After weighing comments from principals and parents, Dallas ISD officials announced a hybrid learning model for all high schools and Lakewood Elementary. The school board will vote on the plan Thursday, with high school schedules going out Friday.

District officials believe the plan will help with social distancing, but some teachers’ advocates fear that it’s still too risky.

“We all know that face-to-face learning is the most effective, but it is not the safest, and that’s what we have to be concerned with right now,” said Rena Honea, president of Dallas’ Alliance/AFT teachers’ union.

Under the hybrid model, students will be split into two “cohorts,” with one group attending in-person classes on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other going Thursdays and Fridays, according to Fo...

No one left City Hall completely satisfied last night, not the protesters outside chanting, “No justice! No peace!,” nor the City Council members who’d spent the last month debating Dallas’ budget. Nevertheless, the council finally found its way to a final vote approving the spending plan around 10:40 p.m.

Some ideas prevailed, like hiring more civilians in the police department to free up officers and cutting overtime for police. But others, like significantly lowering the tax rate and cutting the Dallas Police Department budget by some $200 million, didn’t.

Protesters marched through the streets of Dallas during Wednesday’s budget talks in response to a Kentucky grand jury’s decision to not return charges against the two Lousiville police officers who shot and killed Breonn...

After a year of setbacks, Deep Ellum has found a potential silver lining. The historic arts district is now recognized as Dallas’ newest cultural district by the Texas Commission of the Arts.

The designation by the commission is an opportunity for the district to advance economic development for local businesses in the neighborhood — including venues, art galleries and restaurants — which have all faced financial setbacks this year due to the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

Socially-distant art galleries, six-feet markers outside of restaurants and advocating for legislation are a few examples of what the Deep Ellum Foundation, an organization that seeks to improve the area, is doing to counter this year’s setbacks.

By partnering with music venue Deep Ellum Art Co...

Dallas has no shortage of fried chicken, but the Nashville hot chicken trend continues to grow.

Lucky’s Hot Chicken is the latest entrant onto the already crowded field, offering wings, tenders, and sandwiches in five varieties of the extra-spicy Nashville style. Lucky’s also offers sides and desserts along with beer on tap to be enjoyed indoors or at one of the tables on the front patio.

The large windows and vaulted ceiling provide a fitting frame for the old-school interior ambiance of the historic building. A bold red and white color theme, deployed in checkered patterns, recalls 1950s diner nostalgia, as well as an explicit nod to Hattie B’s in Nashville — the popular hot chicken joint with similar branding.

Opening day hype created long lines, but the Lucky’s staff seeme...

While I never advocate ONLY drinking three things a week, I am pretty excited about this week’s lineup. Celebrate National Bourbon Month with Balcones, sit back and listen to live music with Dean’s Signature Margarita at Fearing’s and order delivery frosés.

TO STAY
Dallas residents worth their salt know about the patio at Fearing’s. It’s a great patio, the service is what you expect from The Ritz and the cocktails from Rattlesnake Bar are always on point. Fearing’s recently started its live music series back again, offering live music from 7 to 9:30 p.m. each Friday. I’d suggest getting there early (reservations recommended since it’s otherise first-come, first-seated) and sipping on Dean’s Signature Margarita while enjoying the live music and this cooler weather.

Dean’s Signature Marg...

As one of the first industries to shut down and likely one of the last to reopen, live music venues are fighting for their lives to remain standing once the COVID-19 dust settles. Insufficient government assistance has left business owners high and dry and a predicted 90% of venues face closures.

But a group of independent photographers, producers, designers and collaborators have joined together in a project aimed at telling the stories of iconic music institutions while raising money to keep them afloat.

Bring Music Home is a multi-faceted visual and audio project that documents the current state of live music across the nation...

Instead of her usual promotion with big box stores such as Target and Wal-Mart, musician Taylor Swift has partnered with indie record stores all over the country to sell signed copies of her folklore CD. For Dallas, that record store was Josey Records.

Waric Cameron, owner of Josey Records, wrote in an email to the Observer that the record store has received four shipments of the signed CDs, totaling to “several hundred” units. Cameron says the store doesn’t know when the albums are expected to show up, but when more become available, Swift’s label lets Josey Records know, and the record store orders however many copies they think they can sell.

“We think it’s great,” Cameron writes. “It’s good marketing for her album and helps her album sales while giving something special to her fans.”

Good to Go is a column in which our food writers explore Dallas’ restaurant scene through takeout orders, delivery boxes and reheated leftovers.

Like so many other restaurants during the pandemic, Alamo Club on Lowest Greenville has been on a roller coaster. But this particular spot has been up and down more than once.

They closed March 17, when in-house dining was shut down by the city of Dallas. It reopened for just nine days for takeout.

“It was an opportunity to pay some staff, but overall we were losing money doing it,” owner Austin Rodgers says.

They reopened May 22 with limited dine-in. June 15, they closed after one of their employees tested positive for COVID-19.

They reopened June 19 and shut down late June when the governor announced all bars had to be shut down.

“We have...

This year has been enough to make anyone want to take up toking. But even if you’re not a fan of the green herb, a new sandwich joint is lighting up Deep Ellum.

Originally from Tempe, Arizona, Cheba Hut offers a supply of marijuana-themed sandwiches and cocktails. The Deep Ellum location marks the second in Texas, with the first in Austin.

Inside Cheba Hut, walls are bedecked with local art. Hip hop and ambient electronic music bumps throughout the small, comfortable space. The dining room is set up with tables, chairs and booths. The lighting is neither too bright nor too dim, so on the off chance that you were to show up at the shop stoned, it wouldn’t disturb you.

Guests place their orders at the counter or at the bar, where you can...

The days of comic books adaptations being looked down on as nothing more than elevated B-movies now seems like a distant memory. In the past two decades, superhero stories have become the most dominant form of mass entertainment, with the characters of Marvel and DC comics populating some of the most successful films of all-time. Avengers: Endgame now has the record for the highest box office take of all time, and films like Black Panther and Joker have even made their way to the Oscars.

It’s no wonder that many of the world’s best actors have flocked to get their turn in spandex...