Kjetil Ree

For now, you still have to bring your ID to go vote. If you have one, of course.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court decided to let Texas enforce its strict two-year-old voter ID law, which a district court judge struck down as grossly discriminatory this month, but that ruling was temporarily put on hold by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Got that? No?

Then let us 'splain: You have to bring what the law calls proper identification -- assuming you have some -- to cast your vote this election because otherwise the Supreme Court says you might be confused and just show up to vote the way Texans have always done. You see, apparently it's better to let a new discriminatory law possibly disenfranchise a large number of voters -- 600,000 by one count -- than lay the heavy burden on voters who mistakenly bring identification to the polls when they needn't have bothered.

Whew! Thank you, Supreme Court, for clearing that up.

Of course, the Supreme Court didn't actually say this, since it didn't give a reason for its decision, but the general consensus seems to be that justices figured it would be confusing to make a major overhaul to the law so close to the election. And if you aren't buying that, you're not alone.

See also: Dallasites without Votes IDs Are Generally Poor, Non-White, and -- Surprise! -- Democrats

"The thinking was that issuing a decision this close to the election would disrupt the status quo in a way that would be a detriment to the state," says Lynne Rambo, a professor of constitutional law at Texas A&M law school. "It's not a theory I buy."

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dallascityhall.org

Might make a good graphic for a billboard that says, "Remember, only you can prevent shrimp boat accidents."

A little over two years ago The Battery Conservancy, a nonprofit support group for Battery Park at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers on the southern tip of Manhattan, decided that it needed a new chair. The conservancy wanted a new park chair that would be light enough to tote around, heavy enough not to blow away in heavy weather and beautifully wonderfully distinctively designed.

So The Battery Conservancy announced an international competition for best Battery chair design. From 15 nations 679 designers submitted sketches, which a panel of judges whittled to 50 finalists, then five, then one. The winner, Andrew Jones of Toronto, drew a chair described by The New York Times as, "a pale blue flower, its curving petals forming the outlines of the seat, back and arms. Its smooth surface is perforated with tiny, seemingly random holes that will allow the seat to dry quickly after it rains."

A chair.

Here in Dallas decades of botched flood control, official neglect and simple happenstance have endowed us with an opportunity to create the largest urban park in the nation, vast enough to include huge recreational areas, a sprawling natural forest and a serious river. In short, this could be a park that truly redefines the destiny of a city, transforming Dallas from a jerry-built outback outpost to an American 21st century Mecca, a place where urban life and nature itself meld seamlessly at the city's heart.

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Mark Graham

Luke Crosland has been trying -- and failing -- to redevelop Preston Center for years.

Luke Crosland stands at the window of his seventh-floor office and looks out across Preston Center. In the foreground, a tangle of luxury SUVs battle for access to a shabby, two-story parking garage that seems to deteriorate before his eyes. The garage is ringed by a jumble of aging retail strips that wouldn't be out of place in a working-class neighborhood in Garland. Further back, past the Marshalls, a clump of mid-rise office towers stand as a testament to a 1980s office boom.

Crosland is a pugnacious commercial real estate developer best known for the iLume apartments on Cedar Springs Road. He's been gazing down on this scene since he bought into Preston Center 27 years ago. There are trendy new restaurants like John Tesar's Spoon and Hopdoddy Burger Bar, and a few office buildings have gone up here and there, but the difference between now and then is cosmetic. The retail buildings are still outdated. The infrastructure is still crumbling. Three decades of decay have only made the situation worse.

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We have an immediate opening for a copy editor. Until we find one, we'll continue to let commenters correct our terrible spelling and grammar while we try and fail not to get defensive about it. It's the Observer way.

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They're tough to see, but teeny white dots could be boats on the lake, or big birds, or maybe flotillas of plastic bags. Hard to say.

Stephen Young told you earlier about the latest renderings of plans lakes along the Trinity River near downtown in a post that seemed just a bit doubtful. "Impossible Fever Dream," he called them.

It's sad, really. Stephen is a young man, and already he expresses such cynicism toward City Hall. Not Buzz, though. We've spent a few fun hours playing around with some of the conceptual photos in the Trinity Lakes Amenities Design Plan, and we must say, we're pretty darned excited.

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Patrick Michels

Couldn't have beaten eggs.

As if the state needed more reason to be ashamed about the 2012 Republican Senate primary -- you know, the one that ended with Ted Cruz basically being handed a national platform on a silver platter -- Buddy Barfield, longtime top aid to Cruz's runoff opponent, David Dewhurst, has admitted to siphoning almost $2 million from Dewhurst's campaign.

From 2008-2012, Barfield filed fake invoices with the David Dewhurst Committee and Dewhurst for Texas. When money was paid to the front companies he created, Barfield used it to pay for things like his mortgage and his kids' school tuition. As you would expect, Barfield did not claim the money he embezzled on his taxes -- in 2008, a year he grabbed more than $650,000 from the Dewhurst piggy bank, he claimed zero taxable income -- so he also admitted to tax evasion.

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Wikimedia Commons/Turn 685

TCEQ: Sure it looks bad, but it's not like you're going to leave your air conditioning.

Here's the good news: Dallas-Fort Worth ozone levels for the first this year dropped below the federal standard of 84 parts per billion. The bad news: the 84-ppb standard the area has just now met for the first time is from 1997. The current standard is 75 ppb, well below DFW's 81 ppb mark. Worse still, most scientists consider the newer standard too high and say people exposed to that much ozone are at increased risk of asthma, heart disease and lung disease. For years, scientists and public health advocates have been pushing for a limit closer to 60 ppb.

Predictably, Texas disagrees, and not just on the grounds that tougher restrictions will eat into economic growth. As the Texas Tribune>reports, one of the state's top environmental regulators argues that lower ozone levels could actually kill people.

"I haven't seen the data that says lowering ozone will produce a health benefit," Michael Honeycutt, the agency's chief toxicologist told the Tribune. "In fact, I've seen data that shows it might have a negative health benefit."

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Flickr/Alan Stanton

Dallas has terrible streets. Ask any driver who hasn't been rendered prematurely senile by the constant jostling over disintegrating pavement or any cyclist who's survived a run-in with a man-eating pothole. Hell, ask City Hall, which estimates that it will take three-quarters of a billion dollars to get the city's roads back in decent shape. When you couple aging infrastructure with a long-standing municipal propensity to value shiny new hotels and bridges over nuts-and-bolts governance, this is what happens.

This ground has been well trod, and bitching about the general crappiness of the city's streets is a tired and unsatisfying exercise. But what if Dallasites could bitch about street crappiness with mathematical precision? To not only say, "Sweet Jesus, the potholes on Garland Road sure do suck," but to quantify the precise amount of suckiness those potholes contain.

See also: Dallas Streets Keep Getting Worse and Worse

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National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus budding from the surface of a Vero cell

With 17 days until the last person in direct contact with one of Dallas' three Ebola patients finishes monitoring, here's the latest:

The condition of the patients:
Amber Vinson's mother, Debra Berry, discussed her daughter's condition on Good Morning America early Tuesday. Mom says Vinson remains weak, but is doing OK and focused on getting better. Berry told the morning show that it's been difficult for her and her family to comprehend her daughter's situation.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Nina Pham has been upgraded from fair to good condition by doctors at the National Institutes of Health. Bentley, her dog, gave his first sample to be tested for Ebola this morning. He has shown no symptoms and still appears to be a very good boy.

Update: Bentley feces at lab for Ebola virus test; results take a week. Still looks healthy& playful (@dallaspiosana) pic.twitter.com/SSk0kREWVo

— Jeff Smith (@JeffSmithNBC5) October 21, 2014

Perry announces procedure for potential future Ebola cases:
Governor Rick Perry announced Tuesday that any future Ebola cases will be treated at UTMB Galveston or at Methodist Richardson. Patients in Richardson would see UT Southwestern doctors and have their lab work done at Parkland's lab. WFAA's Janet St. James also reports that Parkland will provide a 50-person unit for quick Ebola response. Perry says the new setups will be ready in the next 24 hours. The new facilities are part of a plan by the newly formed Texas Task Force on Infectious Diseases, led by Dr. Brett Giroir.

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Mike Mezeul

This man is exactly how I feel about the Dallas Stars.

Two years ago, when I arrived in the States from the UK, I had a very vague idea of what ice hockey was. I was, though, sure that it was one of the most far-fetched sports out there. While most sports are played on the sort of easily accessible field we can all find and involve a ball, hockey is played on a smooth sheet of ice, with sticks, a goaltender dressed up to look like Aaron Rodgers in that awful State Farm commercial and a comically tiny goal that itself can slide around the ice.

See also:
- An Englishman discovers Texas barbecue
- An Englishman discovers big, scary guns

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