Next time you roll into a gentleman’s establishment, ask yourself one question: Is this place in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938? That’s the law that established a national minimum wage and overtime pay. But the women who dance in topless and nudie joints don’t make minimum…
The Dallas Observer Music Awards Showcase Concert is tonight in Deep Ellum, with Sarah Jaffe, Centro-matic, the Old 97’s and the Toadies scheduled to play the outdoor stage beginning ’round 4:30, when Jaffe goes on, whilst some 50 others play surrounding venues. All of which feels very 1995, when the…
For those who missed Tuesday’s heads-up, avoid the hell out of LBJ this weekend as they finish taking down the pedestrian walkway and Marsh Lane bridge running over 635. The folks in charge of this operation aren’t kidding around, either: They’ve sent out several warnings in the last couple of…
There’s a curious item posted on the city council’s Economic Development Committee’s agenda for Monday morning: “Project Wall-E.” And that’s all it says, save for the fact it will be discussed entirely behind closed doors in executive session. The reason: “to deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real…
On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh-based Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights issued a report titled Dressing Babies in Sweatshop Clothing: Dallas Cowboys, Ohio State and a Creepy Business, in which it alleged that the Cowboys are having team-branded clothing made in “gross sweatshop conditions at the Style Avenue factory in…
Well, we were going to go to Earle Cabell at 10 this morning for The Big Showdown: City of Dallas versus Occupy Dallas for the right to pitch a tent in Pioneer Park, in the shadow of the convention center. Because, as you recall, Occupy Dallas made its case Wednesday…
Speaking of DPD Chief Brown …On October 4, the Dallas Police Department announced that it had arrested 19-year-old Skyler Brandt for selling the ecstasy that led to the August overdose of a 19-year-old from Grandview named Matthew Allen. Police said Brandt sold the drugs to Allen at a dance club…
Back in July we were first introduced to the “Handsome Guy” Bandit — so called not because he’s attractive, because who can tell, but because of the $800 mask he’s clearly wearing in all the surveillance-cam photos taken of the bank robber during his various stick-em-ups in North Texas. And,…
Last year’s inaugural Art of Film event at the Hall of State was quite the wingding as the great Elvis Mitchell and Robert Duvall informally, thoughtfully and quite giddily chatted about a great many things for a good long while before some 400 attendees were wined and dined upstairs. At…
And now we return to the city’s enforcement of the Lower Greenville Planned Development District Ordinance, which, as you no doubt recall, went into effect at midnight September 24 and says any venue without a specific use permit and a new certificate of occupancy has to close its doors at…
It’s quite likely that many Friends of Unfair Park recall O. V. “Skip” Shoffner, who, his son Philip reminds, was a longtime mail carrier in Lakewood — for more than 30 years. Skip was also a regular at the Gold Rush, whose owner, George Sanchez, considered him “a wonderful person,…
As we noted one month ago, the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce is coordinating efforts to repurpose Valley View Center, which has long been a shadow of a shadow of its former self. Bruce Bradford, the chamber’s interim president, and city council member Linda Koop spoke of plans intended to…
Just heard a little-girl yelp coming from Schutze’s office; he must have received the same email I just did concerning the opening-weekend ceremonies scheduled March 2-4 for The Santiago Calatrava Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge to Ray’s. We’ve known this was coming for a while now, and there’s another press conference…
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs’s office sends word this afternoon that for the 18th straight month, sales tax revenues statewide at are on the uptick. Not only that, she says, but “all sectors showed increases in September, led by business spending, especially in the oil and gas-related sectors. Consumer sectors like…
The Houston Astros are this close to being sold, as Drayton McLane is set to sell the franchise to Jim Crane for $660 million, pending league approval. (And, yes, that’s the same Jim Crane who tried to buy the Texas Rangers out of bankruptcy last year.) The deal’s expected to…
Saw this heads-up for the first time last night. As it turns out, according to DirecTV’s website, the satellite provider and Belo Corp. are engaged in a tussle over broadcast fees. Belo, which signed its agreement with the carrier in February 2001, says DirecTV isn’t paying enough for the rights…
Speaking of great eyes …Surely you’ve seen the ESPN 30 on 30 offering Pony Excess, about SMU receiving the NCAA’s death penalty in 1987. If not, you must. It was directed by Thaddeus Matula, a Jesuit alum — who, as it so happens, is also responsible for this short SMU…
Last night we got word that the city is invalidating Occupy Dallas’s permit to stay in Pioneer Park till 5 p.m. Friday, since the group hadn’t secured the million-dollar insurance policy City Hall demanded on Monday. The question was: Would the city kick Occupy Dallas out at 11 p.m., the…
Yet again, right in the middle of our Rangers-Tigers liveblog, the city sends a note concerning Occupy Dallas’s occupation of Pioneer Park. Only, one night after giving the group its permit, the city’s yanking it — because, as Jim predicted, Occupy Dallas did not get the million-dollar insurance coverage City…
Robert Jeffress endorsed Rick Perry Friday, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving. As in: The Americans United for Separation of Church and State has sent a letter today to the Internal Revenue Service insisting that the First Baptist Dallas pastor’s endorsement, and subsequent postings of videos to the…
On Friday we took a ride down Cedar Crest Boulevard over the Trinity, which the city’s spending millions to makeover as a half-vehicular, half-hike-n-bike bridge — but not before Jason Roberts and the Better Block-ers set up a temporary show-and-tell one week from Saturday, this one billed as the first-ever…
Yesterday, in the comments below, we discovered that the Dallas ISD had summoned some of its principals and executive directors to 3700 Ross for what was described as an “emergency meeting.” Last night, I found out why from a Friend of Unfair Park doing some volunteer work for the DISD:…
