Microsoft PowerPoint

Sex Ed the Texas Way

Dallas wants to close the book on abstinence-only education. Texas keeps getting in the way.

Texas Public Schools are Still Teaching Ridiculous Things About the Bible

Six years ago, SMU religious studies professor Mark Chancey teamed with the Texas Freedom Network to produce a report on the Bible classes that were proliferating in the state's public school classrooms. Chancey's not-very-surprising finding was that these classes were not so much even-handed, acad ... More >>

Is Dallas Smarter Than a Third Worlder?

In my ongoing series on cities smarter than Dallas, please allow me to add Seoul, South Korea, another place we need to send a team to right away. Yesterday the Dallas City Council heard an awe-inspiring presentation by Guillermo Penalosa, a leading-edge planner whose work has helped transform citi ... More >>

Suhm Tells Council She Never Counted Flow Control Dollars When Prepping Budget Preview

​We told you Friday: Very, very, very, very early guesstimates at City Hall have the city short anywhere from $49 million to $87 million when it comes to putting together the FY2012-13 budget. City Manager Mary Suhm repeated that this morning: "We're very early in the process." The city's chief fi ... More >>

DISD Trustees Don't Want to Close Campuses. But They're Told: They Have No Other Choice.

​Late Thursday afternoon, and only because interim super Alan King had a flight to catch, the Dallas Independent School District trustees finally got around to discussing the 2012-13 budget and consolidating -- which is to say, closing -- those 11 campuses in order to save a guesstimated $11.5 mil ... More >>

Drowning in Lies About the Levees

Corps of Engineers documents contradict city's claims that everything's hunky-dory with plans to fix Trinity levees.

Tower Heist: Lobby vs. Penthouse

Stealing from the rich to ... oh, whatever. Funny is the message.

The Ad Man Cometh: One Mayor's "Great Value" Is Another Council Member's Waste of $30,000

Photos by Anna MerlanFrank Lutz addressing the council yesterday​The Degolyer Estate at the Dallas Arboretum is a beautiful spot, a big house set back from a broad lawn, edged this time of the year with pumpkins and purple flowers. In the library, retreating Dallas City Council members and various ... More >>

The Inland Port Is Still Screwed. Score One for the Perots.

​I guess if you took a pickax and a fire hose to it, you could have dug out a little bit of the truth from this morning's City Hall briefing on the inland port, but you needed to have your tall rubber boots on. Before we wade into the bullshit, please allow me to tell you what's really going ... More >>

Dumped On

How will City Hall's garbage dump vote turn trash into treasure? Ask the Reverend Stephen Nash.

Council Committee to Receive Briefing This Morning on Dallas's "Flat Employment" Rate

​In a few minutes, the council's Economic Development Committee will take up the subject of Dallas' Workforce and Jobs, which comes with this 29-page PowerPoint worth a look-see even if you're not planning on following along, which we are. Long story short: "In an ongoing weak national economy," s ... More >>

Before Dallas ISD Sends TEA Its Plan to Save Unacceptable Schools, Your Input's Needed

North Dallas High School is now in its fifth year of academic unacceptability per the TEA's ratings.​For the past six days, the Dallas Independent School District has been hosting "community meetings" on campuses deemed academically unacceptable by the Texas Education Agency -- 33 in all, based, o ... More >>

Before Council Votes to Up Lake Highlands Town Center TIF Dough to $40 Mil, a History

What one corner of Walnut Hill and Skillman was supposed to look like by now​Twice now, following a weekend excursion to the scenic, dancing-watered parkingscape known as Lake Highlands Town Center, we've checked in on the city's efforts to back-on-track that stalled-out mixed-use development. Goo ... More >>

TIF For Tat, or: You Say You Need an Update on the Statler and Old Downtown Library?

One of the 192 photos I took inside the Statler I can't bring myself to delete off my phone​Karl Zavitkovsky, director of the Office of Economic Development, has a long Monday morning ahead of him: He's scheduled to deliver three presentations to the council's Economic Development Committee, one o ... More >>

Liveblogging Today's Trail-Tastic Quality of Life Committee Meeting

Mind the gap?​Greetings to you, Unfair Friends, from City Hall, where the Quality of Life Committee kicked off their meeting about trash and trails today just after noon o'clock -- and after David Neumann gave a clowny and enthused interview to a TV camera. Willis Winters, Assistant Director of Pa ... More >>

Denton's A-Train Bows to Music Scene Demands

The Flea Circus: Liveblogging Today's Animal Shelter Commission Meeting

Click to embiggen this chart from the Animal Shelter Commission presentation​Merry afternoon, Friends. I'm here at City Hall for today's Animal Shelter Commission meeting. They'll be discussing the recently released, mildly damning Humane Society report on the troubled Dallas Animal Services, whic ... More >>

Liveblogging Quality of Life, As Code Violations and Animal Services Are on the Agenda

This is Weezer, among the kitties and doggies on Dallas Animal Services' "Very Special Pets" list. Meaning: Time's running out.​Middle o' the day to you, Unfair Friends. I'm here at good old 6ES inside City Hall, liveblogging today's Quality of Life Committee meeting, featuring Pauline Medrano, wh ... More >>

Bike Plan Meeting Is First SAG Station on Long Haul From Ideas to Implementation

Angela Hunt via PlixiLast night at City Hall, Peter Lagerway debuted the draft version of the new-and-improved Dallas Bike Plan, set to roll in front of council in December​Dallas city officials haven't even begun to grapple with questions of how quickly they can implement the Dallas Bike Plan ... More >>

Hunt Presents Plan For Lower Greenville, Swears It Won't Be West Village Redux

Photos by Gloria LevarioAngela Hunt at last night's Lower Greenville meeting to discuss the proposed Planned Development District ordinance​Last night, more than 100 folks packed into the dining room at Vickery Towers "senior living community" for a standing-room-only public meeting on the propo ... More >>

Liveblogging Today's Parks and Rec Meeting

You wanna see Rochester Park, you'd best hustle: It closes down in October for a big ol' levee redo.​All kinds of folks are crammed up in City Hall's sixth-floor Parks and Rec meeting room -- ladies who lunch, guys in suits, city officials and, of course, some dude who stinks pretty bad. It's so f ... More >>

Packed Open House For 2011 Dallas Bike Plan Leaves Many Impressed And Very, Very Hopeful

Photos by Daniel Rodrigue​Ten minutes before the 5 o'clock kick-off of last night's 2011 Dallas Bike Plan Open House, there were already some 100 folks milling about City Hall's 6th Floor Flag Room. And by the time officials busted out the PowerPoint at 6, all but a handful of the seats in the 26 ... More >>

A Video Round-Up: Jerry Jones Talks With Dick Ebersol, Why Dallas Isn't Detroit and Jim Moroney on The Future of The News Business

A slide from Eric Corey Freed's presentation. Also, a lesser-known Prince song.​Whilst Daniel and Sam wrap up some end-o'-day items, let's direct our attention to the follow-up videos that follow, all which I found on Vimeo today. It's quite the hodgepodge.But let's begin with Jim Moroney, publish ... More >>

Trash and Culture on the Agenda at City Hall

​[Editor's note: Well, look who's returned to Unfair Park, none other than former Girl on Top Andrea Grimes. And, for some reason, she's decided to reintroduce herself with ... a liveblog from the Quality of Life Committee meeting at Dallas City Hall, where they're covering big changes in code com ... More >>

Yes, Another Film Festival: The USA Film Festival Releases Line-Up and Schedule

Colin Farrell and Alicja Bachleda in Neil Jordan's Ondine, which is playing the USA Film Festival April 30​The Dallas International Film Festival wraps up Sunday. But tomorrow morning, tickets for the USA Film Festival will go on sale via Ticketmaster, according to the fest's publicist in the rele ... More >>

TxDOT Dazzles Southern Dallas With Plans to Straighten Out "Statistically Dangerous Curve" on S.M. Wright

Photos by Daniel RodrigueDead Man's Curve, or as TxDOT likes to call it, the "accident-prone curve" or "statistically dangerous curve." ​As planners and staff from the Texas Department of Transportation and city of Dallas overwhelmed residents last night with maps spanning the length of three ... More >>

From California, a Note of Concern Sent to City Council Regarding Dallas Zoo Transfer

Robert Cabello, Dallas Zoological Society​On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will more than likely vote to approve turning over management of the Dallas Zoo to the Dallas Zoological Society -- and, more specifically, its management arm, Dallas Zoo Management, Inc. Further details concerning the ... More >>

Last Night, Pete Sessions Turned Health Care Debate Into an Easy-to-Swallow Pill

Kimberly Thorpe​The debate surrounding the proposed health care bill can seem distant. The bill is some 1,000 pages. Those who claim to have read it become experts either for or against the legislation. But last night, a cherry-faced, white-haired politician successfully tied this unwieldy documen ... More >>

Dot Games Highlight Exercise in Futility at White Rock Lake Last Night as Residents Offer Little to Help Solve City's Budget Crisis

Sam MertenYippee! Red and green stickers!It was standing room only last night as approximately 200 folks battled the heat at White Rock Lake's Winfrey Point for the final of four community budget forums, where several city staffers were on hand to get input on how best to address the city's $190 mi ... More >>

Hunt Attributes Delayed Car Booting Ordinance to Budget and The Reeds; Deep Ellum Group Uses Petition to Lobby Council

Sean FitzgeraldThe Deep Ellum Community Association used a petition measuring more than 50 feet with more than 850 signatures to push the council to take the car booting issue more seriously.We're already breaking our promise, but because we're strangely obsessed with the city's struggle to get a ca ... More >>

After City Approves More Than $1 Billion in Bond Funding for South Dallas, Task Force Finds Ways to Spend Another $100 Million

Sam MertenSeveral members of the Mayor's Southern Dallas Task Force packed the city council chambers Tuesday afternoon as they unveiled plans to revitalize 10 areas of South Dallas. The task force, consisting of approximately 250 folks split into 13 groups, recommended the city include a minimum of ... More >>

With the Statler Hilton's Future in Question, Last Night a Loving Look Back at Its Past

Scott DornJo Fischer, who worked at the Statler Hilton even before it officially opened in 1956Organizers of last night's "Story of the Statler" presentation at the Dallas Center for Architecture expected, oh, maybe 30 or 40 folks to show for architect Marcel Quimby's talk about the historic, neglec ... More >>

A (Small, But Spirited) Effort Afoot to Shine a Little Light on Dallas's Buried Creeks

Dallas Public Library/Dallas History and ArchivesAn old map of one Dallas's buried creeks, Peak Creek, which SOS would like to dig up and "daylight."In the high-ceilinged shadows of the old Pump House at White Rock Lake, Bud Melton clicks through PowerPoint slides of apartment complexes, shopping ma ... More >>

At Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, The Cemetery Club has gallows humor in spades while WaterTower hits a false note with Totally True Story

City, Heal Thyself: Words of Wisdom From Last Night's Affordable Housing Forum

Alexa SchirtzingerFrom left last night, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm, architect Brent Brown and Regina Nippert of the Dallas Faith Communities CoalitionLast night's affordable housing forum at Temple Emanu-El was a lesson in getting things right by "thinking wrong," as architect Brent Brown likes ... More >>

In West Dallas, Finding MMDs

On Wednesday, as you're no doubt aware by now, the Dallas City Council voted to create three municipal management districts, or MMDs. They're the first in Dallas, though Houston is often invoked as proof that MMDs do wonders for development. Which is no surprise, as they're made for development -- o ... More >>

Trinity Chairman Sees "Many, Many Obstacles" With Turnpike Project

Sam MertenFrom left to right: Gene Rice and Kevin Craig of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dan Chapman of HNTB and project manager for the NTTA and Rebecca Dugger, director of the Trinity River Corridor Project As Schutze mentioned earlier, the council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee m ... More >>

Flavor Pulls a Disappearing Act at the Second Floor

The City's New No-Tell Hotel

Bible Girl: The Big, Happy Family Quiz

Culture Wars

The toll road referendum will squash the big-hairs

The Fragile Fourth Wall

Details, details: This year's FIT stands or falls on the little things

Deep-Sixed

Hollywood pounces on 6-6-06 with a needless Omen revival

Don't Fret

Dallas Guitar Show plays on

Grab for Privates

Should we turn local government over to a corporation?

Sob Story

Buzz sheds a tear for 2003

Show Me the Lake!

City Hall talks fast, hides lake up sleeve

The Opposite of True

How The Dallas Morning News spins the Trinity River project