Politics

Council Field-Trips to SMU For a Lecture on Ethics From Someone in Federal Gov't. Oh, Boy.

Photos by Anna MerlanIt would appear the council got a standing o for appearing, briefly, at a lecture about ethics.​Ethics reforms, or at least the earnest discussion thereof, are in the air over at City Hall lately. Mayor Rawlings won his seat, after all, at least partially based on a "pro-e ... More >>

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 >>

"It's Time to Take Action": Latino Redistricting Task Force Pledges to Fight New Council Map

Photo by Anna MerlanDomingo Garcia and, sitting to his right, Scott Griggs at last night's meeting over the map in Oak Cliff​Last week we sat through a very long, very ugly city council meeting, which ended with the members narrowly adopting a new redistricting plan. At that time, council member D ... More >>

Rick Perry's Manufactured Miracle

Rick Perry's Texas is a job-making, low-taxing oasis of prosperity. It's also pure fantasy.

Race to the Finish: After Ugly Redistricting Meeting, Council (Barely) Settles on Map

​Yesterday afternoon, around 5:30, as a tiny audience sat in the city council chambers, former Mayor Dwaine Caraway came by and declared to Unfair Park, "I think we got something." That's right. A final redistricting map. Finally.Caraway spoke about three hours too soon, though. Last night at 8:30 ... More >>

Feds, Researchers Raise More Questions About Texas's New Voter ID Law

​The voter ID law passed by Texas lawmakers in May continues its circuit among activists, lawmakers, academics and social commentators as a discriminatory, unjustified and absolutely necessary measure, depending on who's yelling. Words like "voter fraud" on the right and "disenfranchisement" o ... More >>

Top Chef Producers Sue to Suppress Details of Their Deal With Texas Taxpayers

Chris Christie, the seriously-non-president-running governor of New Jersey, recently pulled the plug on $420,000 in government subsidies for Jersey Shore, calling the tax incentives "wasteful spending" on a show that poorly represents his state. Texas Governor Rick Perry's office? It sees no such w ... More >>

Before He Sipped the Tea, Rick Perry Had a Much Different Take on Voting

​The old Rick Perry -- back before he discovered the Tea Party -- would have swept into Dallas on a white horse shootin' his Ruger and kickin' up dust to defend the embattled Medrano family, accused of faking a family member's voter residency in a justice of the peace election. In fact, I just ... More >>

Well, So Much For That Redistricting Redo Deadline. It's Been Pushed Back to Monday.

​Forget what I just wrote below about council members turning in their redistricting amendments by 5 p.m. today. I just got a call from someone at City Hall informing me that, no, that deadline was just changed -- at the request of the mayor's office. The Redistricting Commission office confirms: ... More >>

Mayor Mike's Dinner With Council Conflicts With Gas Drilling Task Force Public Hearing

Photo by Mark Graham​Mayor Mike Rawlings's office confirms: From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on August 2 he's throwing a dinner for the city council -- a sort-of get-to-know-me BBQ-flavored wingding in advance of the council getting back to work. Problem is, that conflicts with one of only two public hearin ... More >>

Small-Town Muckraker Joey Dauben Will Run the World Some Day. Just Ask Him.

In the little towns outside of Dallas, publisher and aspiring politician Joey Dauben is on a crusade to expose abuses of power, civic mischief and -- most of all -- himself.

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.

A Few Council Members Take in Gasland, But Not Before Mayor Mike Makes a Promise to City

Photos by Leslie MinoraAngela Hunt was asked whether it's likely Dallas will be sued by gas drillers awaiting their SUPs.​Mayor Mike Rawlings took the mic before last night's Observer co-sponsored Gasland screening and told the audience of council members, activists and concerned locals, "I wi ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway Bids Goodbye to the Mayor's Seat. Don't Expect a Return Visit.

​This was Dwaine Caraway's last day as temporary unelected mayor of Dallas. He is now the former temporary mayor or FTM. But he thinks he's prime material for full-time elected mayor at some point in the future. That's not true. The reason why it is not true may not be what everybody thinks. ... More >>

It's Time To Take Dallas In a New Direction, Say Mike Rawlings and All His Friends at City Hall

Photos by Patrick MichelsLois Finkelman was among the City Council members, past and present, who reiterated their support for Mike Rawlings today. Even casual campaign watchers will not be surprised to hear that Mike Rawlings has the support of all but a few current city council members, and plent ... More >>

Saying Goodbye to Dwaine Caraway, the Mayor of our Dreams

Here's hoping the next guy is just as bold and bumbling.

Kunkle: Free The Trinity Docs! And Other City Hall Ethics Proposals Unveiled This Morning.

Patrick MichelsMayoral hopeful David Kunkle, backed by his squadron of crime-fighting supporters. Backed by a new group of law-enforcing backers calling themselves "Crime Fighters for Kunkle," former Dallas police chief and mayoral hopeful David Kunkle took a minute this morning to cast himself as ... More >>

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.

Is Mexico a Tea Party paradise?

Solid Waste-rs Tell Caraway They Really Don't Want to Be Told Where to Dump Trash

​Last June, we took a look at some moneymaking brainstorms Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm presented to the city council, which Suhm hoped would offset some of the $131-million budget shortfall with which she was faced at the time. Among them was one in particular that didn't get very far, or so it ... More >>

The Greatest Sideshow on Earth: When The "Transparent" (Cough) City Council Talks Ethics

​City council members Angela Hunt and Vonciel Jones Hill are kicking ass at today's contentious hearing on the city council's recent unethics reform, which is about to wrap up. (Or not.) The council voted last April 13 to gut its ethics policy and allow political contributions from representatives ... 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 >>

Rawlings Takes Shot at Natinsky For Not Speaking Up When Council Loosened Ethics

Photo by Sam MertenRon Natinsky and Mike Rawlings at an early mayoral candidate forum​Two weeks ago, Schutze noted that the city council -- very quietly, very nonchalantly, very consent-agenda-y -- loosened up its own restrictions governing when and how developers with zoning cases at City Hall co ... More >>

Mayor Dwaine Caraway Refers to Mike Rawlings As "Payday Loan King" in New Radio Ad

Photo by Sam MertenCaraway and Natinsky at the candidate's endorsement press conference last month​Moments ago, during Robert Ashley's show on KHVN-AM, an ad ran attacking mayoral candidate Mike Rawlings and his ties to Ace Cash Express -- though it never mentions Rawlings by name. The speaker: no ... More >>

Mike Rawlings Says He Wants to Fix the Schools. Sure, But Talk is Cheap.

​Ah, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I call "rubber meets road" on the school district issue in the mayor's race. Candidate Mike Rawlings has been getting himself some political mileage on the hustings by saying that, as mayor, he will help fix the city's beleaguered public school system. I hav ... More >>

Reliving the Trinity River Toll Road Campaign With Mayoral Candidate Ron Natinsky

Photo by Sam MertenRon Natinsky​In our cover story about the mayoral race, perhaps you read the section about council member Ron Natinsky and noticed a glossing over of sorts when it came to his public comments during the contentious 2007 Trinity River toll road referendum. As is often the ca ... More >>

Dallas' Next Mayor Will Face Tough Budget Choices. Too Bad The Candidates Won't Talk About Them.

Welcome To The Dull House

Billy MacLeod Steps Up Fight to Move Polling Location From Medrano Elementary

The polling location in dispute​By week's end, District 2 council candidate Billy MacLeod expects to file in state and federal court a lawsuit over the city's decision not to remove Esperanza "Hope" Medrano Elementary School from its list of polling locations for the May 14 election. As you're no ... More >>

We Need a Mayor Who'll Cut Up City Hall's Credit Card.

"Regionalism" Just Means Dallas is Going to Get Drilled When It Comes to Fracking

​So-called regionalism is a rip-off, a scam and a hoax designed to neuter cities and sell them down the river to the damned suburbs. A few weeks from now the Dallas City Council will take up the issue of fracking, the kind of natural gas drilling in which drillers pump millions of gallons of ... More >>

A Pro-Guns-On-Campus Buzz! (Someone Else Wrote It)

Council Candidate Says Angela Hunt "Embarrassed Our Entire City" By Walking Out During Tom Leppert's Farewell Speech

District 14 candidate Chad Lasseter​As he explained to us a couple weeks ago, Chad Lasseter has some grand ideas, including moving the Texas Rangers to either Fair Park or West Dallas and providing free Wi-Fi downtown. He also disagrees with District 14 council member Angela Hunt on a handful ... More >>

Endorsements Aplenty For Ron Natinsky, Including Mayor Dwaine Caraway, Who Says There's No Time to Learn About Anyone Else

Photos by Sam MertenMayor Dwaine Caraway asked mayoral candidate Ron Natinksy to put an endorsement sticker on his blazer this afternoon.​Mayor Dwaine Caraway and 11 current and former council members endorsed council member Ron Natinksy for mayor this afternoon at City Hall Plaza. Caraway urg ... More >>

Mayor Dwaine Caraway's "Calling a New Play"

Photos by Sam MertenMayor Dwaine Caraway, his wife and council member Dave Neumann this morning at the City Hall Flag Room.​Just minutes before presiding over his first meeting as the city's newly minted mayor, Dwaine Caraway assured a group of around 150 folks gathered for a light breakfast i ... More >>

Concealed Guns on Campus a Fait Accompli?

Want to Jump at the Chance to Be Mexico's Prez?

Mayor Leppert's Last Day is Friday

​Moments ago, after the last of the afternoon speakers came to the council chambers microphone to denounce Mayor Tom Leppert and the media one last time, the mayor said what we've known was coming since last night, if not well before: He's outta here."This will be my last city council meeting. Eff ... More >>

Kunkle Says As Mayor, He Wouldn't Hike Taxes

​Last week, Ron Natinsky made it official, taking the missus down to City Hall on Valentine's Day to file his petition to run for Dallas mayor. This morning at 10 a.m., David Kunkle will follow in his footsteps, filing his paperwork with the city secretary after gathering enough signatures to get ... More >>

The Unrepentant Tax-Hiker.

Two District 14 City Council Candidates Promise Not to Raise Taxes But Don't Have Concrete Solutions to Pending Budget Shortfall

James Nowlin​Late last week, we took a look at three of the five potential candidates for Angela Hunt's District 14 city council seat -- Jim Rogers, Vernon Franko and Brian Oley -- one of which (Rogers) said Hunt's decision to run for a fourth and final term caused him to put his campaign on h ... More >>

Circling the Dwaine, Countdown to Cara-watch, Day One, So It Begins, And ... Go

​Time to start a watch. I hereby declare this the beginning of the "How Totally Useless Are the Dallas City Council and Mayor?" watch. Day One. I wrote here yesterday about the huge dilemma City Hall faces with Dwaine Caraway, the council member who is next in line to fill the mayor's shoes shou ... More >>

Is David Kunkle's candidacy for mayor a sign that Dallas is headed in the right direction or that Schutze is off his meds?

County Commissioners Vote, Three to Two, Not to Bring Back Sherbet As Elections Consultant

Patrick MichelsCounty Judge Clay Jenkins reminds the room, "I did not ask Mr. Sherbet to resign." This morning he voted not to re-hire Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet as a consultant.Down at Dallas County Commissioners Court this morning, where the fire marshals were out to keep the overflow c ... More >>

Former Chief Kunkle For Dallas Mayor? Maybe.

Patrick Michels​At the beginning of the week, former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle had no intention of running for Dallas mayor. Today, he tells Unfair Park, that has changed.While the 60-year-old Kunkle says he remains unsure of what he will do, chances are "greater that I will run than I won' ... More >>

It's a diary of a mad year as Buzz recalls a P.O.'d 2010.

Mass deportation, strict border enforcement, amnesty. What will comprehensive immigration reform look like if the feds take action--or if they don't?

Fantasy Voter Fraud

Mexican Macro-economics

FAIR-y Tales

Russell Pearce and Other Illegal-Immigration Populists Rely on Misleading, Right-Wing Reports to Scapegoat Immigrants and Terrify Penny-Pinched Americans.

Resource Center Dallas Happy, For the Most Part, With "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Report

U.S. Navy Petty Officer Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeleyRobert Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at today's press conference​The Department of Defense today released its 247-page Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of ... More >>