For those who found this morning’s paper particularly dissatisfying, here are some other Sunday stories with that taste particularly local:The Atlanta Journal-Constitution begins its “Atlanta Forward” series this morning by comparing and contrasting that city with ours, a not-uncommon occurrence, and concluding: We win. Since it’s available solely to subscribers,…
When word came down earlier this evening that Nancy Hamon had died at 92, I immediately thought of the unfortunate dust-up three Julys ago, when some folks, among them Joyce Foreman and Carla Ranger, voiced their displeasure with the Dallas ISD’s decision to put Hamon’s name on the side of…
The city council returns to the city’s business on Wednesday … or is that Tuesday? But till mid-September, at the earliest, committee meetings are canceled: Mayor Mike’s asked the chairs to scratch meetings till at least mid-September, when he’ll reshuffle the deck chairs — and we’ll find out whether he’s…
Judges hate the Dallas Bar Association’s judicial evaluation polls, a semi-semi-tradition dating to 1975 that took a brief pause in ’07, when judges managed to get the thing sidelined by grousing that the methodology was unfair and, besides, it weren’t nothing but a popularity contest, so … harrumph. But two…
Hey, that’s not me bestowing that particular appellation upon Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Eddie Burns — that’s from last year’s round-up of America’s Worst Bosses, where Burns ranked No. 1. You probably know why — all those sexual harassment and discrimination suits piled up at Burns’s feet, which have cost the…
MediaBistro has picked up on KXAS-Channel 5’s video taken from one of its traffic cams earlier in the week, in which an illuminated something-or-nother can be seen falling from the sky before taking a sharp turn to the right. The NBC owned-and-operated says UFO investigators (?) have been asked “to…
Shortly after Pilgrim’s Pride announced that its second-quarter results were dismal (as in, “a net loss of $128.1 million”), the chicken-seller delivered some very bad news: It’s closing its mammoth Dallas processing plant by September. The plant, on Ferris just south of downtown, employs 1,000 hourly and salaried employees, says…
The Texas Education Agency won’t officially release its based-on-TAKS-scores state accountability ratings till ’round 1 this afternoon (here, for those so interested), at which point Commissioner of Education Robert Scott will hold a press conference in Austin. But the Dallas Independent School District’s not wasting any time releasing its results,…
Back in mid-June we attempted to make an offer on a Bell 407 helicopter, which was being auctioned off by the city. But the bids piled up, and after 60 the $985,000 starting price climbed to $1,467,500, which was $1,467,500 out of our price range. And, besides, the Dallas Police…
A Friend of Unfair Park who lives near the Majestic Theater (lucky!) wonders what’s going on inside the historic venue, which, earlier this year, had its roof replaced and new air-conditioning unit installed (lucky!) courtesy some ’06 bond money set aside for much-needed improvements. So happens that today the city’s…
Over the weekend, The Dallas Morning News blessed us with a pay-walled profile of First Baptist Dallas’s Robert Jeffress, no stranger to the Friends of Unfair Park. And while briefly touching upon some of the pastor’s more, oh, let’s say controversial offerings in recent years, for the most part Scott…
A little while ago, the Dallas Police Department’s Central Division posted this heads-up to its Facebook page:A homeless black male who possibly goes by the name “Poochy” is stealing puppies and selling them to residents in downtown Dallas along Main Street. The suspect is approx 53 yrs old, 5’6″, 140lbs,…
Bob Musgrave sends word: “Polly Platt died yesterday.” She was 72. Cinephiles know the name: The ex-wife of Peter Bogdanovich, she worked on such films as Paper Moon and The Last Picture Show before becoming a longtime collaborator of James L. Brooks’s. And she was instrumental in turning Wes Anderson’s…
Actually, it was just one Picasso — along with “real estate, boats and other personal water craft, luxury vehicles, artwork, furniture, antiques, musical instruments, jade, expensive jewelry and wine.” Still. That’s not how Tony Rand and his boys Greg and Bill were supposed to be spending more than 300 investors’…
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve received numerous emails suggesting I sign up for something called Leadership DISD, which promises to develop “education-focused, informed leaders within the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) service area who affect positive change and help to lead support efforts to bring about significant improvements…
A couple of times, including this morning, we’ve noted that Mayor Mike Rawlings has scheduled a dinner with the entire city council on Tuesday, which has prompted a few Friends of Unfair Park to wonder: Like, isn’t that a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act? Technically, no. Says the…
I don’t trust that Oncor power-outage map — mostly because it doesn’t show operating-on-emergency-back-ups Unfair Park HQ on the in-the-dark list, or maybe we’re just the unlucky 26 sans juice in Dallas. (Says 1,088 are sweating it out in Fort Worth.) Course, it could be worse: We could be living…
We already know who won’t be attending the gas drilling task force’s public hearing on Tuesday night: Mayor Mike and the city council, who at that time will be breaking bread at Rawlings’s request — maybe some dogs and a beer, or perhaps just a slice? Anyway. City Hall says…
Spurred by that for-sale Byrds concert poster dating back to an all-but-forgotten June 1, 1968, concert at the Forest Theater, I drove by the place a few days ago to see if the historic haunt had found any takers. But, no: The Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard landmark built in…
A few tree-hugging Friends of Unfair Park sent word earlier today that someone from Park and Rec was out clearcutting trees in the Great Trinity Forest, which seemed a bit … odd. Wrote one, the guy was using a chainsaw in Gateway Park to cut down Red Oaks, Possumhaw Hollies,…
As Merritt noted on Mixmaster earlier, The Dallas Morning News will no longer publish Quick after its August 4 issue, bringing to a close the free weekly’s 8-year-long run. Jim Moroney, the publisher and CEO at The News, tells Unfair Park he broke the news to its staff at around…
Last we looked, the council tabled till after its summer vacation a proposal from Marys Suhm and Nix to force all the solid-waste haulers in the city to dump their trash at the McCommas Bluff Landfill rather than one of the dozen other sites in the region. The city manager…
