Irma strikes the Florida Keys, Cowboys preview – plus more weekend headlines

Here's what we're reading this weekend [Here's what we're reading this weekend] September 10,  2017 By Holly Rusak and Nicholas Friedman Good morning! Here is a look at the top headlines of the weekend so far. 🌞  Weather: Sunny skies. [High 86, low 64](. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here](. Dallas Cowboys Dak Prescott (4 ) calls the signal during the 1st quarter of action of the Dallas Cowboys vs Oakland Raiders preseason game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Saturday, August 26, 2017. (Irwin Thompson/The Dallas Morning News) sports All the Cowboys want is another season of perfection from Dak Prescott By the time we get around to Cowboys-Giants at 7:30 p.m., we will have been stunned by upsets (one in the books from Foxboro already), examined protests, cringed at injuries and shaken our heads at fantasy studs and duds. The NFL will be back. Our national obsession will have begun to be fed. But if Cowboys-Giants is meant to provide a comfortable cap to the opening Sunday, two of the league's most decorated rivals opening the season with Al and Cris calling the shots here -- just as they did a year ago, just as they did in 2015 -- these teams arrive with their own baggage. [It's the season opener and it's time to get down to business, but it feels like something else is going on as well](. And yet that's all minor stuff compared to the roller coaster that Cowboys fans endured the last few months with Ezekiel Elliott. He will play tonight and, based on Friday's courtroom drama, it appears he will be eligible to play the entire season. That makes all things possible for a club that went 13-3 a year ago. But is he going to avoid NFL suspension permanently? Has the ordeal of having had to battle the NFL in court delivered the appropriate message to an immature superstar? Cowboys suspensions: How the Cowboys are dealing with their [NFL-leading list of suspended players](. 2017 season preview: [A look ahead at Dak’s second year, the team’s Super Bowl hopes and more](. SPECIAL OFFER For a limited time, newsletter readers can enjoy unlimited digital access to DallasNews.com for only $2.99 a week. [Sign up today]( and stay informed about the latest news that's important to you.  Southbound lanes of Interstate 95 near the Georgia-South Carolina border are almost empty while northbound lanes are packed as people evacuate ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irma on Friday in Savannah, Ga. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) irma Irma begins assault on Florida Keys as a Category 4 hurricane Hurricane Irma began to lash Florida early Sunday with the storm's northern eyewall [reaching the lower Florida Keys]( as a powerful Category 4 storm. Irma struck the area with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph in what residents feared were the opening blows of a historically devastating storm. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was expected to remain a powerful storm as it moved through the Florida Keys and near the state's west coast. The leading edge of the immense storm bent palm trees and spit rain across South Florida, knocking out power to more than 430,000 homes and businesses, as the eye approached Key West. This story is rapidly developing. Check [this page]( for the latest updates. Also: President Donald Trump [stepped into a hot church-state dispute]( Friday night, tweeting support for Texas churches that were damaged by Hurricane Harvey and now want assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild. An inside picture of the megashelter for Hurricane Harvey evacuees at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas on Sept. 1, 2017. (Dianne Solis / Staff) harvey Harvey evacuees weren't fired, their jobs were just 'on hold,' Dallas says A day after Hurricane Harvey evacuees said they were fired from their new jobs at the shelter they slept in, [the city of Dallas says it was just a big misunderstanding, and everyone would be allowed to go back to work](. The jobs with a city contractor had just been put on hold while the city figured out some "building accessibility" issues, a spokeswoman said. Four employees were already back on the job as of Saturday afternoon, she said. Two evacuees who also worked as janitors last week in the megashelter at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center said that as far as they knew, they were still very much out of work as of Saturday morning. Harvey's toll: [Before-and-after aerial images]( show devastion in south Texas. Also: Harvey cut a relentless path up the Texas coast, but [not as relentless]( as the path Gov. Greg Abbott is traversing to help rebuild devastated communities in his home state. And: Harvey’s wrath may force rural Texas’ most desperate to [leave town for good.]( Advertisement (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) Photo of the weekend In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, unauthorized residents [continue to work to recover]( from the storm. Here, a kitten and a rooster inspect piles of discarded items to be thrown out on the curb of a family residence on Bronson Street in South Houston. "The undocumented community's been affected even more so" by Harvey, said Laura Patricia Fernandez, an immigration attorney and board member of the Mexican American Bar Association of Houston. Around The Site - Investigation: Complaints say [election workers spied on]( black voters and backed a white candidate in Cedar Hill. - Statues: Neo-Nazi who marched in Charlottesville [camps out]( at Dallas' Robert E. Lee Park. - Getting the business: Why does AT&T [crave Time Warner?]( - Local talent: Arlington's Todrick Hall will [join in the fun]( on brand new Mickey Mouse club. - Bigger and better: Destiny 2, one of the biggest games of the year, [outshines its popular predecessor.]( - Visual arts: Riveting [new photo exhibition]( stokes Dallas' fascination with Bonnie and Clyde. - Sharing is caring: A tool to broaden the connectivity of Garland's reinvigorated downtown core was unveiled last weekend: a [small army of VBikes]( that didn't stray too far from their mother ship. A cultivation worker inspects marijuana plants in Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo) Finally... Medical marijuana will [soon take root legally]( in Texas. Cansortium Texas, part of Florida-based Cansortium Holdings, received the state's first medical marijuana license on Sept. 1, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The company will be allowed to grow, process and sell medical marijuana for Texans with a rare form of intractable epilepsy. The license comes through the Compassionate Use Act signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2015. Advertisement 👋 That's all for this morning! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. 💖 Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. 📧 Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=). 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