The Dallas County Republican Party continued to pick up the pieces from another rough election cycle as it celebrated its largest annual fund-raiser last night at the Westin Park Central Hotel. The Reagan Day Dinner featured House Speaker Joe Straus and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who spoke to dozens…
Back in September, we said the race to replace District 13 council member Mitchell Rasansky (who’s leaving because of term limits) was all but over as Ann Margolin announced a jaw-dropping list of endorsements to go along with her experience on the Dallas City Planning and Zoning Commission, Parkland Hospital…
While his colleagues assembled at City Hall, council member and Build the Hotel’er Ron Natinsky spent yesterday morning at the Farmers Branch Recreation Center selling the convention center hotel to approximately 40 members of the Preston West Republican Women’s Club. Several of the audience members aren’t Dallas residents and can’t…
Mayor Tom Leppert reluctantly addressed local media this afternoon regarding City Manager Mary Suhm’s earlier announcement that the Trinity River levees will be rated “unacceptable” in 34 of 170 areas by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in advance of a March 31 deadline. He stressed that safety remains the…
In the comments of a blog item regarding council member Tennell Atkins’s questionable campaign finance reports, someone using the name “joe” suggested that, along with being a hobbit, my motivation in digging around Atkins’s reports was his support of the Trinity Turnpike and convention center hotel. Then he wrote: “cue…
Ten days ago, we extended Tennell Atkins an invitation to provide us with an explanation regarding the office space he’s spent nearly $9,000 in campaign dough to rent that he claims doesn’t exist, but not a peep so far from the freshman council member. In the meantime, we’ve continued to…
The battle for the city council’s District 13 seat is already quite a pricy one, as Ann Margolin takes on Brint Ryan for the right to take over for Mitchell Rasansky, who’s leaving because of term limits. Both candidates have been flooding area residents with mailers and campaign materials over…
In separate 10-2 votes, the Dallas City Council approved developer and operator agreements with Matthews Southwest and Omni Hotels for the convention center hotel, leaving the $525 million bond issuance as the final vote remaining before the project is officially given the green light. While the city waits to float…
Yesterday afternoon, the council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee learned about the inner workings of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from their newly appointed liaison, Kevin Craig. Described by Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan as the No. 2 civilian at the corps’ district office in Fort Worth, Craig previously…
The city council’s Economic Development Committee spent most of the morning in executive session discussing an operator agreement with Omni Hotels and a developer agreement with Matthews Southwest for the convention center hotel, emerging shortly after 11:30 to recommend a full council vote on both during tomorrow’s briefing. The developer…
“Attention to detail delays Army Corps of Engineers, frustrates Trinity Parkway supporters.” The headline of Michael Lindenberger’s latest story on the Trinity Turnpike in The News serves as a powerful reminder of the fundamental difference between supporters and opponents of the toll road. The opposition views the U.S. Army Corps…
So says the former president’s chief of staff, Andrew Card, who also told Politico that Bush has been “very, very busy.” Doing what, exactly? Well … lots of things. No mention of his trip to Calgary, where Bush is expected to pocket some serious Canadian bacon. Garrison Keillor, though, sees…
And they’re off: With the city council campaign season heating up, we thought we’d look at some of the campaign finance reports of the incumbents to see how they’ve been spending their dough. We picked freshman council member Tennell Atkins first because we noticed several amendments to his reports. Not…
Mayor Tom Leppert paid a visit last night to Zubar on Lower Greenville to meet with the Dallas County Young Democrats to talk about crime, the Trinity River Project and the convention center hotel, but it didn’t take long before the audience found themselves smack in the middle of a…
With the city council campaign season heating up, we thought it would be worthwhile to take a look-see at some of the campaign finance reports of the incumbents to see how they’ve been spending their dough. Freshman council member Tennell Atkins emerged as our first subject after we noticed an…
After reading Friday’s story in The Dallas Morning News regarding the nearly $1 billion funding gap for the Trinity Turnpike, Angela Hunt decided she would spend this week developing a strategy to address the approximately $64 million remaining of the city’s $84 million contribution to the project. She’s unsure whether…
As Jim pointed out earlier, transportation writer Michael Lindenberger came up short yet again in today’s Dallas Morning News regarding the Trinity Turnpike. Lindenberger’s biggest blunder was exposed shortly after the November 2007 vote, and he made another when he reported the price tag of the road at $1.8 billion…
Dallas’ convention center hotel made news in Denver today as the ABC affiliate out there featured StimulusWatch.org as its “Web Site of the Week.” The site allows users to cast votes and comment on projects they feel to be most critical, or in the case of the hotel, least critical…
While the city council continues to face delays regarding the selection of an operator for the convention center hotel, the holdup is unlikely to have any effect on Mayor Tom Leppert and the council’s plans to begin construction on the project in April. However, the current status of the financial…
It’s a cold Thursday night in mid-January, and two police SUVs pull up in front of an Academy Sports and Outdoors store in North Richland Hills, an otherwise peaceful community between Dallas and Fort Worth. The squad cars represent protection for a group of Texas Rangers players and executives preparing…
Our old friend Terrell Bolton, who has since moved on to become police chief in DeKalb County, Georgia, is back in Dallas. He made the trip to visit his long-time physician after losing about 12 pounds in a two-week span, which led to his hospitalization Saturday followed by a diagnosis…
With three intriguing items on the city council docket, I was originally bummed when my duties to the paper version of Unfair Park kept me from attending Wednesday’s meeting. But when all of them were delayed, I was relieved having avoided a day of frustration. Since Robert filled you in…
