Brett Shipp

Associa CEO and State Senator John Carona's Many Colorful Conflicts of Interest

John Carona, our Republican state senator from Dallas, learned some hard lessons this session about how his fellow lawmakers' business interests tend to dominate the doings in the legislature. Last month, Carona's bill to try to reform the incredibly predatory payday loan industry was picked down to ... More >>

Months After Prime Prep Hired Former State Board of Education Member, A Lawmaker Aims to Shut the Revolving Door

Sometimes it seems like all we ever do here at Unfair Park is bitch about the dastardly and frivolous legislation our elected representatives concoct down at the capitol. But not every bill sends us lunging for the bottle. Take this measure, filed by Sen. Bob Deuell of Greenville, barring State Boar ... More >>

Dallas Police & Fire Pension Fund Says it Has "Several" Offers to Buy Museum Tower

Every month, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System's board of trustees convenes at the break of dawn for its regular meeting. On a scale of exciting-ness, that meeting usually ranks somewhere between scrubbing the mold from one's bathroom tiles and looking at the photo album my aunt used to keep ... More >>

Regulators Warn Payday Lenders to Stop Blatantly Exploiting Loopholes, or else Lawmakers Will Close Existing Loopholes

When the Texas Legislature passed new rules governing the payday and auto-title lending industry in 2011, lawmakers accidentally (or not) left gaping holes large enough to drive large, cash-laden trucks through. It was little surprise, then, that that's exactly what's been happening. The Texas Obse ... More >>

2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell Wants the Media to Lay Off Deion Sanders and Prime Prep

Luther Campbell's days as a member of 2 Live Crew, cutting wildly misogynistic tracks that shocked and appalled Tipper Gore and led to a famous Supreme Court victory for free speech, are behind him. He's a father now, married to a lawyer, and he has a respectable job as a high school football coach ... More >>

Deion Sanders Defends Prime Prep By Promising Lawsuit, Calling Brett Shipp an "African American Killer"

This morning, Deion Sanders took to 105.3 The Fan for a rare discussion of allegations that he's been improperly recruiting athletes (e.g. a good chunk of state champion Grace Prep's basketball team) to play at Prime Prep Academy. See also: - Deion Sanders' Charter School and the Making of a Prime ... More >>

Dallas County Adds Domestic Partner Benefits As Commissioner Maurine Dickey Calls Lesbian Activist a "He"

This morning, Dallas County joined the growing roster of local agencies (the city of Dallas, Parkland Hospital, the DFW Airport) to add domestic partner benefits, meaning same-sex partners of any of its roughly 6,500 employees are now eligible for health coverage and other benefits through the count ... More >>

Deion Sanders Literally Begs Oklahoma to Play Football Against Prime Prep

The football team at Prime Prep Academy, Deion Sanders' charter school, has been struggling to find opponents after a UIL committee barred it from competing against district opponents.That pretty much wiped out their schedule, save for a game against Parish Episcopal at which they endured a 50-6 she ... More >>

Watch Deion Sanders' Entire Football Team Halt Traffic to Confront a WFAA Camerman

WFAA's Brett Shipp went out to the football practice yesterday of Prime Prep Academy, the charter school co-founded by former Cowboy Deion Sanders. What happened was dangerous, awkward, embarrassing, and yet another example of why Sanders shouldn't have a school, and why this state should spend a fe ... More >>

Deion's Prime Prep Academy Can't Field an Eligible Football Team. Can it Offer a Decent Education?

Prime Prep Academy, Deion Sanders's charter school, is scheduled to debut Monday. The school's much-discussed football program, the one that was reportedly going to be the subject of a reality show and that Deion himself was going to coach? That might have to wait. WFAA's Brett Shipp reported Frida ... More >>

The Ropes Will Stay at Dallas County Commissioner's Court, But is it Really That Big a Deal?

The Dallas County Commissioners Court will vote today on whether to keep in place the rope barriers that sparked an outcry (from the media at least) put up three weeks ago. County Judge Clay Jenkins said he made the order to maintain order and decorum, but, coming as it did on the heels of the FBI's ... More >>

County Blocks Access to John Wiley Price This Morning at Commissioners Court

Most Tuesdays when the Dallas County Commissioners Court ends, reporters throng the dais to pepper the commissioners with questions. The question that was on the tip of everyone's tongue this morning was "Hey John Wiley Price. Did you really embezzle and launder all that money like the FBI guy said? ... More >>

For Some Reason Grapevine Pastor and Sexpert Ed Young Won't Let Me Surf His Couch

Having a wife, an almost-3-year-old and another on the way (child, not wife), I've shackled myself to a life of uneventful domesticity, at least for the next 18 years. It's a comfortable setup, but one that can induce restlessness, so when fate put me in Dallas a full week before starting at Unfair ... More >>

DISD Has Plans For Two Schools Left Behind. But What About the 29,349 Kids Also In Need?

​The Texas Education Agency released its federally mandated, No Child Left Behind-backed Adequate Yearly Progress report back in August, at which point it was revealed that the Dallas Independent School District missed the mark for the third consecutive year -- which interim superintendent Alan Ki ... More >>

DISD Says It's Not Sitting on Federal Funds. It's Actually Trying to Keep From Wasting Them.

​We started this morning by noting Brett Shipp's piece from last night suggesting the Texas Education Agency is threatening to withhold Dallas ISD from close to $80 million in federal funds birthed by No Child Left Behind. The reason, says Commissioner of Education Robert Scott: Only 40 students o ... More >>

Brett Shipp Visits the Houston HQ of Company That Got DISD's $40-Mil Tech Contract. Um ...

On August we told you that the Dallas Independent School District had been hit with a $40-million breach of contract lawsuit filed by a technology vendor with whom the trustees had agreed to do business till, out of nowhere, district officials just decided to go with someone else. In May trustees aw ... More >>

City's Looking For Someone to Raze That Food Kiosk in Middle of Downtown Farmers Market

​Waaaaay back in the spring of 2006, the council's Economic Development & Housing Committee was told: The food kiosk sitting in the middle of the downtown Farmers Market is "a visual barrier" and needs to come down. See that photo? That's from this briefing, prepped in advance of the 2006 bond ... More >>

Pour a Tall Drink and Read All About Those Who Broke Dallas's News in Bert Shipp's New Book

​Brett Shipp was among those who attended Jerry Haynes's funeral Saturday afternoon. The WFAA newsman was accompanied by his father, Bert, who was a familiar face on local television long before his son stepped out of his shadow. Bert and Jerry went way back -- they were among the first to break t ... More >>

"Sounds Too Good to Be True": WFAA Sifts Through a Few Issues With Flow Control

​The council may or may not vote on that ordinance involving the redirecting and recycling of solid waste today. It all depends where flow control falls on the action-packed agenda, which includes passing the budget (that should go smoothly) and debating Yucatan and Service Bar's denied-at-CPC spe ... More >>

DA Craig Watkins Weighs In On Yesterday's Push-N-Shove Between Brett Shipp, JWP

WFAA-Channel 8​The video below, in which Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price explains the hard way to WFAA's Brett Shipp that his office isn't public property, has been updated; it's the piece that ran on Channel 8 last night at 10, in which you do hear Price tell Shipp, in a bizarrely cal ... More >>

Now on the WFAA Site, Brett Shipp's Account of His Violent (?)Run-In With John Wiley Price

​While I was writing the item below, which I am sure you're all reading at this very moment, several Friends of Unfair Park asked if we were going to follow up on Brett Shipp's tweet concerning allegations that Dallas County Commission John Wiley Price assaulted him and threatened to "split my thr ... More >>

After Doing Business With Wai-Wize, County and City Have to Sue Over Owed Back Taxes

From the Wai-Wize site: "WAI-WIZE is currently providing services in conjunction with Applied Technologies to design turnkey facilities for the new City of Dallas Convention Center Hotel."​Speaking of Wai-Wize ...As Jim points out, between Brett Shipp and yesterday's News, there's plenty out there ... More >>

Where's Willis? Maybe He's Out Looking for That Secret Stash of County Satellite Gear.

​If you missed Brett Shipp's Willis Johnson story on WFAA-Channel 8 last night, you need to go give it a gander here. I also have a column in this week's paper version of Unfair Park talking about Johnson, a radio host who is a crucial but mysteriously low-profile figure in the affairs now be ... More >>

Today in John Wiley Price

It's the "other expenses" that caught Channel 5's attention last night.​It's land! No, no, it's Kwanzaa Fest! No, silly, it's an art gallery owner at the South Side of Lamar! On the other side, some video and an IRS return we're entering into evidence as we begin Day Three of Hunh, I Wonder Why Th ... More >>

Ron Natinsky Wants "Full Inquiry" to See If Laws Were Broken When Mike Rawlings's Pal Got Trail Safety Campaign Contract

Photo by Patrick MichelsJake Schroepfer at last week's debut of the Happy Trails campaign at Dallas City Hall​Speaking of ethics at City Hall...So happens that Patrick stopped by Dallas City Hall Thursday, just as ad man Jake Schroepfer was giving his Happy Trails Dallas safety campaign presentati ... More >>

Kunkle Also Wants to See Someone (City, DPD, DA's Office) Investigate Happy Trails Contract

Photo by Patrick MichelsPark and Rec director Paul Dyer, second from left, watches as Jake Schroepfer makes his Happy Trails presentation last Thursday at City Hall.​I've left messages and sent emails all over Dallas City Hall -- to City Manager Mary Suhm, Assistant City Manager Forest Turner (who ... More >>

The City Auditor Will Look Into How Park and Rec Awarded Trail Safety Campaign Contract

​I promise: Unfair Park won't be clogged with piece after piece about that Happy Trails safety campaign contract. But this one merits its own item: City Auditor Craig Kinton, who functions as an independent investigator inside the hallways of City Hall, returned my call moments ago and said his of ... More >>

"Numbers Become Faces": Hinojosa Talks About Friday's Layoffs And Why "It Could Get Worse"

Superintendent Media Availability (4/29/2011) from Dallas Independent School Dist on Vimeo.As the Dallas Independent School District was sending word Friday that it had just laid off 203 from central administration, and eliminating another 247 presently unfilled positions, Dallas Independent School ... More >>

You Know Who Hates Texans? Why, the Railroad Commission of Texas, Naturally.

Your Texas Railroad Commission: Elizabeth Jones, Victor Carrillo and Michael Williams​The Texas Observer has published a story about the Railroad Commission of Texas that I want to call appalling, but I think the Railroad Commission has lost the ability to appall. The story exposes a pattern of de ... More >>

Belo Attempts to Break News One Week Late; Lawyer Cites "Cloud of Suspicion" Surrounding West-Watkins Relationship

If the story about DA Craig Watkins refusing a second attempt by the OAG to help investigate the constables was news, that's news to us.​For those who didn't read our cover story last week, the Office of the Attorney General made a second attempt on February 23 to lend a helping hand to Distri ... More >>

Mavs-Nuggets: Irrationally Optimistic Game 5 Preview

Stay classy, Kenyon Martin's girlfriend. Stay classy.Let's keep this short and sweet, as I'm scurrying off to Las Vegas this morning to accept a CLIO Award. (No, check that, they're whispering in my ear that my schedule actually calls for an Observer staff meeting in Uptown.) Guess the a ... More >>

Dirk Duped By a Gold Digger. Can It Be That Simple?

Patrick MichelsDown, but not out.Dirk Nowitzki bought her a ring. Bought her a dog. Bought her entire pack of lies. Sad to say, he went for Crystal Cristal Taylor's exaggerated, elaborate head fake. Couple of weeks ago the Dallas Mavericks' star gave an in-depth interview to the German newspape ... More >>

Tomorrow, WFAA's Brett Shipp Is the Subject of an Exposé on PBS

Brett Shipp In October 2006, Benny and Martha Cryer of Wylie were killed when natural gas, leaking beneath their home, ignited and exploded, trapping them beneath fiery debris. One year later, WFAA-Channel 8's Brett Shipp revisited the story to find out why no one had been held responsible for th ... More >>

Three Dots and a Cloud of Dust …

Josh Howard Is Neither Humbled Nor Apologetic

"Go for Brett Shipp."

Immigration Judge to Richardson Palestinian Family: Get Out, Now.

Pretty Woman

The strange tale of a man and his Chinese bride that has Dallas talking

Best TV News Show

CBS Channel 11 at 10 p.m.

Defining Moment

Forty years later, "local yokels" take pride in covering tragedy

Mr. No Apology

Bill Hill's office helped jail dozens of innocent people, and he's a shoo-in for re-election. Huh?

Dirty or Duped?

Who's to blame for the fake-drug scandal rocking Dallas police? Virtually everyone.

Sail On

Baby-faced Brett Shipp grows up--film at 10

Best Local TV News Show

CBS 11 (KTVT-TV Channel 11)

Warrior Reporter

Channel 4's Becky Oliver is queen of ambush journalism, wielding her microphone like a sword. Sure it's cheap and sensational. It's also a lot harder than it looks.

Media Bias

All year, we tell you who's been naughty. Now, a list of those whose work is nice.

:cueless

Buzz hacks through the past in search of the cool cats and fools of the year that was

Buzz

Breaching the stonewall; Venable rides again

The Dope Bowl

Lawyers, goons, money--and some very curious sex toys. Laura Miller does the post-game analysis of the Michael Irvin trial.

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