Thousands of people, as we’ve reported and a few Texas politicians have lamented, come to North Texas from California every year. On arrival, they have to deal with the heat, higher property taxes and a political climate they may or may not welcome, but they get not having a state…
Texas, thanks to a letter sent to the U.S. secretary of state by Gov. Greg Abbott, is closed to refugees. The state needs to take care of its own before it seeks to help others, Abbott told Secretary Mike Pompeo. “At this time, the state and nonprofit organizations have a…
First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress has some instructions for all of you out there who might be looking for a little amusement as your week gets rolling: Pay no mind to a new video from a group calling itself the Lincoln Project. The Lincoln Project — made up of…
Thursday morning, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson trotted out his task force’s four recommendations for curbing violent crime in Dallas. The mayor, with the support of key members of the City Council, wants to clean up abandoned buildings and lots in areas with high levels of violent crime, provide better lighting…
However a government might seek to restrict abortion, people with pregnancies they don’t wish to carry to term are going to seek the procedure out. It’s a fact one will hear again and again from pro-choice researchers and activists, and a new study from TxPEP, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project,…
Dallas County’s switch from traditional polling places on election day to vote centers that can be used by anyone registered to vote in the county is a good thing. The Observer is on the record saying as much. The county’s transition to the new voting setup, as county commissioners and the…
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is not going to save us. Tuesday, the federal appellate court rejected the final pre-Supreme Court appeal from Walmart, putting a large dent in the retail giant’s quest to take down one of Texas’ thorniest remaining blue laws. Put simply, Walmart wants to sell liquor…
Sometime Wednesday afternoon, the Dallas Cowboys, for the ninth time in their history and their eighth time under the ownership of Jerry Jones, are going to announce that they’ve hired a new head coach. Mike McCarthy, he of a dozen mostly successful seasons and one Super Bowl victory with the…
As tension between the U.S. and Iran turns into conflict, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned the public Tuesday about Iranian cyberattacks on Texas’ state agencies. Over the last 48 hours, the governor said, more than 10,000 attacks per minute, many of them originating in Iran, have been attempted against the…
One of Texas’ biggest fights over voter registration got new life Monday afternoon, with national Democratic groups parachuting into the state to challenge its requirement that each voter registration form filed in the state be marked with an original signature. In 2018, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office rejected nearly…
Just before former Dallas Police Department Officer Amber Guyger’s trial began in earnest last fall, there was a moment when it seemed like the whole thing could go off the rails. As Guyger, the media and the public prepared for opening statements, her defense team told Dallas County District Judge Tammy…
That was fast. Monday morning, less than 24 hours after the Dallas Cowboys officially severed ties with Jason Garrett, the team’s coaching search is over. According to multiple media reports — the first of which came from Fox Sports scoop machine Jay Glazer — Jerry Jones and company have agreed to…
We’re here, on New Year’s Eve, not to praise 2019, but to bury it. It’s been … a year. The Cowboys failed in the most Cowboys of ways. Donald Trump came back to American Airlines Center, as president this time. We’ve got a new mayor, a new district attorney and…
Given the anti-choice laws being passed around the rest of the country — in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri and elsewhere — there’s a temptation for abortion rights supporters in Texas to take a deep breath. The 2019 edition of the Texas Legislature didn’t pass a total ban on abortion. Neither…
Ask 10 Rangers fans about Ian Kinsler, who retired last week after a decade-plus in Major League Baseball, and you’ll get 10 different answers. Most of them will be bad, something about his lack of hustle maybe or his propensity for popping up. Eventually, someone will bring up his comments…
Being a Dallas sports fan in 2019 is about hope. The good kind that comes from the city’s best-ever crop of young athletes and the bad kind that leads you down the path to still, after all these years, being disappointed by the Cowboys. One of these days, one of…
Among a few other things, 2019 in North Texas was the year of the crime story. On a weekly basis, cops, crime and courts took center stage, dominating local news, Dallas’ municipal elections and conversation. As the calendar turns over to 2020, let’s take a look at the stories to…
Texas prosecutors aren’t giving juries the opportunity to put people to death and, even when they do, jurors aren’t going for it. Those are the big takeaways from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s annual roundup of Texas’ death row development. Only nine of the 21 executions scheduled…
You probably don’t need reminding, but we’ve been here before. A talented but underperforming Cowboys roster led by Jason Garrett has arrived at a mid- to late-December crossroads. Their record isn’t great, but a single win will get them into the NFL playoffs, a place where strange and stranger things…
A Dallas County grand jury has indicted former Dallas City Council member Kevin Felder. Felder is charged with failure to stop and render aid, a third-degree felony, according to county records. Felder was arrested in February after an altercation with an 18 year old riding a scooter in South Dallas…
There is one end-of-year list that’s easier to put together than the rest. When it comes to identifying the most read news stories of the year, there’s no hemming or hawing, no debate in the office or even any critical thinking necessary. The decisions about what goes on this list…
In the aftermath of the 2016 election, as everyone scrambled to figure out what a Donald Trump presidency would look like in reality rather than in their worst nightmares or wildest dreams, one thing no one could have predicted was the rise of a certain East Texas congressman. Louie Gohmert,…
