Dallas officials cut off all water recreational activities at White Rock Lake on Thursday afternoon until further notice after 1,000,000 gallons of untreated wastewater flowed into White Rock Creek for about 12 hours Wednesday night and Thursday morning, threatening the lake. The pollution stems from a Wednesday afternoon construction accident…
Finally, about a year after hordes of multicolored bikes descended on the city, Dallas has definitive bike-share regulations. Electric scooters are coming to the city, too, after the City Council voted Wednesday to temporarily allow the stand-up two-wheelers. Since the bikes showed up last fall, the five companies that own…
When you’re the kind of hard-hitting, pavement-pounding capital-J Journalist Jim Schutze is, you’re not content taking questions on Facebook Live from the comforts of your cushy (sort of), fluorescent-lit Oak Lawn office. That would be amateur and you, darling, are no amateur. No, you go straight to the people you…
Are these strange times? Yes. These are very strange times. Here’s an example: Rick Perry is now a genius. No, in fact, it’s more than that. Our former leader, the one and only Governor Oops, is not only being called the smartest man in the White House, but people also…
On March 10, Shellie Ross, executive director of the Wesley-Rankin Community Center, took a busload of West Dallas youthsto the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas. The purpose of the trip was to educate the students about Mexican-American history and introduce them to activists in…
The Heart of Dallas Bowl, the city’s annual post-Christmas, pre-New Year’s showcase at the Cotton Bowl for two aggressively mediocre college football teams, looks likely to survive after a Monday compromise for the city to continue paying ESPN to host the game. That doesn’t mean the game’s going to be…
Mark Cuban made a mistake Monday afternoon. A TMZ camera found him outside a restaurant in California, and the Mavs owner actually stopped and talked to the paparazzo. Quickly, Cuban was talking about the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia and its decision to deny service to White House press secretary…
In this case, at least, Dallas pulled its hand back before it got slapped. On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a state law regarding the disposal of solid waste preempted Laredo’s plastic bag ban. Similar bans in about a dozen other Texas cities are now effectively dead…
Over the weekend, the Texas Democratic Party, still big if not that powerful, took over downtown Fort Worth for its biennial state convention. The party’s full slate of statewide nominees preached to the assembled choir, and the party did its business, passing a platform calling for a bunch of stuff…
Much was made this week of the Texas Republican Party’s minuscule change to its platform concerning homosexuality. In a story Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News shared with readers a triumphant account of how the Texas Log Cabin Republicans pushed the party to stop saying that being gay is a choice. Thanks…
It’s only a matter of time, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, before Latinos become Texas’ biggest ethnic group. From 2010-17, the state’s total Latino population increased by about 1.4 million, from 9.7 million to 11.1 million. Over the same period, the state’s white population grew by…
Alone in the kitchen over my first coffee, I finally got what the border story was about. This was before President Donald Trump backed down on separating children from their parents. I had been thinking it was about everything else. Call me a slow learner. The dog-walking helped. And the…
As President Donald Trump did his best to worm his way out of a self-inflicted crisis Wednesday afternoon, issuing an executive order that halts the separation immigrant children from their parents if the parents are arrested crossing the U.S. border, two of Dallas’ biggest companies made it clear that they…
President Donald Trump announced early Wednesday afternoon that he will end the policy of separating immigrant children from their families, initiated by the Department of Justice in April. An executive order, which the president said he would sign later in the day, will call for children and families detained trying…
Someone slashed a gay pride flag over the weekend that flew outside the Denton home shared by activists who support transgender people, immigrants and people of color. The vandal spray-painted “FAGS” on the house’s garage door. Police say that happened sometime after 11 p.m. Saturday, just hours after Deborah Armintor stepped outside…
Score this round for First Baptist Dallas. Big. Less than a week after seeing two billboards celebrating the title of pastor Robert Jeffress’ “Freedom Sunday” sermon — “America Is a Christian Nation” — taken down by New York City-based Outfront Media, the church is putting up 10 times as many…
My visit Tuesday to the great Dallas Whitewater Feature on the Trinity River confirmed an impression I have been developing for some time — a grand connecting theme in all of the architectural wonders brought to us by the city’s old guard leadership, from woodland trails to the great Margaret…
Late last week, Outfront Media took down a couple of billboards it owns in Dallas. Normally that wouldn’t be news, but the ads on these billboards belonged to First Baptist Church of Dallas and depict its pastor, Robert Jeffress, so a storm began brewing immediately. That storm struck in earnest…
The Observer had a chance Monday to talk with Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, about a recent decision by Outfront Media to take down a couple of billboards promoting his upcoming “America Is a Christian Nation” sermon. At the end of our interview with Jeffress, we asked him about…
After being empty for nearly two years, the former Walmart Neighborhood Market on Lowest Greenville is finally being replaced. Rather than being excited about the excising of a longtime neighborhood eyesore, however, Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston and nearly 1,000 supporters have signed a petition to tell the proposed occupant,…
Former Mrs. Highland Park Dena Miller, national director of the Trumpettes of America, has a message for all her detractors on social media. “I’m a mom, tweeting from Dallas. I’m not a bot, you dumbass!” she says. Sometimes that’s hard to believe. Miller’s Twitter feed resembles something a Russian operative might…
Like it or not, the Dallas City Council is coming to your neighborhood. After nearly an hour of scattered, often confusing debate, the council signed off a plan to hold one City Council meeting in the afternoon and evening every month. It’ll also conduct meetings in different locations throughout the…
