Jim Schutze Live: The Replay

Michigan’s favorite son and Dallas Observer columnist Jim Schutze was on Facebook live Wednesday afternoon, responding to readers’ questions about politics, Dallas’ future, biting dogs, The Dallas Morning News’ Texan of the Year and a whole bunch of comments about whether he’s a Texan. (Hint: He doesn’t like okra. Enough…

Amy Ero Is Leaving the Observer, but She’s Not Going Away

Amy Ero, the Dallas Observer’s advertising director, is leaving us for a gig as managing director of a Dallas-based design and consulting agency. It’s not so much a “goodbye” as a “see you around” — she’ll continue to collaborate with the Observer at her new job developing digital marketing for…

Signs of a Bat-Killing Fungus Found for the First Time in Texas

A lethal fungus that has driven some bat species to near extinction across the eastern United States has been found for the first time in Texas, researchers say. Biologists from Bat Conservation International and Texas A&M University’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and Institute of Renewable Natural Resources spent…

Werner Herzog Is Ready for Your Questions, Perhaps

The Antichrist, the embodiment of evil, manifests itself in the internet. The wired world isolates humans, ruins them mentally and physically and releases their darkest impulses, yet humanity has grown so dependent on it that one good solar flare could be enough to fry the ‘net and civilization along with…

The State of Texas Marijuana

The old cotton gin on the west edge of Gunter seems an odd place to launch an economic boom. A breeze blows through broken windows and holes in its rusting, corrugated metal walls. Inside, a half-dozen or so squat machines that once separated cotton from seed sit corroding in a…

Fourth Zika Case Confirmed in Dallas County

A 55-year-old “non-pregnant” patient from DeSoto who traveled recently to El Salvador is the fourth person to test positively for infection with the Zika virus in Dallas County, the county’s Health and Human Services Department said Tuesday. Of the four Dallas cases so far confirmed by the Centers for Disease…

Meet Beth Rankin, the Observer‘s New Food Editor

The Observer has a new food editor on the way at the end of January. Her name’s Beth Rankin, and for the past five years she has been editing the Beaumont Enterprise’s Cat5 Magazine, a weekly arts, entertainment and dining tabloid. She also created, hosted and produced the Local Scene on 91.3 KVLU,…