In a broad sense, this is all Beto O’Rourke’s fault. If the former U.S. representative had just listened — to activists, party insiders, polls or basically anyone not living in his own head — and run for U.S. Senate rather that president, Texas Democrats would already be in general election…
Social media is doing its best to destroy the news industry. Temperamental algorithms shift page views — oxygen for publications like the Observer — up or down, seemingly on a whim. Anonymity means abuse flows freely from trolls to journalists, further wearying reporters working in newsrooms that have already seen their…
East Texas congressman and friend of the Observer Louie Gohmert is, as one might imagine, having himself quite the time during the U.S. House’s impeachment hearings. Several times a day, whether any of his colleagues like it or not, Gohmert gets five minutes alone with the House Judiciary Committee microphone and…
Southwest Airlines workers will get a nine-figure piece of their Dallas-based employer’s settlement with Boeing, the airline announced Thursday. The settlement comes with the Boeing 737 MAX, a key component of both Southwest’s and American Airlines’ fleets, still grounded because of two crashes that killed more than 300. The terms…
President Donald Trump had a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. That would’ve been weird enough, given that the president told an Israeli American organization Saturday that they had “no choice” to vote for him because Elizabeth Warren would “take 100% of (their) wealth away,” but Trump…
Six years later, the legal battle between Dallas and Kelvion Walker is over. Wednesday afternoon, the Dallas City Council voted unanimously to give Walker $610,000, settling an ongoing federal lawsuit over a 2013 shooting. In December 2013, Dallas Police Department officer Amy Wilburn shot Walker as Walker sat in the…
There’s a condition, one you’ve probably heard of if you’ve happened on any right-wing media over the last three years or have any acolytes of the president in your social circle, called Trump Derangement Syndrome. The idea is that Democrats and progressives have been driven to the brink by President…
This fall, Dallas Stars head coach Jim Montgomery was in trouble. His team, fresh off a surprise performance in the playoffs, began their 2019-20 campaign 1-7-1, striking a blow to their hope of returning to the postseason. Then Montgomery righted the ship, leading his team to a 16-4-2 record in…
There’s a chance, if someone isn’t from Texas and doesn’t watch much cable news, that he or she blessedly hasn’t had much exposure to East Texas’ U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert. For those babes in the proverbial woods, seeing Gohmert on TV in all his reddening glory must come with a…
After months of chronic failure, frustration and inaction, the Dallas Cowboys addressed one of their fans’ biggest issues with the team Monday, firing someone who it’s hard to believe hung on this long. Not that guy. Not the other one either. No, it’s likely the third or fourth guy on…
The Observer spends a lot of time — perhaps too much time, according to some of you in the peanut gallery — trying to read between the lines. The words that politicians, preachers and Dallas Cowboys owners say often aren’t as important as the subtext. Sometimes, though, when the sun is…
Like a lot of Cowboys fans on this otherwise lovely Friday, Jerry Jones is feeling the pain from his team’s 31-24 loss to the Bears Thursday night. Almost as soon as he went on the air with 105.3 The Fan, Jones went after hosts Cory Mageors and Kevin Hageland. “Hey,…
New words from Carolyn Davis — killed five months ago by an alleged drunk driver as she awaited sentencing on federal corruption charges — explain just how she believed things worked at Dallas City Hall. Davis’ statements, contained in a fresh court filing in the federal government’s bribery case against…
Nineteen months after former Cowboy Terrance Williams’ head-over-handlebars performance, another of Jerry Jones’ finest has taken a star turn in a Frisco Police Department video. This time around, it’s injured defensive tackle Antwaun Woods, busted by FPD for pot possession, tampering with evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia. The story,…
In the midst of the Cowboys’ ongoing circus, Luka Doncic’s sublime start to the 2019-20 NBA season and the Stars’ red-hot winter, the out-of-season Texas Rangers managed to steal Dallas’ sports show for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon, giving North Texas baseball fans their best look yet at what’s coming…
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has only been on the job for about six months, but he’s already seen enough. Late Tuesday, the mayor called out Dallas City Manager TC Broadnax, demanding a plan to address violent crime in Dallas before the end of 2019. “While I believe Dallas remains relatively…
Tuesday’s conversation about scooters at Dallas City Hall was, like a lot of discussions at City Hall, unmoored from time. The complaints about the two-wheelers — and there were many — were the same as two years ago, when the scooters made their Dallas debut, and at every point in…
The 2019 Dallas Cowboys are not a playoff team. At least, they aren’t a playoff team in the way one usually thinks about the term. They are led by one of the NFL’s worst head coaches and sport an underachieving defense and abominable special teams. They’ve lost six of their…
Last week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick finally followed through on a promise he made during one of the 2019 Texas Legislature’s tensest moments. Good luck figuring out what it was without any help. Here’s the announcement from Patrick’s office, made during the middle of Thanksgiving week, when no one…
The more sentimental among us would tell us that Thanksgiving is, in addition to carbohydrates, about looking back on the year that’s past in gratitude. Gratitude for loved ones, employment if you’re lucky enough to have it and little things like the fact that, at least so far, we’ve avoided…
Three days into Thanksgiving week, you have to have seen them. Whether by sheer accident, social media or, God help you, because you actually need one, there are guides everywhere. “How to talk to your family about the economy on Thanksgiving,” is the first of a quarter-billion Google search results…
There was a time, way back in 2015 and 2016, that Texas Republicans were part of the last line of defense against the looming specter of President Donald Trump. Former Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Ted Cruz and a bevy of Lone Star Never Trumpers held the line as best they could,…
