Sean Avery Gets 6 Games for Sloppy Seconds

This just in: The wimpy, senstive, ridiculous, irrelevant National Hockey League has suspended Dallas Stars’ winger Sean Avery six games for telling the truth. Do you think the punishment fits the crime? Do you give a damn? – Richie Whitt…

Memorial Services Set For Tomorrow For Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball

Bill Holston, good Friend of Unfair Park, asks us this morning to make mention of tomorrow’s memorial service for the Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball, whose battle with cancer was documented in The Dallas Morning News only a few days before her death on Tuesday. In both pieces, the 50-year-old Baskin-Ball was…

A Crusader for the Mentally Disabled Has Mixed Feelings Over DOJ Report

Mark Graham Haseeb Chishty On Tuesday night, Farhat Chishty got the news: The U.S. Department of Justice, after months of investigating, had completed a scathing report on the Texas State Schools for the disabled and was threatening to sue the state for violating residents’ constitutional rights. Chishty, whose crusade to…

Some Good News For the Dallas Theater Scene. And Some Bad News.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts has a new CEO, Mark Nerenhausen, formerly president and CEO of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, where he worked for 10 years. As announced earlier today, Nerenhausen will start the job here in March, six months before the…

Eastside Homeboy Gets 19 Years

The U.S. Attorney’s Office just sent word: Arturo Tinoco is going to federal prison for a long, long time — 19 years and then some. Why? Because twice in the span of seven months, the 29-year-old was stopped by Dallas police, who, both times, found a whole bunch of methamphetamine…

The Top 10 Sports Zingers I Can Think of Off the Top of My Head

Not saying Sean Avery isn’t an asshole. Or a horrible teammate. Or, for that matter, a room-wrecker the Dallas Stars should consider dumping.I’m just saying he shouldn’t have been suspended – or worse, pending this afternoon’s meeting with NHL poobah Gary Bettman in New York – merely for his “sloppy…

Cowboys 115, Steelers 55

I hear we’ve matriculated from MySpace to Facebook, right?Well, screw me. I never got around to creating a MySpace page. Was reminded why today.Don’t tell the teens and the ‘tweens – or my wife – but something about the whole deal strikes as, um, ridiculously fraudulent.Like, for example, the fact…

What’s In My Closet?

‘Scuse the mess, but this morning I’m rummaging through my closet looking for some stuff for an upcoming Observer cover story I’m working on.But, instead, I found junk. Lots and lots of junk. It’s official, I’m a pack rat. All contained within one spare-bedroom closet. But it’s there. All packy…

Report: NBC News is Set to Make Deep Cuts in its Dallas Bureau

MediaBistro’s TVNewser is reporting this morning that NBC Universal is set to lay off some 500 employees — including folks who work in NBC News’ Dallas bureau. The network’s been shuttering bureaus since the summer; Paris was the first to go, back in August. And in September, word was NBC…

This Morning, Lone Star to Demand City Return its License to Tow

The things you learn by peeking at the Permit and License Appeal Board meeting agenda set for this morning’s hoedown. For instance, Jose Rodriguez will be down at City Hall this morning appealing the city’s decision to deny him a late-hours dance-hall permit for the San Luis Night Club, which…

Blowing Smoke|Red-Faced Profession|From the Inside Too

“Barroom Brawl,” by Courtney Clenney, November 27 Blowing Smoke The hypocrisy exhibited by two of the opponents of the proposed ban on smoking in bars, etc., is truly mind-numbing. On the one hand, we have James Graham, president of a petroleum company, fighting the ban because he “hates seeing lies…

Cowboys’ Winter Wonderland

You can no longer get your boots at Western Warehouse. Mark Cuban is actually being pursued by a creditor. Oklahoma won a college football beauty contest over Texas. And there is a black man in the White House. Our city—our world—is incredibly inverted. To which the Dallas Cowboys say, rubbing…

Dallas Demolition Derby

When reached Monday to discuss the Landmark Commission’s months-long battle with the city over rules regulating the demolition of homes in historic districts, Preservation Dallas executive director Katherine Seale said she was “on cloud nine.” The reason, though, had nothing to do with the city council’s Public Safety Committee’s decision…

Happiness Is a Warm Gun

Draw, pardner: How many times has this happened to you? You’re out doing the grocery shopping, picking up the dry cleaning, etc. You get back to your car and realize you left your lights on. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the lead starts flying. A crazed gunman has opened fire…