For the first time since the end of the last legislative session in May 2015, the Texas Legislature did some official business Monday. Yes, filing has kicked off the 2017 session. While the procedures to pass the bills filed today won’t begin until Jan. 10, 2017, the political process has…
Instead of waking up every day dreaming I have a fatal disease, I am going to concentrate on what’s good — and it’s very good — in my own East Dallas neighborhood.
On their fourth consecutive night on the streets, Dallas’ anti-Trump protesters aimed concrete target for their anger: Dallas’ First Baptist Church. First Baptist’s pastor, Robert Jeffress was square in the middle of Trump’s victory party in New York City on Tuesday night. He earned the spot: He has been the president-elect’s…
So, last week the city of Dallas reached an agreement in its battle with HMK, a company the city accuses of operating as a slumlord. Families that faced imminent eviction in West and South Dallas now need not worry being put out onto the street. They don’t, at least, until…
The Dallas City Council yesterday amended an existing ordnance to ban smoking from public parks. This has been done in other cities, like New York and San Antonio, with little head-scratching. But in Dallas, the council clouded the move with exemptions. Here’s a quick rundown of who can smoke where…
The day after the election of Donald Trump to the White House, the aviation advocacy group Partnership for Open & Fair Skies released a pitch in the form of a statement. “We are optimistic that the Trump administration will stand up to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, enforce our trade…
The real challenge isn’t here yet. The real challenge comes four years form now when we really know what he is.
The unexpected victory of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign inspired politicians and pundits to take to Twitter. The Texas GOP, which has backed Trump fairly consistently even during his scandal-prone campaign, took a victory lap. Dallas GOP leader Phillip Huffines set the general tone: Primary rival and reluctant supporter Sen…
In the end, Tuesday night’s election results in North Texas appear to have been affected very little by the night’s national trend. Disaffected white voters throughout the south and Rust Belt banded together in an effort to, as Donald Trump would call it, drain the swamp in Washington. Republicans held…
A little over a week ago, Dallas’ animal services department began publishing daily report cards of the actual, concrete work it does each day in the field. In the wake of its reorganization following the South Dallas mauling death of Antoinette Brown, the agency is increasing efforts to be transparent…
Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced plans for the more than 500 election monitors it plans to send to 67 counties in 28 states to ensure that voters in those jurisdictions will be able to exercise their right to vote. Monitors will post up in three Texas counties: Dallas,…
By the time polls closed at 7 p.m. Friday night, 514,330 Dallas County residents had cast their ballots early, setting a new record for the county. The previous record for votes cast before election day was 477,228, set in 2008. In 2012, almost 99,000 fewer Dallas County voters cast their…
Last week’s announcement of a $50 million gift to design and build a park along the Trinity River was scary, mainly because it’s possible to do so much damage with that much money. Word of people walking around with that much money in their pockets always puts me in mind…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings sat in front of the Texas State Pension Review Board Thursday morning, arguing, he believed, for his city’s continued existence. “It is horribly ironic that a city that has enjoyed such tremendous success, a city that has made Texas so strong and so proud is potentially…
There is a way of talking about bad things that happen in this city as if those things are irresistible workings of destiny. In truth it’s not destiny. It’s some guys doing some stuff. Last week I got a 1,700-word letter from the mayor’s spokesperson, Scott Goldstein, taking me to…
The Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas is an all purpose office complex, a bastion of federal bureaucracy located at 1100 Commerce St. Most people come for a passport or to get business done in front of a federal judge. But inside, a quiet review is underway that has…
Based on the evidence of a mayoral media event Monday, somebody already has told a small private organization called The Trinity Trust Foundation that they will be taking the lead role in designing, developing and then running the city’s long-awaited new linear park along the Trinity River. What? In fact,…
Tuesday afternoon, Texas Agriculture Commissioner and top Donald Trump surrogate Sid Miller’s Twitter account called Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton a “cunt.” The tweet was quickly deleted, but not before the Observer screengrabbed it. Just after 4 p.m., whoever was operating Miller’s account tweeted that the account had been hacked…
No one, it seems, will be charged with a crime in the South Dallas dog mauling death of Antoinette Brown. The Dallas Police Department announced Monday that there is no conclusive link between Brown and the seven dogs impounded near the Rutledge Street vacant lot on which Brown was killed…
At various points in the election season just ending, each side complained bitterly about the media coverage of the other. During Trump’s good months, his Republican primary opponents and then later the Clinton campaign were convinced the media would never stop lavishing him with free publicity. And of course later…
Over the last several months a very pointed debate has been forming up behind the scenes over what kind of park the city should build along the Trinity River between the flood control levees downtown. One camp, made up mainly of younger citizens from varied walks of life, would like…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and the head of Dallas’ Domestic Violence Task Force, Dallas City Council member Jennifer Gates, have paid a lot of attention to domestic violence. For all of that, the city still has a gaping hole when it comes to the care and resources that are available…
