Kanye, Kim and Dan: Winners and Losers

It sounds like the setup to a joke: Kanye West, Kim Kardashian and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick all went to church together on Sunday. Rather than setting up some humor at the expense of two of the world’s biggest celebrities and Texas’ most powerful politician, however, the unlikely trio…

Dallas’ Mina Chang Resigns from the State Department

The most surprising thing about Mina Chang’s resignation is that it took this long. Monday afternoon, five days after NBC News outed her as a fraud, Chang quit her post at the U.S. State Department. “It is essential that my resignation be seen as a protest and not as surrender because…

The Worst Decisions in Dallas Sports History

Myles Garrett did something dumb last week. With his Cleveland Browns moments from finishing a 21-7 win at home over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night, the Arlington Martin and Texas A&M product got involved in a melee with several members of the Steelers offense. Garrett eventually ripped off quarterback…

Clergy Who Jumped on Cops for Shelter Arrests Should Know Better

Last week on the worst night of the freeze, Dallas police arrested 11 people on outstanding warrants when they showed up among some 300 homeless seeking shelter in the city’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center downtown. Clergy who had helped transport people to the center said the arrests were a…

Days from Death, Rodney Reed Gets Stay of Execution

Rodney Reed will not be executed next week. Late Friday afternoon, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court, granted Reed, convicted of capital murder in 1998, a stay of execution so that the trial court in his case can evaluate new evidence. [pdf-1] As Reed’s execution date…

Deep Ellum Bartender Caught in Viral Beating Video Indicted on 4 Charges

A Dallas County grand jury indicted Austin Shuffield, the bartender accused of a brutal, caught-on-video assault in Deep Ellum this spring, on four counts Thursday, according to county records. Shuffield, 31, faces one count each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, obstruction or retaliation, assault causing bodily harm and unlawfully…

VisitDallas Wins Ugly at City Council

VisitDallas remains an organization non grata for multiple Dallas City Council members, that much is clear after Wednesday’s City Council meeting. That didn’t stop the embattled tourism promotion firm from winning grudging support for contractual changes meant to fix the long list of problems with way the organization keeps its…

Fewer Veterans on the Streets Across Texas — But Not in Dallas

Although the number of veterans living on Texas streets has dropped drastically since 2011, that population remains stubbornly high in Dallas, according to data released this week by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Even as Dallas saw fewer homeless veterans overall, its population of unsheltered veterans — those…

Hate Crimes in Dallas Spiked Last Year, FBI Data Shows

Dallas saw a massive spike in hate crimes in 2018, according to FBI data released Tuesday. The Dallas Police Department reported 31 such incidents to the FBI last year, more than double the previous year’s number. Angela Hale, acting CEO of Equality Texas, attributed the rise to hateful rhetoric by…

Dallas Schools Doing OK, No 10 Plagues of Egypt, Trustee Claims

We must knock wood and throw salt over our shoulders. Don’t say anything to mess it up. But the Dallas public school system, already an unheralded center of innovation, may also be emerging as an unheralded beacon of stability. And the unheralded part — no New York Times stories, no 60 Minutes…

DPD Cutting Officers’ Off-Duty Work. A Little.

Last November, an audit of the Dallas Police Department’s off-duty work policy landed with a thud. Due to lax oversight and departmental controls, the audit said, DPD put itself at risk for officers working up to 112 hours per week when off-duty law enforcement work was factored in, officers doing…

Dallas (and Observer)-Tied Trump Official Busted for Lying on Résumé

U.S. State Department official and former Dallas media darling Mina Chang had a bad day Monday. Just before lunch, NBC News posted a triple-bylined investigative piece outlining how Chang worked her way into a job as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Trump administration, thanks to a puffed-up résumé and fake Time magazine…

Everything You’ve Heard About Viral Texas Custody Case Is Wrong

If you happen to follow any of Texas’ Republican leadership on Twitter — and God bless you if you do — you’ve likely encountered the state GOP’s latest cause célèbre: a child-custody dispute in Dallas County between a mom who says that one of her two 7-year-old twins is a trans…