Friday afternoon, Dallas County Health and Human Services confirmed the county’s second 2016 death from the West Nile Virus. The victim, whom the county did not name, was in their late 50s and lived in the 75248 zip code in far North Dallas. Forty-two Dallas County residents have contracted the…
In retrospect and now that her very sad saga is at an end, Susan Hawk, the Dallas County district attorney who resigned last week for mental health reasons, looks more and more like a puppet in a macabre political marionette show. In the first act in 2014, Hawk played the…
Politicians and social media have opened up a new low in the art of political discourse. Late Thursday night and early Friday morning, Dallas Republican state Representative Jason Villalba took to Twitter — something he does often with inconsistent results — to say that he plans to push for an…
After nearly ten years of marriage, Marlena’s husband left her. This would not be the first time he had left her and their two young children — many times he had disappeared for days with no explanation. He was always in and out of jail. But this time, it would…
Friday afternoon, both sides in the battle over the Dakota Pipeline got a victory. First U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request for an injunction stopping the building of the oil pipeline. Then, shortly after the ruling, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S…
We know you’re busy. Here’s a Friday bundle to serve as your quick political fix. Susan Hawk Quits as Dallas County DA, Abbott to Pick ReplacementThe long-missing district attorney steps down. We have the consequences, reactions and the full text of her farewell letter. 7 Things We Found Digging…
Dallas Police Chief David Brown’s first public statement since announcing his retirement last week was a tour of his time on top of one of the biggest police departments in the United States. He listed all the hits, and most of the misses: July 7, Dixon Circle, community policing, officer…
Here we are, two days before the Cowboys kick off 2016 against the Giants on Sunday afternoon, and it’s impossible to know how to feel. Sure, the offensive unit that will line up against the G-Men looked explosive throughout the preseason, and will have full-strength Dez Bryant for the first…
Late Tuesday, the city attorney of Columbus, Ohio, announced that he would not be filing charges against Dallas Cowboys rookie Ezekiel Elliott for domestic assault. In July, Elliott’s ex-girlfriend, Tiffany Thompson accused him of attacking her in a car, but police didn’t make an arrest. The city reviewed the evidence…
The city of Dallas got poured out of court again yesterday in its decades long extra-legal persecution of Kennedy assassination expert Robert Groden, making the 82nd time the city has lost against Groden in its own municipal courts, not counting a major slap-down suffered by the city in the 5th…
When the city of Dallas gets its first local, mosquito-transmitted case of the Zika virus, Dallas County will likely begin aerial spraying of mosquito-killing insecticide. Thanks to a Wednesday vote, it will do so with the blessing of the Dallas City Council as well. Dallas County Health and Human Services…
“So a guy walks into a bar downtown and asks, ‘Where’s the closest subway station?’ ‘Sorry buddy, the closest thing you’ll find to a subway here is a Quiznos,’” the bartender replies. That’s how Amanda Austin, downtown resident and owner of Dallas Comedy House in Deep Ellum, started her comments…
The Columbus, Ohio, city attorney’s office will not prosecute Dallas Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott for domestic battery. Tiffany Thompson, Elliott’s ex-girlfriend, had accused the former Ohio State star of injuring her on at least five previous occasions. Early on the morning of July 22, Thompson called Columbus police. Elliott,…
I’ve given up proposing that we kill the homeless. No one ever takes me seriously. Some wag like Tim Rogers at D Magazine always chimes in saying I’m copying Jonathan Swift (“A Modest Proposal,” 1729) – in other words, it’s satire – in spite of my very best efforts to speak…
After 20 troubled months on the job and repeated stays at treatment centers to deal with depression, Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk resigned Tuesday afternoon. Her replacement will be named by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and will serve through the 2018 general election. “It’s been an honor and a…
South Dallas activist Dominique Alexander awaits Judge Gracie Lewis’ decision, flanked by his defense attorneys. Alexander is not worried. “I haven’t done anything new,” he told the Observer on Aug. 25, the day before his hearing. “It’s kind of like double jeopardy. So this thing ain’t going nowhere.” He is no stranger to Lewis’…
Eventually, Texas’ Open Carry movement was going to respond to the “Cocks Not Glocks” protests that lampooned campus carry at the University of Texas at Austin. There, a couple thousand dildos served as stand-ins for the handguns that can now be carried on public college campuses throughout the state. Brett…
Last Thursday afternoon, 58-year-old Patrick Ward waited outside Austin Street Center, an emergency homeless shelter for men ages 45 and up and women 18 and up. He walked past the other men crowded under the shade of a tree on the corner of Hickory St., spilling around the corner along Jeffries…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton honored his dinner date with Amber Briggle, a mother of a transgender child who’s fighting for his right to use the bathroom. In a Equality Texas press release, Briggle said Paxton and his wife Angela met with her family on Thursday evening at their home…
We know you’re busy. So here’s a roundup for those news junkies who missed out and now need their Friday fix. When it Comes to Zika, Humans Are the Canaries in the Coal MineIf the mosquitoes in Dallas County are able to transmit the Zika virus, we won’t know it…
The entire dilemma faced by the national Republican Party – all of it, top to bottom, start to finish – can be explained through the prism of one small news item: Former Texas Governor Rick Perry will appear on the upcoming season of the television show Dancing with the Stars…
For almost everyone outside Dallas City Hall, David Brown’s Thursday announcement that he would be stepping down as Dallas police chief next month came as a complete shock. For Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and City Manager A.C. Gonzalez, however, the announcement came as no surprise. Brown, they said Thursday, had…
