Yesterday, the Dallas City Council approved a new slate of municipal judges after months of contentious debate. The city’s court system was seen by some as too lenient and not generating as much revenue as it should. In shot, they were too damned fair. What had been a mostly arcane…
Lubbock County Judge Tom Head raised some eyebrows yesterday after he told a local TV station that the tax hike he was pushing for? Oh, it’s just so the county can be prepared for when Obama, upon reelection, orders UN tanks into town and sparks a second civil war. In…
Gizmodo Wednesday had an anonymous tell-all from former employees of what it describes as “the most corrupt Apple store in America.” Where might that store be, you ask? NorthPark. And how did the NorthPark Apple store earn such a notable distinction? Well, allegedly, according to some anonymous guy (so you…
This has nothing to do with Dallas, except that Dallas and Lubbock are both in Texas, but a Friend of Unfair Park passed along an article from a local TV station about a proposed tax increase in Lubbock County. More specifically, it’s about County Judge Tom Head’s reasons for asking…
Many people were not happy when the city unveiled its long-term solid waste management plan. It’s goal of achieving zero waste by 2040 was admirable enough, but the plan pushed consideration of such measures as a plastic bag ban, mandatory recycling and increased composting efforts out a decade or more…
Arlington Grace Prep Academy has established itself as a basketball powerhouse of late, rolling easily last year to its second consecutive TAPPS state title. But the team looks like it might have trouble making it a three-peat, not only because 7-foo-1 center Isaiah Austin and Jelon Hornbeak are off to…
On Sunday morning, with their knocks and phone calls unanswered and water pouring from beneath locked doors, family members broke into Deanna Cook’s home. They found the 32-year-old dead in her bath tub. Two days before, police had been called to a domestic disturbance at the home. Dallas police knocked…
There are many possible explanations for why this year has turned into the worst ever for West Nile. A mild winter and wet spring played a part, and maybe climate change contributed as well, but no one’s really sure. Except Time, that is. Bryan Walsh has a piece on one…
There is undoubtedly a tale of heartbreak in their past. Maybe Kevin Hamlen and Vishwath Mohan were disillusioned when the world made them computer scientists at UTD instead of pop stars. Maybe they were mad that their school’s mascot being a Comet named Temoc. Maybe they simply hate civilization as…
In case you missed it last week, Glenn Beck invited oft-discredited historian David Barton onto his show to discuss his latest pantsing. Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson had recently announced that it would pull his latest work, The Jefferson Lies, from the shelves after it “lost confidence in the book’s…
On the night of July 7, two women huddled in the back bedroom of the mobile home at 6108 Big Wood Court in rural Tarrant County. From another room, they could hear the cries of 34-year-old Earnest Ray Lackey, as three men hog-tied and beat him for hours until, at…
For years, Julie Caramante was a leader the fight to shutter Dallas Crown, Kaufman’s infamous horse slaughterhouse. Dallas Crown closed in 2007, as did the Beltex slaughterhouse in Fort Worth, but Caramante, a lifelong equine welfare advocate, has continued to keep a close eye on the horse slaughter industry. That…
Two months ago, a judge in New York granted a request by the U.S. government issued a warrant for the arrest of one Tyrannosaurus bataar. The dinosaur’s skeleton, which Dallas-based Heritage Auctions had attempted to sell the previous month, was suspected of being in the country illegally, having been illegally…
On January 23, 2009, at about lunchtime, narcotics detectives passing through the third floor of Dallas Police Department parking garage noticed a noose attached to the bed of a department truck assigned to Senior Corporal Tony Castleberg, who is white. “I stated, ‘Oh my god, they’re gonna hang us,'” a…
Dallas has drawn national attention for its decision to blanket itself with pesticide to combat the ongoing outbreak of West Nile. Hence, Rawlings’ appearance this morning on CNN with Soledad O’Brien. “Nice to see you sir,” O’Brien said. “Thank you for talking with us. We appreciate it.” Rawlings nods. “Good…
That girl you see above with the gun and dead antelope (or is it an oryx? Unfair Park is baffled by nature) blackbuck is Audrey Abbott. That guy you see in the Jeep, grinning, is her dad, Attorney General Greg Abbott. I don’t really have a lot to add, save…
Earlier this morning on the Today Show, CNN Money released its list of “America’s Best Places to Live.” Dallas doesn’t make the list, even though there are 100 places, but neither does any other metropolis because this is a list of small cities that “offer strong job opportunities, great schools,…
Say what you will about the highway-building mania of the mid-20th century. It led to an unsustainable car-dependent culture, choked off the city center and divided or destroyed neighborhoods. I seriously doubt, for example, that the shacks above were inhabited by well-heeled white people. But these photos, from the Texas…
Prime Prep Academy, Deion Sanders’s charter school, is scheduled to debut Monday. The school’s much-discussed football program, the one that was reportedly going to be the subject of a reality show and that Deion himself was going to coach? That might have to wait. WFAA’s Brett Shipp reported Friday that…
Five days after Yayehyirad Lemma and Yenenesh Desta dead on the front porch of their Marquita Street home, police have captured the suspected killer. Abey Bilette Girma, 37, fled to Colorado after allegedly following Lemma and Desta home early Wednesday morning and shooting them to death. According to an arrest…
For a time, Johar Saran was at the head of one of the largest prescription drug rings in the country. He claimed to own 22 pharmacies in the Dallas area, under cover of which he ordered tremendous quantities of in-demand prescription drugs (codeine cough syrup, for one) then used the…
Zan Holmes Jr. arrived in Dallas in 1956 to study theology at SMU. He had been here a week, living in a one-room flat in South Dallas, when he heard a car crash on nearby Central Expressway. An ambulance and police cars beat him to the scene, but the white…
