This Week's Hot Headlines

Coronavirus crisis dominates this week's 5 most-read stories in Dallas

Editor's note: A lot happened this week, and the news surrounding the coronavirus pandemic changed rapidly each day in Dallas. Here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines.

1. Texas governor finally issues statewide shutdown of restaurants and bars. After avoiding the inevitable for more than a week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott finally shut down dining in restaurants and bars across the state of Texas, in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Abbott declared a public health disaster, also imposing statewide closures of schools, gyms, nursing homes, and retirement centers.

2. Dallas shuts down bars, gyms, theaters, to curb coronavirus spread. Going out for a cocktail is off the table: Days before the Texas governor's declaration, the city of Dallas closed all bars, as well as gyms, health clubs, and other venues that accommodate large groups.

3. These Dallas restaurants forced to close temporarily due to coronavirus. The coronavirus has had a horrid effect on every part of our lives, but perhaps the most horrifying impact has been felt by the food and beverage world, with the sudden and abrupt shutdown of an entire industry. Here are some of the Dallas restaurants that have already closed.

4. Kick COVID-19 to the curb by ordering takeout from these Dallas restaurants. Many Dallas restaurants offer food to-go, which you can pick up at the restaurant. Some are doing curbside delivery, where you pull up and they bring your order to your car. And many are using a third-party app, such as Uber Eats. Here's a list of restaurants by neighborhood, with more to come.

5. Dallas restaurants are doing good deeds even during COVID-19 crisis. Dallas' food and beverage industry is not only supremely hospitable, it's also consistently generous, always ready to rally 'round with charitable acts of kindness. That's even true during these cataclysmic times of the coronavirus, when thousands of people have suddenly lost their jobs. Here are some initiatives and random acts of kindness that have already surfaced in the DFW restaurant world.

Dallas' food & beverage industry doesn't just make us a great cocktail — they're generous and supportive.

Austin Marc Graf

Dallas' food & beverage industry doesn't just make us a great cocktail — they're generous and supportive.

Let the choir sing

Plano’s Amber Glenn channels Madonna to shatter U.S. figure skating record

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Amber Glenn hits her final pose in her short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.

Plano figure skater Amber Glenn made history in St. Louis on Wednesday, January 7, earning the highest women’s short-program score ever recorded at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Glenn scored 83.05, breaking the previous high score of 81.11 set by her competitor Alysa Liu just minutes before she took the ice.

Going into the 2026 championships, the highest score ever recorded for a women’s short program had been 79.04.

Glenn, the two-time defending national champion, was the only skater to complete a triple Axel in her short program, considered the most difficult triple jump in women’s competition. She also landed a triple flip-triple toe combination and, in the bonus-rich second half, a triple loop.

But it was her choreographic step sequence at the end that blew the roof off the St. Louis ice arena. Wearing a maroon lace dress with beaded necklaces, Glenn skated to Madonna’s 1989 hit “Like a Prayer.”

At the lyric “Let the choir sing,” she invited the crowd into her dance party; they clapped, cheered, and boogied in their seats while she danced, spun, and slid across the ice to the song’s iconic chorus.

After the performance, she pumped her fist in the air as the audience rose to its feet and threw plushies on the ice (nearly hitting her).

“This was everything,” commentator Tara Lipinski said. “I have goosebumps. This is incredible skating. It’s blending what skating is all about: She is fearless. She is doing difficult elements, she’s not backing down. She does a triple Axel. She risks it, and then she skates with so much heart and beauty in her own style and own way.”

In a post-performance interview, Glenn said she'd felt her late grandmother, who passed nearly a year ago, helping her through the performance.

“I was so ecstatic and for some reason, I felt my grandma with me today," she told NBC's Andrea Joyce. "That meant a lot and I think she really got me through this. It was a whole new experience for me.”

Glenn, 26, was born and raised in Plano but has trained in Colorado Springs since 2022. Her father, Richard Glenn, a Plano police sergeant, was in the audience for her record-setting night in St. Louis.

Glenn and Liu seem like locks for the 2026 Olympic team, along with Isabeau Levito, who scored 75.72 for third place after the short program.

They will skate their four-minute free programs on Friday, January 9 to determine the national title.

The U.S. Figure Skating Olympic team heading to Milano-Cortina in February will be named on Sunday, January 11.

The U.S. Figure Skating Championships are taking place January 7-11 in St. Louis and are being live-streamed on Peacock and broadcast on NBC-affiliated stations such as the USA Network. Here’s more information about the schedule and how to watch.

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