News

Charges of corruption have long haunted the Denton County District Attorney’s Office, so when former prosecutor Paul Johnson decided to run against his old boss last year, he made the most of the allegations. During the campaign, Johnson painted himself as a crusader for social reform who, if elected, would…

A long-awaited ruling from the Court of Criminal Appeals in Oklahoma was released last week, crushing the hopes of Nancy and Charlie Jackson that their daughter Emily Dowdy would receive a new trial. Dowdy was convicted of first-degree manslaughter resulting from a 1999 auto accident that killed Ryan Brewer, the…

Take this job…: Buzz and, as far as we know, Mrs. Buzz, are not running for mayor. That makes two of us. As of Monday, the city secretary’s office listed 20 people who have filed to run. There’s the usual slate of generic white male biz types. We forget their…

Rhymes With Puck Off Whittless: Having just read the column on hockey in Dallas (“Frozen Assets,” February 1), I can only conclude that Richie Whitt’s middle name must be Nit. Eugene Flynn Dallas Richie, you ignorant slut: The problem with the Stars is not the team but the media reporting…

Ricardo Garcia plays it cool, but he’s nervous. One of the guys who just finished has a chiseled, martial-arts physique and knocked out 60 rapid-fire push-ups without breaking a sweat. “How many sit-ups do I have to do?” Garcia asks the female soldier supervising the practice test. “Fifty-three,” she says…

I dunno, I just love typing that phrase above. It’s magnetically displayed on my fridge, and, yeah, I see your post-Super Bowl letdown and raise you a pre-March Madness abyss. This, my friends, is what we call the dead of winter. Since neither National Signing Day or a ho-hum Mavs…

Mark Graham Workers, most of them immigrants from Mexico, wait at the Garland Day Labor Center for contractors to pick them up. Late last year, when members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps visited the Garland Day Labor Center with binoculars and videocameras, they triggered a small labor movement that…

Kristine Hughes, associate editor of Texas Lawyer and now a good Friend of Unfair Park, sends this accounting of today’s PETA nude-in downtown. Oh, but before we show you hers, Kristine wants to make it clear she’s not the kind who normally shows up “up at the promise of nude…

Really, some of us at Unfair Park aren’t big fans of American Idol. We are, however, fans of cousins William Green and Akron Watson of Dallas, one of whom didn’t make the cut on last night’s show. Why not? Well, if there’s a note hit during Willie’s version of “Amazing…

Energy-saving guru Amory Lovins used to consult for TXU and finds its plan to build 11 coal-fired plants “puzzling.” And very troubling. At this very moment, Mike Greene, president and CEO of TXU Power, is being deposed by Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition’s attorneys down at Energy Plaza on Bryan…

Still sounds like there’s a lot of injustice taking place at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. Sheriff Lupe Valdez recently told The Dallas Morning News that under her watch, the ever-beleagured jail has improved “400 percent.” She should have told that to Jill and Conrad Galvin, the devoted parents of…

At right, Toadies guitarist and Emmy-nominated Project Runway editor Clark Vogeler. At left, Jay McCarroll, who won Project Runway’s first season. As the paper version of Unfair Park is only now hitting the streets, we figure now would be as good a time as any to let you know that…

The city might have closed down the Penthouse Key Club for five big-friggin’-deal months, but, hey, lookie here: Says a press release sent out this a.m., the publicly traded (did I spell “publicly” right…yeah) Rick’s Cabaret International, Inc. has signed a letter of intent to buy “an adult nightclub” in…

This is the week — Mercedes-Benz Spring 2007 fashion week, to be more precise, currently under way in NYC — during which I temporarily suspend my hatred for women who can afford to shop at places other than Forever 21 and gaze longingly at thousands of runway photos. All kinds…

Tristan Simon, the Czar of Henderson and soon to be the earl of everything you put in your mouth, has sold his successful nightclub Candle Room to his general manager Tommy “D” Dondlinger (formerly of the allegedly terminal Hard Rock) and Bar manager Shawn Egerton. No price was disclosed. “I…

You and I now have lunch plans tomorrow. Let’s meet at noon at Pegasus Plaza, at the corner of Akard and Main. You know you want to. C’mon — there’ll be naked women there, courtesy the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Seriously, no matter what you think of…

James Lewis, a subject of an Observer story 18 years back, got some face time in a recent copy of DeSoto Today. Eighteen years ago, then-Dallas Observer writer Read Martin did a story on an Oak Cliff man named James Lewis, who wanted to get into the demolition business. Lewis…