Noor Elashi is the 23-year-old daughter of Holy Land Foundation co-founder Ghassan Elashi, who found out only today that he will be sentenced in May following his conviction last November; he’s looking at 15 years to life in prison, after having been among those convicted of donating to Hamas following…
Personally, I find the idea of running for office exhausting–it’s something about the constant blow-drying, suit-wearing and speech giving. Yet surely there are young women who would love to be the next female political sensation, and it’s a good thing. Last year, the United States ranked 69th in the world…
“Gimme Shelter,” by Megan Feldman, March 12 Kids These Days I picked up the Dallas Observer yesterday because of the artwork on the cover. I am a product of the 1960s and was a child when Vietnam was going on. The Vietnam War was something that was never discussed in…
“Gimme Shelter,” by Megan Feldman, March 12 No sympathy Cowards. I enlisted before 9/11 and still knew what I was getting into. I have deployed twice, have been in college and taken out of college for military reasons. I have dealt with leaving parents, wife, family, friends, etc.—just like other…
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday released a report blasting the government for delaying, withholding and botching medical care for immigrants detained in Florida, Arizona and Texas. In the Lone Star State, the researchers conducted interviews with women held at the Port Isabel detention center in Harlingen, as well as the…
This week’s cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park profiles Mesquite’s Kim Rivera and her fellow Iraq war deserters fighting for refuge in Canada. Because many of them are facing deportation, the Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign dubbed late January “Let Them Stay Week.”Our accompanying slide show by…
Andrea Buchanan didn’t know when she began writing Note to Self two years ago that the book would be released during the country’s darkest hour in decades. Not bad timing for a compilation of tales about women transcending tough times. The award-winning writer, producer and director — best known for…
Bernie Madoff’s in jail after pleading guilty to all charges. Closer to home, Allen Stanford’s pleading the Fifth. So better now than never, seemed like a good time to catch up with Randy Johnston, a Dallas financial malpractice lawyer and the author of Robbed at Pen Point — and a…
Just 5 feet tall, with a baby strapped to her chest and a soft, faltering voice, Kim Rivera is anything but soldierly. Yet two years ago she was a Texas private in the War on Terror, guarding a gate with an M4 rifle and frisking Iraqi civilians at a base…
Elizabeth Villafranca entered the limelight in 2006, as Farmers Branch began its illegal-immigrant battle that rages to this day. As we mentioned earlier this week, the Cuquitas co-owner has decided to run for city council in the FB. Unfair Park caught up with her yesterday for a Q&A — during…
With little fanfare and hardly any spectators, the trial in the case of Graciela McKay vs. DISD wraps up this week in U.S. District Court, with a verdict expected as early as tomorrow. McKay is the Preston Hollow teacher who filed a federal lawsuit against the district and the school’s…
In less than a month, the impact of Mark Cuban’s personal “Stimulus Plan” has already become quite real for a small group of entrepreneurs around the country. Naked Pizza, an all-natural pizza delivery place in New Orleans, was listed on Cuban’s blog earlier this week as one of the first…
You might think that since Texas legislators are tied up dealing with a plunging housing market and accepting stimulus money, they’d drop the predictable collection of politically motivated immigration bills seeking to fill the federal policy vacuum. Nope. Not a chance.Rep. Jim Jackson of Carrollton would like to declare English…
In these deflating economic times, some of us here at the Observer have been doing our best to, oh, dole out less dough for lunch. Hell with stimulating the economy. One of us announced recently that she’d spent $72 on lunches in one week–and unemployment rates continued to climb.So lunch…
As he took the podium before more than 100 fans and aspiring writers at the University of North Texas on Saturday, the author of Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel was surprised by the turnout. “Wow,” said Guillermo Arriaga, surveying the packed room at UNT’s Gateway Center. “When they told…
If you’ve been slacking on your Valentine’s Day preparations and you happen to be in Addison, the folks over at Yo Pop Etc. are happy to help.The place seems an unlikely spot for romantic sweet nothings given its non-descript strip mall location on Midway Road, not to mention the honey…
A good Friend of Unfair Park has been yammering for weeks about coyotes roaming around White Rock Lake. And while that isn’t uncommon, it does seem as there have been more sightings than usual, especially near the Bath House Cultural Center at dusk. Which comes as no surprise to the…
Roti Grill 4438 McKinney Ave., Suite 100 214-521-3655 (Ordered through Diningin.com) Promised Delivery Time: 60 minutes Actual Delivery Time: 50 minutes and the driver got lost The Score:Outsourced call center efficiency (only problem was that the Canada-based representative misspelled my street, though the delivery guy figured it out): -5 Over…
Late last week, I visited the offices of MundayMorning Creative Group, an Addison marketing firm then in the midst of a 24-hour blitz for charity called the CreateAthon. As designers worked on Web sites, logos and brochures for 11 local non-profits, including Central Dallas Ministries and Preservation Dallas, Angelo Antoline…
SMU announced last week that it’s expanding its Education Abroad program, with Rwanda now among the summer destinations. The timing is deliberate: 2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide that left some 800,000 Tutsis dead at the hands of the Hutu militia. Not surprisingly, Rick Halperin will lead…
Two makeover items for those in need of refreshing. First, we received word that TLC’s What Not to Wear will be casting here in the near future. So, Friends of Unfair Park, that of course means a rare chance for you or your favorite frenemy to be utterly humiliated in…
Well, this story at least shows I wasn’t alone this month when I nearly had a coronary while opening my electric bill. Said the study cited in the News piece that might have gone overlooked post-Obama Day, Dallas’s average monthly bill for all utilities in ’08 was $378.27, compared to…
