Last week brought renewed uproar over the Scott Griggs f-word matter (only in Dallas), in which a city council member was accused of attempting to coerce a public official by threatening to break her “fucking fingers” if she did blah-blah-blah with some documents. F. A grand jury three-weeks ago found…
Three weeks ago a Dallas County grand jury looked at a felony “coercion” accusation against City Council member Scott Griggs and found it unworthy of prosecution. The term of art here is “no-billed.” Griggs was no-billed on an accusation that he had coerced a public official by threatening bodily harm…
Just curious. In the wake of Monday’s random machete murder of a jogger on White Rock Trail, police have offered pieces of advice. Carry identification. I assume that would make it easier for them to identify my body. Don’t run alone. Sound advice. Even better, run only in the company…
Do you ever get Houston envy? It’s terrible. For me it always starts with a scratchy throat, then a splitting headache. What could be worse? Really. What could be worse than being jealous of Houston? I sometimes get Fort Worth and San Antonio envies. They’re not quite as bad as…
Whatever you think is wrong with lazy stupid modern equivalency journalism — “This guy says chattel slavery is a bad thing, but this other guy says it’s great” — just watch out. We hacks are just the canary. The same syndrome is taking place deep in the coal mine of…
Let me state one thing clearly for you at the top. I am not anti-baby. If anything, I may be the biggest fan of babies you know, especially other people’s babies. In fact at this point in life I think I could say I am a fan only of other…
Last weekend when I made the first of what will be my many visits, The State Fair of Texas, now in the second week of its annual run and blessed by beautiful weather, was vibrant and jammed with happy human beings, not to mention livestock. I love the fair. I…
That didn’t take long. What, a millisecond? The door-slam was still reverberating behind departed Dallas schools chief Mike Miles — supposedly the very devil incarnate, author of all ills, according to the teachers unions — when they went after merit pay, their real target all along. In a press release,…
First, please don’t expect us in the news business not to act like we’re in the news business. Second, speaking of the news business, Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk is off to a real bad start. Hawk, who disappeared from public view three months ago apparently struggling with mental…
The looming battle over a big loan proposed for the school system in Dallas’s wealthy Park Cities enclave is but the local version of one very big fat squawky chicken coming home to roost for rich people everywhere in America. I would say it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch,…
Yesterday I told you White House cabinet member Julian Castro, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), had slipped into town under the radar the day before to chat with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. Rawlings’ spokesperson said after the meeting, “The secretary challenged the mayor to push…
So. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro did come to Dallas City Hall yesterday on what I can only call a secret mission, and I will explain why I call it that in a minute. HUD never would tell me what he talked about, but the…
Let’s fly up high and take a bird’s eye view of Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ philosophy of government. Apparently it’s not just OK but a real good thing for deliberations and even decisions about the public’s business to be taken out of the hands of public officials and given instead…
As of late last week, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro was scheduled to visit Dallas City Hall tomorrow, Tuesday, September 29. But late last week neither HUD nor the Dallas mayor’s office would confirm or deny the visit. If the visit is still on, HUD…
For the sake of the record and now that a Dallas County grand jury has dismissed felony coercion charges against Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs, let’s go back and look at the level of dishonesty and trickery in the instigation of the charges, in the police investigation and in…
Women and children first, right? No? Women and children second? Forget about ‘em? Get the hell out of my way? Maybe somebody will tell me that special regard for women and children under extreme circumstances — lifeboats on the Titanic, that kind of thing — has eroded or at least…
Time for the bucket of cold water in our face treatment. Susan Hawk, the Dallas County district attorney currently on leave with mental health problems, is not going to come back and sit behind the desk and be the DA. Not successfully, if she tries. It’s just not a realistic…
It’s all downhill from here. No good will come of this. Time to cut our losses. There’s no more getting lucky. But enough about me. What about Dallas? Oh, well, Dallas. That’s another story. This last weekend I had one of those recurring experiences — I have them every once…
Did I just have a Hillary moment? Not sure. But I am sure of this: I have stumbled into some very persuasive evidence that HUD Secretary Julian Castro, shortly after his appointment by the president a year ago, cut HUD’s enforcement division off at the knees in a deal to…
So maybe I pulled a small deception on Ben Sandifer when I called him, something I did not fully disclose at the time. Or really disclose at all. But now I will. Sandifer, a somewhat reclusive person or at least one who does not actively seek the limelight, has emerged in…
Dallas went viral twice this week. Let’s hope our immune system can take it. First time was for the local visit of Donald Trump, champion of all angry white people everywhere on Earth, living, dead and unborn. Second time was for the handcuffed arrest of a ninth-grade student named Ahmed…
Why do I feel like I just got shot in the leg and now they’re sending me to a tailor? The North Texas Tollway Authority, which is in the toll road business, is now going to review the latest plan for the road the mayor wants to build on top…
