Picture yourself in a glass-walled cage. Tiny creatures, strangely hairless and unbelievably shrill, keep parading by, screaming and pointing and generally demonstrating an offensive lack of refinement. The pressure inevitably builds until, one day, you snap. Luckily for the gawking children in the video, this gorilla at the Dallas Zoo…
The McClelland Gun Shop has been arming East Dallas since the 1970s from its nondescript shop by the railroad tracks on Centerville Road. And it offers just about what you’d expect from a Texas gun shop: a mix of hunting equipment, handguns, and Second Amendment rhetoric. It was where, during…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here . The ocean, they can all agree, is big. That’s what they learned today, in the kindergarten…
The version of sex ed taught to Dallas ISD students, which is representative of what’s on offer elsewhere in Texas, is completely absurd. It’s tough to reach any other conclusion when the curriculum compares premarital sex to a frog slowly boiling alive in a pot of water and likens condom…
This wasn’t supposed to happen. When Governor Rick Perry called a special legislative session and, later, tacked abortion onto the agenda, he was effectively declaring that the proposed restrictions, some of the toughest in the country, had enough support to become law. And he was right, in a way. Comfortable…
It’s not entirely clear exactly what Quintessa Scott hoped to achieve yesterday evening by randomly thrusting herself at/grinding on customers trying to enter K S Beauty Supply at 9191 Forest Lane. If her goal was to scare away business, it was a success. Police say her unsolicited advances sent multiple…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here . This love story started like so many others: with a clueless rascal who was wily enough…
Ever heard the quotation, “Past is prologue”? The U.S. Supreme Court apparently hasn’t, and its ruling Tuesday on the Voting Rights Act virtually assured that we’re doomed to repeat history. In an incredible sweep, the majority chucked the nearly unanimous, bipartisan will of Congress and dismantled the preclearance measure of…
Early this morning, Fox 4 posted a report on a Tarrant County couple, Melissa Woodard and Christopher Apala, charged with beating their three puppies to death, then stuffing them in a barrel and setting them on fire. The initial information came from police, with Woodard’s sister, who said she called…
When Forbes estimates your net worth at $8.5 billion, dropping $1 million to solve a math problem or losing $16 million in a particularly disastrous weekend of poker amounts to little more than rounding errors on your checking account. But once the debits creep into nine figures, once you start…
When, in the wee hours of Monday morning, House Republicans ended debate and pushed through one of the toughest anti-abortion bills in the country, it seemed destined to sail on to Governor Rick Perry’s desk. It merely needed the OK from the Senate, which shouldn’t be a problem given that…
Last May, as the clocked ticked down to Election Day, Domingo Garcia made a last-minute, $250,000 loan to his congressional campaign in hopes of clawing his way to the top of the crowded Democratic primary. It didn’t work. Garcia finished second in the May 29 primary, then lost to now-U.S…
It was still dark when a passerby came upon the body of 15-year-old Nahum Martinez in Wylie on the morning of March 31, 2012. The Wylie East High School student had been shot in the forehead at close range, his body inexpertly hidden across from twin monuments marking the entrance…
It’s been just three months since an Iranian nephrologist named Dr. Alireza Atef-Zafarmand was named the best doctor in Dallas. He was also recognized for his “passionate and thorough work as well as his excellent training and experience in the field of nephrology.” Those plaudits, impressive as they are, might…
Brek Shea, whose first season of European football can best be described as an epic disappointment, is back in Dallas for the summer where he’s wasted little time showcasing his love for large firearms and gaudy American-flag tank tops, both of which are banned in England. He posted — and…
If you’ve driven by one of the electronic billboards, or if you’ve glanced at the sketch we posted, you’ve no doubt wondered: What the hell is slothpunchclub.com? Then, once you get over your trepidation and decide there’s no way that Clear Channel Outdoor would ever direct you to a bizarre…
Last year, UT Southwestern announced plans to build the Dallas Proton Treatment Center, a $225 million, state-of-the-art clinic and laboratory offering cutting-edge cancer treatment. The “proton” is a reference to the accelerator that fires positively charged particles at 112,000 miles per second. When aimed at, say, a brain tumor, it…
At 7:15 Sunday evening, 20-year-old Angel Nava was being led to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center infirmary by his two arresting officers, R. Chavez and M. Spence. The 20-year-old, right eye nearly swollen shut, had just been picked up on a warrant for harassing two Murphy cops. He began to…
The probate court of the Old Criminal Court Building was a little disjointed on Friday. The judge, lawyers and witnesses were all dressed in 60s garb — skinny ties, strings of pearls, a pillbox hat or two — while back in the gallery the standing room-only audience was snapping pictures…
Twinkie is risen from the ashes of its liquidated parent, Hostess, and will visit the shelves of grocery stores and gas stations once more on July 15. That means Ho Hos and Ding Dongs will return in what its new owners have dubbed “The Sweetest Comeback in the History of…
State Representative Jonathan Stickland gets major props for authoring one of the strongest email privacy measures in the country, requiring law enforcement to get a previously unnecessary warrant in order to read emails older than 180 days. But that remarkable display of common sense is very much an exception for…
Technically speaking, Angela Hunt never stopped being a lawyer. It’s just that she spent the vast majority of her waking hours over the past eight years doing yeoman’s work on the City Council. She gave her incendiary farewell on Twitter a couple of weeks back, though her tenure won’t officially…
