Yesterday, Tawnell Hobbs summarized the debate over the fate of the Dallas Independent School District’s learning centers, created by court order in the 1980s to “return disadvantaged, inner-city, minority students to their neighborhood schools and provide quality educational programs with supplementary funds,” as the district’s Web site puts it. District…
And the hits just keep on coming — though General Growth Properties’ filing for Chapter 11 protection this morning wasn’t exactly a surprise. Way back in November, we pointed to the Chicago-based mall owner’s fiscal issues involving more than a billion in overdue debt payments, which puts in jeopardy the…
Southwest Airlines announced this morning that it’s living up to that old motto, offering nearly every single employee what CEO Gary Kelly calls an “early out” in the wake of a first-quarter net loss, the Dallas-based carrier’s third straight decline. Southwest today announced a first-quarter ’09 net loss of $91…
Driving down Eldorado Parkway in McKinney last night I happened upon a slew of sign-holding, flag-waving folks staging themselves a protest thinly disguised as a “tea party.” Embarrassingly lame. “Bailouts Steal Our Children!” read one sign. “You Can’t Multiply Wealth By Dividing It!” screamed another. And my personal fave: “Obama…
If you claim to have witnessed the wildest game in Dallas Mavericks’ history, chances are you’re lying. Only 9,007 fans squeezed into the team’s makeshift home at SMU’s Moody Coliseum on April 26, 1984. The fifth and deciding game in Dallas’ first-round playoff series with the Seattle Supersonics was telecast…
Tim Marshall and his wife, Kay, were bickering like seagulls when the cow dung flew inside their pickup’s passenger-side window and splattered across his face. “Put the vehicle in drive,” Marshall said in a hectoring tone that any spouse would find annoying. “No. No. No. We are fine. We…are…fine.” About…
Free Jenny Thank goodness Margaret Morin hasn’t given up on Jenny—without hope, there often is nothing. If Jenny knows, she appreciates it. Morin has a wonderful vision for Jenny, and she won’t give up. We need more people like Morin who fight for what is right, even when the system…
Lost in translation: Wow. That was some piece of reportage The Dallas Morning News produced this Sunday about Richard Allen’s inland port project in southern Dallas County. Reporters Kevin Krause and Gromer Jeffers Jr. spent two months reviewing allegations that a coterie of southern Dallas pols and businessmen tried to…
Friend of the show Justin Cozart’s been digging through his grandfather’s boxes of photos again and come across this mighty gem taken during the Republic Bank tower’s construction in ’53. And if it looks familiar, maybe it’s because you’re thinking of this iconic photo taken high above the Manhattan skyline…
We already mentioned that Jenny the Elephant’s got a few new friends trying to spring her from the Dallas Zoo, including the great Emmylou Harris, the irascible Kinky Friedman and Laugh-In star Ruth Buzzi. Buzzi, who lives just west of Fort Worth, joined Concerned Citizens for Jenny founder Margaret Morin…
At the end of March, the Dallas City Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee took up the discussion of regulating a “relatively new practice being employed by private parking lot operators to enforce payment in their lots” — booting cars. Parking lot owners, in a letter to the council, said, Look,…
Just when some of you – okay, and most of me – blamed the Texas Rangers’ weekend sweep in Detroit on the lack of a certain rosy-hued sartorial splendor, we’ve got a new scapegoat. The Rangers wore red again last night. But they also handed the ball to a left-handed reliever…
Till then, though, today we get this ad from the Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel — the group’s fourth, for those keeping score at home. But if it looks familiar, well, it is. Because, see, first there was this CATOH ad that debuted a month ago starring some dude in…
Courtesy the very Vimeo “retriever” comes the most breathless making-of ever made documenting the construction of the new Church of Scientology Center in Las Colinas, which opened over the weekend. This most likely comes from the L. Ron Hubbard birthday bash in Los Angeles at the end of March, but…
The New York Times reported this morning that Dallas-based hedge fund manager Barrett Wissman has pleaded guilty to securities fraud in New York, where he’s cooperating with the New York State Attorney General and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigations into corruption involving the state pension fund. Wissman, a St…
Granted only about 33 percent of the precincts are reporting, but The Sporatorium is projecting the 2009 Dallas Cowboys to win 10 games. Being that the Cowboys haven’t used any of their 11 draft picks or convened for the first quarterback school/minicamp/OTA/gee-ain’t-it-nice-not-to-have-T.O.-around meeting of 2009, I’d like to keep a mulligan in my…
Tom Huang, a Dallas Morning News assistant managing editor and Poynter Institute ethics and diversity fellow, posted this morning an essay titled “Living with Layoffs at the Dallas Morning News,” which speaks for itself. This excerpt seems particularly relevant a week after A.H. Belo Corp. laid off some 200 News…
Seems the former Showcase Chevrolet location near LBJ Freeway and the Dallas North Tollway was the scene of “major spray paint attack this weekend,” notes the Flickr’ing Fifi LePew, who couldn’t help but note the attendant irony. Speaking of, whatever happened to Icon’s Midtown development. (OK, settle down. I know,…
The Dallas Tea Party isn’t the only TV-ready event happening in town today. Far from it — especially if you were a big, big fan of the Laugh-In and are a big, big fan of … wait for it, wait for it, wait for it … Jenny the Elephant. At…
As we mentioned last week, the Tea Parties are here, the Tea Parties are here! So those not prepared to protest with the likes of Mark Davis, “Dave-from-London” and “Lance Hurley as Patrick Henry” at the Dallas tea’d-off affair had best steer clear of City Hall starting at 4:30 p.m…
While you were sleeping, the Dallas Mavericks officially succeeded in their lil’ game of Avoid The Noid. Thanks to the Lakers’ blowout of the Utah Jazz late last night, the Mavs won’t open this weekend’s NBA Playoffs as a no-way-in-hell-8th-seeded-underdog against Los Angeles. Not exactly how I planned it, but the Mavericks did…
A little late in the day, but the USA Film Festival just sent out the schedule for this year’s shindig, which runs April 29 through May 3 at the Angelika Film Center in Mockingbird Station. To save us all the trouble of running down this year’s highlights, I’ve posted after…
