As Brantley pointed out yesterday, the Texas Public Utility Commission got down to hard numbers last week as it inched further toward what appears to be inevitable — a huge increase in the current $3,000 per megawatt-hour cap on the price of wholesale electricity during times when demand is high…
Not long after I wrote a story about Vickery Meadow last month, Jerry Holley, an antiques auctioneer who grew up in the area, sent me a polite email that made me curious as to what I hadn’t written. “Enjoyed your article on Vickery Meadow, but you missed the real history…
I, the overbylined, hereby solemnly swear that Unfair Park (“The Blog”) will not, under any circumstances, devolve into a sycophantic shadow booster for the long-shot congressional aspirations of Jason Roberts (“That One Biker Guy”), even in the event that one Robert Wilonsky (“Biker Guy’s Cyber-Boyfriend”) returns to the blog after…
If you happened to stumble upstairs at the Londoner last night, you might have wondered just what the hell was going on. Why were so many of these men wearing suits to the bar? Is that a sweater vest in the corner? Everyone’s throwing the word “santorum” around with such…
The Texas Public Utility Commission is finally spitballing dollar figures for just how high they’re willing to let wholesale electricity prices spiral when weather extremes send us to our thermostats. For the moment, we’re sitting at $3,000 per megawatt-hour. To keep the lights from going out (ERCOT predicts demand will…
With a lingering budget crisis and shrinking enrollment, the Dallas Independent School District has eliminated hundreds of teaching jobs in recent years, and this year will be no different. But in a sharp departure from years past, the district is preparing to part ways with hundreds more teachers for reasons…
Longtime Denton Record-Chronicle opinion-page editor Mike Trimble was fired last week after a dispute with the paper’s publisher, Bill Patterson. Trimble, 68, had been at the paper 18 years and its lone editorial writer since 2002. “It was just a difference of opinion,” Trimble told Unfair Park on Monday. “And…
Update 3:37: City Hall isn’t buying that Columbia Pack video any more than we are. City spokesman Frank Librio sent out the following response just now: March 12, 2012 To: Media From: City of Dallas PIO Re: Columbia Packing The City will use all legal means possible to ensure that…
Back in February, it was semi-big news when a group called One Million Moms called for a boycott of Dallas-based J.C. Penney. The reason was the company’s new spokeswoman, Ellen DeGeneres, who you will be shocked to learn is gay, and thus obviously unfit to sell pleated Dockers and window…
State legislation requiring voters to present state-issued identification such as a driver’s license, a concealed-carry permit, or a U.S. passport or military ID was rejected Monday morning by the U.S. Department of Justice. “Because we conclude that the state has failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that the proposed…
Kids walking the halls of Prime Prep Academy next fall might have a shot at television stardom because Deion Sanders, the school’s co-founder, is working with entertainment exec Tracey Edmonds (with whom Sanders’ ex-wife accused him of cheating) to make his school a reality … show. That’s right, a reality…
The wife and I are house-hunting, looking for something modest and sensible: good school district, open floor plan, lots of windows, pool out back, pool inside, bowling alley, racquetball court, theater, tennis courts, and — this is a must — a conservatory. You know: Your average East Dallas rebuild. We’ve…
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who worked as a nurse before heading to Washington, dropped by Martin Bashir’s show on MSNBC to denounce Governor Rick Perry’s stance toward Planned Parenthood (and to call Rush Limbaugh “un-American”.) “I don’t even know this governor anymore,” the congresswoman says in the clip above. “I…
Update: Cannon has resigned. More after the original story. Original item: The folks from the Dallas Police vice squad had an interesting Thursday, going undercover at the apparently lovably bizarre King Spa and Sauna. And they netted themselves an interesting fish: Scott Cannon III, a longtime Duncanville city councilman with…
Update, March 10: Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced late Friday in Houston that federal funding to the WHP would be cut. She said the program will wind down over the next several months, and that the feds are considering funding Planned Parenthood directly. In response, Allison…
Kinda beautiful, right? It’s like a baby — the arrival is joyous, even if some think its conception was regretful. No use dwelling on the labor pains. (Or, to sum up in the inimitable words of hard-hitting Dallas Morning News Metro columnist, it’s “nice.” Don’t think so? Then discuss.) …..
Let’s just call it: Everyone in town is running for Congress. Okay, not everyone, but the race for the newly-created, much-argued-over Congressional District 33 has gotten very, very crowded, especially on the Democrats’ side. Last night we watched as former Dallas city council member — and mayor pro tem, state…
Update: 3:06 p.m.: CNN has a video wherein you can hear the disruption. It’s embedded below. Update, 12:30 p.m.: The flight’s on the ground, but it will need to restock its alcohol supply. Details after the original. Update, 11:23 a.m.: American has confirmed the incident, and says two flight attendants…
NASA was perturbed when Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell auctioned his checklist from the ill-fated mission through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions back in December. So perturbed, in fact, that NASA general counsel asked the auctioneer to halt the nearly $400,000 sale so that proof of ownership could be determined. The checklist,…
Yesterday, Korean community leaders involved in quelling the Shamrock Kwik Stop protests sent Unfair Park a video of Nation of Islam Student Minister Jeffery Muhammad speaking to reporters on the picket line. The footage was taken in late January, before a group of black and Korean leaders met last Thursday…
The Sheriff’s Department sent over a boatload (heh) of photos from this morning’s flooding at the Frank Crowley Courthouse, plus a mugshot of Juan Ramires, a jail trusty called in to join the mop-and-bucket brigade when a busted water main filled the courthouse’s first floor with 1 to 3 inches…
At around 9:05 Wednesday night, Dallas police say, Luis Escalante, 23, and Carlos Cipriano, 37, approached a customer in front of Smoke For Less in the 2900 block of Esters Boulevard in northwest Irving, brandished a weapon — possibly a pellet gun — and made off with a vehicle equipped…
