Dallas County, at least to the extent that its county commissioners have a say, is ready to do something about e-cigarette and vape use. They made that much clear at their twice-monthly meeting Tuesday, whether anyone is sure about what’s causing the illnesses likely tied to the practice or not…
In case anybody still has any doubt the city is trying to force Dale Davenport to sell his car wash, get a load of this. He’s the guy who owns a car wash on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South Dallas — the one I call the only white…
A dozen or so people gathered outside Sen. John Cornyn’s North Dallas offices Tuesday morning, urging the senator to support additional funding for election security. There were impromptu chants, cardboard signs — “Honk for Clean Elections” — and a man dressed as the Statue of Liberty whose headpiece kept flying…
One could be forgiven for almost forgetting about the tape. The Cowboys are 2-0. President Donald Trump is still doing Trump things almost every day, and it’s still, nearly three weeks into September, hot enough to cause hallucinations across North Texas. The tape — the maybe bombshell, maybe MacGuffin that…
Thigh-high grasses and plant stalks thwack the sides of the all-terrain buggy as Meredith Ellis maneuvers it down a faint double track through a dense pasture. Grasshoppers launch out of the way, whirring past bright purple, thistle-like Leavenworth’s eryngo that poke up alongside creamy milkweed flowers. Yellow and purple wildflowers…
A former Baylor University economics professor is suing the university, accusing officials there of mishandling sexual misconduct claims against him. The professor, who is identified in court documents as John Doe, resigned from the university last year amid an investigation into the professor’s relationship with a student. In the lawsuit,…
Paying rent in Dallas isn’t getting any easier, according to a new report from RENTCafe, a rental market analysis website, but apartment prices in the city and its surrounding suburbs aren’t quite the back-breakers that they are in other parts of the country. The average Dallas resident renting an apartment in August…
Dallas County District Judge Tammy Kemp ruled late Monday afternoon that the trial of former Dallas Police Department officer Amber Guyger will remain in Dallas, denying a defense motion for a change of venue. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean as Jean hung out in his own apartment on Sept…
For the last eight years, a group of Baylor University students has been trying to persuade the school to allow them to form an LGBTQ student group. Earlier this month, the group got an official answer from the university. It wasn’t the one they’d hoped for. Baylor officials notified members…
The end, sadly, is here. Globe Life Park, the stadium formerly known as Rangers Ballpark In Arlington, Ameriquest Field and The Ballpark in Arlington, has just one homestand left in front of it. Six games against the Red Sox and Yankees, and the Rangers will move across the parking lot…
On the one hand, this new story about the city screwing over some affordable housing developers is depressingly familiar. On the other hand, it’s utterly inexplicable. Every single thing I ever reported in some 15 years covering the Lockey & MacKenzie case about the city shafting affordable housing developers is…
A week ago, Texas, and the rest of the country, got their first look at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s evolving priorities on guns, gun violence and domestic terrorism through a series of executive orders issued by the governor. While there was a decent amount of meat in Abbott’s eight decrees…
Turns out, the Observer’s fears over the retirement of Bedford state Rep. Jonathan Stickland may have been a little exaggerated. The Republican firebrand and official large adult son of the Legislature may be stepping down from the Texas House in 2021, but he is still, as he proved this week,…
Federal officials announced Wednesday that they’ve arrested a Dallas-based man on sex trafficking charges. Tremont Blakemore may have trafficked hundreds of victims, according to the feds, keeping them under his control through violence, intimidation and frequent threats. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s investigations arm began looking into Blakemore in…
Texas, for a week at least, is the center of the Democratic political universe. There have already been a couple of major polls of the state released, a declaration of intent by the state’s Democratic Party, pushback from Texas Republicans and some crowing from national Democrats about their chances of…
Wednesday morning in a clearly written, earnest, heartfelt letter to the editor of The Dallas Morning News, Susan D. Cox conveyed her dismay about a big zoning case at Northwest Highway and the Dallas North Tollway that would go before the City Council later that day. The council member for…
For a second consecutive year, more people in Texas were without health insurance in 2018 than any other state, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. Texas leads the nation in uninsured residents, both in terms of raw numbers and as a percentage of the population, according to the…
If old South Dallas can bloom, if the open wounds of racism and red-lining up and down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard can be closed and healed, then the entire body of the city will breathe heartier and happier. And maybe, just maybe, that’s what we are beginning to see…
As many as 14 Dallas County residents have come down with “severe pulmonary disease” related to their use of e-cigarette or vape products, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services. Five of those reported to the county by local hospitals have required intubation and been placed on ventilators. Two…
A wind farm proposal is dividing a quiet, rural community. Residents who oppose the wind farm say that the companies tactics have been misleading and don’t properly take into account the impact the towers would have on the community.
The case of Austin Shuffield, the bartender accused of a brutal, caught-on-video assault in Deep Ellum this spring, will move forward without the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. “Due to the bias the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office has shown in the prosecution of this case, the defense filed a…
Among dozens of changes included in a school finance reform bill Gov. Greg Abbott signed earlier this year, lawmakers included a provision that sends new money to school districts across the state and requires them to use it to expand their half-day prekindergarten classes to full-day. But weeks into the…
