First, an apology: Patrick’s all out of good photos of Maurine Dickey, Clay Jenkins and John Wiley Price at that very first media what-for during which the unholy trinity acknowledged that mistakes had been made and that many Dallas County deputy constables had lied about serving papers to, among others,…
Let’s go back to City Manager Mary Suhm’s budget Q&A memo for just a moment, because there was one Q that had me at A:What is being done to generate revenue by marketing the City? A Request for Proposal was advertised on May 12 and 19, 2011 seeking proposals from…
Must be the day for getting rid of lawsuits involving the city of Dallas. The feds already sent their heads-up that the city’s going to fork over $2.5 million related to ambulance over-billing, and now the Institute for Justice sends word that that lawsuit over the 2008 sign ordinance prohibiting…
No doubt you’ve heard by now that this morning’s meeting of the Dallas County Commissioners Court was interrupted by a Dallas County Commissioner who threw a tantrum that included name-calling (you … you … bobos!) and the ol’ take-me-to-jail-I-effin’-dare-you gambit. Mauine Dickey’s outburst, captured by Channel 8, is after the…
No doubt some of you are aware that for the last couple of years or so, the city of Dallas has been entangled in a federal whistle-blower suit instigated by a former auditor at City Hall. Douglas Moore revealed that he’d discovered the city and Southwest General Services of Dallas…
This Friday, shortly before the council goes on summer vacation, we’ll get our latest peek at City Manager Mary Suhm’s FY2011-12 budget “snapshot,” following the mid-May look-see that said she’s still around $60 million short of funding the need-to’s. Speaking of: Last Friday Suhm sent to council a lengthy memo…
Right now, Dallas Area Rapid Transit policy prohibits the sale of booze ads on its trains and buses for no reason other than earlier boards thought that’d just be a good idea. Or, as it was explained during a DART board meeting last month, its “predecessors determined that alcoholic beverages…
From the extremely loud to the completely silent …Yesterday was a momentous anniversary that passed without any notice whatsoever: It was the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Texas Centennial Exposition at Fair Park. Coincidentally, though, one YouTuber marked the occasion by posting some Brownie 8mm footage of the…
This is how loud Mavs playoffs games were at Reunion Arena. And this is how regular season games sound at the American Airlines Center, where, writes The New York Times’s Alan Schwartz, “it is hard to tell if the Mavericks’ favorite machine during these playoffs is Dirk Nowitzki, their star…
Leslie’s at the Dallas Independent School District board meeting at this very moment, where the trustees will more than likely announce who will temporarily take Michael Hinojosa’s place now that he’s off to become a Georgia peach. Shocking — they’re in closed session. Ah, but speaking of: The district just…
Back in October, Sam wrote for the paper version of Unfair Park a lengthy piece about Dallas County’s relatively new veterans court, which gives second chances to soldiers who come home from war — some damaged in some way, many broke, most alone — and turn to drugs or lives…
Say this for Deborah Watkins: The city secretary always hops on the phone whenever we have a question. And I’ve gotten to see her in action quite a bit in recent months — including on the witness stand, when the attorneys trying to re-dry Dallas got her to testify about…
Took a couple of weeks, but I just received my copy of An Epic Swindle: 44 Months With a Pair of Cowboys, Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade’s just-published-in-the-U.K. 338-page recap of Tom Hicks’ disastrous run as co-owner of Liverpool FC. So far, so good, though I feel like I’ve already…
Speaking of over-the-weekenders, the morning paper had a pay wall piece Saturday about Governor Rick Perry’s “call to prayer for a nation in crisis” scheduled for August 6 in Houston, otherwise known as The Response. Perry’s invited the nation’s governors to join him; doesn’t sound like the RSVPs are flying…
Saturday morning we sneak-peeked an item that was just the subject of much debate during this morning’s meeting of the council’s Economic Development Committee: the fact that the city’s going to sink $235,000 in Jack Matthews’ Cedars TV and film production facility, in addition to the $100,000 he got last…
Cash Sirois just sent this local sports-star-studded pep talk, which played on the American Airlines Center’s big-screen before the second quarter of Mavs-Heat Game 3. This proved much easier to watch than Mavs-Heat Game 3. Among those making an appearance: Troy Aikman, Mike Modano, Roger Staubach, Ron Washington and a…
Every year or so we get word of yet another crime map out there. Here’s the latest: Trulia’s Beta-testing, color-coded “heat” map, which, says the Chicago Sun-Times, is a collaboration between EveryBlock.com, CrimeReports.com and SpotCrime.com intended to allow “home buyers, sellers and renters to look at citywide crime trends in…
There’s a mayoral debate at noon today at the Belo Mansion; let the Dallas Bar Association know if you’re coming. Or: You can jump to the other side and watch David Kunkle and Mike Rawlings go at it for 22 minutes on WFAA-Channel 8, where they squared off yesterday during…
Dallas Independent School District trustees once more spent most of Friday afternoon and evening rating and debating the five interim superintendent candidates. But, once more, they retreated to exec session and opted to run out the clock till Michael Hinojosa was officially offered the top job in Cobb County, Georgia…
That’s a mighty nice piece about The Kessler in The New York Times this morning; nice illustration too, courtesy the great Paul Rogers. The story’s by local boy Ben Fountain, the att’y-turned-author who wraps up his semi-regular from-the-mean-streets-of dispatches with a trip to the Oak Cliff venue — the polar…
First off, as promised yesterday, here’s that Statler Hilton update, which was posted last night to the city’s website as the cumbersomely titled Filling in the Missing Pieces Downtown Upcoming Redevelopment Projects Former Statler Hilton Building / Former Dallas Public Library Building (Downtown Connection TIF District), which is also the…
Hard to believe it took this long to get to Van Halen, everyone’s favorite metal band back then, especially if you didn’t like metal, mostly because it was just catchy pop anyway. Thought this would be a good one to dust off for tomorrow’s Lone Star Beer-sponsored Forest festivities; can’t…
