African men singing to the beat of a drum and about ten women dressed in long bold-colored dresses danced in an undulating circle in Fair Oaks Park on Saturday afternoon. With bright scarves wrapped around their heads, their bodies seemed to move like aquatic plants to the music and chants…
Hypothetically at least, the 6,100 Dallas restaurants, bars, school cafeterias, and food trucks are supposed to be inspected twice a year by city health inspectors. But when the responsible department’s budget is cut by 43 percent and its inspection staff by more than a third, its ability to conduct such…
Over the weekend, the Texas Tribune published one of those eye-opening, number-crunching reports the website has made its niche. This one is about weight-loss surgery, specifically weight-loss surgery that is paid for by taxpayers. This is a relatively new phenomenon, the Tribune notes. Medicare only started covering weight-loss surgery in…
The lesson of the Highland Park Party Barge is the lesson of Winfrey Point is the lesson of 30 years of history in East Dallas. At key rubber-meets-the-road moments, City Hall becomes the single worst enemy that inner city neighborhoods can confront. Forgive the Parkies, for they know not how…
The Trinity Strand Trail will someday run about eight miles from the old Trinity River channel, pass under Stemmons Freeway and out of the Design District, lope alongside Turtle Creek, loop beneath the DART/TRE tracks and the Tollway, then link up with the Katy Trail. That’s the plan, at least,…
View Larger Map Update at 10:48 a.m.: Police have identified the suspect as Kendrick McDaniel and announced that he died about 11 hours after the shooting.Original post: Over the weekend, a Dallas police officer shot an armed suspect at the Taco Bell at 4325 Camp Wisdom Road, adding to the…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. State District Judge Teresa Hawthorne had been on the bench for less than a year when she…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. On a cold night in 2009, SMU freshman Monika Korra was kidnapped at gunpoint by three men…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Her likeness graces the giant mural on the front glass of her father’s World Olympic Gymnastics Academy…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. At 5:45 a.m. on many weekdays, Lea Velez can be found in the parking lot of one…
In this week’s Dallas Observer, we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. You guys are competitive, I say to Yasmin Bhatia and April Allen, and I watch the muscles…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue. In January, Mayor Mike Rawlings held a closed-door meeting with 25 LGBT leaders. It was his way of…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Brek Shea just finished training at FC Dallas Stadium, and now he’s smashing oranges in the stadium…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. In the weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Mark Stroman, a Dallas man adorned with Neo-Nazi tattoos, went…
Southwest Airlines posted a cheeky little game on their Facebook page: Check out these seemingly identical photos of our stewardesses from the ‘first hostess class’ in 1971 and find the 10 differences (it’s sort of fun). Our first thought: Southwest hired go-go dancers as stewardesses? (check out the one woman’s…
Earlier this week, a federal judge signed an order directing the U.S. government to take possession of the Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton that had been sold last month by Dallas’ own Heritage Auctions. The fossil, the government said, had been looted from the Gobi Desert some time between 1995 and 2005…
Trouble seems to follow Fairview Police Chief Granver Tolliver wherever he goes. Back when he was a Dallas cop, soaring through the ranks to deputy chief, he became mired in an internal controversy over a vehicle accident in 1996. Department brass accused him of favoritism and of pulling the strings…
As I type this, Mayor Mike Rawlings is in a room at Shanghai’s Purple Palace Hotel, 7,000 miles away and 13 hours ahead of us. That makes it about 1 a.m. over there, so you might expect him to be sleeping, resting up for another big day at the U.S.-China…
A few moments ago, Parkland sent word that John Dragovits, its executive vice president and chief financial officer, is leaving the struggling hospital. Come mid-July, he’ll become the president and COO of Anthelio, a healthcare IT provider headquartered in Dallas. The press release, of course, makes no mention of Parkland’s…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Leslie Finical Halleck, author of research papers in plant ecology and botany, and general manager of one…
Texas is no stranger to beefs with the federal government. Look no further than its perennial pissing match with the EPA. Last week, Texas officials declared victory in another front of their skirmish with the feds, this one involving an obscure reptile, the dunes sagebrush lizard, found only in four…
Turns out, the people of Dallas don’t care much for voting — Dallas County ranked fourth in the state (out of 254 counties) for the fewest ballots cast among voting-age people. Even Harris County had a slightly better turnout, which unfortunately means the Asshole of the Universe, has us beat…
