Nearly five months have passed since the coronavirus pandemic first hit North Texas and everything is still topsy-turvy. Trying to keep up with the latest developments can give a person whiplash. Here’s Dallas County in a nutshell today: The daily coronavirus case rate is decreasing. Monday, Dallas County Health and…
The number of murders in Dallas is on track to surpass 200 for the second year in a row, and the pandemic’s economic damage threatens to drive many more renters from their homes. Affordable housing in the city is already in short supply. No wonder then that Dallas City Council…
Monday, the Trump administration announced it would be shaving four weeks off the deadline for people to respond to the 2020 census, effectively ensuring certain minority communities will be undercounted. Democratic lawmakers nationwide have complained that the move could hurt their chances of reelection since the census alters the way congressional…
U.S Rep. Colin Allred said it’s clear now that Texas reopened too soon and with too few precautions. “Though you can’t predict a pandemic, it didn’t have to be this way,” he said. Allred, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and representatives from Richardson Independent School District and UT Southwestern Medical…
To the chagrin of fans yearning for the best ol’ days, Nolan Ryan won’t regularly be at the Texas Rangers’ new home. But thanks to his bronze statue, the Hall-of-Fame, flesh-and-blood “Big Tex” will stand watch outside Globe Life Field. Courtesy of long-time public address announcer Chuck Morgan, Ryan’s 10-gallon…
Water balloons, rockets, snow cones and slime get top billing in most kids’ pantheon of summer vacation favorites. Luckily for children in Dallas’ high-poverty Frazier neighborhood, they now get to experience mainstays like those every Wednesday. After the pandemic hit, multiple Dallas nonprofits teamed to throw Pop Up Camp, a…
The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department has fumbled a few times with its COVID-19 protocols. First, employees were told not to wear masks because that would frighten the inmates. Then, the department started issuing its employees one disposable mask per week and told them to sanitize them with alcohol or Lysol…
When Angela Andrade was growing up, the story of Santos Rodriguez was a cautionary tale. Her family members would detail how 12-year-old Rodriguez and his 14-year-old brother were dragged from their home in Dallas’ old Little Mexico neighborhood and thrown into a Dallas Police Department vehicle. The details still haunt…
Since this summer’s resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests began, calls for racial justice have reached far and wide. Now, the music theory community is reckoning with its own white supremacy issues following a controversy stemming from the University of North Texas. Up for debate is the legacy of late…
Council Member Adam Bazaldua is working to rename a section of R.L. Thornton Freeway after a more deserving person – Juanita J. Craft. Even if you don’t know who Craft is, her name probably still sounds familiar to you. A recreation center at Baylor Scott Hospital bears her name, as…
Denton mom Tina Bennett likened last spring’s semester to a skirmish. After the coronavirus pandemic forced people into isolation, she would work her IT job from home while her two sons did their best to adjust to virtual learning. Her younger son, Koda, had an especially tough time. “It became…
Earlier this year, 200 people packed into Old Parkland to hear city leaders talk about the future of Dallas Area Rapid Transit. DART had some pretty big projects coming up, like the overhaul of its bus system and the D-2 downtown subway, and they were working toward major public transit…
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission slapped 18 club owners with suspensions after they participated in Freedom Fest, Saturday’s statewide bar protest that aimed to challenge the governor’s latest pandemic shutdown order. Organizer Chris Polone, who owns The Rail Club Live in Fort Worth, said he’s also under the gun. This week,…
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins says numerous complaints have been made about businesses where masks, among other things, cannot be worn all the time. Some of these businesses are bars in every sense of the word, but they’re open and are at risk of spreading the coronavirus. Jenkins called these…
Annemarie Aldrich is hunting for answers. At the coronavirus pandemic’s outset, her store, Denton’s Rose Costumes, began sewing masks for inmates and staff at the Denton County Jail. Dubbing the effort “Project Mask Makers,” Aldrich said volunteers delivered thousands of handmade cloth masks that were tailored to jail officials’ specifications. Then,…
East Texas U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, who has shunned mask-wearing during the pandemic because he’s Louie Gohmert, has tested positive for the coronavirus. Gohmert was due to travel back to Texas on a campaign trip with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, but a pre-screening test for that trip came back…
Since the pandemic began, health experts have heralded future coronavirus vaccines as potential godsends. But skepticism surrounding immunization may prevent some from embracing them. No matter how foolproof a vaccine is, it won’t properly work if people don’t get it, said Dr. Eric Bing, professor of global health at Southern…
There weren’t any hiccups in Freedom Fest, Saturday’s statewide bar protest, according to its organizer. More than 300 bars said they would be joining the demonstration by hosting benefits that day in defiance of an order from Gov. Greg Abbott closing bars on account of the pandemic. Organizer Chris Polone,…
Dallas students are starting school three weeks later than previously expected. Thursday, Dallas ISD trustees voted unanimously to begin the school year on Sept. 8 instead of Aug. 17. The move comes after Dallas County Health and Human Services issued an order that prevents private and public schools from holding…
Quiet: The stands. Quieter: The bats. After $1.2 billion in construction, a four-month delay courtesy of COVID-19 and the hype of Major League Baseball’s 60-game sprint of a schedule, Texas Rangers baseball was back in Arlington over the weekend. But after christening new Globe Life Field with masks, social distancing,…
At the beginning of July, North Texans gathered outside the Dallas Police Department’s headquarters for a candlelight demonstration in support of changing the name of Lamar Street to Botham Jean Boulevard in honor of the man murdered in his apartment by now-former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger in 2018. Now, community activists…
Soon, single mother Kimberly Brock will likely be evicted from her Denton home. A federal law that had shielded her from displacement expired on Saturday. That same day, Brock, who has a 5-month-old daughter named Emery, said she received an eviction notice. She hasn’t been able to afford her full…
