University of Texas System

Crazy Ants, Discovered in Houston a Decade Ago, Are Swarming Toward Dallas

First, the good news: Crazy ants don't sting. They do sometimes bite, but the pain is mild, and it fades quickly. Even better, they drive out their stinging cousins, fire ants, which have been tormenting Texans for decades. Now, the bad news: When entomologists say "crazy," they mean it. "When you ... More >>

SMU's Deal with Bush Library Threatens University's Academic Independence

You know what's wrong with the Bush Presidential Center at SMU? It's not a terrible thing or place in and of itself, yet. But what's wrong already is that it represents such a lay-down by the leadership of the university. The way the thing is set up is a betrayal of academic excellence, which depend ... More >>

State Rep. Bill Zedler Wants to Shut Down Those Grody LGBT Centers at Texas Colleges

The LGBT Resource Center at Texas A&M University, like its cousins at the University of Texas and the University of Houston, is an innocuous arm of school bureaucracy that offers an array of resources to gay and transgendered students. There is a guest speaker program, a lending library, networking ... More >>

Meet Randy Best, the Dallas Entrepreneur Cashing in On Online Higher Ed

Randy Best found his way into the pages of the Observer in the mid-'90s, when a company he founded, Voyager Expanded Learning Inc., landed some plum DISD contracts and, just after he left the district, Superintendent Chad Woolery. He gained national attention a decade later when he was criticized fo ... More >>

Who's Watching the Watchers in Review of Controversial UT Fracking Report?

University of Texas prof Chip Groat's ties to the natural gas industry raised a few eyebrows last month after a report he served as lead researcher on gave the hydraulic fracturing process a clean bill of health. "New Study Shows No Evidence of Groundwater Contamination from Hydraulic Fracturing," t ... More >>

UT Poll: Most Folks Want To Keep the EPA, And What is This 'Fracking' You Speak Of?

Shale gas extracted by fracking deep formations in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere is supposed to be the bridge fuel to the sustainable age, capable of powering power plants and, hell, even our cars. It's become the centerpiece of President Obama's "all of the above" energy plan. In Tex ... More >>

Missing Esme: Making sense of loss in the new year

University of Texas Fracking Study: No Evidence That It Contaminates Groundwater

​The University of Texas released the preliminary results today of that comprehensive study on the controversial natural gas producing process known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), drawing no link between it and claims of groundwater contamination. "While there have been casing/cement ... More >>

Dallas News Publisher Jim Moroney Talks to UT Students, Profs About the Future of His Paper

On Thursday, Jim Moroney paid a visit to Austin, where he told an audience of University of Texas journalism students and professors: Only The Major Metropolitan Newspaper can preserve, protect and defend democracy ... or something like that. The Dallas Morning News's publisher spoke of rapidly shri ... More >>

Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett Join Impressive Bill for Central Texas Fire Benefit

​Just got off the phone with Will Johnson a few minutes ago for an upcoming story related to the upcoming, pretty epic-looking Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase. He's a good dude -- you may recall his, Centro-matic and South San Gabriel's efforts a few weeks back to do what they could to help ... More >>

Your Sneak Peek at Most Eligible Dallas

Tara Harper​Maybe you recall: About three months ago Bravo sent word that some time over the summer it would debut Most Eligible Dallas, wherein the city "serves as the sexy backdrop for this jaw-dropping docu-series that follows a group of successful friends living it up like only Texas socialite ... More >>

For Your Easter Sunday Listening Pleasure: R.E.M. Sends One Out to the Grads of SMU

Via.​Speaking of great shows at Moody Coliseum ...Floating out in the ether, all by its unmarked lonesome, is this resonant echo: R.E.M. at Moody Coliseum on November 18, 1987 -- a stop along The Work Tour in support of that year's Document, the band's fifth and final album for I.R.S. Records. I w ... More >>

Because the Only Thing That Would Have Made Animal House Better Would Have Been Guns

​Trey Garrison, a writer I admire and a contributing editor at D, has an op-ed piece in The Dallas Morning News today suggesting that Tuesday's suicide at the University of Texas at Austin makes the case for allowing all students in Austin to pack heat when they go to class. Perhaps from personal ... More >>

Is Miss or Ms. Appropriate?

For What It's Worth, SMU Gets Its Best Score Ever on U.S News's Best Colleges List

​At this late date, there are enough caveats accompanying U.S. News and World Report's annual college rankings that no one would confuse this with science. Buried within the fine print, this is how the magazine answers the why-even-bother question: "You wouldn't go out and buy a computer or a car ... More >>

Quick -- Hospital or Hotel?

Courtesy UT Southwestern​OK, it's a hospital -- the "new state-of-the-art University Hospital at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas" that the UT System Board of Regents agreed to fund to the tune of $800 million. The 12-story, 424-bed facility will open in 2015 on Harry Hines Boulevard at Re ... More >>

Griffin Remembers

Megafauna

For Your Weekday Listening Pleasure: David Garza and Friends at Club Dada in '91

Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom. How's that for a flashback?​Pardon the musical interlude so early in the morning; blame an overnight missive from Jeff Liles. He sends very advance word: David Garza's getting Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom together for the first time in 20 years at The Kessler on July 17 -- wh ... More >>

SMU, UT Researchers Think They've Found Cause of North Texas Quakes

Courtesy SMUSeismologist Brian Stump installing equipment to find the cause of the quakes near DFW Airport​SMU just sent word: Its seismologists, Brian Stump and Chris Hayward, joined by researchers from the University of Texas, have found evidence that could very well link those North Texas earth ... More >>

There Goes Scroogey Claus

There Goes Scroogey Claus

Finally, the UT Co-op Comes to Dallas

Seems we missed this rather significant media release yesterday -- significant, that is, if you're a Texas Ex in need of, oh, I dunno, a PINK University of Texas Bling T-Shirt or a Longhorn Pet Sweater right pronto. Because after opening outposts in Houston and San Antonio, the University of Texas C ... More >>

The Eyes of Texas Are Upon ... Her

Sure University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy had to settle for the Heisman Trophy runner-up. Sure his Longhorns - despite last night's thrilling Fiesta Bowl victory - are getting screwed out of a possible National Championship. And sure, as one of my alcohol-soaked relatives put it over the hol ... More >>

Bill Murchison Says News Has Lost Its "Personality, Spirit and Flavor"

In the latest issue of The Weekly Standard, former Dallas Morning News columnist William Murchison reviews Judith Garrett Segura's Belo: From Newspapers to New Media, published in September by the University of Texas Press. (Segura worked at the paper from 1981 till 2004, and she was, among other th ... More >>

Hook 'Em, President-Elect!

Ad Agency imc2 Subtracts Even More, But You Probably Already Knew That

Worst. Talented. Team. Ever.

What Might've Been, Longhorn Fans

Yay, SMU! You're No. 66!

Snoop If You Want

Truth is revealed in materialism

The Sighs of Texas Are Upon Us

Old Hollywood Fashion at Home in Neiman Marcus

No Child Left Behind. Yeah, O.K.

Sure, What's Another Destroyed Dallas Landmark, More or Less?

Oh, and She Loves Ya Like a Sister

The Hardest Way Possible to Get From Austin to Dallas

Happy Birthday, G.

Grapefest is finally of legal drinking age!

Immigration Judge to Richardson Palestinian Family: Get Out, Now.

More Sounds of Deep Ellum

Radiant Still Milkin' That Kimmel Contest Win

Impenetrable

The Battle for Metroplex Mediocrity

The Class Menagerie

Zooniversity offers four-legged fun

"Nice Kid, But..."

To get into the right college, sometimes you have to be better than perfect

Highland, Ho

Scottish fest and games offer caber tossing and bonny knees

He Wants to be a Millionaire

So why did LaMarcus Aldridge put off NBA riches?

Shallow Impact

Why don't tourists flock to the meteor crater outside of Odessa? Because most don't know a bona fide Texas treasure from a hole in the ground.

Searching for Gold

Like other past Olympic stars, local gold medal winners often have trouble keeping track of them

Less than fantastick

Theatre Three almost revives a dated, saccharine musical