Kendrell Lavar Lyles frequently looked for prostitutes near the area where police believe he shot and killed Muhlaysia Booker on May 18, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. The affidavit, released Thursday afternoon, details the investigation that led Dallas police to Lyles. Police believe that he committed two additional murders…
This may come as a shock to those unfamiliar with East Texas, but the people there, especially those in many of its small towns, really, really don’t like abortion — so much so that they’re willing to make national spectacles of themselves just to show everyone how much they hate…
Thanks to an addendum to the Dallas City Council’s agenda Wednesday, we now know who felt flush enough to pay a million-and-a-half for Dallas’ recently toppled tribute to the treasonous Confederate general, Robert E. Lee. According to council documents, the high bidder in the city’s online auction for the statue,…
Dallas ended up paying dearly for banning porn conventions from the city in 2016. On Wednesday, the City Council signed off on paying J. Handy $650,000 to settle the suit he brought against the city in February 2016. Handy, founder of the Exxxotica pornography and adult industry expo, sued the…
Dallas police have arrested the man they think killed Muhlaysia Booker on May 18. Kendrell Lavar Lyles, 34, has been charged with murdering two additional, yet to be identified people in May as well. DPD Maj. Max Geron said that police began investigating Lyles after an anonymous tipster told Dallas…
If he’s anything, Dallas mayor-elect Eric Johnson is an ambitious guy. He’s got degrees from Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, and took his seat in the Texas House of Representatives before turning 40. In the legislature, he’s sought out high-profile fights, sparring over things like criminal justice reform,…
Without the fanfare of a signing ceremony or public statement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott legalized industrial hemp and products derived from the plant this week, bringing Dallas’ many CBD shops out of murky legal waters and into the light. House Bill 1325, which passed overwhelmingly in both the Texas House…
Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall sounded a lot like a woman on the ropes Monday as she did her best to address Dallas recent spike in homicides and other violent crime in front of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee at City Hall. She told council members that the…
Watching the results roll in Saturday night in Dallas’ municipal election, one would be excused for being a little surprised, especially if she’d been paying attention to what the Observer reported over the last couple of weeks. State Rep. Eric Johnson was almost 20 points ahead of Dallas City Council…
Early last week, the Plain View Project, a database put together by a group of Philadelphia lawyers, went live, publishing Facebook posts that the group believed “could undermine public trust and confidence in police” from more than 3,500 police officers. Among the posts are dozens from Dallas police officers that, to…
The lights went out twice on Dallas progressives Saturday night. First figuratively, when state Rep. Eric Johnson took a lead he wouldn’t come close to relinquishing in the city’s mayoral race, and then again a half hour or so later, when the power and Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs’…
A Dallas County took less than an hour Friday morning to convict Brenda Delgado of Dallas dentist Kendra Hatcher’s 2015 murder. Delgado will spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole. According to prosecutors, Delgado paid Kristopher Love and Crystal Cortes to kill Hatcher because…
State District Judge Tammy Kemp pushed attorneys from both sides of the Botham Jean case about the release of the 911 call made by former Dallas cop Amber Guyger shortly after she shot and killed Jean on Sept. 6. Kemp, who’s issued a gag order in the case, said that…
Saturday night, mercifully if you ask us, Dallas’ 2019 municipal election is finally going to be over. The recordings, petty fighting and near-meltdowns that have characterized the last 10 days or so of the campaign will have finally run their course, and Dallas can get back to its most pressing…
For the moment, at least, Texas sure does look a lot like a purple state. According to a poll from Quinnipiac University released Wednesday, President Donald Trump would have a significant fight on his hands with many of the top challengers for the Democratic nomination. Digging into the poll, the…
Dallas racked up its second big win over the Confederacy in recent years Wednesday when a person known only as LawDude made the winning $1,435,000 bid to buy the city’s Robert E. Lee statue, which has been sitting at Henley Field in Grand Prairie since 2017. The purchase price will…
Turns out there may have been a third Texas official who had more than a little to do with the state’s recently failed attempt to purge about 100,000 people from its voter rolls. According to emails made public Tuesday and first brought to light by San Antonio Express-News reporter Guillermo Contreras,…
Unlike the last couple of seasons, Monday’s Major League Baseball draft hit with the Texas Rangers still playing meaningful games. Headed into their Tuesday night series opener with the league-worst Baltimore Orioles, your hometown heroes are 30-27 and would make the playoffs as the American League’s second wild-card qualifier if…
Beto O’Rourke is starting to look a lot like a presidential also-ran. The former U.S. representative from El Paso, the darling of Texas liberals and national political media during his ultimately unsuccessful bid to take down Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, has been relegated to the chasing pack for…
For the literally hundreds of Dallas voters who are tuned in to the city’s municipal politics, Saturday’s mayoral and City Council runoffs have turned into entertaining scraps over the last week or so. There have been secret tapes, accusations of illegal electioneering and more Facebook fights than one could count. Scott…
Through the first week of May, the Dallas City Council race in downtown, Uptown and Oak Lawn was relatively quiet. Incumbent Philip Kingston had easily won reelection in 2015 and 2017. The Dallas Morning News had endorsed one of his opponents, David Blewett, but that was hardly a shock. The paper’s…
Texas’ state government is still, just as it has been for a couple of decades, dominated by Republicans. The GOP holds every statewide elected office and big majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. Twenty-three of the state’s 36 U.S. House representatives are Republicans. Texas is still severely conservative, no…
