Just when I have been doing some reporting on the role of younger leaders in our own fair city, young people nationally have come in for a minor hailstorm of criticism sparked by a commencement speech at a public high school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. A teacher, David McCullough Jr., son…
Sixteen years ago, the last time a bunch of well-funded outsiders tried to reform the Dallas School system, the results were a disaster. I remember it. Some of you may too. Now the same kind of movement is starting up again, and so far it’s been smooth as silk. So…
Between the lines of a recently released FBI affidavit, we can spy the shape of a criminal complaint likely to come within the next two months in the Dallas County federal corruption case. The affidavit, made public May 29 when it was filed in a civil action against Dallas County…
Jennifer. May I call you that? This is just between us. I like your picture. There’s a certain assertiveness there. I just like it. And this has all been so unfair so far. These news hacks — guys like Dallas Observer Editor Joe Tone, Unfair Park EditorEric Nicholson and that…
OK, wait, wait, before we start the party, can I ask a couple questions? Could we maybe just try to put ourselves in a global context first? In July, 2011, the city of Copenhagen was ravaged by the worst flood in recorded history, rated by scientists as a “1,000-year” flood,…
The longer the Dallas-area light rail system is around, the less of a habit it becomes, according to a story in this morning’s Dallas Morning News. The trend over the years has been for ridership to diminish at many stations after people get over the novelty of a train station…
It speaks volumes that people at The Dallas Morning News, like some other people in Dallas who should know better, do not know what heavy industry is. Two pieces in the print edition of the paper this morning describe scrap-metal and architectural remnant recyclers near Lamar Avenue as “heavy industry”…
I was right on the verge of what I am sure would have been a very satisfying episode of outrage, when my damned libtard alarm went off. It’s a case of certain past experiences coming back to haunt me, getting in the way of what might otherwise have been some…
Hey, it was great having Mitt Romney in town this week, was it not? He looks so different in Texas. Those national mediatoids were making him out to be a rich plutocrat who made his money killing companies and shipping jobs to Vietnam, but when we got to see him…
Oh my God, am I just going to keep blabbing about John Wiley Price every day for the rest of my life? Will I wind up buckled into a padded chair against the wall in some long corridor with ladies in white dresses whispering to the visitors, “He’s the John…
Pretty soon, any day now, maybe tomorrow, well, possibly in a week or so, I may join a 12-steps program in which I stand up at the beginning of every meeting and say, “Hi everybody, my name is Jim, and I can’t stop talking about John Wiley Price.” Not today…
OK, I’ve got my idiot coloring book out again. Sorry. Just have to do this. I just want to help people not get totally lost in the delicious detritus of the FBI affidavit released yesterday in the Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price corruption probe. The details are delectable –…
Let’s be clear about this. Old, rich keep-a-lid-on-it Dallas is not going to rule next year’s 50th anniversary observations of the Kennedy killing in Dealey Plaza. No matter what it takes. The official City of Dallas JFK Assassination 50th Anniversary Celebration Committee, named in a story this morning in the…
Oh, man, and me a total Obamatoid! Am I going to have to vote for Mitt Romney? But he’s already way to the left of Obama on education and batting 1.000 on one of my favorite themes, the need to integrate schools by class, not race. For years there has…
So today I put aside my morning paper after the customary two-minute encyclopedic read, and I think, “OK Lawners, you tell me.” You work it out. I can’t. I’m tired. So you give me the answer. Who is the “conservative” here? On the one hand I have former City Council…
Dallas is a weird little speed-trap town in its own way. I often wonder what visitors think. What they need to think is, “I’ve got to be really careful and keep my mouth shut until I get out of this burg safely.” These musings come to me after reading a…
Wait. Click the pause button. Freeze this. There’s a huge point here that some people do not want us to notice. In the last 24 hours, the entire debate about the Trinity River toll road has completely shifted ground. I was just now on the phone about it with City…
After an afternoon spent talking to people down on Rock Island Street, I drove back for something the next day. As I rolled south on Industrial Boulevard — ground I’ve covered a zillion times over the years — a huge smile broke over my face. Instead of just staring straight…
On the one hand, our former mayor and Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate, Tom Leppert, wasn’t afraid to break GOP ranks and tell us that his fellow Republican opponent Ted Cruz is a known communist sympathizer. Amazing. On the other hand, now we also know that Leppert himself…
Yesterday we talked about The Dallas Morning News and its editorial campaign against allowing children in poor neighborhoods to have ice cream — more specifically, their call for tough law enforcement measures against ice cream trucks whose low-quality music systems apparently have been causing discomfort to rich people who are…
This morning an editorial in The Dallas Morning News calls for a crackdown on ice cream vendors: “… the vendor’s presence is rudely announced,” the paper complains, “through loudspeakers blaring cheap electronic music like ‘Turkey in the Straw’ or ‘The Entertainer.'” The editorial calls for tougher law enforcement and points…
The Dallas Morning News owes me at least five bucks for all the business I steer their way — and, believe me, I hate doing it — but once again they have an op-ed piece in the paper today that’s really a must-read for people who care about the city…
