Without Explanation, ICE Wants to Deport a Well-Regarded Local Imam

Imam Safdar Razi Yesterday, the Austin American-Statesman reported that Plano’s Safdar Razi — “a former Austin imam whose interfaith work made him one of the most recognized Muslim leaders in Central Texas” — is being detained at a Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Dallas. In fact, he’s been here…

June in April: Catching Up With the New SMU Head Coach

June Jones The Honolulu Star-Bulletin hired college ball writer Mark Wangrin to spend a few days with SMU football head coach June Jones — to see how, ya know, he was digging life on the mainland. Turned into a two-part piece that started yesterday and ends today. Probably the most…

AFI Dallas: And the Winners Are …

Right click for a better look at AFI Dallas’ winners, who are, from left: Rebecca Harrell and Josh Tickell (Fields of Fuel), Diane Magary (The Second Line), Rupinder Nagra and Richie Mehta (Amal), Tom Baker (Cook County), Scott Grunpeter (Tracing Cowboys) and Yen Tan (Ciao. After the jump, AFI Dallas…

Wright On, Bishop Jakes

Bishop T.D. Jakes Dallas’ Bishop T.D. Jakes has launched his own blog, and he steps right into the fray with a lengthy post about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy. True to form, Jakes avoids political hard lines and instead gives insights designed to provoke the consciences of blacks as well…

We Could Listen to These Anonymous Anti-Scientology Rants All Day

Anonymous, the robovoice behind the Church of Scientology protests around the DFW, is back today with another message “to the general public in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.” (Must be a local — no, ahem, “Metroplex.”) The video’s after the jump, but apparently, s/he wants to answer some of your…

Adidas Will Run, Not Walk, to Dallas With a New Regional Office

What’s bad news for Portland is good news for Dallas. Because this morning, word’s come down that Adidas America Inc. is reorganizing its operations and laying off some 25 employees from the German-based company’s U.S. headquarters. Says Adidas America President Patrik Nilssen, “A number of Portland and field-based roles were…

Herb Kelleher Had Himself a Good Ol’ Time In Front of Congress

Over at the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Web site, you’ll find the best nine-hour film this side of, um, Shoah? (Sorry, first one that came to mind.) It’s the entirety of yesterday’s hearing — Critical Lapses in FAA Safety Oversight of Airlines: Abuses of Regulatory “Partnership Programs” –…

Uptown to Get More, Well, Uptown

View Larger Map Folks from Granite Properties and Gables Residential Trust talk to GlobeSt.com about their latest project in Uptown: a $200-million, two-tower project tentatively named 17Seventeen McKinney, ’cause, like, that’s its address. Sounds like quite the shebang: 19-story office tower, six levels of parking and retail and “a one-acre…

You Call That a Dress Code?

A couple of days ago, we mentioned Waxahachie High School sophomore Pete Palmer, who, along with his parents, has decided to sue the school district over Pete’s getting kicked outta school for wearing a “John Edwards 08” T-shirt. Well, yesterday his father, Paul Palmer, posted a comment to Unfair Park,…

Fore. Play.

City Pointe Golf Center Richie’s done found himself a new place to take his balls. Evidenced by my crisp little 88 at this primo track last week, I need some help. For a longer sex drive, I’ll go here. But for a longer golf drive, I’ll be here. Honestly, I…

Whistle-Blowing at the FAA, Followed By a Few Threats

The Chicago Tribune today provides a handy recap thus far of today’s testimony in front of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, provided by Federal Aviation Administration officials who blew the whistle on the FAA’s lax safety measures. Chief among the highlights from the hearing — billed as Critical Lapses…

Shakespeare’s Tricky Dick Gets Bitten By the Kitchen Dog

Richard III — he’s the one with the hump, right? The hump and the attitude. Not a happy guy for sure. But a surprisingly funny king, even in one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest plays. Kitchen Dog Theater likes to shake up their Shakespeare. For their new production of Richard III, opening…

A BounceBack for Mannatech? Um, OK?

Mannatch’s Ambrotose — or, what Wired last year identified as, ya know, “sugar pills” This morning brought a chipper press release from Mannatech, the Coppell-based nutritional supplement company besieged by bad press. At its annual convention last weekend in Dallas, higher-ups unveiled a new line: an “all natural product that…

Dirk: The Big Germane

I could come in here and pour my glass-half-empty pessimism on you. Tell you how the Mavs’ 111-86 victory last night came against a team playing its fourth game in five nights. Remind you that, with weekend road games at the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, a two-game losing…

Is Fort Worth-Based BNSF Trying to “Intimidate Its Critics”?

LEGO A couple of local items of interest, courtesy nonprofit Public Citizen. After the jump, another Chantix chant, but first up, the D.C.-based consumer advocacy group’s involved in some federal litigation in Tarrant County, where Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is trying to get Internet hosting company Network54…

Nothing Simple About Surrogacy

The new issue of Newsweek explores “The Curious Lives of Surrogates” — though, frankly, the cover headline, “Womb for Rent,” is far more grabby. Regardless, the piece details the “thousands of largely invisible American women have given birth to other people’s babies,” and among them is Dallas’ Stephanie Scott, who,…

Andy Roddick’s Sweet on T.O.

Andy Roddick, T.O.’s lil’ buddy New York Times sports columnist Bill Rhoden this morning details a most “unlikely friendship”: Austin’s tennis hotshot Andy Roddick and Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens. This week the two are hanging out at the Sony Ericsson Open in Florida, where Roddick’s playing and Owens is…

A Crack at Freedom Not So Easy

At the end of last year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission adopted Federal Sentencing Guidelines that reduced penalties for crack cocaine offenses, after years of study and debate determined folks popped for crack usually got about three and a half years more prison time than people convicted of powder-cocaine offenses. The…