A trucker started a lethal chain of events early Tuesday morning when he stopped his semi on U.S. 75, parking it in the middle northbound lane of the freeway. It’s driver, Dwayne Simon, 37, didn’t put his flashers on, police say, he just left the truck there, in the dark…
Steven Apilado says he dreamed of Mister Rogers when he shot and killed his father two days after Thanksgiving in 2015. The dream, Apilado later told detectives, was like a TV commercial in which someone had thrown a tomato at Mister Rogers’ face. “I guess that was my dad getting…
Despite Monday’s 70-something degree respite, the first week of November has been among the hottest in Dallas’ recorded history. Three times, temperatures have cracked 90 degrees at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Before this year, 89 was the highest Dallas’ mercury had ever reached in November. According the National Weather Service,…
Do you ever get the feeling the whole purpose of the news is to convince you we’re all screwed by problems so huge that we might as well give up and binge-watch cable until the end comes? I do, and I write news. But every once in a while, thank…
Four-term Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez is considering challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott next November. If she throws her hat in the ring, she’ll be the first major Democratic contender for the governor’s mansion in 2018. If Valdez wins, she’ll be Texas’ third female governor, first Hispanic governor and first…
The World Series is over. The Houston Astros are champions for the first time in their 55-year history. The Rangers, just as they haven’t been in any of their 45 seasons, are not. For many Rangers fans, Houston’s triumph picked the scab that remains festering from the Rangers’ 2011 World…
This week, Texans will head to the polls for the state’s off-year constitutional amendment election. Dallas County residents, especially those who live in Dallas, will do some electoral heavy lifting as they vote on the city’s $1.05 billion bond package and a controversial measure that could change the way school…
Jacob Henderson, crying uncontrollably, told 911 dispatchers that his wife shot her two daughters, 7-year-old Kaylee and her 5-year-old half-sister, Kenlie, in the head. They’d been sleeping in the living room. “What did I do?” she can be heard saying in the background of the 911 call that the Henderson…
Ezekiel Elliott will play Sunday afternoon against the Kansas City Chiefs after all. On Friday morning, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Elliott an administrative stay, clearing the way for the running back to play prior to the court’s hearing arguments in his appeal next week. On Monday,…
It’s nearly certain at this point that the Cowboys are going to be without Ezekiel Elliott when they take the field against AFC West-leading Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday afternoon. Barring intervention from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the budding superstar will miss the team’s next six games,…
Victor Solorzano will be an old man when he gets out of federal prison — if he gets out. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsey sentenced Solorzano, 32, to 567 months (47 years and 3 months) in federal prison Thursday for his role in a southwest Dallas shootout with federal agents…
Barring another appeal, the state of Texas will execute notorious Deep Ellum child killer John Battaglia early next year, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced Tuesday. Battaglia shot his two daughters, Mary Faith and Liberty, in 2001 as their mother listened on the telephone. He’s been on death row…
There’s is unlikely to be any more action on Dallas’ remaining monuments to the Confederacy until 2018, according to information discussed at the latest Dallas City Council meeting about the city’s Confederate totems. Dallas quickly removed Oak Lawn Park’s Robert E. Lee statue in September but will deal with the…
In a little less than a week, Texas voters will head to the polls to cast their off-year ballots, filled with important if uninspiring items like bond elections and amendments to the state constitution. For Dallas County voters, perhaps the most contentious item on offer asks whether Dallas County Schools…
Very hard to know from our vantage point here in the boondocks how President Trump’s swamp-draining operation may be going in Washington, but we know how it’s going here. The swamp is full. We’ve got what may well be hundreds of millions of dollars in missing and misspent money given…
For the latest on U.S. District Judge Katherine Failla’s decision to reinstate Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game suspension, check out the Observer’s Monday night update. Just before 3 a.m. July 22, 2016, Tiffany Thompson called Columbus, Ohio, police to report an assault. Officers met her at a short-term rental property at 29 W. Third…
On Monday afternoon, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office identified a 19-year-old woman found in the trunk of a wrecked car Sunday morning. At about 10:45 a.m. Sunday, a driver called the Forney Police Department and reported that another driver had fired a shot at his or her car from a…
If you go to the polls Nov. 7 to vote on the city’s proposed bond, you’ve got a job ahead. It’s not going to be just a straight up and down yes or no deal for the whole ballot. If you did that, you would make some bad mistakes. You…
Ezekiel Elliott is likely to miss the Cowboys next six games, following a decision from U.S. District Judge Katherine Failla. Late on Monday night the judge decided to uphold the six game suspension handed to Elliott by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stemming from domestic violence allegations made by Elliott’s ex-girlfriend…
The Cowboys won the biggest game of their still young 2017 NFL season Sunday, beating the Redskins 33-19 in Maryland. The team now sits at 4-3, coming off its two best performances of the year as it heads into a vital three-game stretch. After the Cowboys’ victory against the Redskins,…
It doesn’t do us any good to just get mad at Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the regional transit agency, for doing such a terrible job. DART is not a guy; it’s an institution. Institutions don’t have feelings. They have budgets. Nor does it do any good, even in the wake…
J. Edgar Hoover was exasperated on the afternoon of Nov. 24, 1963. President John F. Kennedy had been dead for two days when the head of the FBI received word that his killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been murdered while in police custody. He knew who to blame, too: Dallas police…
