Classrooms at colleges and universities across North Texas sat empty Monday as students returned from spring break and resumed their classes from home. College campuses across Texas and nationwide are shut down, some for a few weeks and others through the end of the semester, in an effort to contain…
Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t say anything about it last week, when he announced his ban on elective medical procedures, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made it clear Monday afternoon — abortion is banned in Texas until, at the earliest, April 3. Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, anyone seeking an…
According to one expert, the grocery store shortages in produce and frozen food are easing already. Canned goods are coming back, but we may just have to learn to live without toilet paper. OK, he didn’t say the last thing. That’s just me trying to sell newspapers. But he did…
Last Tuesday, Yan Blair was supposed to be visiting a school in a village in the Republic of Georgia, observing teachers there as they walked their students through English lessons. After class, he was supposed to talk to those teachers about how to set up an after-school English language club…
How’s everybody doing? We are, collectively, about a week into a unique experience. The sun’s still — when it isn’t raining at least — coming out. Dallas’ crappy infrastructure is still crappy, but it hasn’t fallen apart. We’re still walking our dogs and getting our kids outside as often as…
Norman Siegel, a prominent New York civil rights lawyer who won a well-publicized victory on Ebola quarantines three years ago, has a new message. This is different. I talked to him last week because his quarantine victory in 2017 had an indirect connection with the 2014 Dallas Ebola scare, which…
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has ordered all county residents to shelter in place until at least April 3. All nonessential business in the county must close at 11:59 p.m. Monday. “It makes me sick that we are at this point,” Jenkins said. “God-willing, (shelter-at-home) and the mass production of…
Another day under semi-lockdown, another 19 positive tests for the novel coronavirus in Dallas County, according to a breakdown of COVID-19 cases in the county provided Friday by Dallas County Health and Human Services. More evidence, too, that everyone should be staying home as much a possible. According to the…
As the novel coronavirus slowly turns all of our lives into a dreary hellscape, one of the few bits of good news for workers in Texas has been Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to make the state’s byzantine unemployment insurance system a little easier to navigate. It’s about the least he…
There are going to be a lot of notices like this over the coming days. The first of whatever group to be infected with the scourge of 2020, COVID-19. One of Thursday’s firsts is a Dallas Police Department officer. According to the department, an officer working out of the Northeast…
All Texans are now living in the same world Dallas residents have been inhabiting for a couple of days now. Effective midnight Friday, all bars, restaurants, health clubs and schools in the state must shut down until at least April 3. Restaurants can still provide takeout, drive-through and delivery service…
A Richardson man in his 60s has died due to the effects of the coronavirus, Dallas County health officials reported Thursday. The man, who was not identified by health officials, did not have any high-risk health conditions. He was one of 20 new cases of the COVID-19 reported by Dallas…
Jim Anderson and his wife are living in what could be described as a very well-run, nicely appointed, accommodating, fairly friendly minimum security prison in San Antonio. They can leave their small suite at will to walk the grounds, but the area where they are allowed to walk is surrounded…
Oooh boy. Texas Sen. John Cornyn has some thoughts on the novel coronavirus. Wednesday, the man who’s running for reelection during a pandemic, the same one who tweeted out a picture of himself drinking a Corona at a bar over the weekend — he’s so funny — decided to smear Chinese…
Texas Rangers opening day shoved into May. Dallas Mavericks playoff games awkwardly played in August. Texas Motor Speedway’s NASCAR race postponed into a murky future. Golf’s Byron Nelson Classic canceled altogether. Courtesy of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, even sports — our escape from reality — can’t escape reality. “Out of an…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will test all residents and staff at an Arlington retirement home where a man died after after contracting COVID-19, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday. The man, Patrick James, lived with his wife at Texas Masonic Retirement Center in Arlington. James was hospitalized Thursday…
Testing is ramping up and so is the number of cases of COVID-19 in Dallas County. Eleven additional individuals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, according to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. Thirty-nine people have now been discovered to have the virus in the county. According…
By now you have seen X-many lists of answers to all the questions people are asking. So I thought I’d work on a list of answers to questions people are not asking. These are questions people may not want to ask because they fear the questions may not be politically…
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has warned throughout the ongoing coronavirus crisis that testing was behind the reality on the ground. He’s starting to look prophetic. Tuesday morning, Dallas County reported nine additional positive tests for the novel coronavirus, bringing the county’s total number of positive test to 28. Five…
Nineteen people have now tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Dallas County, according to new information from the county health department. The department confirmed five new cases Monday. Three of the people who tested positive live in Dallas. One lives in Farmers Branch and the other is not a…
Here’s where we stand, as of Monday morning: There are 14 confirmed positive cases of the novel coronavirus in Dallas County. That’s up from eight Friday afternoon. Thirteen of those case have been linked to travel, be it international, domestic or on a cruise. Collin County has reported eight cases…
If I could have one wish, which I can’t, it would be that people would stop telling me not to panic. Panic is a personal matter. I don’t need public officials or editorial writers telling me whether to panic or not. And, by the way, nothing they say is going…
