This story, at least in part, is about a zoning change. But it’s interesting, we promise. On Wednesday afternoon, as new Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax sat in on his first city council meeting, the council heard an item about a seemingly innocuous zoning change. Michael Coker, a land developer,…
A Texas appeals court has reinstated a whistleblower lawsuit three campus police officers filed against Collin County College, claiming they suffered workplace retaliation for reporting crimes by district coworkers. Two years have passed since the officers filed their case in state district court against against Collin County College, alleging they…
We know you’re busy, so here’s a roundup of the week;s news, from the Dallas Observer. Talking Pension Crisis, Housing, Transportation With City Councilman Lee Kleinman The District 11 council member sits for a lengthly — and unabashedly wonky — discussion of the future of the city’s finances, transportation and…
Rosa Maria Ortega was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday after being convicted Thursday of two counts of illegal voting. Ortega, 37, will also pay a $5,000 fine for casting ballots illegally during the 2012 general election and 2014 GOP primary runoff in Dallas County. Ortega, according to prosecutors,…
Dallas City Council Member Scott Griggs said ruefully to me yesterday, “There are two things in Dallas you’re not allowed to ask about — the Trinity toll road and the State Fair of Texas.” Here’s what happens if you do. As Peter Simek reported in D Magazine earlier this week,…
Dallas County Health and Human Services announced Thursday that three cases of mumps have been diagnosed at a Dallas County high school, bringing the county’s total number of diagnoses this year to seven. In each case, the county says, the person infected has contracted the virus locally. In light of…
Four members of the Dallas City Council, all of whom represent the city on the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Board, intervened in Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ ongoing lawsuit against the pension Wednesday afternoon. In their filing, the council members ask that the fund be placed in receivership as it…
Nothing could be more plain. The blame for the city’s dearth of low-income housing — expressed politically, in policy, in voting and in what people say on the record — lies squarely with City Hall. Every major action with bearing on this issue taken by the current mayor, the City…
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, the Phoenix man who helped plan and supplied guns for the 2015 attack on a Muhammad-themed art contest in Garland, is going to federal prison for 30 years, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton decided Wednesday. Kareem, 44, became the first person convicted by a United States jury…
Yesterday, four of the county’s commissioners and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins approved a resolution declaring Dallas County a “Welcoming Community.” The resolution, while nonbinding, affirms the county’s stance that undocumented residents are “integral members of our community” and calls on local law enforcement agencies to “end nonessential collaborations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” As…
Sports and fashion were once totally separate institutions. For better or worse, that is no longer the case as the influence of marketing and music impact what athletes wear. Fashion has been as fickle a mistress in Dallas’ sports scene over the years as in any arena. Now that we enter one…
A couple days ago The Fort Worth Star-Telegram published the transcript of a voice recording in which Fort Worth police Officer William A. Martin explained the Dec. 21 arrest of a Fort Worth woman and her two daughters by saying, in part, “This all got blown out of proportion with…
On Tuesday afternoon, the United States Army Corps of Engineers granted an easement that will allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to go under a portion of the Missouri River known as Lake Oahe in North Dakota. The easement, sought by the Dallas-based builders of the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, will allow…
Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson approached the shallow grave outside of Alpine knowing in his heart they had finally found 22-year-old Zuzu Verk, a former University of North Texas student who moved to the Alpine area to attend college. She’d been missing since the early morning of Oct. 12, and…
Dallas City Councilman Lee Kleinman represents District 11. Last week he sat down with the Dallas Observer to talk about the city police and fire pension crisis, the future of a car-free Dallas, housing in the city and his upcoming election challenge from real estate blogger Candy Evans. Get ready…
People should start paying me not to write anything positive about them. Just over a week ago I wrote something positive about Jesse Moreno, vice chair of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board, and now I see on this Wednesday’s upcoming City Council agenda there will be an effort to…
The city is in a state of flux, but the past is closer than you might think. Sometimes all you need is the right vantage — or some altitude — to see the sweep of history. That is the case when talking about the Cedars, once a high-end neighborhood just…
As Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s gender-based bathroom bill battles it way to become law, the Texas Association for Business finds itself under fire for a claim that such a law could cost Texas’ economy as much as $8.5 billion and 185,000 jobs. The bill requires people to use public facilities consistent…
Let me go back to an earlier point. I still say the money situation that the city is in right now makes absolutely no sense unless there is a monumental leak or a series of leaks somewhere. And I think the new city manager ought to go looking. Things, after all,…
Anthony Harrison Bell was a fugitive from law enforcement for 17 years before his capture. Known as “Pajaro,” or the “Bird,” the 58-year-old drug smuggler disappeared shortly after he pleaded guilty in 1995 to his role in the Jose Paz Garcia drug trafficking organization. He was convicted along with 26…
We know you’re busy, so here’s a roundup of new from the week, courtesy of the Dallas Observer. After Two Years Away, Dwaine Caraway Is Coming Back for His City Council Seat Dwaine Caraway announced at Dallas City Hall on Wednesday afternoon that, after a two-year hiatus, he is coming…
A U.S. Border Patrol agent found skeletal remains in a shallow grave not far from where Zuzu Verk, a 22-year-old North Texas woman, had gone missing nearly four months ago in the Sunny Glen area northwest of Alpine. Local news reports Verk is the only missing person’s case in the area…
