So, let’s work backward. On Sunday, The Dallas Morning News reported that “bail bondsmen owe Dallas County at least $35 million in uncollected default judgments, many dating back decades.” Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, himself a former bail bondman, refused to speak to Ed Timms and Kevin Krause. But…
Over the last several months, reporters here and at some of our sister papers have published stories about the mythical child-sex-trafficking pandemic allegedly sweeping our nation. Prodded by activist researchers and research-adverse activists, the media has obsessively repeated bogus claims that hundreds of thousands of children are being held in…
Looks like at 11:18 this morning, John Wiley Price attorney Billy Ravkind, or someone in his office, faxed to Channel 5 the search warrant issued on June 24 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Stickney. It’s a seven-page catalog of everyone and everything with whom the county commissioner’s done bidness since…
This morning the city posted the agenda for the first-ever meeting of the Gas Drilling Task Force, which kicks off Tuesday at 2 p.m., don’t be late. The agenda’s mostly a bunch of introductory what-whats: Chair Lois Finkelman will give some opening remarks, outline its scope and schedule, review the…
At Kirkwood Temple C.M.E. Church last night, 120 or so congregants petitioned an Ecclesiastical Court on behalf of a decidedly earthly cause: that of embattled Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, the target of a sweeping FBI probe. Matrons fanned themselves with “A Night of Prayer and Preparation” programs as…
The in-box is filled this morning with more news concerning Rick Perry’s “day of prayer and fasting” in Houston next month — you know, The Response. Let’s begin with this: Several Friends of Unfair Park have forward a piece I first saw this morning on Startlegram great Bud Kennedy’s Facebook…
Tuesday night, I was on the phone with Park and Rec second-in-command Willis Winters, who happened to be standing near the Lily Pad in Main Street Garden. Mid-sentence, he stopped talking, said, “Excuse me,” then said, rather loudly to someone standing near him: “Are you going to pick that up?”Ah,…
Last night, my wife and I were discussing JWP, millions in uncollected bail bonds spanning centuries, Dallas County politics, Kathy Nealy’s IRS woes as noted on WFAA’s 10 p.m. broadcast, Craig Watkins and so forth. She said something I didn’t quite understand. I corrected her: “No, it’s county management, not…
He’s now the answer to two football trivia questions: 1. Who was the New England Patriots’ top draft choice in 2000, selected four rounds and 156 picks before a quarterback named Tom Brady? 2. Who is the SMU recruiting coordinator suddenly somehow luring blue-chip inner-city players from the West Coast…
Enough’s enough: Buzz has written before about our mother’s attitudes about child-rearing and pool halls: “If I ever catch you in that pool hall,” she’d tell us, referring to our hometown’s only billiards parlor, “I’ll slap the living shit out of you.” Mother Buzz, a 4-foot-11 middleweight with a palm…
On June 29, in Judge Ken Molberg’s courtroom, attorneys representing Steven Phillips and Kevin Glasheen argued over money, which is what attorneys often do when they clash in courtrooms. At stake: around $1 million, which Glasheen says he’s owed by Phillips per an agreement they made three years ago. Phillips…
As it turns out, according to an article that just appeared on the Wall Street Journal’s website, life inside the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport air traffic control towers — otherwise known as the Terminal Radar Approach Control facility, or TRACON — is sort of a cross between Airplane! and Pushing Tin…
One week ago today the Dallas Police Department sent word that it had fired three officers — one of whom, Lavar Horne, was also arrested last week for having kept a handgun and tossed some weed seized during a traffic stop. Well, the DPD just sent word that it’s arrested…
No doubt you, the well-informed and engaged Friend of Unfair Park, are well aware that Dallas County’s missing around, oh, $35 million that some bail bondsmen somehow forget to turn over to the county when their clients fail to show up for court. The Dallas Morning News had the story…
As we’ve noted before, the Texas Legislature special session this year was awfully concerned with abortion — namely, making it as hard as possible for anyone to get one. Now, House Bill 15 is heading for Governor Rick Perry’s desk, and the Center for Reproductive Rights is trying to stop…
Back in 2006 Unfair Park’s across-the-street neighbor Heritage Auction Galleries sold some letters written and signed by Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert. ‘Round the same time, the auction house came into possession of a note of condolences Jackie Kennedy had written to Ethel shortly after Robert was gunned down in…
Back in May ’09 we ran a few pages from the first part of then-Dallas County Judge Jim Foster’s deposition taken by County Commissioner John Wiley Price’s attorneys concerning those “shakedown” comments Foster made to Schutze whilst discussing the Inland Port. Reason I went back to look for it: Foster…
Yesterday, some 8,500 Dallas Independent School District elementary students reported to 17 campuses, from Bryan and Caillet to Truett and Winnetka, to begin summer school. Pardon: Make that summer camp. At least, that’s how district officials and DISD’s educational partners sell the idea to kids who’ll spend summer vacation learning.And…
While I finish transcribing a bit of summer-school homework forthcoming, allow me to direct your attention to this eBay find sent my way by Friend of Unfair Park PeterK: an original from-the-archives photo of the 1937 Dallas Steers, who played at Gardner Park (or Steers Park as it was known…
On a certain local man’s 65th birthday, The New York Times wonders whether Dubya and Gov. RIck Perry’s relationship will help or hurt the latter’s more-n-likely run for the White House. After all, they’re frienemies now — have been for years, with Perry insisting since at least ’07 that “George…
We’ve written several times about Andy Carl Valentin and Chris Durbin’s efforts to save the Hillsboro motel where some of Wes Anderson’s locally filmed debut Bottle Rocket was shot. The local film fanatics make their trek southward Saturday night, and right now I’m scheduled to drive down with someone who…
Directly below, in the comments, a reader accuses us of ignoring Angela Hunt’s handful of weekend tweets concerning “bums camping out in our [downtown] parks, making them unusable for families, children, & residents.” Can’t ignore what you didn’t see, but Hunt was referring specifically to Main Street Garden, where, she…
