Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk was supposed to be at Solutions Outpatient Services 21st anniversary celebration to present an award Thursday night. She didn’t show up, and the banquet’s attendees were told she was sick. Friday morning, she was slated to be the keynote speaker at the Dallas Public Library’s…
Over the past week, Dallas has been the backdrop for what is destined in short order to be made into a TV true-crime documentary. On Friday, officials responding to a North Dallas house fire found the body of Ira Tobolowsky, an attorney from a prominent local family. The fire was soon…
In an attempt to head off concerns from conservatives about the type of judge he might nominate to the Supreme Court, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump released a list of 11 people he’d consider appointing to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on Wednesday afternoon. There are eight men and three…
Executing more inmates than any other state, Texas has perfected the art of ultimate punishment. Under the watch of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the executioner has employed a number of tactics to punish the innocent and the guilty from a noose around their neck until 1924 to a…
The Reverend Jeff Hood pushes against the yellow caution tape serving as a barrier to hold back the dozen protesters standing outside of the Huntsville prison where Pablo Vasquez, called a “satanist” and a “vampire” by the media, faces execution for a murder he committed nearly 20 years ago. Bald…
Former Texas A&M quarterback and 2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel has been indicted by a Dallas County Grand Jury. He is charged with assault causing a bodily injury to a member of his household, a misdemeanor. Manziel faces up to a year in Dallas County Jail and a $4,000…
Merrick Garland is getting all the attention. President Obama’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia seems just as unlikely to receive a confirmation vote as he did the day he was nominated, March 16. Both of Texas’ senators, John Cornyn and…
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, a Texas-based affiliate of the women’s health organization, has joined a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood branches across the country against the Center for Medical Progress and the people behind it. Posing as tissue researchers, Center for Medical Progress employees — they fancy themselves investigative journalists —…
The Dallas County Courthouse filled with African American luminaries on April 18, 1921. Something special was going to happen, and the assembled group was there to show support as public testimony decided the fate of two children. On a Saturday evening in early April, firefighting trucks from two stations responded…
Buying into a Texas wind farm sounds like a good idea. Texas investors have dumped more than $7 billion into the technology and the state’s wind farms generate more than 12,000 megawatts of electricity per year. Texas has the highest wind power capacity in the country, so it makes sense…
Avi Adelman was arrested on February 9, ostensibly for trespassing on DART’s Rosa Park’s Plaza, but really, the record suggested, because a DART cop didn’t like that he refused to stop taking photographs of paramedics treating a semi-conscious K2 user. A week later, on February 16, DART notified Adelman that…
The battle over House Bill 2, Texas’ 2013 anti-abortion law, is really two fights. There’s the battle that’s been waged in federal courtrooms and there’s the rhetorical struggle among activists on both sides of the issue and the state’s politicians. Wednesday morning, that first clash reached its inevitable destination —…
In a move that surely has nothing to do with Texas’ primary election today, George Nash, a volunteer staff member for Dwaine Caraway, has sued Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price for assault. Nash claims that during the melee between Caraway, who’s challenging Price for his seat on the commissioner’s…
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo’s lawsuit against the NFL highlights one of the league’s essential hypocrisies – the fact that, although it is dependent on interest from gamblers and gambling interests, the league keeps visible endorsement of gambling at arm’s length.
Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is going to get a taste of the fight that’s been ringing in Texans’ ears for almost three years — the battle over the passage and implementation of House Bill 2, Texas’ latest in a long line of laws that have severely limited access to…
Former Texas A&M star quarterback and future vagabond Cleveland Browns-ex Johnny Manziel has, at least for the time being, dodged assault charges after being accused of rupturing his ex-girlfriend’s eardrum. Manziel’s case has been referred to a Dallas County grand jury by the Dallas Police. The investigation of the domestic…
Richard Gladden might be considered a superhero among civil rights activists if he weren’t representing one of the most despised segments of the population: sex offenders. The 55-year-old attorney has been defending them in court for more than a decade, fighting for their rights in a society hell-bent on taking…
The first place the mind wandered following the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was, for a lot of people, conspiracy. Even the Observer was not immune. The second obvious place, especially for those who live in Texas, was the effect the jurist’s death might have on Whole…
There are plenty of conspiracy theories floating around out there claiming political opponents murdered Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to open up a seat on the court. Radio talk show host Alex Jones, never one to pass up an opportunity to stir the pot, said he feels this happened “in his…
The dirty old man in the wrinkled raincoat lurks behind a tree with a bag of candy in a neighborhood just like any other neighborhood. Seconds, minutes, hours have passed on a day like any other school day and still he stands and waits, hungrily licking his lips when the…
At 10 a.m. Friday, Dallas police Assistant Chief Gary Tittle briefed the media on the results of the department’s 12-day-old downtown panhandling crackdown. As of Thursday, cops had made 128 arrests as part of the initiative, which downtown inhabitants say has already had a dramatic impact: On Wednesday, commercial real…
If the status of the Dallas Police and Fire System weren’t so dire, it might be amusing. The retirement plan, facing an unfunded liability somewhere north of $1 billion, faces a lawsuit filed by a group of real estate advisers that was helping the fund pick properties as it dug…
