Study after study blames violence and social dysfunction in poor, racially segregated neighborhoods on a roster of causes, from extreme poverty to environmental pollution to segregation itself, but the elected leadership of old South Dallas has insisted for 15 years that their crime problems are caused by a car wash…
First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress has some instructions for all of you out there who might be looking for a little amusement as your week gets rolling: Pay no mind to a new video from a group calling itself the Lincoln Project. The Lincoln Project — made up of…
Texas, thanks to a letter sent to the U.S. secretary of state by Gov. Greg Abbott, is closed to refugees. The state needs to take care of its own before it seeks to help others, Abbott told Secretary Mike Pompeo. “At this time, the state and nonprofit organizations have a…
The Dallas Police Department is promising reform in the wake of a new city audit, which uncovered widespread faults in the department’s processes for investigating and addressing misconduct complaints. Last year, auditors found hundreds of inexplicably missing records in an internal database that tracks misconduct complaints. Internal Affairs Division officials…
Last year Texas generated more energy from renewable sources than from coal, according to data from the Electronic Reliability Council of Texas.
However a government might seek to restrict abortion, people with pregnancies they don’t wish to carry to term are going to seek the procedure out. It’s a fact one will hear again and again from pro-choice researchers and activists, and a new study from TxPEP, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project,…
Thursday morning, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson trotted out his task force’s four recommendations for curbing violent crime in Dallas. The mayor, with the support of key members of the City Council, wants to clean up abandoned buildings and lots in areas with high levels of violent crime, provide better lighting…
A proposal to turn over 105-year-old Reverchon Park to a commercial sports operation — defeated at the Dallas City Council a month ago –- passed yesterday after East Dallas member David Blewett engineered a revote. He got his way. The deal to change the 46-acre park just north of downtown…
A new grocery store is coming to Oak Cliff. On Wednesday, city council members approved funds for an additional branch of the niche neighborhood food market, Royal Blue Grocery.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is not going to save us. Tuesday, the federal appellate court rejected the final pre-Supreme Court appeal from Walmart, putting a large dent in the retail giant’s quest to take down one of Texas’ thorniest remaining blue laws. Put simply, Walmart wants to sell liquor…
Dallas County’s switch from traditional polling places on election day to vote centers that can be used by anyone registered to vote in the county is a good thing. The Observer is on the record saying as much. The county’s transition to the new voting setup, as county commissioners and the…
In 2016, when students at South Oak Cliff High School staged a walkout to protest the shabby conditions at the aging campus, Tyesha Brown was right there with them. Brown, then a freshman, didn’t want the school remodeled. Like many students at the time, she wanted it torn down and…
We got stuck on the wrong part of what the police chief said. At a press conference Jan. 5 about the shooting death that day in Dallas of a 1-year-old and the nonfatal shootings of an 8-year-old and a 20-year-old, Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall used a curse word…
As tension between the U.S. and Iran turns into conflict, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned the public Tuesday about Iranian cyberattacks on Texas’ state agencies. Over the last 48 hours, the governor said, more than 10,000 attacks per minute, many of them originating in Iran, have been attempted against the…
Sometime Wednesday afternoon, the Dallas Cowboys, for the ninth time in their history and their eighth time under the ownership of Jerry Jones, are going to announce that they’ve hired a new head coach. Mike McCarthy, he of a dozen mostly successful seasons and one Super Bowl victory with the…
Just before former Dallas Police Department Officer Amber Guyger’s trial began in earnest last fall, there was a moment when it seemed like the whole thing could go off the rails. As Guyger, the media and the public prepared for opening statements, her defense team told Dallas County District Judge Tammy…
One of Texas’ biggest fights over voter registration got new life Monday afternoon, with national Democratic groups parachuting into the state to challenge its requirement that each voter registration form filed in the state be marked with an original signature. In 2018, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office rejected nearly…
That was fast. Monday morning, less than 24 hours after the Dallas Cowboys officially severed ties with Jason Garrett, the team’s coaching search is over. According to multiple media reports — the first of which came from Fox Sports scoop machine Jay Glazer — Jerry Jones and company have agreed to…
A Dallas teenager’s death from a lung injury associated with vaping comes at a time when hospitalizations for the mysterious disease are on the decline nationwide. The teenager is the first person in Dallas County to die of injuries related to e-cigarette use, according to Dallas County Health and Human…
OK, I hate to keep shooting this horse, but all of you people who wanted East Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston and council member/mayoral candidate Scott Griggs out of City Hall because they weren’t civil enough, here’s how civility works: David Blewett, who beat Kingston in District 14, is…
Considerably more than 100 North Texans turned out Saturday afternoon in Dealey Plaza to protest the United States’ continued presence in Iraq and the recent American airstrike that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, and four of his associates. As the protesters waved their signs and chanted their chants, people…
Two days after the Dallas City Council in a split vote shot down a deal to turn over Reverchon Park to a for-profit sports entity, East Dallas District 14 City Council Member David Blewett, who had voted against the giveaway, filed paperwork with the City Secretary for a re-vote —…
