Ron Natinsky Says Convention Center Hotel Vote Might Amount to Jack Squat, General Fund Will Lose $300 Million Without Hotel

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…

Somewhere, Jim Schutze is Off Doing a Happy Dance

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…

Council Moves Toward Final Votes on Convention Center Hotel, While Mitchell Rasansky Criticizes “Bridge to Nowhere”

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…

Buzz: City Council Member Tennell Atkins Needs Help with his Math

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…

The Hapless Texas Rangers Turn to their Farm System

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…