Latest Stories

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  A Car Wash Congregation Chants the Bible and Sings ‘Lay my Burden Down’

  June 17 at 4 a.m.

  On a clear day last week, about 100 people gathered in the chapel of Lott’s Mortuary on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in South Dallas to mourn the death of Sheila Davenport Sanders. Sanders, 56, was shot in the back June 2 in a crossfire at Jim’s Car Wash two...

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  Cops Want the Chief Canned, and the Issue Looks Less Racial than Yankee

  June 13 at 4 a.m.

  Everything goes back to Detroit, I guess. Well, not me. I was thinking more about the Dallas chief of police. Again. Yesterday, the Dallas chapter of the National Latino Law Enforcement Organization joined a growing chorus of critics calling for Chief U. Renee Hall to be canned. The NLLEO is...

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  A Moment To Honor 3 on the Right Side of History, Saturday Notwithstanding

  June 11 at 4 a.m.

  You know who you are. If I’m talking to you, you know how I feel. I know how you feel. This is like a mini version of the week after Donald Trump got elected. Oh, Canada! And then, “Oh, no! I don’t have a job in Canada.” So let’s take...

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  Dallas Chief Renee Hall May Be on the Verge of Getting Canned

  June 10 at 4 a.m.

  The brand-new mayor elected Saturday is in for a tough initiation. During the campaign, Eric Johnson, a lawyer, gave the legally correct answer to questions about loose dogs and other knotty day-to-day problems: not the mayor's job. And he's right, legally and on paper. The day-to-day operation of city government...

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  Staying Late to Sweep, a Woman Is Gunned Down. A City Asks Why.

  June 6 at 4 a.m.

  Dallas had 41 homicides in May, compared with 15 homicides in the same month the previous year. People are talking about why. Is it poverty? Is it meanness? Last Sunday evening, a woman was shot to death and four others injured in what police called a gun battle at Jim’s...

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  Secret Party Tape: Why Ray Hunt Fears Scott Griggs, Loves Eric Johnson

  June 5 at 4 a.m.

  Last week a few readers posed a fair challenge to a Dallas Observer story by Stephen Young. The story confirmed that mayoral candidate Eric Johnson was anointed by a wealthy Dallas oilman looking for somebody to stop four-term City Council member Scott Griggs from getting elected mayor. The challenge posed...