lived together for a few additional months in Texas after Fariha acquired a visa in June 2009, but…
First the basics: Developer Tim Headington — the guy behind the revitalized Joule Hotel — wants to build an outlet of the upscale retailer Forty Five Ten across Main Street from the boutique hotel. He’s torn down a couple of old buildings abutting the similarly old Wilson Building. That building’s…
One of the smartest things former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said to me when she was serving on the City Council was, “In Dallas, the most important thing is never to say anything about anything, ever.” I agreed with her. Sometimes it’s almost but not really funny. This is a…
Yesterday afternoon Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk belatedly offered an explanation for her mysterious three-week absence from her office, announcing in a statement that she was battling a “serious episode of depression” and that, to more effectively cope with the disease, she would be taking an unpaid, four-week leave of…
