Thomas Hogue, age 75, my neighbor of 36 years, was a guardian of widows, talented actor and lover of local history. As a younger man, every year he erected a brightly lighted Christmas crèche scene on his front yard populated entirely by pink flamingos. Last Saturday he was found dead…
Tuesday was, by most accounts, a pretty harrowing day for Texas. The day after Gov. Greg Abbott found hope in the state’s dearth of newly reported coronavirus cases and deaths over the weekend, the state got hit with a bevy of bad news. Health authorities across the state reported 31…
Ten more Dallas County residents have died from the novel coronavirus, Dallas County Health and Human Services reported. Tuesday afternoon’s announcement is county’s biggest reported loss of life during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. One of the newly reported deaths was a woman in her 90s, three were county residents in…
Imagine a person — you probably know one — who believes that President Donald Trump is the best person to listen to about how he or she should deal with the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. That person has gone from never or barely having heard of the coronavirus in January,…
More than 8,000 miles from home with terrible internet, few opportunities to take a walk while practicing social distancing and no reading material, Salman Kazmi tried a Hail Mary. The UT-Dallas graduate tweeted at the State Department. Then he tweeted Mike Pompeo himself. Those tweets went unanswered, as Kazmi tried…
Monday was the tease for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. After saying last week that he intended to offer plans to reopen Texas economy this week, the governor gave only the slightest hint as to what that might entail Monday. The only real news the governor made Monday was helping to…
With a few notable exceptions, Texas politicians haven’t covered themselves in glory during the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve minimized the risk, called for the elderly to martyr themselves and issued orders so confusing that their constituents have been left to fill in the blanks. This list isn’t about them. We’ve talked…
When WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon launched the second iteration of the XFL this year, he sounded confident that the league could outlast the original version, which folded after a single season. As it turns out, the new league didn’t even last that long. The XFL suspended operations Friday…
As the coronavirus crisis gears up to enter its second month in the United States, it’s become increasingly difficult to know on any given day whether abortion remains legal in Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott banned it as part of his emergency order in March. Abortion providers sued and got clinics…
As hospitals in Texas and nationwide face a dire shortage of protective equipment, volunteers are stepping in to try to fill the gap. Volunteers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are manufacturing plastic face shields to donate to hospitals, senior centers and healthcare workers who are on the front lines in…
Nine Dallas County jail inmates are suing Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown over conditions at the jail. According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which is representing the inmates, the group is seeking the immediate release of all inmates older than 50, in addition to those who are…
Local officials here are doing a lousy job providing us information about the pandemic. The Dallas County Health Department COVID-19 webpage looks like a DOS-based jigsaw puzzle from the 1990s. You don’t know what DOS was, right? My point exactly. (It was an early and now primitive computer operating system.)…
For many Texans, the coronavirus pandemic and the changes it’s inflicted on their everyday lives are merely a bad inconvenience. They can’t go to restaurants, have to home-school their kids and are facing the physical and mental struggles of indeterminate monotony. Others face more serious consequences, like the loss of…
Last week two prominent African American voices in Dallas spoke to the particular threat that COVID-19 poses to the city’s minority poor community. What they said raises an unavoidable and ugly question: What if the two best ways to defend against the pandemic turn out to be being white and…
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price won a significant fight with Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins Tuesday afternoon, expanding the county’s definition of essential businesses during the coronavirus pandemic and ensuring that the full Commissioners Court will have a say in how long the county’s shelter-in-place order lasts. At a…
The entire fight between Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott should have lasted about five minutes. Once Abbott heard from the federal government that they were afraid Jenkins didn’t plan to use the temporary hospital that’s being staged at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, he…
As they scramble to move their classes online and figure out how to teach from home while their campuses are shut down, some college professors across Texas have found yet another challenge to contend with: internet trolls. Last month, colleges and universities nationwide shut down their campuses and sent students…
Dallas ISD students are continuing to learn during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but they are unlikely to return to the classroom this year, district Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said during a news conference Monday. The district will make a final determination in short order he said. “We’re very close to making…
When this is over, it will just be beginning. The global pandemic already is shaking the foundations of class, capitalism and nationhood all over the world. Some people see it. Some don’t. Here in Dallas, our mayor is an unfortunate example of don’t. According to the most recent population estimates…
The long haul is getting longer. Friday morning, Dallas County Commissioners voted to extend the county’s Public Health Emergency until May 20. That means all residents of the county will continue to shelter in place for at least the next six weeks, barring intervention from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins…
Like the rest of the country, Texas, the second-largest state both in population and land area, is in the midst of a public health crisis. In the state’s largest counties, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus is rising drastically each day. Gov. Greg Abbott has shut down…
As thousands and thousands of Texans continue to lose their jobs as the state and the rest of the world suffer through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Texas Workforce Commission has been overwhelmed. The commission’s phone lines have been overwhelmed, and its website huffs, puffs and stalls during high-traffic hours. The…
