Yesterday, Forbes released the billionaires list, its annual parade of the ridiculously, absurdly super-rich. This year, the list stretches to some 1,426 names worth a combined $5.4 trillion. Texas claims a small if significant portion of that, counting 50 billionaires among its 26 million residents. Many of these — Alice…
Today marks the arrival of our new and improved Dallas Observer app, your pocket guide to the city and direct line to our always fair-and-balanced take on things. It features: – Event listings and concert calendars searchable by date, artist, neighborhood, venue or genre – Restaurant listings searchable by cuisine…
Pro wrestling and Glenn Beck are in a fight. Apparently this has been news for a few weeks, but we’ve only just learned about it, courtesy of Mediaite, who bring us the delightful video clip you see above, of WWE commentator Michael Cole trying his hardest to storm Glenn Beck’s…
Listeners tuning into ESPN Radio 103.3 this morning and expecting Ben Rogers and Jeff Wade’s irreverent local sports commentary were instead greeted with the nationally syndicated blather of Colin Cowherd. Hosts of the morning-drive Ben and Skin Show, Rogers and Wade Tweeted over the weekend that they didn’t re-sign with…
The Economist isn’t conservative in the American sense of the word, which has come to be defined as much as by views on abortion and Jesus as by a desire for limited government, but it’s consistent in its support of free market capitalism relatively unfettered by government. The magazine did…
It’s been nearly four years since developer Yigal Lelah unveiled his vision for Veterans Place, a sprawling mixed-use development he hopes to build on Lancaster Road, directly across from the VA Medical Center. The development, as the name implies, is focused on returned military personnel and their families, with a…
Every week, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz. This week, Buzz has a familiar villain in his sights. Oh, man, Buzz is so depissed©. No, that’s not a typo. It’s our own neologism, a combination of…
Sometime, just as a study of American photo journalism in print media today, go to the web site of the Dallas Morning News and take a good gander at the pictures they have published recently of anybody having anything at all to do with the Nasher Sculpture Center, and compare…
When last we heard from Southlake resident, event planner and patriotic pants designer Glenn Beck, he had just announced his plans for a $2 billion libertarian community, which he’s dubbed Independence, USA. Will Independence be located in Texas? Can a theme park designed by Beck and David Barton possibly be…
When, in the lead-up to the final game of the Cowboys 2012 season, the rest of America unanimously threw its support behind the Washington Redskins, haters everywhere gleefully declared the death of “America’s Team.” That assessment seemed to be borne out on the field, where Tony Romo and the Cowboys…
Yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the U.S. military will drop its ban on women serving in combat. For many, this was a long overdue, a commonsense step and an acknowledgment that women are fighting in combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and have been for more than…
Your browser does not support iframes. Earlier this week, Glenn Beck announced that he was reinventing The Blaze, his online media property, as a global libertarian news network, complete with three foreign bureaus, a nightly news magazine, and, no doubt, lots of Beck himself. Last night, he announced the next…
On Thursday, as the tremors from Jerry Jones’ shakeup at Valley Ranch continued to reverberate, Morning News entertainment editor Rand Duren seized the moment. “It was announced yesterday that the Dallas Cowboys have fired defensive coordinator Rob Ryan,” he wrote on the paper’s Whatever Blog, “and while that may be…
Every month, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System’s board of trustees convenes at the break of dawn for its regular meeting. On a scale of exciting-ness, that meeting usually ranks somewhere between scrubbing the mold from one’s bathroom tiles and looking at the photo album my aunt used to…
George H.W. Bush, the country’s 41st president, has been in a Houston hospital for more than a month now, undergoing treatment for complications from a serious case of bronchitis. The 88-year-old was checked into intensive care on Wednesday “following a series of setbacks, including a persistent fever.” It was during…
And by “slow” we mean dead. And by “few” we mean four. We’ll rouse ourselves from our Christmas stupor again on Wednesday. Until then, you’ll have to find another way to infotain yourself. Better yet, go spend time with family. Don’t like your family? Okay, then go hang out with…
Over the summer, plans for a $33 million parking garage next to the American Airlines Center briefly became the focus of the ongoing feud between Ross Perot Jr., whose company was building the structure, and Mark Cuban, whose company opposed the project. The garage was green-lighted by the City Council…
Last night, NBC 5 laid bare the truth about distracted driving and the Dallas Police Department. Over two years, the station reported, in-car computers and similar distractions were a factor in 13 accidents involving DPD vehicles. Over the summer, the department considered changing its policy governing the use of in-car…
It’s safe to say that Museum Tower is losing its public relations battle against the Nasher Sculpture Center. The Nasher has marshaled support from the city’s business and civic elite, successfully casting its neighbor as some hyper-phallic monstrosity bent on scorching anything in its path, while Museum Tower has a…
Mary Padian and Moe Prigoff are regular cast members on “Storage Wars: Texas,” the Lone Star spinoff of the A&E reality show chronicling the odd souls who bid on the contents of abandoned storage units. He’s an antiques dealer, she’s a free-spirited collector, and both run shops in the Design…
With the exception of Mike Hashimoto, the Morning News’ editorial team has been dutifully lining up behind the idea that a (semi?) private golf course can be “the tipping point” — their words, not mine or anyone else’s — southern Dallas needs. “A game changer,” the paper says. Next up:…
Over the weekend, the New York Times took a hard look at the tax breaks and other incentives state and local governments dole out by the billions to lure businesses. As the magnitude of those gifts has increased over the years, corporations have learned to shop for the most lucrative…
