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Another Thursday, another set of unemployment numbers that would’ve been unbelievable three months ago. Almost 300,000 Texans applied for unemployment insurance payments over the week that ended April 13, 2020. According to an analysis from WalletHub, that’s more than a 20-fold increase from the same period in 2019, when just…

Finally, I found someone to help me with two conjoined questions that I have been trying to untangle for weeks. First question: What about the disease? Second question: What about the economy? Miguel Solis told me how to figure it out. Don’t untangle. But everybody wants to untangle. Monday, I…

Following a unanimous vote by the City Council Wednesday, Dallas’ disaster declaration will remain in place through at least May 12. The declaration, which gives City Manager T.C. Broadnax emergency powers during the novel coronavirus pandemic, will now be tied to Texas’ disaster declaration. If Gov. Greg Abbott extends the…

State budget shortfalls associated with the COVID-19 economic slowdown could put state prekindergarten programs at serious risk, according to a report released Wednesday. In the report, researchers with Rutgers University’s National Institute for Early Education Research warn that cutbacks to state-funded pre-K programs could have long-lasting effects, not only on…

Early in the pandemic, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick just wanted to kill granny. Now he wants to throw as many of us overboard as necessary to bring back his true love, America’s economy. As he so often does, Patrick appeared on Tucker Carlson on Monday night. After sounding a…

I don’t know about you, but I need something to calm me down at the beginning of the day so I don’t start out already wired. My personal regimen is something I call “Cuomo in the morning.” And it’s not because I agree with everything that comes out of the…

Dallas County is set to shelter in place until May 15, at least for the time being. After a contentious debate Tuesday afternoon, Dallas County Commissioners Theresa Daniel and Elba Garcia sided with Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and county medical experts pushing the order two weeks past its previous…

The oil industry moved into truly uncharted territory Monday afternoon. U.S. crude oil prices, for the first time in history, dropped below $0 per barrel. A person could, if he or she had the means to do so, have made more than $35 for each barrel of oil he or…

It’s starting to look a lot like the final result of the legal battle isn’t going to matter very much. Regardless of whether the federal courts finally determine that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did, in fact, have the right to effectively ban abortion during the novel coronavirus pandemic, thousands of…

Dallas ISD officials hope to return to school at the beginning of the next school year. But even if they do, they won’t be returning to normal. Dallas schools have been closed since March 16. On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order closing schools statewide for the rest…

All of a sudden last week I was overcome by an eerie sensation, a feeling that I had been looking in the wrong direction for a month while something far more ominous than disease crept up behind. Hunger. We can withstand a pandemic. We won’t survive serious hunger. Not as…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sounded like he’d been listening to medical experts Friday afternoon as he announced his initial plans for broadening the state’s economy. As the state tries to get back to the old normal, the new normal will include widely expand COVID-19 testing and tracing, as well as…

The sound of skittering rats was common. Mold would fester, threatening rot. Perhaps worst of all, the plumbing stopped working. “Pretty much everything that could go wrong was going wrong,” Peter Wierenga says of his Fort Worth home. “But the landlord wouldn’t do anything about it.” So Wierenga was not…

Just because something’s obvious doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Or easy to do. Texas House Democrats’ plan to begin bringing the state’s economy out of hibernation is right in line with those trotted out by health experts across the state. It isn’t groundbreaking, but it does extend beyond many of…

Beginning Saturday, anyone going into a Dallas County business or riding public transportation will be required to wear a mask, County Judge Clay Jenkins announced Thursday afternoon. In a tweet, Jenkins said he expected Dallas County residents would comply with the new requirement without law enforcement needing to take action…

Since being drafted in 2016, Dak Prescott has been a rarity among Cowboys players. He’s carefully avoided controversy at all times and maintained a squeaky-clean image when teammates, most notably Ezekiel Elliott, have proved completely unable to keep themselves out of the headlines. Then came the novel coronavirus. Prescott, like…

My name is Jim Schutze. That’s it. Look again. No M.D. after the name, no Ph.D., not even an M.A. or an M.S. I’m working on the basis of a liberal arts bachelor’s degree from about 100 years ago, every syllable of which I have forgotten, gone, zap, sadly no…

Despite a lot of noise Wednesday, the fate of Texans hoping to cast mail-in ballots in 2020’s remaining elections is still up in the air. A state district judge sided with voting rights groups late in the afternoon, saying that he would grant temporary injunction that would allow Texans to…

Thomas Hogue, age 75, my neighbor of 36 years, was a guardian of widows, talented actor and lover of local history. As a younger man, every year he erected a brightly lighted Christmas crèche scene on his front yard populated entirely by pink flamingos. Last Saturday he was found dead…