Growing up in Egypt, Sahar lived in a city near the sunny Mediterranean Sea. In the center of her hometown is a shrine to her great-grandfather, considered a saint in the Muslim faith. But her parents did not require her to wear a hijab, and her mother didn’t wear the…
Dallas public schools will close indefinitely as health officials continue to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, district officials announced Monday afternoon. The district is on spring break this week. When students return, their classes will be delivered via online distance education, DISD officials said in a statement…
Nineteen people have now tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Dallas County, according to new information from the county health department. The department confirmed five new cases Monday. Three of the people who tested positive live in Dallas. One lives in Farmers Branch and the other is not a…
Here’s where we stand, as of Monday morning: There are 14 confirmed positive cases of the novel coronavirus in Dallas County. That’s up from eight Friday afternoon. Thirteen of those case have been linked to travel, be it international, domestic or on a cruise. Collin County has reported eight cases…
Gov. Greg Abbott is waiving student readiness testing requirements for school districts across the state as districts figure out how to respond to the coronavirus threat. Districts will no longer be required to conduct State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, testing for the 2019-20 school year. The…
If I could have one wish, which I can’t, it would be that people would stop telling me not to panic. Panic is a personal matter. I don’t need public officials or editorial writers telling me whether to panic or not. And, by the way, nothing they say is going…
Over the last decade and a half, the American press has been bloodied and battered, pushed to the end of its rope by vulture capitalism, evolving technology and economic shocks like the 2008 housing crisis. There was a time when it was hard to own a newspaper and not make…
As events are canceled across the city and businesses instruct employees to work from home due to COVID-19, another facet of life was affected last weekend: religion. All over the DFW area, houses of worship suspended in-person services, with some moving to virtual, livestreamed services. This left many pondering what…
Things, as you’ve surely noticed, are getting weird. Thursday brought a cascade of bad news, from the critical — the U.S. still isn’t testing nearly enough people for the coronavirus — to the mundane — sports, basically all of them, are canceled for the foreseeable future. Dallas, Texas, the United…
In certain places in Dallas, tax dollars generated from new malls, high-rise condos and upscale restaurants don’t go back to the public. Instead, new revenue is put into special funds and used to promote more nearby development. The names of many of these places, known as districts, are instantly recognizable…
Alex Jones is out here trying to get people killed. The Austin-based conspiracy theorist got arrested for drunk driving this week after his wife called Austin cops to report a domestic disturbance. On Infowars, Jones’ dystopian nightmare of a website, the man who disputed whether the Sandy Hook massacre actually…
Coronavirus well and truly landed in Dallas Thursday night. Five additional Dallas County residents tested positive for the virus, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. Importantly, one of those five who tested positive has no known travel history. Dallas has crossed a key threshold — the virus has been passed…
As reports of a new influenza epidemic sweeping the coast alarmed residents, Dallas’ chief doctor offered reassurances. “The general health situation in Dallas is good,” he told a reporter for The Dallas Morning News. The disease wasn’t much worse than the common flu, he claimed. It was 1918, and the…
The wolf is at the door in South Dallas. The very near future could see massive dispossession and displacement there to dwarf the city’s long, ugly history elsewhere of dispossession and displacement. The elected leadership of South Dallas not only will fail to raise a hand to protect it. They…
For a few moments Sunday evening and as this week got started, we actually felt a little bad for Ted Cruz. At the Conservative Political Action Conference a couple of weeks ago, Cruz shook hands with a man later diagnosed as having been infected with the coronavirus. Cruz did the…
Robert Wilonsky’s column Thursday in The Dallas Morning News will be his last as the paper’s full-time city columnist. After more than 30 years working for the Observer, LA Weekly and the Morning News, Wilonsky is moving on. He’s taking a new day job as the communications director for Dallas’ Heritage…
A Tarrant County resident tested presumptive positive for COVID-19, health officials there announced Tuesday evening. The person is the sixth reported case of the novel coronavirus in North Texas and the 21st in the state, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Last month, the Dallas City Council met for a daylong retreat at the city’s new Holocaust museum. It included, apparently, a dance party. “Mayor, you really did get the best dance,” said Kimberly Tolbert, the city manager’s chief of staff, at a briefing last week. “Just continue to remain light…
As Dallas ISD students and their parents get ready to head off for spring break, the district is working on a plan to keep everyone safe once they get back. The district’s spring break is next week, and officials are asking parents to fill out forms detailing any domestic or…
Given the results of last week’s primary in Dallas County, whatever’s in the mystery boxes discovered by county elections officials last week isn’t going to matter. While a few races were close, none of them were close enough that they’re going to be swung by adding 44 vote centers’ worth…
Dallas County reported its first case of the novel coronavirus after an out-of-state traveler tested “presumptive positive” for the disease, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced Tuesday afternoon. Jenkins described the person as “a 77-year-old out-of-state traveler with extensive travel history” and said the person is being treated at a Dallas-area…
The wife and child of a Frisco man who tested “presumed positive” Monday for the novel coronavirus have also tested positive for the disease, Collin County officials said Tuesday. County officials said the man traveled to Silicon Valley for business in late February. Santa Clara County, California, has been the…
