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…
In 2016, when students at South Oak Cliff High School staged a walkout to protest the shabby conditions at the aging campus, Tyesha Brown was right there with them. Brown, then a freshman, didn’t want the school remodeled. Like many students at the time, she wanted it torn down and…
We got stuck on the wrong part of what the police chief said. At a press conference Jan. 5 about the shooting death that day in Dallas of a 1-year-old and the nonfatal shootings of an 8-year-old and a 20-year-old, Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall used a curse word…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
A Dallas teenager’s death from a lung injury associated with vaping comes at a time when hospitalizations for the mysterious disease are on the decline nationwide. The teenager is the first person in Dallas County to die of injuries related to e-cigarette use, according to Dallas County Health and Human…
OK, I hate to keep shooting this horse, but all of you people who wanted East Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston and council member/mayoral candidate Scott Griggs out of City Hall because they weren’t civil enough, here’s how civility works: David Blewett, who beat Kingston in District 14, is…
Considerably more than 100 North Texans turned out Saturday afternoon in Dealey Plaza to protest the United States’ continued presence in Iraq and the recent American airstrike that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, and four of his associates. As the protesters waved their signs and chanted their chants, people…
Two days after the Dallas City Council in a split vote shot down a deal to turn over Reverchon Park to a for-profit sports entity, East Dallas District 14 City Council Member David Blewett, who had voted against the giveaway, filed paperwork with the City Secretary for a re-vote —…
Voters in Dallas and Tarrant counties will continue to be able to vote at any polling place in their counties. The Texas Secretary of State’s office notified both counties last week that they had been granted permission to continue participating in the state’s countywide voting program. The program allows voters…
This year, as in past years, the Dallas Police Department asked revelers to refrain from celebratory gunfire because it’s illegal, dangerous and punishable by a fine and jail time. But, between 10:00 p.m. December 31, 2019 and 2:00 a.m. January 1, 2020, DPD recorded 933 calls reporting random gunfire – 16 more than during the same period last New Year’s Eve.
The Dallas Police Department promised to implement a “data-driven approach to reduce violent crime” and laid out crime-reduction goals for the upcoming year in a report released Thursday. Mayor Eric Johnson demanded the report be released by the end of 2019, a particularly violent year in Dallas. In a statement released…
Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, ended his presidential campaign Thursday morning. Castro, the only remaining Texan in the race, announced the news Thursday morning on Twitter, pledging to “keep fighting for an America where everyone counts.” In a video posted on Twitter Thursday morning, Castro highlighted several…
Everyone, it seems, has something good to say about plans for the city’s new jail diversion center. District Attorney John Creuzot called it a “solution” to the city’s continued criminalization of homelessness and mental illness. “Ditto,” said Lynn Richardson, chief of the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office, which represents many…
We start this new decade in the city with two facts staring us in the face. Fact One: Truly powerful new ideas are on the table right now that will help us take away the sharp bite of social inequity, greatly reduce crime and, most important and valuable, harvest the…
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…
Don’t get a ticket. Buses, light rail and the Trinity Railway Express are all free Tuesday night beginning at 6 p.m., thanks to MillerCoors. But you’ll need to keep your eyes on the clock after that midnight kiss. Buses and trains are operating on a normal weekday schedule. That means most…
On the afternoon of New Year’s Day, right about the time the Dallas Stars face off against the Nashville Predators at the Cotton Bowl, the forecast calls for a chance of rain and temperatures in the mid 50s — not balmy, maybe, but well above freezing. Hockey, not to put…
Let’s get this one straight before it rolls away from us. A certain amount of misrepresentation is going on about the meaning of a federal judge’s recent action dismissing the city as a defendant in a civil lawsuit arising from the Amber Guyger/Botham Jean murder case. This is not a…
