Santiago Calatrava. Did it ever occur to you to take him home to meet your mom? He’s not supposed to be your wife. Be fair about this. This is a unique call to action for Dallas. We are in a position to defend the famous Spanish architect from terribly unfair…
So today the daily newspaper tells me my cell phone is the portal through which Texas is being subjected to a massive text-message spam and phone-call phishing attack. You think? Because that would explain the endless text messages I have received in recent weeks informing me that my pay-day loan…
The pressure to spit out news stories as fast as they happen, a disinclination to provide linkages that might look too subjective, a simple failure in our own ability to see: for whatever reason, we in the news business seldom show you how the stories we present to you are…
Late last night the Dallas school board carried out an hours-long closed-door session where they listened to an investigative report into alleged policy violations by school Superintendent Mike Miles. The report by attorney Paul Coggins cleared Miles of all of the legal and policy violations of which he was accused…
Saturday at 10 a.m. at the City Performance Hall on Flora Street, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, City Council member Dwaine Caraway and Dallas County Commissioner Elba Garcia will host an event called “Conversations About Race,” in which I was not invited to participate. Well how do you like that? I…
Channel 8 WFAA TV investigative reporter Brett Shipp had a big piece on last night’s 10 p.m. News Update newscast about Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles facing “new allegations of policy violations.” I disagree with the piece, especially as it painted media relations consultant Lisa LeMaster, but that doesn’t make…
On Sunday The Dallas Morning News printed an essay on its op-page by Austin writer John Savage about teaching in what he calls “the worst school in Texas.” It’s a piece that has been making the rounds from Salon to the blog of Diane Ravitch, a former champion of school…
Wouldn’t want you to miss a very interesting letter to the editor in today’s Dallas Morning News from architect/civic activist Bill Booziotis about a recent review by Mark Lamster of the star-crossed arts district condo building called “Museum Tower.” (Hey, do me a favor. Get a sandwich, a cold drink,…
Love of children, compassion for children, the instincts that propel us to shelter and nurture our young: These are profound and innate. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be tricky. Back in the ’90s I was on the board of directors of Head Start of Greater Dallas. Briefly. African-American leaders…
Dallas is two months shy of its commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the murder of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dealey Plaza, which probably will come off somewhere midway between tragedy and comedy. For more than two years, The Sixth Floor Museum, the city’s official assassination museum in the…
Superintendent Mike Miles didn’t write the letter. Mike Miles didn’t tell Kevin Smelker to write the letter. Mike Miles didn’t edit the letter. The narrative painted by Paul Coggins in his recent investigative report to the Dallas school board is a fiction. Last week former U.S. Attorney Coggins gave the…
Naughty little secret I will share with you from my own craft, the news business. In my line of work it is by no means unheard of for a reporter who is about to get sacked to suddenly invent an untrue story to the effect of, “They’re trying to silence…
More than just today, maybe every day this week we need to talk here about the Dallas school superintendent and school reform, mainly because this may all be over by the end of the week. The school board will meet later this week, and the anti-reform wing of the board…
Police have arrested somebody they hope will turn out to be perpetrator of nine or more serial rapes in the area around Fair Park in South Dallas. Those rapes have sparked an important conversation about law enforcement in the city. Let’s get down to brass tacks. The community in the…
You get a lot of dumb and dumber news here, so I figure I owe it to you to mention when things might be trending the other way. It’s just possible the county’s efforts to control West Nile disease could be headed in that other uncustomary direction. Smarter. Believe it…
Story in The New York Times today talks about the Bush dynasty reclaiming its influence in the Republican Party by championing immigration reform. I have another idea for them, based on their legacy in Dallas: school reform. But this is grudging, man. Why do I want the Bushes to reclaim…
Hey, sorry, I didn’t want you to think I was falling down on the job with the “New York Times discovers Wendy Davis” story-story. Remember I did catch you up Friday. See also: Wendy Davis Is Sort of a Laura Miller Candidate. So How Did that Work Out? I reminded…
The New York Times today contains what apparently is going to be a regular feature on how cool Wendy Davis is. Today’s installment is called “Democrats see value in Texas in candidacy for governor.” The one two weeks ago was, “Democrats see hope in Texas star.” The one three days…
Ever have this feeling? Something pops up in the news in Dallas like, “Ribbon Cutting Today on Gigantic Mississippi Riverboat Floating Country Club for Rich People in White Rock Lake.” And you’re saying, “Wait. Ribbon cutting? Riverboat? Floating country club?” Sometimes I pick up the newspaper, and I immediately look…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings wants the Dallas school board to fish or cut bait on the school superintendent. “We need the school board to decide whether Mike Miles is going to be our superintendent of schools,” Rawlings says in today’s Dallas Morning News. “If a majority says that we don’t…
So tell me again. Dallas vice cops have been running undercover sting operations to protect the local taxicab industry from an app-based private livery service? Know what? I don’t think that’s really a story about livery services. That’s a story about the vice squad. The vice crackdown on Uber, a…
Let me offer a disclaimer at the top. Part of what I am about to tell you here about the investigation of Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles is tea-leaf-reading. I happen to think I’m pretty good at reading the tea in this area. But tea leaves are tea leaves. Some…
