Over the last three years as the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination has drawn closer, Dealey Plaza where he was killed has been the setting for an ugly battle. On one side has been an eclectic army of conspiracy theorists insistent on their right to use the plaza as…
All, right, that’s it, I’m sick of this and I’m not going to take it anymore. Every other day The Dallas Morning News runs another op-ed piece by some unknown New York pinhead about who should be the next city manager of Dallas, and not once have they asked me…
This last weekend was one of those times when you could take just about any city in the world and keep it if you left me White Rock Lake. The weather was gorgeous. The lake was perfect. Everybody was out there. Justin Terveen, photo laureate of Dallas, shot this from…
Every time I start to gag over yet another JFK 50th piece in the papers, I have to remind myself, “Schutze, you’ve been cranking out the same stuff for two years.” Yeah, I know. I added to the pile. But that’s different. That was my stuff. This weekend I found…
I always feel better after I talk to Larry James. I was worried. Now I’m not. James, president and CEO of CitySquare, the city’s biggest and most comprehensive private anti-poverty organization, had an op-ed piece in The Dallas Morning News yesterday, one of those things about who to hire for…
Had another conversation with a foreign journalist this week assigned to cover the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination ceremony here next week, who said the same thing others have been saying to me for a month, which, I must point out, is the same thing I said a year…
Last week, November 5, election day, there was one election you missed for sure if you do not happen to live in the part of Dallas affected by it. Come to think of it, you probably missed it even if you do live there. Voter turnout in that area was…
Maybe this is nitpicking. Sometimes you see a nit that just begs to be picked. Yesterday on the op-ed page of The Dallas Morning News, State Senator Royce West was talking some kind of stuff about who should be the new city manager, and down toward the bottom of his…
One big lesson to draw from Tuesday’s special election to fill an empty school board seat: The public school employees unions in Dallas are weak tea, indeed, when it comes to any kind of a shootout at the polls. Take away a couple of pissed-off rich supporters with axes to…
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 17 2014: Last week I wrote an item for our news blog about Highland Park Presbyterian and how they were ditching out of the national Presbyterian Church so they wouldn’t have to have gay clergy. As happens, I learn lots more about topics after my items appear. First…
What a letdown. They allowed me to vote. Yesterday when I walked into the firehouse and plunked down my driver’s license and voter registration card, I already had my mental dukes up, waiting for them to mess with me. I was hoping for a fight. In fact that’s why I…
Oh, wow. Maybe I’m an expert on bullying. Or supposed to be. I just got the royalty statement for a book I wrote 15 years ago called Bully. My check for the six-month period is double what it was the previous period. It went up from a quarter pittance to…
Toward the end of last week I reported that some kind of Democrats — I wasn’t sure which — have been whispering in Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ ear about running for John Cornyn’s Senate seat in 2014. Rawlings admitted he had spoken with them but discounted the whole deal, saying,…
The Democrats are talking to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings about running for the U.S. Senate in 2014 when John Cornyn’s current term expires. Some Democrats. Some kind of Democrat-type persons. And now you pretty much know what I know. The mayor reluctantly conceded to me yesterday that he has been…
UPDATE, 11:45 A.M.: Manuel G. Berrelez, one of Miguel Solis’ lawyers, just called to tell me that Kristi Lara has withdrawn her lawsuit. The original post follows: Yesterday afternoon we told you the big lawsuit over residency requirements for a Dallas school board candidate got kicked up to a higher…
The real issue the teachers unions have with Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles is not Mike Miles. It’s merit pay. They don’t like it. Angela Davis, Region 4D president of the Texas State Teachers Association (NEA) in Dallas, told me: “TSTA strongly opposes merit pay for teachers.” Rena Honea, head…
A lawsuit against the Dallas school district and a candidate for election to the school board brought by his election opponent Kristi Lara was stopped by court order this afternoon until after the November 5 election, according to a lawyer for Lara’s opponent. Jeronimo Valdez, lawyer for DISD District 8…
Right away let me say: No one is more troubled than I am by my own knee-jerkism concerning Dallas superintendent of schools Mike Miles. How the hell did I ever find myself in the role of predictably apoplectic apologist for a public official? Please, somebody free me from my own…
David Carr had a good piece in The New York Times Monday about the diminishing value of sexual outing as a moneymaker for the media business. It’s about a recent Gawker story outing Fox News breaking news director Shepard Smith as gay. Apparently no one gave a shit. I think…
So, wait. We’re not over Uber yet. The city’s attempt to shut down the app-based ride service called Uber and an ensuing special outside investigation produced lots of fireworks this week but not necessarily the last word. We still need to see the big thing. The investigation produced no finding…
Everything looks different if you’re John Barr. The mayor has released his investigation of city officials who worked to help Yellow Cab of Dallas combat an incursion into the Dallas marketplace of Uber, an app-based car-ride system that operates outside taxicab laws. Brantley has reported all of that for you…
Apparently I have written more about the upcoming 50th anniversary observation of the Kennedy assassination than anybody else in town, or else I have written crazier stuff. One way or another I have become a top phone call for out-of-town journalists, filmmakers and other seekers of something to say about…
