Subject: Texas Office of the Attorney General

• Who's in Charge at City Hall (Get It?)

  December 4, 2006

• One Rockin' Senator

  May 25, 2007

• They Might Be Illegal or a Bald Eagle, But Not a Kegle Nor Spread Eagle

  June 6, 2007

• Trinity Trust? Not on Yer Life.

  June 6, 2007

• The Bridge to the Truth

  August 3, 2007

• Whatcha Hidin', Jim Foster?

  August 15, 2007

• Say, DMN, How Many Wrongs Does It Take to Get it Right?

  December 11, 2007

• DART Sure is Working Hard to Keep That Missing Billion Dollars Missing

  December 21, 2007

• Potter County Sheriff Clearly Didn't Learn a Thing from Dallas County

  June 13, 2008

• At DISD Board Meeting, Hinojosa Recommends Cutting ... Everything

  September 25, 2008

• Hoping for the worst

  June 20, 1996

• So, No One Else Is Worked Up About DISD Board's Vote to Extend Term Limits? OK, Then.

  Yesterday was the deadline for "interested parties" to send to the Office of the Attorney General of Texas briefs concerning the Dallas Independent School District board of trustee's vote to extend their term limits from three to four years. Carla Ranger, of course, is the only trustee against the extension, branding the board's actions as illegal on numerous occasions and "a danger to democratic rule" in November. On December 3, Robert Scott, the state's Commissioner of Education, asked Attorne

  January 20, 2009

• Letters

  September 5, 1996

• The eyes of Texas

  October 31, 1996

• Aggies lose again

  January 16, 1997

• Letters

  January 16, 1997

• Bait yer hooks

  July 31, 1997

• Buzz

  December 31, 1998

• Done Deal?

  February 20, 2003

• Cocaine Blues: Sorry, Texas, But You Will No Longer Be Able to Buy This Stimulating Drink.

  Out of the Dallas County's 44th Judicial District Court comes this swig o' news, courtesy the Texas Attorney General's Office: Never again will you find Cocaine on your local soft-drink shelves. Greg Abbott and his staff, including Dallas-based ADA Joyce Iliya of the Consumer Protection and Public Health Division, has had the maker of the so-called "energy supplement" in court for a good long while, but today they announced they got what they've wanted all along: a permanent injunction that mean

  March 23, 2009

• Does the Texas Attorney General Trust the City's Treatment of W.W. Samuell Trust Fund?

  Courtesy Friends of the FarmAn aerial view of the Samuell Farm, donated to the city nearly 70 years agoOn Wednesday, the Dallas city council will meet behind closed doors to discuss a host of subjects -- among them, pending lawsuits involving the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' floodway report. On the briefing agenda, you will also find an item that has been making cameo appearances in front of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board since September:Legal issues regarding the W. W. Samue

  March 31, 2009

• City, Texas AG's Office Close to an Agreement Concerning W.W. Samuell Land, Trust Fund

  View Larger MapOn Wednesday, the Dallas City Council is expected to get a look at the Texas Attorney General's Office's findings concerning its yearlong look into how the city manages the W. W. Samuell Permanent Foundation, the Samuell Trust Fund and the properties willed to the city by the physician and philanthropist upon his death in 1937. So says First Assistant City Attorney Chris Bowers, who today tells Unfair Park that several Dallas city attorneys are going through a rough draft of the a

  April 6, 2009

• Texas AG Tells Cali Women to Take Their Fuel Magnets and Blow 'Em Out Their Gas Tank

  Three years ago, we ran a piece in the paper version of Unfair Park about a scam called BioPerformance Fuel -- otherwise known as mothballs you were supposed to drop into your gas tank to rev up mileage per gallon. The Texas Attorney General didn't take kindly to that. Which didn't stop two California women -- Wendy Diaz and Hilda Mejia -- from buying up air time on Dallas and Houston Spanish-language television to sell their own so-called "cheap gas" product called the MPG Device, which runs $1

  April 7, 2009

• Texas Attorney General, Dallas County Constables Round Up Deadbeat Parents

  The Texas Attorney General's Office sends word this morning that 22 Dallas parents who've been court-ordered to pony up child support were arrested by Dallas County constables -- and it was the very definition of a "rude awakening," as the round-up kicked off at 5:30 in the a.m. Says Attorney General Greg Abbott, "Parents have a moral and legal obligation to support their children. By collecting child support, we are ensuring young Texans have the resources they need to grow healthy and strong.

  April 9, 2009

• Texas AG Tells Dallas It Can No Longer Use Samuell Land "As City Officials See Fit"

  Courtesy Friends of the FarmAn aerial view of the Samuell Farm, donated to the city nearly 70 years agoAs we've mentioned a couple of times over the last week, the Texas Attorney General's Office has been taking a long, hard look at how the city of Dallas runs the W. W. Samuell Permanent Foundation and the Samuell Trust Fund, as well as how the city maintains and dispenses of properties the philanthropist and physician left to the city upon his death in 1937. On Wednesday, during a closed-door e

  April 10, 2009

• Buzz Reviews the News of 2008: Yes. It Was All Bad.

  Sex clubs in the 'burbs, teacher layoffs in the district, black holes in the commissioners court—Buzz makes perfect sense of 2008

  January 1, 2009

• Haggling Over Who Collects Late Child Support Payments Could Leave Some Kids Without

  April 10, 2008

• Never Have Kids

  April 10, 2008

• Will Wonders Never Cease

  The new DA is nice. That can't last.

  January 18, 2007

• Bah Hum-Buzz

  Buzz gets his jollies keeping tabs on 2005's naughty and nice guys. OK, mostly naughty.

  December 15, 2005

• Told Ya So

  Plus: Funny Girls

  August 11, 2005

• Letters

  June 10, 2004

• Passing the Plate

  Proposed new license tags weigh in on the abortion debate

  April 24, 2003

• Donald Bags 3 Katies

  Staffers make a big splash in recent journalism competitions

  November 21, 2002

• Unfair Share

  High-pressure sales tactics and promises of fabulous prizes make Dallas-based Silverleaf Resorts the champion of Texas time-shares, but dissatisfied customers say, "Buyer beware"

  January 25, 2001

• Jack! Jack!

  You didn't trade the family cow for a Calatrava bridge, did you?

  March 16, 2000

• Diggin' dirt

  The Deep Throat secret of the Trinity River Plan is, "Follow the fill dirt"

  February 24, 2000

• Why Johnny's in the dumpster

  DISD would rather protect itself and teachers than teach kids to read

  February 17, 2000

• Because, Look, Who Hasn't Pretended to Be An Answering Machine at Some Point?

  Modern MechanixWhen the phones in the Texas Attorney General's Office's Child Support Division wouldn't stop ringing, Delene Richardson did what she says she was told to do: pretend to be an answering machine. For the better part of four months, the Mesquite resident answered the phone in a robotic monotone and told callers looking for their child support checks, "All circuits are busy. Please try your call again later."Richardson started doing this in January 2008 to clear the backed-up queue.

  April 17, 2009

• DISD Trustee Carla Ranger Writes of Texas AG's Opinion: "Voting Rights Have Been Sacrificed on the Alter of Political Power."

  Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott"Bummer." That's how Dallas Independent School District board trustee Edwin Flores initially responded yesterday when Unfair Park asked for comment concerning the Texas Attorney General's opinion yesterday that the board "was not authorized to change the length of its members' terms of office" from three to four years last November. Then he said some other stuff, like how maybe there might have to be a special election, but, well, maybe someone will have to sue

  May 1, 2009

• Courting Disapproval? DISD Board to Meet With Attorney to Discuss Texas AG's Opinion.

  Woodrow Wilson High SchoolLast week, the Texas Attorney General's Office offered its opinion that the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees "was not authorized to change the length of its members' terms of office" from three to four years last November. Which has prompted a called board meeting at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow, during which the board will discuss the opinion and consult with its attorney. But, more significantly, the board will consider a "motion to instruct school board c

  May 4, 2009

• If You Need to Find Schutze Today ...

  Next time, swear.Jim's all dolled up: tie and pants and everything. Then, he does have a busy afternoon planned; just as well his Cinco de Mayo BBQ was called on account of flash flood warning. First, he'll be stopping by DISD HQ for today's 3:30 called meeting, during which the board of trustees will discuss the ramifications of the Texas Attorney General's opinion and reducing staffing at magnets and learning centers. After that, he's headed over to the Dallas Convention Center Arena for the T

  May 5, 2009

• Right Now, the DISD Board is Probably Yelling At Each Other Behind Closed Doors

  DISD board trustee Ron PriceAs I noted, earlier Jim's at 3700 Ross Avenue, where, at this very moment, the board of trustees is behind closed doors, no doubt arguing over the ramifications of the Texas Attorney General's opinion that the trustees should not have extended their terms from three years to four last November. Jim filed this moments ago, just as the board disappeared -- "for hours, I fear," said Dr. Schutze, who's too scared to leave and lose his seat in the packed house.As soon as t

  May 5, 2009

• Booker T. Washington Will Likely Lose 13 Positions For the 2009-'10 School Year

  Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander just called Unfair Park back to explain the figure on Page 14 of the summary of staffing formulas at DISD campuses for the 2009-'10 school year being discussed by trustees today. And while it looks as though the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts will lose 23 magnet teachers next school year -- from 26 to 3, says the document -- Dahlander says it will be about half that. Which, he acknowledges, "is still

  May 5, 2009

• DISD Board Has Two Options: Special Election or Appointments. Not So Fast, Says Ranger.

  DISD school trustee Carla RangerWhen last we left the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees yesterday, they had come back from their closed-door meeting and presented two options to deal with the Texas Attorney General's opinion concerning the extension of terms from three to four years: special elections or appointments to fill the seats of Edwin Flores, Leigh Ann Ellis and Ron Price, whose terms are ostensibly up this Sunday. This morning, Carla Ranger, who had asked for the opi

  May 6, 2009

• Go Ahead DISD Trustees. Gut the Magnet Schools. If You Want a City That Aspires to Mediocrity.

  May 14, 2009

• Make Him an Offer You Can't Refuse: The WSJ Haggles for a Rug in Preston Royal

  A Friend of Unfair Park forwards along this front-page Wall Street Journal story about Cyrus Hassankola, who moved to Dallas to open a business that always appears on the verge of closing -- the oriental rug shop at Preston Road and Royal Lane formerly known as "Going Out of Business." It was a genius move, till the Better Business Bureau and Texas Attorney General told the Tehran native to knock it off; besides, when everyone else is actually going out of business, what's the appeal? So now Has

  June 24, 2009

• Two Days Before a Dallas Man's Scheduled to Die, Lawyers Claim He's "Mentally Retarded"

  Roderick NewtonTen years ago last March, "Roderick Newton and Julian Williams went to a car wash in Pleasant Grove in Dallas looking for someone to rob." So reminds the Texas Attorney General's media release issued last week, which recounts the reason Newton is scheduled to be executed by the state Thursday evening: After forcing Jesus Montoya to withdraw $200 from an ATM, Newton drove the man to a vacant field, demanded he remove his gold chain and cross, then shot him repeatedly. Newton was co

  July 21, 2009

• City Misses Samuell Trust Reports Deadlines; Texas AG Threatens Dallas With Legal Action

  Once a popular hangout at the Samuell Farm, the Pavillion is a rotting, open-door shell of its former self.​Long story short: Since March 2008, the Texas Attorney General's Office has been investigating precisely how well the city of Dallas is taking care of the park properties and money left to the city by physician and philanthropist W.W. Samuell. In March of '09, we first caught wind of the specifics of the investigation, which included a long look-see at the much-fought-over Samuell Farm -

  August 28, 2009

• Ain't Gonna Work on Samuell Farm No More? Per City Docs, Four Options for the 320 Acres.

  The Pavillion at Samuell Farm, which the city is considering tearing down -- unless a gust of wind beats it to the punch​Last Friday, we broke the news that the Texas Attorney General's Office is threatening to take control of the W.W. Samuell Trust if the city of Dallas doesn't turn over by September 11 documents that were due July 15. What the AG wants: an accounting of "current operations of all Samuell Park Properties [and] a future plan for the Samuell Park Property known as Samuell Farm.

  September 2, 2009