Adding insult to whatever one might call Lupe Valdez’s quixotic gubernatorial campaign, Texas Monthly announced Thursday that the former Dallas County sheriff was the second runner-up in the magazine’s annual search for Texas’ biggest bum steer. Valdez’s 13-point loss to incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, the largest for any statewide candidate,…
If the state of Dallas’ streets leaves you in fear for your front axle, you might not want to read the rest of this story. The city’s long way back from its status as a pothole-ridden Thunderdome hasn’t even begun, might not begin for a long time and, if it…
One part of the police reforms advocated by Dallas police Chief U. Renee Hall worries me. Apparently in response to calls from community activists for a more level playing field where police shootings are concerned, the chief is in favor of doing away with the so-called 72-hour “cooling off period”…
This won’t take a minute, I promise. I am writing on New Year’s Eve day, trying to peer ahead. I have this one question: Why wouldn’t President Donald Trump and his supporters interpret special counsel Robert Mueller’s relative silence on collusion in exactly the opposite way they have been interpreting…
Looking over the few end-of-the-year prediction pieces I have composed, I am embarrassed to see that I have written about the year ahead for Dallas as if it were the white year. What about the black year? But, wait. We all know there’s no such thing as white and black…
The Border Patrol is ordering medical checks on every child in its custody following the death of two migrant children as Dallas activists and advocacy groups mourn their deaths and ask why medical checks weren’t a priority as the Trump administration began its crackdown on immigrant asylum seekers. As the…
A new year is about to dawn over Dallas, and it’s going to be for all the marbles. I’m writing about it in a piece that will run next week. But I want to preview that a little by sharing some things I am learning about how we elect mayors…
A couple of Fridays ago, someone you’ve probably never heard of jumped into the Dallas mayoral race. We didn’t write about it because Lynn McBee’s announcement came at 5:30 on a Friday afternoon, prime news dump time, and because no one was kind enough to even send us a press…
When community activist Keyaira Saunders finished second in a 12-person race for Dallas City Council, her supporters knew she would have to clear a tall hurdle to win the runoff against Carolyn King Arnold, who once held the District 4 seat. The Dallas Morning News’ editorial board didn’t make the…
Tell me this. Recently I looked at the website of a prominent Dallas consulting firm and noticed they have a social media specialist on their staff who “guides paid social strategy … working with clients to generate content that educates, motivates and empowers target audiences to act in ways that…
The key to likability was there all along, hiding in plain sight for Ted Cruz, Texas’ junior senator. Turns out, he didn’t need to be a fan of The Simpsons, country music or The Princess Bride in order to convince people that he wasn’t a time-traveling serial killer doing his best to…
If former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro really wants to be president of the United States, maybe he’ll come back to Dallas and tell us why, when he was President Barack Obama’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, he killed our best shot at overcoming racial segregation. Castro is testing…
Here’s a challenge I put to my fellow lifelong loyal Dem libtards: Back during Lewinsky, did we ever say we didn’t care if Bill Clinton broke the law? I’m serious. I don’t think it’s an easy question. Was there ever a point during the Monica Lewinsky scandal when I told…
Dwaine Caraway’s fifth term on the Dallas City Council was just a blip on the radar. Tuesday night, Carolyn King Arnold, the former high school teacher Caraway deposed to regain the District 4 seat on the Council, won the seat back, picking up more than 59 percent of the vote…
The 2019 Dallas mayoral race is beginning to look like a bad parody of an old-time Broadway musical. I don’t know what to do but tell you about it. Real estate developer Mike Ablon filed legally required paperwork appointing a campaign treasurer a month ago for what D Magazine and The…
Whatever one wants to call the thing that’s going on in presidential politics right now — the money primary, the silly season or the greatest trick Iowa and New Hampshire ever pulled — Texas finds itself squarely in the thick of things, apparently for the long haul. Julian Castro, the…
The final numbers are in and, stop us if you’ve heard this one before, Texas still had one of the United States’ worst voter participation rates in 2018, despite an 18 percentage point increase in voter participation over 2014. This November, 46.3 percent of Texas’ voting-eligible population cast ballots, according…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton continues to do everything in his power to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, which allows undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation. Thursday afternoon, Paxton announced he’s leading a…
There aren’t many things, or people, capable of making Fox News apologize. The network is happy to let its on-air personalities and guests shill for conspiracies about the migrant caravan, Benghazi or Robert Mueller’s witch hunt. Thursday morning, however, the Observer’s favorite Republican, East Texas U.S House Rep. Louie Gohmert,…
Ever since he left the FBI in a scandalous uproar in 2008, John Guandolo has made a name for himself among right-wing conspiracy theorists, especially through his special “training” programs, which he gives to law enforcement throughout the country about the so-called dangers of Islam. This month, he’s set to…
If I ask a guy to his face if he’s running for mayor and he says no, can I still write a newspaper column saying I think he’s running for mayor anyway? Yes. And you know why? Because this is America. You don’t have to believe me, but if you…
The Dallas mayor’s race so far is intriguing, sure, but it’s also madness. One guy has been in the race from the beginning. Other unexpected people are showing up, tossing their hats in the ring. Another person whom everybody assumed would run has just now taken her hat out of…
