The lawsuit filed this week against Dallas City Council member Tiffinni Young accusing her of barratry in the death of a woman by dog attack will provide us all with an opportunity to learn what barratry is. I know one thing already. This is going to be all about gray…
Donald Trump has a point. When he asks black voters what the hell they have to lose, he misses nuances and conflates things that shouldn’t be conflated. But he has a point. And we are the living proof of his point here in Dallas. Last week the three African-American members…
Do you know what a carbuncle is? It’s something awful, swollen, painful and pus-filled under the skin. Oh, sorry. But I think of the fake kayak rapids that the city built five years ago in the Trinity River – closed for use the same week it opened because it’s too…
We talk here about things that go wrong, do we not? Bad things, frustrating things, things gone haywire. So if something looks as if it might be headed in a right direction for a change, we could mention it just for grins, right? OK, this is something that’s headed in…
Wildebeest-gate. Please let me say that to my knowledge the Dallas Police Association (DPA), the main police union, is not responsible for the placement of a photo of a dead wildebeest on the mayor’s desk to intimidate him in labor talks like the scene in The Godfather where the guy wakes…
Barely one month after the murders of five police officers in the streets of Dallas, the police and fire unions are using those deaths in a ham-fisted attempt to intimidate the City Council on pay issues. Mayor Mike Rawlings blasted the groups at a council briefing Wednesday: “That’s not the…
When you think you’ve got a done deal at Dallas City Hall, that’s when you need to check to see if you’ve still got your wallet. No, that’s when you need to check to see if you’ve still got your pants. Oh, sure, I told you here a week ago…
Let’s back off 10 feet and look at both the nose and the tail of this rat now gnawing at the city’s new downtown law school. The University of North Texas Dallas College of Law (DCL), about to begin its third year of operation, is threatened with non-accreditation by the…
Here’s a shoutout from Dallas to national Republicans, asking if you think your grand old party is capable of keeping a person with serious mental problems in office just to prevent a Democrat from getting the job. If you live here in Dallas, it’s an important local question. If you…
Think of me as the guy in the safety glasses behind the window in the little wire-cage tool room, standing at the counter all day jotting stuff down on a pad as it goes out and comes back in. Only instead of “Tool Room” over the window, it says “Mayoral…
Dallas knows a thing or two about assassination conspiracies. We know that the more important conspirator is usually the political climate, not the shooter. Properly stoked with hate, violence and dehumanizing vilification, the climate will find its shooter. A Lee Harvey Oswald will step forward to kill JFK or a…
Our souls are burdened by the murder of five police officers on the streets of Dallas just over a month ago. But we’re going to have to muster some patience and some self-control, anyway, while our City Council hammers out the fire and police pay and hiring issues on its…
Stray dogs, dog bites and dog bite deaths: There was never an issue in this city better designed for single-member City Council districts to tackle and solve on their own. I think it’s fair to say the problem can only be solved by individual council members seeking solutions from their…
Midway through a seven-hour park board meeting last Thursday, board member Lawrence S. Jones, who represents the rarefied Strait Lane district of North Dallas, expressed his misgiving about a certain class of people who have been appointed to the board of a private entity set up to take over Fair…
Sorry, but I do think we are starting to have a Wylie H. problem. I know I am, and I believe others are, as well. We need to stop the speculation, the guessing, the false accusations. It is eroding our civic life and possibly even our psychological well-being. Yesterday during…
Psst. Hey. Downtown property-owners and major institutions. I’m talking to you. This is between us, OK? That subway idea might be more popular and more feasible than you think. But you need to not listen, block your ears, totally ignore the arguments you are getting from our regional mass transit agency,…
Mayor Mike Rawlings invoked the five police officers murdered in Dallas July 7 in an effort to pressure the Dallas Park and Recreation Board to sign a contract Thursday that would turn over control of Fair Park to the mayor’s personal delegate, retired oil executive Walt Humann. “In recent weeks,…
Let’s do what’s done at the beginning of any good negotiation. Let’s see what we can agree on before we begin to bicker. Fair Park, the 277-acre exposition park in South Dallas where the State Fair of Texas takes place every fall, occupies a warm place in our hearts; it…
The impending release of John Warnock Hinckley Jr., the University Park product who shot President Reagan in 1981, has got me thinking in a little bit different direction. Most of the writing I’m seeing on Hinckley’s release is about the insanity defense used successfully by Hinckley’s lawyers to get him…
Don’t know about you, but I got goose-bumps when former President Clinton, in the middle of his convention speech Tuesday night, gave Dallas a shout-out. He said, “We saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be. Help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside,…
Oh, happy day. Under a recent edict, Dallas school kids now will have to take fewer tests. And, as we all know, testing is a form of child abuse invented by testophiles. Why else would any decent adult ever make a kid take a test? Why, indeed? I thought we might…
Reality check. That’s all. I just thought you might like to know that Texas now leads the nation in spending more on prisons than schools. To be sure, we spend more on public education in Texas than we used to. State and local expenditures for pre-K thorugh 12th grade increased…
