Who’s Guarding the County’s Guardians?

Let’s check back in, shall we, on our county’s “homeland security” program by which it is supposed to protect us from terrorist attack, massive flooding, tornado, pandemic, poison gas, things like that. I just want to see if we all understand what took place last week, and then I will…

Hurrah for a Hero at DISD

May I offer one more word about Joseph Drake, the Dallas teacher put on suspension last week after sending an argumentative email to school board member Edwin (“Snidely Whiplash”) Flores? Fourth-grade teacher Joseph Drake, who told Flores that his depiction of teachers as lazy slug-a-beds was demeaning, has now been…

Bill Fisher is the Good Guy, So Why Are We Making Him Pay?

The worst thing that happens in this town, and it happens on a cyclical basis, is the official Scarlet Letter shunning of some person who did the right thing. It’s happening again. Two real estate outfits in Dallas, Odyssey Residential and Frazier Revitalization, are fighting for the same $20 million-plus…

This AKA Aaron Michaels Stuff Is Not Making Me Feel Terribly Homeland-Secure

Did anybody else feel less than homeland-secure after yesterday’s fandango with the Dallas County Homeland Security Advisory Committee? First, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price tried to re-appoint to the committee the founder of an international anti-Semitic hate group — a guy best known locally for threatening to bring rifles…

Blood in the Trinity, Crow on My Plate and Respect for the Caraways

Two years ago I toured the area around Columbia Packing Company on East 11th Street in Oak Cliff with city council member Dwaine Caraway and his wife, state Representative Barbara Mallory Caraway. The Caraways told me shocking stories of guts from nearby meat-packing operations piled in steaming heaps in the…

Governor Gaffe Comes Back to Texas, Wounded But No Wiser

Wait a minute. Forgive me, but I must misuse and abuse a bit of Dylan Thomas here to suggest we should not let Rick Perry go quite so gentle into that good night. I’m reading a lot of crap about how he bombed in his presidential campaign because he was…

Who’ll Stop the Rain? Rick Perry’s Pals, That’s Who.

Rick Perry wasn’t able to seize private property and build a Spanish toll road four football fields wide from Mexico to Oklahoma. He’s probably not going to get away with making academic research illegal. But his legacy may be even bigger. By the time he’s done being our governor, Perry…

Zebra Mussel Threat to Texas Lakes is Misunderestimated

Three weeks ago I wrote a column for the paper about a plan to pump drinking water from Lake Texoma even though the lake is contaminated by zebra mussels, an invasive species that can annihilate other animal life in a lake and promote blooms of toxic algae. We here in…

Is Bankrupt AMR About To Throw its Employees Under the Plane?

Stories in today’s Dallas Morning News and New York Times report that American Airlines could try to ditch some or all of its pension plans during its trip through bankruptcy court. We should all hate that. Every time we allow another business to slash the throats of its own retirees,…

Price Corruption Probe: You’re All Black. Go to Jail?

Everybody I talk to thinks the FBI Dallas County corruption investigation will produce indictments soon. The rumor is that the targeted alleged co-conspirators are tattling on each other so fast they’re giving new meaning to the phrase “rat race.” The investigation centers on Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, the…