This morning, Frank Librio at City Hall sent two audits released this morning by Craig Kinton — one of which dives into whether or not the Dallas Police Department is properly counting crime stats per federal Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines. You can read the 29-page doc for yourself after the…
Got to Judge Martin Hoffman’s courtroom in the George Allen a few minutes past 9 this morning for a long-scheduled injunction hearing in the case of City of Dallas v. Museum of the American Railroad. It figured to be an interesting hearing, what with all the he said-he said going…
David Dennard just sent some devastating news: Floyd Dakil is dead. Circumstances remain a little murky, but his bandmates in both Floyd Dakil and the Pitmen and the Floyd Dakil Combo confirm that the man behind the quintessential Dallas rock single of the 1960s — “Dance, Franny, Dance,” recorded in…
Late last night I was looking at the agenda for tomorrow’s Dallas Area Rapid Transit board meeting when I noticed this: The Planning Committee is scheduled to be briefed on the Alternative Analysis/Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Dallas Central Business District-D2 Study. First I’d heard about it — and,…
Says this morning’s New York Times, sure, when you’re starting out in The Working World, New York is where you’d rather stay — the paychecks are bigger (that’s “the New York premium,” which I was offered for $5 in Times Square back before it was scrubbed up), and the delis…
Every so often I like to post the pack of memos Frank Librio sends to council and media at the end of every week; below are the ones that went out late Friday. And it so happens that the very first item is covered in a story by Rudy Bush…
So, I’m getting some work done just now when I get an e-mail heads-up from Borders: “JUST ANNOUNCED! A New Memoir By George W. Bush. Available Nov. 9. Pre-Order Now!” And, sure enough: Crown Publishers today announced the release date and further details about the ex-president’s new book titled Decision…
Led Zeppelin played Memorial Auditorium six times between March 28, 1970, and April 1, 1977 — including back-to-back, attendance-record-setting gigs on March 4 and 5 in ’75. Those shows remain perhaps the two best-documented concerts in local hard-rock history: The band’s official Web site features dozens of photos from the…
Kyle Rote Jr. — who, it was announced this week, is finally being inducted into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame as a “veteran,” no kidding — did indeed call me back earlier this week. Said I’d have better luck trying him later — meaning, oh, ’round 11 p.m…
I’ve been pestering Frank Librio in Dallas City Hall’s Public Information Office for The Official Word on Harold Nogle, who, according to Texas Tribune’s city payroll database, is the fourth-highest-paid city official. And, while he was at it, maybe he had some more info about the city’s dependence upon the…
Merten just got around to looking at Texas Tribune’s list of city of Dallas employees’ salaries. He called me, shocked — SHOCKED — at some of those numbers. He also wanted to know who the who is Harold Nogle, the fourth-highest paid city employee at $208,000 — which puts him…
Yesterday Patrick Michels brought back this report from Dallas City Hall, where Mayor Tom Leppert and Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa introduced the so-called the West Dallas “School Zone,” a public-private partnership involving charter schools and a “leadership academy.” But on her blog this morning, DISD school board…
Thanks to Friend of Unfair Park PeterK, I spent a good hour this morning boning up on the professional (and personal) life of Lore Verne Bader — or “King” Bader or “Two Pairs” Bader, as the right-handed pitcher was known during a stint in the majors and minors that spanned…
Dallas Football Classic officials were in Arizona this week making their final pitch-presentation to NCAA officials. You remember that game, right? New Year’s Day? 11 a.m. kick-off? Beginning this January? At the Cotton Bowl? Pits the No. 6 team in the Big Ten against a rotating cast of cast-offs from…
Yesterday, Tom Hicks all but told reporters gathered in Boston that the pending sale of the Texas Rangers to Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan’s Rangers Baseball Express is dead. But why, the very week Greenberg had hoped to have the deal done, did Hicks choose to say it now? That’s…
Which, I’ll assume, is the point of this new promo made by Frisco-based Filmspire Productions. Kinda like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. But something’s missing. Can’t quite put my finger on it…
Well, it was more of an e-mail from Jon Paul Buchmeyer — a sort-of casual, friendly heads-up about his book Alphabet City: My So-Called Sitcom Life. The book tour-slash-traveling party begins, but of course, in Dallas on May 17 with a wingding at the Hotel Palomar. So, then, whatever is…
Below, a Friend of Unfair Park takes note of the cynicism aimed at the under-construction Woodall Rodgers Deck Park and wonders, “I wonder how this would have been received if the Trinity debacle had never occurred?” At the same time, urban planner Patrick “Car-Free” Kennedy has penned a sprawling, epic…
A few days ago, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Renaissance Tower-based Blockbuster sent word: It’s pushing back its shareholders meeting one month, to June 24. Said Tom Casey, the video-rental company’s exec veep and CFO, “We believe the additional time will provide us with the greatest…
Back in October I accidentally stumbled across Tanna and Charlie Gilder’s goldmine-of-an-eBay page and separate Web site, where the former Twilite Room proprietor is offloading his punk-rock memories. Which brings me to this: Last night, I came across a rather historic item the Gilders are trying to sell on eBay:…
Before I left the office last night, I tried to get a comment from Major League Baseball concerning Tom Hicks’s admission that the deal with Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan’s Rangers Baseball Express is falling apart. Earlier in the day, when I’d gotten wind that this seemingly doomed deal has…
A Friend of Unfair Park who knows of my affection for the American Basketball Association sends word: Yes, sorry, the Dallas Generals may be dead and buried (though it promises a resurrection for next season, whatever), but there’s now a team based out of Denton called the Texas RimRockers –…
