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-ethics” platform (not something many people come out against, but still). Then a couple weeks back, council member Jerry…
One week ago we got Occupy Dallas’s side of the story concerning the sexual assault that took place at its encampment behind Dallas City Hall. Today, we get the official version from the Dallas Police Department, which is reporting that it has arrested Richard Wayne Armstrong, a 24-year-old “non-compliant registered…
My most terrifying night at Dallas City Hall involved a six-hour Redistricting Commission meeting, during which I was forced to eat 1,000-year-old, partially fossilized peanut butter crackers for dinner. It was harrowing. City Hall employees held their annual Halloween party in the plaza just outside the building today, which was…
Over the years, the re-do of the Continental Building downtown has started to feel like a bit like Guns N’ Roses’s Chinese Democracy. Forest City, the developers behind turning the vacant building on Commerce into condos (complete with spa and yoga studio) kept telling us it would be done. They…
During the debate in the Texas Legislature over the family-planning cuts, many Democrats didn’t vote at all. In the Legislature’s color-coded voting system, a green light means yes, a red light means no and a white light means present, not voting. Since the money would be disbursed into other worthy…
It’s been a banner year for Texas’ pro-life movement. In May, lawmakers approved state-issued “Choose Life” license plates, with proceeds earmarked for medically questionable, anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy” centers. A few days later they passed a bill requiring women to undergo a sonogram, listen to a fetal heartbeat and hear a…
Several news outlets have reported in recent days that the Dallas Police Department is investigating the possible sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl at the Occupy Dallas camp near City Hall. The original report, from KTVT-Channel 11, cited an anonymous source within the police department who said that a 14-year-old…
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 other City Hall types (City Manager Mary Suhm, the…
As promised, the public comment period at this morning’s Dallas City Council meeting featured several members of the Domingo Garcia-led Latino Redistricting Task Force . In the council briefing room, every chair was full, with many people wearing white or blue tees that read “Count Us In” inside a drawing…
This morning the Dallas Contemporary was closed to the public, but a bunch of reporters were inside taking first looks at the most exorbitantly priced, publicity-getting items, otherwise known as the Fantasy Gifts from Neiman Marcus’s 2011 Christmas Book. Eight of the nine items on display will give some portions of their…
We told you yesterday that the Dallas Independent School District is considering offering “excess” Chapter 21 employees — teachers, principals, librarians, counselors — a pile of cash worth $3 million to retire. After last night’s called board meeting, it became clear that while that’s probably what trustees will ultimately vote…
Meet Michael Kloever. Again. The 33-year-old security guard was all over the news back in August, when he said he was pistol-whipped by an off-duty Dallas cop in a strip club parking lot after trying to break up what he thought was a fight between club customers. Now Kloever and…
After months of suspense, and after the other Republican hopefuls hired staff, began campaigning and participated in seven debates, Sarah Palin finally announced last week she wouldn’t be running for president after all. Upon hearing the news, Michelle McCormick and a few of her friends did what you too would…
The Black Police Association of Greater Dallas, which represents the area’s black police officers, is waging a serious PR campaign against The Dallas Morning News and journalist Tanya Eiserer, a longtime criminal justice reporter at the paper. And while they’re at it, the association is taking swipes at some fellow…
One week ago today we walked alongside the Occupy Dallas-ites as they marched from Pike Park to the Dallas Federal Reserve airing their laundry list of grievances, echoing those who stormed Wall Street almost a month ago and never left as their ranks swelled. But in the week since, the…
The SlaughterHouse has been terrorizing Dallas for a full decade. In their second year at their new Deep Ellum location, the 16,000 square-foot haunted house has been completely renovated. It’s populated by 40 actors, old horror movie sets, hundreds of props and something to scare just about everyone: bloody chainsaws,…
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 Delia Jasso predicted that Latinos would probably sue over the four Hispanic-majority districts, given that Hispanics now make up 42 percent…
Doubtless you’ve heard about Occupy Wall Street, the protests against corporate greed and Wall Street bailouts (among other things) that have been going on for the last three weeks in New York. The protesters call themselves “the other 99 percent” or just “The 99,” and this morning in Pike Park…
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, the city…
On Friday, in a briefing sent to the city council, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance and the downtown homeless shelter The Bridge announced they would be separating their leadership, something that became effective Saturday. The Bridge is now its own separate non-profit and will be a member of the MDHA,…
“It’s our tenth year of fear,” Darren Robert said. “I thought of that slogan,” he added, looking fondly at a bloody severed head next to him. He gave it a little pat. “It’s 16,000 square feet,” he said, looking around SlaughterHouse, the haunted house he’s run for the last ten…
Another redistricting post, I know. Settle down. But this one’s especially interesting: Dwaine Caraway, Tennell Atkins and Carolyn Davis have made it very clear that whatever the redistricting map ends up looking like, they want four “winnable” African-American districts. At last week’s forum, that was also important to the majority…
