Political Lobbyists

John Carona's Payday Lending Reform Crashed into a Wall of Lobbyists Today

If you want an idea of the near stranglehold payday lenders have on the Texas Legislature, the Senate floor was the place to be today. That's where Senator John Carona watched as his payday lending bill was picked apart by colleagues, many of whom were taking calls from industry lobbyists as he spok ... More >>

The Power of Lobbying: Trinity Levees Are Unsafe SUPER Safe, the Corps Says Now

OK, wait, wait, before we start the party, can I ask a couple questions? Could we maybe just try to put ourselves in a global context first? In July, 2011, the city of Copenhagen was ravaged by the worst flood in recorded history, rated by scientists as a "1,000-year" flood, meaning it could be ex ... More >>

Some Texas Tea Partiers Are Very Proud of Their Fight with a Dallas Teachers Union

Earlier this month, the Texas Ethics Commission fined the Alliance of Dallas Educators United Teachers Political Action Committee, which most recently supported the doomed campaign of young Damarcus Offord, $600 for a handful of violations of campaign disclosure laws. I didn't write about it because ... More >>

Mayor Mike Rawlings, the Promise Keeper

Hizzoner swears he'll keep vow to clean up City Hall lobbying.

Mike Rawlings Vowed to Clean Up Dallas, But the Feds Are Spilling Dirt Everywhere

To keep his promise, Dallas' new mayor will have to distance himself from the city's political machine. Good luck with that.

The Dallas City Council's Ethics Relapse

Two years after passing tighter ethics rules, City Hall tried to loosen them on the sly. You won't believe who blew the whistle.

Rep. Harvey Hilderbran Does Not Want Pesky Prosecutors Sniffing Around His Paperwork

There's something unethical about that hair, isn't there? So shiny.​The folks at City Hall aren't the only ones trying to slip looser ethics rules into places they don't belong. A bill that cruised through the state House this week would force lawmakers to disclose more information about how ... More >>

Unethics Reform: Would the Author Please Stand Up? (We'll Bring the Tomatoes.)

​Oh, now the city council has decided it needs to revisit its vote weakening the ethics rules on donations to city council members. Maybe they've decided to have themselves re-virginized. We pointed out here a thing that seems to have slipped past most media eyes: The council voted two week ... More >>

So, If You're Lobbying Dallas City Hall, You Need to Report To, Um, Everyone?

​The city finally came up with that list of city officials with whom lobbyists must report contacts under the new lobby reform ordinance that goes into effect a week from now. The lobbyists had been bitching behind the scenes because the city was taking months to come up with the list. Now that we ... More >>

City Hall Wants Lobbyists to Report All Meetings. To Whom? Dunno. Stop Asking.

​We always knew you can't beat City Hall. Now it looks like you can't even meet City Hall. As of April 1, people or institutions deemed to be lobbyists at City Hall will be required to go online and report every meeting or contact they have with certain city officials. My sources tell me firms tha ... More >>

If Joe Barton's BCS Bill Is All About Making Lobbyists Some Dough, Then Good Work

​For more than a year, Smokey Joe Barton's been trying to kill the Bowl Championship Series -- most recently, of course, with H.R. 390: College Football Playoff Act of 2009, which would ...... prohibit, as an unfair and deceptive act or practice, the promotion, marketing, and advertising of any po ... More >>

Schutze is Live-Blogging This Morning's Council Vote on City Hall Ethics Reform

William S. Dahlstrom​This morning the city council is debating lobbyist reform, and the lobbyists are all here. And nervous. They have their own corner of the city council chamber, front row, extreme left (from my direction in the peanut gallery, extreme right from the council's perspective). The ... More >>

If You Think Ethics Reform at City Hall Was All Mayor Tom's Idea, Pass That Pipe, Willya?

Patrick Michels​In an editorial today The Dallas Morning News gives all the credit for better ethics at City Hall to Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert because, "In the end, Tom Leppert didn't blink." They must have sent a greenhorn over to cover the city council's straw vote on ethics reform last week. An ... More >>

The Mayor’s Proposal for City Council Ethics Reform Misses its Target: the City Council

After Spending All Day Talking Ethics Reform, City Council Punts the Whole Shebang and Wraps It Up With a Freakin' Straw Vote

​As the Dallas City Council reached the end of its painfully long discussion about the proposed ethics reform, Dave Neumann said, "It was productive for the council to go through this briefing, but that's OK." Yup, the council began its agenda meeting this morning chatting about fine points o ... More >>

The Waters Are Murky as Dallas City Council Seeks Clarity Before Ethics Reform Vote

Sam MertenCouncil member Carolyn Davis talks to zoning lawyer Kirk Williams as Willie Cothrum (right) listens.If nothing else, the city council's hastily planned ethics reform briefing early this morning showed that this group is capable of a spirited debate. For the most part, Mayor Tom Leppert has ... More >>

Mayor Tom Says He Wants Ethics Reform. Two Council Members Offer Some Suggestions.

Not among Angela Hunt's suggestions for reform at City Hall: hiring Ponch as the ethics enforcer.​As promised, in advance of Monday's special called council meeting involving those pesky ethics reforms, Angela Hunt has sent Unfair Park her own laundry list of suggestions. Titled "Why We Need to Ch ... More >>

Tooth Marks: The Brawl at City Hall Over Real Ethics Reform Is Only Just Beginning

Patrick MichelsDallas City Attorney Tom Perkins​Angela Hunt is putting the bite on the mayor today on the issue of ethics reform.The council is being briefed on possible new ethics rules growing out of the City Hall corruption case. Council member Hunt and four other members signed a letter a coup ... More >>

How Do Dallas's Lobbyists Earn Their Dough?

Zazzle​On October 28, the Dallas City Council will vote to renew its contract with the lobbyists who do the city's bidding in Austin and D.C. Right about now, the city spends $502,000 with the likes of CapitalEdge (which also lobbies on behalf of Arlington; Denton, Reno, Nevada; and Huntsville, Al ... More >>

Up the Sleazy River At the Dallas City Hall Corruption Trial

Up the Sleazy River At the Dallas City Hall Corruption Trial

Five Council Members Lobby for Transparency at Dallas City Hall. Good Luck With All That.

Psssst, Carol Reed, they're talking about you ... ​Five Dallas City Council members want the city to think about requiring people to register as lobbyists if they get paid to influence the council. The ongoing Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial has brought a series of revelations about s ... More >>

Environmentalists Plenty Steamed About Possible Nominee to Head EPA's Dallas Office

EarthFirstWhen it comes to the new regional Environmental Protection Agency head, environmental groups are tired of sending pointed letters. Tomorrow, the campaign to dethrone John Hall as the front-running potential nominee for administrator of the EPA's Region 6 (which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Ar ... More >>

The T. Boone Pickens Alternative Energy Show Rolls Across America

DISD's Confederacy of Jerks

Extremely pushy parents—Latino, black and Anglo—must rise up to save DISD from itself

Yet Again, a Last-Ditch Effort to Keep Bush Think Tank Off SMU Campus

Dream, Weaver: How One SMU Grad's Doing His Damnedest to Stop the Bush Policy Center

Beating Around the Bush Library at SMU

Choke On It

North Texas gets schooled on the nasty politics of dirty air

Lipstick Lesbiana

Ron Kirk is Not Cheap

Woe Is They

Conservatives need not apply

Bush Think Tank | How to Hide Your Weed

W. and Us

Dallas, home to the George W. Bush think tank. Let's think about that.

SMU Wanna Bush Library? SMU're in Luck.

SMU Profs to Bush: Bring the Library if You Must, But Keep the "Think Tank"

Bush Think Tank = $500 Million

The Hammer and the Nailing

Face "The Nation"

RIght Cross

Is George W. Bush a conservative? Author Bruce Bartlett doesn't think so,

and saying that cost him his job.

Ring Ma Bell

When heavyweight Southwestern Bell gets into a brawl with AT&T at the Legislature, consumers--that's you--are the ones who get beat up

Holy handouts

How taxpayers -- including you, if you hit the flea market in Canton -- are subsidizing the Christian right

Easy pickings

In the Legislature this year, lawmakers may find that it's better to give than receive

Down-home Drudge

Harvey Kronberg, the Avis of Austin political reporters, tries harder with Web gossip

Power of words

Hispanics demand a school-board member's resignation after comments in the Observer

White Like Me

A Christian comes to terms with Dallas' Christian Coalition

'Johnny B' is a good choice

Bryant's announcement should give Gramm a real race

Nasty and negative

Colin Powell's decision reveals distasteful state of American politics

Falling into The Gap

The chasm separating the haves and have-nots is getting wider

The road to hell

Christian Coalition stumbles on its good intentions