For the past few weeks, Amanda Scott has watched with growing concern as the days until school starts tick away and the number of reported cases of COVID-19 in Dallas climb ever higher. Scott’s son Fletcher will be going into second grade at Mockingbird Elementary School in East Dallas. With…
Texans could soon grab a freshly poured pint from their favorite watering hole. Wednesday, several club owners filed a lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott that demanded the state’s bars be allowed to reopen. Brandon Hays is joining the suit on behalf of his Dallas establishments The Whippersnapper, Tiny Victories and…
On Wednesday afternoon, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner followed through with his statement earlier in the day that he would move to cancel the state GOP’s convention that was set to be held next week in Houston at the George R. Brown Convention Center if the City’s legal team believed the…
May 14, Kiara Yarbrough was sent to Dallas County jail for a probation violation. Seven weeks earlier, the jail was consumed by an outbreak of COVID-19. While a pair of lawsuits have called for the release of medically vulnerable inmates, the jail has avoided responsibility for what attorneys describe as…
This year’s State Fair of Texas is canceled due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, organizers announced Tuesday morning. This year marks the first time since World War II that the fair has been canceled. It was canceled once during World War I, for three years in the 1930s…
As infections of the novel coronavirus surge across North Texas and around the state, a majority of Texans now say efforts to control the spread of the virus are going badly, according to a poll released this week. The poll, conducted by the Texas Politics Project at the University of…
No pass, no play. In 1984, that was the blunt nickname of sweeping educational reform led by Dallas businessman Ross Perot that mandated Texas high-school athletes make a grade of 70-plus in all classes or be sidelined in their sport. In 2020, it’s potentially life or death. Dictated by the…
Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday issued an order requiring people to wear masks in public in any county with 20 or more confirmed cases of COVID-19. The order comes as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to surge statewide and public health officials worry about how Independence Day gatherings could fuel…
It’s no secret that Texas is having trouble getting a handle on the coronavirus. Cases are surging and plans to reopen the economy just got rolled back. In a virtual conference on Wednesday, state Democrats called Gov. Greg Abbott’s response to COVID-19 reckless and urged him to mandate the use…
First, came the coronavirus pandemic. Then, came the latest wave of Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Many health experts feared the protests against racial injustice would usher in a landslide of new COVID-19 cases, but some doctors are now saying it’s unlikely. “For the most part, we’re not going to see…
Chris Polone woke up on Friday to around 100 phone calls. The owner of The Rail Club Live in Fort Worth said they all asked the same thing: Had he heard about Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to shutter the state’s bars? Polone said he was shocked when he learned of…
Dallas County crossed two grim thresholds Tuesday in its ongoing surge of cases of the novel coronavirus. County health officials reported 601 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday afternoon, marking the first time the county has reported more than 600 cases in a single day. The county also reported 20 coronavirus-related…
Dallas County’s new coronavirus cases continues to rapidly climb. June 1, the county counted 220 new cases. Sunday, the number jumped to 570. The disturbing trend prompted Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to write a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday. In it, he urges Abbott to impose statewide…
Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that students would be returning to public schools this fall. But as COVID-19 cases surge in Texas, Rena Honea, the president of the teachers union Alliance-ATF, said she has concerns about sending kids back to school. Honea and Joanna Cattanach, Democratic candidate for…
Dallas hair salon owner Shelley Luther has cannonballed her way into the national spotlight. Her brash act of political defiance flung heaps more mud into the already murky debate surrounding safety mandates amid the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, the University of Houston released a poll indicating that Luther’s peers disapproved…
Unless you fall into one of a handful of categories that would allow you to cast a ballot by mail, you’ll need to show up in person if you want to vote in next month’s runoff election, coronavirus or not. That’s the takeaway from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to…
A day after he hit the pause button on the state’s reopening plan, Gov. Greg Abbott is reinstating some restrictions designed to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Friday morning, Abbott issued an executive order closing bars across the state at noon Friday and placing a 50% occupancy…
As Texas’ coronavirus numbers continue their rapid climb, Gov. Greg Abbott put the state’s reopening plan on hold Thursday morning. In a news release, Abbott said the state will pause all scheduled phases of reopening, meaning any businesses that would have been allowed to reopen in the coming weeks will…
We are, as even Gov. Greg Abbott admitted this week, in the middle of pandemic. Across the state, cities, counties and hospitals are reporting record numbers of COVID-19 infections and patients. Municipal budgets and residents’ wallets are under threat, as the Texas summer gets hotter and anti-police violence demonstrators march…
On Monday, Dallas County’s COVID-19 picture got a little darker again. For the first time, the county’s Health and Human Services unit announced more than 450 new infections, a more than 10% increase from Dallas County’s previous record high. On Friday, Dallas County began requiring businesses to demand that their customers…
Almost as soon as Dallas began taking applications for its COVID-19 rental assistance program, the $13.7 million allocated was already spent. About 10,000 residents made it through an initial screening in early May when the program went live, according to the city. About 1,500 received some help, and more than…
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott really wants you to wear a mask. The governor isn’t ordering Texans to do so, he said at a press conference Tuesday, he just thinks that they should. “COVID-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas and it must be corralled,” Abbott said. “We…
