Desoto

Mother Can't File Complaint Against DPD for Her Son's Death Because She Doesn't Live in Dallas

Ever since 25-year-old Clinton Allen was shot and killed by Officer Clark Staller, Allen's family has been calling for action against the officer and the Dallas Police Department. Collette Flanagan, Allen's mother, filed an ethics complaint against police Chief David Brown claiming that DPD never in ... More >>

Larry Brown Just Can't Stop

The remaking of SMU basketball with the game's most persistent coach.

Lessons from Dez Bryant: It's OK to Smack Mom Around, Cowboy

The story in today's Dallas Morning News about Dallas Cowboys football player Dez Bryant getting off on mom-beating charges contains this line about Bryant's lawyer, state Senator Royce West: "West said the incident was a dispute, not an assault." The woman called DeSoto cops and said her son had t ... More >>

DART Celebrates 250 Million Rail Rides by Making Man Late to Work, Probably Hiking Some Fares

When the 3-year-old and I took the DART train to free day at the Nasher on Saturday, little did I know we were on the cusp of history. Ridiculously early this morning, some 36 hours after we stepped off the train, DART accosted feted one Don Johnson as the 15-year-old light rail system's 250 million ... More >>

No, Seriously, Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Wants To End Chronic Homelessness By 2015

President and CEO of Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance Mike Faenza said as much yesterday: He knows he's "at risk of looking like Don Quixote" here, but he really, really believes Dallas can end its chronic homelessness problem by 2015. Which is why earlier today he did his best to convince the city co ... More >>

Some on City Council Continue to Pit Charters Against DISD. For the Children, Of Course.

​A little after 2:30 the council got 'round to that Uplift briefing, which was supposed to be about the city's creating a nonprofit corporation to help the charter school sell tax-free bonds for its expansion into Deep Ellum and Fort Worth. Which, as the council's been reminded over and over, will ... More >>

Just a Year After Graduating From Garland ISD, He Wants to Help Run the School District

​Just eight months ago, Lawrence Billy Jones III was a senior at Garland High School. He's a UNT freshman now, double-majoring in political science and criminal justice. He just turned 19. And for reasons we really can't figure, he's running for office. Specifically, he's gunning for a seat o ... More >>

Dallas ISD's Carla Ranger: The Superintendent Search Is "Being Dragged on Too Long"

​The Dallas Independent School District board has much on its plate at today's briefing, the first of the new year: that look-see at the coming year's budget, a report on efforts to close 11 schools to save $11 million, a peek at how that under-construction teacher evaluation system is coming alon ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway Isn't About to Let the City Close Pools, Especially Two In His District

​Mary Suhm was right about one thing: When I asked her Thursday where she saw the council pushing back on her proposed FY2011-12 budget, she said, well, probably pools -- specifically, her suggestion that the city shutter five of its 17 pools in the coming fiscal year. Those pools: Bonnie View, Ex ... More >>

Carter High, Once a State Champ, Turns to An Old Friend to Help Win Back the Neighborhood

Patrick Williams, Class of '91, was a running back on Carter's state-title team.​Football coaches, even the high school kind, can be angry men. This is especially true early in the season, when their lives, from their standpoint anyway, are just one big shit salad of false starts and bad reads ... More >>

Sorry, Guys, But Mortgage Subsidies Aren't the Answer in Southern Dallas

​Interesting blow-black -- so muted you might call it whisper-back -- to recent stories and an op-ed piece in The Dallas Morning News extolling so-called economic progress in Southern Dallas. One instance is on the paper's op-ed page today, a column from respected Southern Dallas blogger-jou ... More >>

Small-Town Muckraker Joey Dauben Will Run the World Some Day. Just Ask Him.

In the little towns outside of Dallas, publisher and aspiring politician Joey Dauben is on a crusade to expose abuses of power, civic mischief and -- most of all -- himself.

Is Tea Party Darling and Republican Congressional Candidate Stephen Broden Still Electable After Endorsing Violence As a Means of Changing the Government?

Black Students Are Leaving DISD And Heading For Suburban Schools. Is That Such A Bad Thing?

Natinsky Shares Caraway's Enthusiasm for Memorial as Money-Maker

Ron Natinsky​So, then, back to Memorial Auditorium for a moment. But only because council member Ron Natinsky shares with Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway the hope that sooner than later, the city can and will give the venerable arena a makeover and begin marketing it as an alternative to the Nokia Th ... More >>

Eugene Lockhart Indicted: Feds Accuse The Former Hitting Machine of Mortgage Fraud

​The U.S. Attorney's Office just sent word that former Dallas Cowboy hitting machine, 48-year-old Eugene Lockhart, is among nine people indicted by a federal grand jury. They're accused of a running a mortgage scheme out of Dallas between 2001 and '05 under such monikers as America's Team Mortgage ... More >>

Back Back Back: Un-enhanced Performance with Too Many Errors

Audience Adds New Wrinkle to Raisin in the Sun

February 25, 1989: Where Were You?

We celebrated God's Coach with a Devil's Night. Was that wrong?I was at Valley Ranch, a 24-year-old piss-ant reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Only a couple years removed from punching holes in my college apartment walls when the Dallas Cowboys lost, I was totally unprepared and ... More >>

Topdog/Underdog and Neat Explore Bitter and Sweet Stories of Very Different Black Families

DISD In the Hole

Teachers get axed and parents fret as Dallas' school leaders scramble to cover a budget hole

Exposing bigotry, Mark Cuban saved Josh Howard from the spotlight

Fans' racist comments made a victim of the Mavericks' anthem-dissing forward

Know What I Mean, Verne?

C'mon Get Happy

Even Buzz finds something to smile about in 2006

Hoof Dreams

Women and Horses takes the audience on a sweet ride; Eat the Runt bites it

Reversing His Field

The 10 Percent Doctrine

A preacher uses tithing to build a Latino megachurch

Letters from the Issue of June 30, 2005

Ted's Excellent Adventure

City manager fires chief, finds self in hell

This Week's Day-By-Day Picks

Over Easy

After hatching a new plan with The Egg, Shiner continues to scramble its sound

The Real "Goofball"

Plus: Circle of Pain, What a Guy, Tiger's Eye

Vote for Dad

Plus: Golden Gramms

The Opposite of True

How The Dallas Morning News spins the Trinity River project

Mandarin Makes Its Debut

Chomsky, Brutal Juice and others make the news

Letters

Judging Joe Kendall; Elian's kidnapping; Clearing the air; Chaos on Lower Greenville

Man with the Plan

The Dismemberment Plan's Travis Morrison talks about major labels, modern R&B, and...Steely Dan?

Landing gear

J. Robbins takes off again on Burning Airlines

Getting the lead out

A troublesome painting contract raises a new worry at DISD--lead contamination

Letters

Hunter or prey?

Matthew Harden tells the story about his dark days in DISD

Letters

Something In The Air

Downwind of TXI's Midlothian cement plant, people and animals keep getting sick. Instead of investigating whether the plant is to blame, state regulators appear ready to let TXI burn even more hazardous waste. Part two of A Dallas Observer Special Report

Events for the week

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

Two area favorites are back--one returning, the other reborn

No Dough

Richard and LaJeanne Williams had big dreams for their bakery--until a bank figured their plan was just pie in the sky

Single with children

A year ago, Linda Koop took in two homeless boys on a moment's notice. Now she wants them to call her mom.

Soul to soul

The artist formerly known as Randy Moore explores two sides of R&B

Giving good book

Dallas 'Love Goddess" sex guide goes big time

Events for the week

The Goddess of Love

How former schoolteacher Ella Patterson turned her earthy sex guide into an underground best seller