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How Medicare Became a Thieves' Bazaar

In Dallas and across the country, hospitals, doctors and dealers have made Medicare the nation’s sweetest crime. The feds are now trying to shutter the door.

University of Texas Scientists Plead with Lawmakers to Please Kill Intelligent Design Bill

State Representative Bill Zedler's legislative career can be summed up as a quixotic attempt to foist his puritanical worldview onto the state's 26 million residents. Backdoor abortion bans, stripper licensing, Sharia law bans, making life unnecessarily difficult for gay college kids. Whatever your ... More >>

The Texas Medical Board Wants to Let its Investigators to Carry Guns

Over much of the past year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement agencies have been carrying out the largest offensive against pill mills Texas has ever seen. Dubbed "Operation King of the Pill," the effort involves dozens of officers swarming medical offices suspected of illeg ... More >>

Rick Perry's Sales Pitch for Cheaper, Dumber Universities Is a Lie

All you ambitious students out there, please take time to understand what Governor Rick Perry is really doing to you when he says he wants to help you graduate from college. It's the opposite. See also: - Rick Perry's Manufactured Miracle What Perry really wants to do is the same old thing he has ... More >>

Dallas is All Like, 'Voting, Why Bother?'

Turns out, the people of Dallas don't care much for voting -- Dallas County ranked fourth in the state (out of 254 counties) for the fewest ballots cast among voting-age people. Even Harris County had a slightly better turnout, which unfortunately means the Asshole of the Universe, has us beat at so ... More >>

Refugees Are Flooding to Texas

Texas has become the top destination for refugee resettlement, with Dallas the second largest hub, according to recent statistics. It became the main destination for resettlement as of last year, rising from number five in 2001. In an article earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle reported that T ... More >>

Feds: Voter ID Law "Legally Unenforceable," Can't Rule Out "Discriminatory Purpose"

State legislation requiring voters to present state-issued identification such as a driver's license, a concealed-carry permit, or a U.S. passport or military ID was rejected Monday morning by the U.S. Department of Justice. "Because we conclude that the state has failed to meet its burden of dem ... More >>

Four Years Later, Judge Rules That Ministries' Case Over Homeless Food Distribution is a Go

​Four long years ago we wrote about two local ministries -- Big Hart Ministries and the Rip Parker Memorial Homeless Ministry-- that filed suit against the city of Dallas in federal court over an ordinance that they say kept them from serving food to the homeless and violated their religious freed ... More >>

How Long Should Texas Docs Treat Untreatable Patients? The Debate That Won't Go Away.

Jordan Allen's case will become part of Texas' annual debate over medical futility.​Last week, just outside of Houston, a little boy's parents were scrambling. Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital had told them there was nothing more they could do for the boy, 14-year-old Jordan Allen, whose b ... More >>

Why Texas' Craft Beer Bills Are Doomed, And Why They Would've Been Baby Steps Anyway

Daniel KramerMaybe it's a good thing HB 602 is doomed. Think how much longer the line for this Saint Arnold tour would be if guests could take beer home.​If you're a passionate beer drinker or state-legislation fetishist, you've probably read by now  that two of the House bills favoring Texas ... More >>

Women's Funding Network sex trafficking study is junk science

Schapiro Group data wasn't questioned by mainstream media

Toxic Avenger: In the War Between the Feds and Texas, EPA Chief Al Armendariz has Science on His Side. Is That Enough?

You Know Who Hates Texans? Why, the Railroad Commission of Texas, Naturally.

Your Texas Railroad Commission: Elizabeth Jones, Victor Carrillo and Michael Williams​The Texas Observer has published a story about the Railroad Commission of Texas that I want to call appalling, but I think the Railroad Commission has lost the ability to appall. The story exposes a pattern of de ... More >>

Rain Fears a Cliff Lee Delay and Other Assorted Facts Before Game One of the World Series

If you do too, and you do, then go here and spend $12. Could come in handy two more times before the World Series is over.​This morning's headline is brought to you by C.J. Wilson's favorite website, Jorge Parrales and Jacob Herrera's Cliff Lee Facts. Here's another fact, courtesy Jeff Francoeur, ... More >>

The Texas Rangers Thrive while Owner Tom Hicks' Sports Empire Crumbles.

Alan Todd May, Who Feds Say Ran Ponzi Scheme From Downtown, Caught in S.F.

Some of the very generic imagery featured on Alan Todd May's company's Web site​Alan Todd May spent the better part of 1983 to 2002 in and out of prison, having been arrested for such things as credit card abuse, check fraud, theft ... well, you name the hustle, he hustled it. There were 14 convic ... More >>

The Trinity Needs A-Paddlin': The City and State Are Turning 10 Miles of River Into "Trail"

​Funny thing, this showing up on the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee's agenda this week of all weeks: Texas Paddling Trail Program. Which is ...? Well, in short, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has told the city that, why, sure, it'd love to include a 10-mile stretch of the Trinit ... More >>

For One Day Only, State Gummint at City Hall

Sam MertenToday, the Dallas City Council chambers belong to state Sen. Royce West.​Greetings, Friends! I'm the only person wearing jeans in the Dallas City Council Chamber today for the Texas Senate Committee on Intergovernmental Relations meeting starring state Sen. Royce West and an ensemble ... More >>

Bill White Officially Enters Gubernatorial Fray

Sam Merten​When we cornered Houston Mayor Bill White in late October after his campaign speech in Plano, he said he can appeal to conservatives and moderates as a Democrat because he knows how to make government run efficiently. He added that he's "honest and straightforward," which had been t ... More >>

When It Comes to the Trinity River Project, History Keeps Repeating Itself, Repeating Itself

John W. Carpenter Papers, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library,Ben Carpenter, son of John, is the one seen here pointing to a Trinity River canal master plan​Your Trinity River correspondent and advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist, which would be me, had two interesting e ... More >>

Bringing Home the Bacon: Spokesperson Denies Bill White Will Switch to Governor's Race, and We Didn't Even Have to Ask Once

Sam MertenHouston Mayor Bill White, who won't run for governor, even though he has a hard time saying the words himself.At the conclusion of his poorly attended campaign stop in Plano on Saturday, Houston Mayor Bill White addressed the rumors that he'll take his $6 million in campaign contributions ... More >>

Oy Candy: Trying Not To Say, "Toldyaso."

The scene this morning from the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge construction camIn reading the latest news about flood dangers downtown and the Trinity River Project, it's important to know that this is an 11-year-old story that Dallas officials and The Dallas Morning News are just now being forced to ack ... More >>

Pro-evolution Forces Take an Unexpected Win at the Texas Board of Education

Give this round to science in the fight over how to teach evolution in Texas schools

Cornyn's Using Fred Baron to Raise Dough, And Not in a Good Way

The Caretaker

One mother's crusade to better the life of her mentally retarded son and the system that failed him

Mayor Tom, Rural Juror

Former UTD Student Gets Six Years

Root, Root, Root for the Home Team

SMU and A&M are Damned Liberal Anti-Bush Bastions. Sure, Prof, Whatever You Sez.

Yeah, But, Again, Who Wants to Live in Houston?

Burning Bridges

ExxonMobil: The Company You Hate to Love to Hate

Hurricane Harbor

Here Comes the Flood

Pizza the Pie

New Romano/Palladino venture slated for November

Unbuttoned-Down Muse

Plus: Girls Wanted; The Eyes Have It; We Win

Raise Taxes Now

Plus: Fast and Dumb, Warped Criticism, Recycling Works

The Gay Priest Thing

The conference of bishops ignored "the elephant in the sacristy"

Off the Track

DeLibero take a detour

Letters

Every egg matters; The little ingrates; Groucho does Iowa; Conan's feminine side; Salt in the wounds

Fluff

Dented reputation; Please, stop calling. Please; Dot-dot-dot stuff

Down-home Drudge

Harvey Kronberg, the Avis of Austin political reporters, tries harder with Web gossip

Letters

Caught in the crossfire

Denied his day in court, a former Waco TV reporter, falsely accused of setting up federal agents, becomes the last casualty of the Branch Davidian siege

Letters

Schutze joins Observer staff

Events for the week

Events for the week

Letters