No doubt, by now you’ve heard all about the poor folks who spent all Saturday night at Lone Star Auto Service trying to retrieve their cars, which had been towed from lots near Fair Park. Everybody’s looking into how that happened: the towing company, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and,…
Steve Houser’s the chair of the Dallas Urban Forest Advisory Committee, as well as the founder and former president of the Dallas Historic Tree Coalition, which is “a local citizens’ group advocating protection and preservation of irreplaceable trees in urban landscapes.” In other words, the dude’s a tree-hugger — as…
After the jump, the latest Denny’s spot — which is notable for two reasons. One, it’s the chain’s effort to capitalize, if that’s the right word, on the $700 billion bailout, which is the subject of a lengthy New York Times story today about “advertisements that seek to take advantage…
Brandon Thibodeaux Kent Fischer at The Dallas Morning News writes that late yesterday, he received “a copy of a document titled ‘RIF worksheet’ dated 10/14 at 8 a.m.” The district, of course, was to begin its layoffs today, but pushed back the so-called reduction in workforce till tomorrow — creating…
Ben Fountain First Texas Monthly calls him the next big thing, and now the New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell (of Blink and Tipping Point fame) is calling Best of Dallas novelist Ben Fountain a new kind of genius. Some geniuses are born more or less fully formed, Gladwell writes, and others,…
Scattered among the local news and notes found on The Advocate’s blog, you’ll also find Jeff Siegel’s wine reviews — like, from today, this item about the Domain du Tariquet Côtes de Gascogne 2007. But Jeff’s true affections lie with the more locally grown flavors of vino, as evidenced by…
On the eve of Dallas Independent School District’s 460 teacher layoffs, delayed till tomorrow, the latest issue of Newsweek features an essay by Dallas teacher Heather Robinson, who proclaims, “I Am Not A Babysitter.” Below is a highlight among many from a teacher who clearly likes her gig, which was…
Patrick Michels Bill warms up the crowd with a shout-out to Lupe Valdez A packed house last night at Thomas Jefferson High School, where Bill Clinton dropped in to rally the troops in support of U.S. Senatorial candidate Rick Noriega and, I think, Barack Obama, whose name he dropped only…
Just a reminder this a.m. that you need not actually go to City Hall to hear Lily Tomlin make good on her promise to address the city council about Jenny the elephant; meetings can be viewed online, at long last. But for those who can’t make it to chambers by…
Patrick Michels “What the hell?” asked a bearded homeless man in a wheelchair trying to negotiate his way down the 1600 block of Main Street at 2:30 p.m. “Who the hell are all these people?” He took a puff off his smoke and kept on rolling before we could offer…
Courtesy CBS Television, a video after the jump featuring the wanna-be models from Dallas and surrounding cities who recently tried out for The Price is Right. Looks hard. –Robert Wilonsky…
Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa’s been very clear about this one thing: He desperately wants the district to win The Broad Prize for Urban Education, given out annually “to honor urban school districts making the greatest overall improvement in student achievement while at the same time reducing achievement…
Among the buildings on the city’s list of 36 buildings to be addressed this afternoon is one of the city’s most historic addresses: 508 Park Avenue, where, in June 1937, Robert Johnson, the subject of a new Vanity Fair story, recorded 13 of his immortal blues songs, among them “Hellhound…
View Larger Map Two weeks ago, we posted to Unfair Park a list of some three dozen vacant buildings downtown, as identified by city economic development staffers. Mayor Tom Leppert told us in mid-September he was going to use every means available — including City Attorney Tom Perkins — to…
Sarah, left, and Amina, right, were sisters and best friends. Earlier this month, the FBI added Yaser Abdel Said to its list of “Featured Fugitives,” his crime: “UNLAWFUL FLIGHT TO AVOID PROSECUTION – CAPITAL MURDER – MULTIPLE.” No doubt you recall he’s accused of killing daughters Sarah and Amina, who…
Jerry Jones has yet to sell the naming rights for the Arlington EnormoDome — and, given the state of the economy, good luck with all that. Because the Dallas Cowboys’ owner is seeking a long-term, big-money commitment: $10 million a year, for at least a decade. But, notes The Wall…
So much for banning the single-use plastic bag in Dallas. Apparently, that’s not the city council’s job — neither is taxing them, for that matter, which Seattle tried to do till the plastics industry gathered enough votes last month to call for a referendum. Nope, says council member Linda Koop:…
Not sure what to do on a lame Monday night? It’s cool, you can tell us. Well, thanks to a call from a little PR bird, we just got word that comedy man Dan Aykroyd will be holding court at Martini Park in Plano tonight from 8 to 11 in…
A Friend of Unfair Park, very new to town, asks this afternoon, “Who is Avi Adelman?” in response to this morning’s post, one of Avi’s least provocative works. Well, I guess this is the short answer; should take you a few days to meet and greet the Barking Dog-turned-filmmaker. Or…
A 2005 traffic accident in Dallas certainly has gotten a lot of national attention in recent months. That’s because In Re Volkswagen of America Inc. et al appears to be the case that will empty the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall, heretofore known as…
In case you missed it this a.m., David Flick had a piece in The News about Bingo Gossip and Missy Mouser, the 26-year-old one-woman show running the pub that caters to the 80-and-up crowd for whom the phrase “ball lifter” refers to “the mechanism used to raise the ball from…
Nathan Berg: UTD professor and protest singer We’ve mentioned University of Texas at Dallas associate economics professor Nathan Berg twice: in November of last year, when he co-authored the report Access to Grocery Stores and Food Security in Dallas for the J. McDonald Williams Institute; and in March of this…
