“The Perfect Sergeant” is Now a Constable

Meet the new boss, Jaime Cortes, who’s not nearly the same as the old boss. Not even close. Every now and then, taking the high road pays off. Jaime Cortes, who twice ran and lost against The Constable Formerly Known as Mike Dupree while never responding to the incumbent’s personal…

Webber to Grill in Dallas?

He’s no Kevin Garnett, but Chris Webber would be a fascinating off-season move for the Mavs, to say the very least. ESPN.com’s Marc Stein sends word today that Chris Webber may not be on the verge of retiring after all. Webber, who’s already playedworn out his welcome with the Golden…

Pony Up the Dope

Last week in the paper version of Unfair Park, we wrote about Steve Asmussen, who is either the greatest horse trainer in America or one of the sport’s biggest cheaters. Personally, I found Lone Star Park’s prodigal son to be a pretty likable dude; others say he’s a jerk. What…

The Eisley “Invasion”

Eisley — named 2003’s Best New Act in the Dallas Observer Music Awards, for those of you with short attention spans — has returned from Narnia, or wherever it is the band summer vacations, for a new disc. Shruggingly titled Combinations, it’s out August 14 — but the first single,…

Romance Is in the Air

World of Longmire.com This is really just a post to let you know where I’ll be tomorrow through Saturday, if you need to find me: at the Hyatt Regency Dallas, for the 27th Annual National Conference of the Romance Writers of America. You must respect the list of conference sponsors…

For Those About to Learn How to Rock

It’s every parent’s nightmare. You work hard trying to raise your child, teaching him bad manners and a healthy disrespect for authority, and the little jerk turns out to be a straight-A nerd on the straight-and-narrow. If only there were some kind of rehab for young geeks, a place where…

Our “New” Mosquito Problem? Try “Very Old.”

So, we finally got an answer from Andria Kavanaugh, Fort Worth’s official mosquito specialist, about those saltwater mosquitoes National Public Radio reported were swarming in Dallas County. As you may recall, NPR ran a piece last week about Aedes sollicitans, a big and mean ol’ mosquito that shouldn’t be found…

A Spoon Full of Keven McAlester

Big day for our old pal Keven McAlester, whose his Roky Erickson doc gets a DVD release right about now. Kev, former met-ropolitan and current good human, celebrates with the biggest video currently racking up positive feedback on the blog-o-circuit: Spoon’s new “The Underdog” from the out-today Ga Ga Ga…

Dallas Needs Cops. Houston’s, Maybe.

KPRC-Channel 2/Houston So, the Dallas Police Department is trolling for officers — in Houston, says here, which seems like a bad idea. Because, see, while Dallas needs about 350 new officers to swell its ranks to a reputable count, the Houston Police Department “has 400 to 500 officer vacancies, while…

FC Dallas, Where It Must be the Money

FC Dallas opens play in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tonight at 7 at Pizza Hut Park way the hell up in Frisco. The news is that the Hoops will play their starters rather than their reserves, as is the tradition for most MLS clubs that compete in the…

Welcome to the Neighborhood

This weekend, its first in its new Fair Park-area home, a church for the homeless and needy endured a death and a break-in attempt. On Saturday, a man named Rodney Burris died in the back of a Fair Park-area church while protecting a gas-powered generator; two other men who were…

Tim Seelig’s Long Goodbye

Tim Seelig’s left the Turtle Creek Chorale, but he’ll still be plenty busy. Standing ovations were easy to come by at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center last night as Dr. Timothy Seelig conducted and performed his last concert as the artistic director of the Turtle Creek Chorale. (How many…

You Know, Bob Mong, You’re Right

Matt Pulle’s not looking for a new gig, Mr. Mong, but he does want you to know what a fine job your paper’s doing. You’re welcome. I can’t believe I’m about to write this, but here goes: Jim Moroney and Bob Mong are right. The Dallas Morning News is doing…

A Dallas Native is Behind a Progressive Causes Money Machine

Dallas native Michael Kieschnick is founder of, among other things, Working Assets. Since 1985, it says here, Working Assets has generated over $50 million for progressive nonprofits” — among them, Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International and various enviro-friendly causes. It does this getting folks to use their “donation-linked services,”…

A Former L.A. Ram Great Is Now Saving Souls Just Outside of Dallas

Before he started working with substance-abusers outside of Dallas, Isiah Robertson was one of the NFL’s biggest and baddest. Isiah Robertson lives with his four children in Garland. He looks like an ordinary guy who’d be out mowing his yard and playing catch with his grandchildren — well, except for…

Yeah, They’re the Most Likely to Succeed

Asher Frankfurt, a local kid, read his screenplay to a Smithsonian audience recently. No one will even look at ours. Congrats to three local high school students who were recently honored as Presidential Scholars of the Arts. Very big deal. These three kids — Jay Jackson (Carrollton), Brittanie Brown (Oak…

Deja Blue

Best record in the league. Home cookin’. Mediocre opponent, orchestrated by a familiar face. Shocking upset. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Except Saturday night it wasn’t your Dallas Mavericks choking away a red-carpet post-season, but instead the Dallas Desperados. Led by the greatest quarterback in the history of…

Mong and Moroney to Staff: Yer Doin’ a DMN Good Job

Craig Flournoy and Tracy Everbach’s highly critical Dallas Morning News review in the Columbia Journalism Review, first mentioned here Thursday, has prompted a response from the paper’s Big Bosses, editor Bob Mong and publisher and chief executive officer Jim Moroney. Unfair Park was forwarded a memo M&M sent to staffers…

St. Vincent is on Fire

Here’s the latest St. Vincent video, another solo trip recorded at the Atlantic Sound and Union Hall in Brooklyn — this time, she melts through her “Paris is Burning.” (Here’s an earlier clip from the same studio session, where she performs “Your Lips Are Red.”) I love her — oh,…

Moore Love Letters to Sicko

I just got off the phone with Tom Polston, who sells medical equipment in Plano. The reason for the call: I (like every film critic in town) was forwarded by the local Weinstein Company representative a letter Polston sent to Michael Moore after he saw his health-care doc Sicko at…

Bank Seeks Permission to Foreclose on Sherman Allen’s Church

For Pastor Sherman Allen, things just got a little bit worse. A Christian credit union has filed a motion in bankruptcy court asking permission to foreclose on the building that houses Pastor Sherman Allen’s Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ, at 1270 Woodhaven Blvd. in Fort Worth. The Evangelical…

A Former Dallas News‘er Takes on the Entire Newspaper Business

Photo by John Hibey Mark Birnbaum and Manny Mendoza interviewed Walter Cronkite for their doc-in-progress. Yesterday we mentioned Craig Flournoy and Tracy Everbach’s bad-News piece in the latest Columbia Journalism Review, for which they claim to have interviewed about 100 former newsroomies. But one former Dallas Morning News’er with whom…