In Colorado, adults can now legally grow Marijuana. In Arlington growing marijuana is reason enough for the SWAT team to raid one’s home. Two years ago, officers stormed a hippie commune called the Garden of Eden early in the morning on a no-knock warrant. The Garden of Eden, which we…
When Texas isn’t suing for the right to dump crap in the water, we’re using the water we have to drill for natural gas, a process that may contribute to contaminating the water, in an endless water-crap cycle. The U.S. Geological Survey has a much more polite way of explaining the…
As far as Change.org causes go, the petition to “Discontinue Plan to Cease Package Acceptance at All Camden Properties” sounds like it’s about as minor a problem as they come. It’s not about freeing an imprisoned journalist, or asking for a federal investigation into Sandra Bland’s death or ending revenge…
Congressman Michael Burgess, representing Denton and Tarrant Counties, is a former gynecologist, but that won’t stop him from defending a medical device that’s been known to spread cancer in women. The device is a tool called the power morcellator, which doctors have used in surgery to grind up benign uterine…
In hindsight, Dr. Shawn Tassone says he and his colleagues were perhaps too eager to implant metal coils in their patients’ fallopian tubes. “We do kind of treat women’s health a little bit on the sly here in the United States,” says Tassone, who practices at Austin Area Obstetrics, Gynecology…
Well, it turns out that the city councilman who the general public has known as Rick Callahan since he was elected to represent District 5 in 2013 actually prefers to be called Rickey Callahan. This is incredibly awkward. The councilman recently changed his official City Council name—which appears on the…
As many of you know, the Observer is a safe no-judgement zone, so we will not point any fingers of blame as to why methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is leaking out of North Texas gas wells and associated facilities more than it was supposed to be leaking. In North…
On the one hand, it might be comforting to know that the new, huge, taxpayer-funded but privately operated detention camp in South Texas for immigrant women and children is providing its young inmates with vaccinations. On the other hand, one should remember that vaccines, while life-saving, are not candy but…
Baylor University just made an exciting change to its sexual misconduct policy. Formerly, the Waco-based Baptist university had outlined the many ways that Baylor’s students, staff and administration could misuse “God’s gifts” of human sexuality. The list of “misuses” included sexual assault, adultery, sexual harassment and, because God says, “homosexual…
On Earth, everything is connected. The streams and wetlands feed into larger lakes and rivers, and so federal regulators want to protect the smaller bodies of water in order to keep the larger bodies, and ultimately, our water supply, clean. But in business-friendly states such as Texas, corporations are not…
For years, Republican lawmakers have tried their hardest to make sure poor women who depend on their local Planned Parenthood clinics for abortions or just regular check-ups won’t get the help they need. An “unprecedented” number of state-level abortion restrictions have been enacted since 2010, the Guttmacher Institute Found, and In Texas,…
In 2013, D Magazine published a story under an anonymous byline, “Anonymous Park Cities Parent,” that trashed another Park Cities parent for being on welfare. While the author of the piece had the luxury of anonymity, the subject, a woman named Janay Bender Rosenthal, did not. Called “The Park Cities…
The town of Mansfield has at least 200 gas wells, some of which are dangerously far away from any serene neighborhoods with nice houses and cute children playing in the backyard. Luckily, some home developers are ready to change that. Locals have spotted a few signs lately advertising planned housing developments…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. On a gloriously warm Saturday in the middle of February, Jonathan Braddick led another bicycle ride, and everyone on the Internet was invited. Around 500…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 20 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Can Turkyilmaz. The bizarre sentence a Dallas judge gave a confessed rapist in spring 2014 might have gone unnoticed by national media if not for Bobbie Villareal…
Sebastian Blain, the French defense contractor who was charged with assaulting two bicyclists on Turtle Creek Boulevard late last year, was found not guilty by a jury this month, court records show. At his trial, Blain testified that he was acting in self-defense, according to his attorney. George Wendt and…
On the slick website of the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, a lobbying organization for the local drilling industry, an anonymous man asks a question on behalf of his worried wife. “My wife is concerned about potential contamination of our 800-foot-deep well. Who will oversee the safe drilling of the well which…
In the wee hours of the morning on June 7, about 3:50 a.m., Carlos Weeks was home at his apartment when he saw it: a tow truck hauling off his 2004 Lincoln Aviator, according to the narrative provided by the Dallas Police Department. “The vehicle was being towed for a…
In the wake of James Boulware’s attack on Dallas police headquarters, one of the local police unions is sort of blaming the media and a nameless man who once filmed police and is not shooter/would-be bomber Boulware. The Dallas Police Association released a statement shortly after the attack on…
When Dr. Hasan Hashmi and his son Suleman opened a hospital in Grand Prairie three years ago, they pitched it as a noble necessity for an underserved area. “Nationally, Grand Prairie was on the map as one of the largest cities in the country without an acute care hospital,” Suleman told…
The young people today like memes. What is a meme? I think it’s a picture with big white words on it, John. Kids, look at these cool memes brought to you by FrackFeed, a new website created by North Texans For Natural Gas. Obama’s interior secretary is definitely going to…
Every year, the energy drink company Red Bull sponsors a touring cliff-diving competition. (Cliff-diving, for those unfamiliar, is the sport of jumping off a cliff). The Texas stop on the tour, late last month at Possum Kingdom Lake, sure looked fun, the type of event where you might expect to…
