Lubbock County Judge Tom Head raised some eyebrows yesterday after he told a local TV station that the tax hike he was pushing for? Oh, it’s just so the county can be prepared for when Obama, upon reelection, orders UN tanks into town and sparks a second civil war. In…
As Republicans prepared to renominate Richard Nixon for president, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson had a crank-fueled moment of clarity inside his Miami Beach hotel room. “This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves,” Thompson wrote in his classic Fear and Loathing: On the…
Next week, the Republican Party will convene in Tampa to plot world domination. And you’re feeling left out. Yes, you badly want in on the ground floor of the next culture war or invasion of a small, preferably Muslim country. Yet the GOP speaks in an elusive language only its…
Gizmodo Wednesday had an anonymous tell-all from former employees of what it describes as “the most corrupt Apple store in America.” Where might that store be, you ask? NorthPark. And how did the NorthPark Apple store earn such a notable distinction? Well, allegedly, according to some anonymous guy (so you…
Responding to a fairly dismal report from the purveyors of the ACT test, the Texas Education Agency is searching for a silver lining in an otherwise irredeemable truth about the 2012 crop of high school grads: Only a quarter of them are ready for college. Because the figure bears repeating,…
This has nothing to do with Dallas, except that Dallas and Lubbock are both in Texas, but a Friend of Unfair Park passed along an article from a local TV station about a proposed tax increase in Lubbock County. More specifically, it’s about County Judge Tom Head’s reasons for asking…
Many people were not happy when the city unveiled its long-term solid waste management plan. It’s goal of achieving zero waste by 2040 was admirable enough, but the plan pushed consideration of such measures as a plastic bag ban, mandatory recycling and increased composting efforts out a decade or more…
Texas’ game of women’s health pingpong continues. A panel of judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction yesterday that had allowed Planned Parenthood to remain in the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. In other words, PP is out. Again. The nonprofit was booted from the…
Arlington Grace Prep Academy has established itself as a basketball powerhouse of late, rolling easily last year to its second consecutive TAPPS state title. But the team looks like it might have trouble making it a three-peat, not only because 7-foo-1 center Isaiah Austin and Jelon Hornbeak are off to…
On Sunday morning, with their knocks and phone calls unanswered and water pouring from beneath locked doors, family members broke into Deanna Cook’s home. They found the 32-year-old dead in her bath tub. Two days before, police had been called to a domestic disturbance at the home. Dallas police knocked…
A split three-judge panel of a federal appeals court rejected an EPA rule that would curb the drift of harmful power plant pollutants across state lines. The agency, the majority ruled, had overstepped its authority under the Clean Air Act. The legal challenge was mounted by a number of states…
There are many possible explanations for why this year has turned into the worst ever for West Nile. A mild winter and wet spring played a part, and maybe climate change contributed as well, but no one’s really sure. Except Time, that is. Bryan Walsh has a piece on one…
There is undoubtedly a tale of heartbreak in their past. Maybe Kevin Hamlen and Vishwath Mohan were disillusioned when the world made them computer scientists at UTD instead of pop stars. Maybe they were mad that their school’s mascot being a Comet named Temoc. Maybe they simply hate civilization as…
In case you missed it last week, Glenn Beck invited oft-discredited historian David Barton onto his show to discuss his latest pantsing. Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson had recently announced that it would pull his latest work, The Jefferson Lies, from the shelves after it “lost confidence in the book’s…
On the night of July 7, two women huddled in the back bedroom of the mobile home at 6108 Big Wood Court in rural Tarrant County. From another room, they could hear the cries of 34-year-old Earnest Ray Lackey, as three men hog-tied and beat him for hours until, at…
For years, Julie Caramante was a leader the fight to shutter Dallas Crown, Kaufman’s infamous horse slaughterhouse. Dallas Crown closed in 2007, as did the Beltex slaughterhouse in Fort Worth, but Caramante, a lifelong equine welfare advocate, has continued to keep a close eye on the horse slaughter industry. That…
Two months ago, a judge in New York granted a request by the U.S. government issued a warrant for the arrest of one Tyrannosaurus bataar. The dinosaur’s skeleton, which Dallas-based Heritage Auctions had attempted to sell the previous month, was suspected of being in the country illegally, having been illegally…
On January 23, 2009, at about lunchtime, narcotics detectives passing through the third floor of Dallas Police Department parking garage noticed a noose attached to the bed of a department truck assigned to Senior Corporal Tony Castleberg, who is white. “I stated, ‘Oh my god, they’re gonna hang us,'” a…
It’s a pretty basic equation: When the Obama administration does something, Governor Rick Perry’s against it. When at all possible, his administration will refuse to implement in Texas whatever policy change the feds have made. Expanding Medicaid? He’s not going to do it here, no matter how many millions of…
It looks like the epitaph of Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s political aspirations are written in a Sunday morning interview on a Fox affiliate in St. Louis. The staunchly anti-abortion, GOP Senate candidate said women rarely get pregnant from rape, a misconception repeatedly disproved in medical research. Instead of stopping there,…
Dallas has drawn national attention for its decision to blanket itself with pesticide to combat the ongoing outbreak of West Nile. Hence, Rawlings’ appearance this morning on CNN with Soledad O’Brien. “Nice to see you sir,” O’Brien said. “Thank you for talking with us. We appreciate it.” Rawlings nods. “Good…
The debate around permanent supportive housing for Dallas’ homeless has become incredibly bitter in the past several years , while regulation of private housing for the mentally ill will only really begin come October. But soon one group in dire need of housing will have a few more options: veterans,…
