Dallas Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott can’t move fast enough to escape the shadow of domestic violence accusations. The Columbus, Ohio, city attorney’s office declined to press charges against Elliott, due to conflicting statements from witnesses and Elliott’s ex-girlfriend and accuser, Tiffany Thompson. But yesterday Tobert S. Tobias, the assistant…
Tuesday afternoon, Texas Agriculture Commissioner and top Donald Trump surrogate Sid Miller’s Twitter account called Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton a “cunt.” The tweet was quickly deleted, but not before the Observer screengrabbed it. Just after 4 p.m., whoever was operating Miller’s account tweeted that the account had been hacked…
Dallas County Commissioners removed Randy Smith from his post as election judge of precinct 4070 in Oak Cliff Tuesday. Smith, who is also the Democratic chair for precinct 4070, referred to black people as “niggers” on Facebook last summer. On July 12, Smith posted the following statements: 1. “why do people…
Brad Simmons calls serving in the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s the highlight of his military career. He served as a fire support officer in an Army tank company and drove one of those “crappy M113s with a bunch of antennas.” “That was one of my tanks,” says…
No one, it seems, will be charged with a crime in the South Dallas dog mauling death of Antoinette Brown. The Dallas Police Department announced Monday that there is no conclusive link between Brown and the seven dogs impounded near the Rutledge Street vacant lot on which Brown was killed…
At various points in the election season just ending, each side complained bitterly about the media coverage of the other. During Trump’s good months, his Republican primary opponents and then later the Clinton campaign were convinced the media would never stop lavishing him with free publicity. And of course later…
Over the last several months a very pointed debate has been forming up behind the scenes over what kind of park the city should build along the Trinity River between the flood control levees downtown. One camp, made up mainly of younger citizens from varied walks of life, would like…
Over the weekend, law enforcement officers in West Texas finished searching landfills in Alpine, Presidio and Odessa without finding any sign of missing Sul Ross University student Zuzu Verk. Monday, the Alpine Police Department increased the reward for information to $200,000, raised entirely through private donations. Verk graduated from Timber Creek…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and the head of Dallas’ Domestic Violence Task Force, Dallas City Council member Jennifer Gates, have paid a lot of attention to domestic violence. For all of that, the city still has a gaping hole when it comes to the care and resources that are available…
City officials are ready to jump out of their skins. A series of recent City Hall internal emails, apparently already in the hands of the Justice Department in Washington, show Dallas’ city auditor, Craig Kinton, accusing City Hall of lying to federal officials about millions in unaccounted federal housing funds…
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and, most of all, Attorney General Ken Paxton are not content to leave well enough alone when it comes to the protections afforded to Texas’ same-sex married couples. On Friday the trio waded back into the waters they’d seemingly abandoned in 2015,…
John David Smith opened Rock ‘n’ Roll Vapes in the heyday of what many considered the Wild West in the vaping industry. Thousands of electronic cigarette shops like Smith’s in Arlington had been appearing across the country since vaping appeared on the scene in 2007. Mostly mom-and-pop vape shops in…
We know you’re busy. So here’s a roundup of the Observer’s news of the week. City Hall Shoehorns the Byron Nelson Venue Change Into Its Grow South Gentrification Plan A two-pronged pincer maneuver of rolling gentrification is underway in both southwest and southeast Dallas, and this week’s announcement of a…
Vine’s incessantly looping time on our gadgets is coming to and end. Twitter’s announced on Thursday that it would shut down its ancillary video attachment in the coming months. Among the public relations speak his that the platform can’t generate enough revenue to stay afloat in the long-term, competing with…
At its core, the Texas-tied, India-based, multi-million dollar phone scam ring broken up by the feds this month was a sophisticated exploitation of the unsophisticated. Now, those the U.S. Department of Justice are accusing of fraud are facing decades in jail and millions of dollars in fines and restitution. Here’s…
Mayor and allies talk nice but support discrimination when it’s time to vote
The first six games of the Cowboys 2016 season have gone better than anyone possibly could’ve hoped. Despite Tony Romo not taking a snap after injuring his back during his first preseason game and Dez Bryant having failed to make much of an impact thanks to a knee fracture suffered…
The AT&T Byron Nelson PGA TOUR golf tournament would have found its way to South Dallas’ newly opened Trinity Forest Golf Club whether or not Mayor Mike Rawlings and the Dallas City Council got involved. But they brought their Grow South banners on Wednesday anyway, setting them up on the 10th tee…
The city of Dallas is not going to be the test case for the state of Texas’ ban on ordinances that require landlords to take affordable housing vouchers. Wednesday, the Dallas City Council voted 9-6 against enacting an income non-discrimination, later adopting a half-measure that will require builders getting certain…
There was a mutiny of sorts at Tuesday night’s DART board meeting. Five Dallas-appointed members voted against the expressed will of the Dallas City Council, despite being appointed by the council members. As a result, DART will attempt to build the D2 subway line through downtown Dallas and the suburb-connecting…
Pimp shot in Carrollton, Pimp killed in Carrollton, Suspected pimp shot in Carrollton, Sex trafficking in Carrollton, Sex trafficking, sex trafficking minors, pimping, prostitution, child prostitution, sex trafficking in Denton County
It was supposed to be a simple date night in the small Texas town of Alpine. She drove more than six hours from her parents house in Keller to go to the movies with her on-again/off-again boyfriend Robert Fabian. With short blond hair and hazel eyes, Zuzu Verk is full…
