By the time the Wright Amendment is lifted, I plan on traveling exclusively by jetpack. The local papers are all back pats and wet kisses over the Wright Amendment accord announced by mayors Laura Miller and Mike Moncrief yesterday, and good for them for finally hammering out a deal that…
Why is this man smiling? Oh, right. Because he is kicking the Mavericks’ collective ass. Did think briefly this morning about recapping the results of my swim team’s meet last night; turns out we lost too, but at least the kids tried, which is more than I can say for…
Rick Kennedy Whoopsie-daisy Our constant vigilance here at Observer World Headquarters was rewarded moments ago when, just across the street, we noticed this innocuous maroon compact popping the baddest-ass wheelie we had ever seen. Except that it was just sitting there. Further investigation showed that in fact the car had…
Former Dallas drummer (and legendary hooligan) Michael Sanger returns to home base from the desert sands of Phoenix on a short tour with electro-twins Bark Bark Bark. Jacob Cooper and Grace Claiborn (aka, Cranberry Grace) enlisted Sanger (formerly of Post from Vermont and Budapest One) to provide live beats for…
So here I was, face-to-face with the man who claims to be one of the biggest evangelists in the world, Dr. K.A. Paul. A native of India, what Paul lacks in height he more than makes up for with charisma. A photographer and I met him at his humble offices…
Barry Annino was at council yesterday to cheer on the city’s decisions to lay down the (new) law in Deep Ellum. Lost in all the ForwardDallas! doings at City Hall yesterday was agenda item No. 50, regarding proposed zoning changes in Deep Ellum. You’d think, after all the furor over…
Dwyane Wade needs a Purple Heart more than he needs an NBA title. Guy has more boo-boos than a 3-year-old. Not because he torched the Dallas Mavericks for 42 points in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. (Well, that may be part of the reason.) Not because everyone else is…
Some final thoughts on yesterday’s ForwardDallas! vote at City Hall…or, Where Was Laura? To that question, certainly the answer is she was tending to Wright Amendment negotiations, hashing out the final plan after hastily nixing her hastily called press conference. Yesterday evening, her absence from council chambers during the heartfelt,…
Mark Cuban to David Letterman: Steve Nash sucked, and Donald Trump’s a dick. That about sums it up. Before we start this morning’s Mavs-Heat what-up recap, we can go no further before mentioning Mark Cuban’s appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman last night. Gotta say, the man held…
ESL: In the last 10 days, the Dallas Observer and The Dallas Morning News both reported on the plight of Jeffrey Ellard, an inmate at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center who needed a hastily arranged court hearing to ensure he received medical treatment for a festering gash in his left…
Whaddaya Mean, “Secret?” Narrow-minded: I just have one question. Why does Sam Machkovech have a job? I think the man has a secret agenda to kill the Dallas music scene. His articles are so negative and his perspective is so narrow that I can hardly force myself to finish reading…
At Nellie’s Sports Bar just south of downtown Dallas, there are tons of photos adorning the walls. Former Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson with Dirk Nowitzki, with Steve Nash, with Troy Aikman, with Sammy Hagar and even with Kinky Friedman. And, coming soon, Nellie posing with the NBA championship trophy…
Minister Anand Kilari says he’s saved countless orphans in India and stopped wars around the world. But he is at least equally proud of owning a 747, which he christened Global Peace One. He beams when he announces that the only other person in the world with a private 747…
If babies have the market cornered when it comes to cuteness, 6-month-old Jacob Wesley Cato is the CEO of cute. He bounces up and down in the baby-walker equivalent of a tricked-out sports car, giggling and poking the myriad attachments that whiz, spin and twirl. The primary-colored paint job makes…
This is all about priorities. Isn’t it? Last week when bids were announced for the first “signature” bridge over the Trinity River, the reaction at City Hall was understandably distraught. City leaders had hoped to erect three suspension bridges over the Trinity designed by famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. But…
On a Saturday afternoon in January 2005, a short Indian minister stormed into Gallery Furniture in Houston and demanded to speak to owner Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale. There are few places as crowded as Gallery Furniture on a Saturday, but the man, surrounded by his entourage, was insistent. A staff…
The council’s talking now, and I think it’s gonna be a sweep, damned near. “Dallas is the ninth-largest city in the country, and we’ve developed half of it,” says Bill Blaydes, who looked like he was dozing during the naysayers’ speeches. “There is a major need for what we are…
John Fregonese, the proud papa of ForewardDallas!, is in the house, but has kept quiet. He’s been walking around, standing and sitting and stroking his beard, looking alternatively bored, frustrated, aghast and elated as his baby gets batted about the room. His name has been evoked a hundred times today–sometimes…
Among those in the audience is Dwayne Jones, executive director of Preservation Dallas, who says he is “perplexed” by the outrage being directed toward the plan and the council committee that approved it. Contrary to the opinions of the speakers snaked around the council chambers, who insist ForwardDallas! will ruin…
So far there have been legal and accounting issues raised regarding FD! One speaker said it violates Texas zoning law, another said it’s inviting dangerously speculative development along the so-called transit corridors that cannot even withstand the density proposed in the plan. And a woman from Bluffview cried at the…
Of the 700,000-plus people estimated to have entered the United States illegally last year, at least 463 died trying, 140 of those in Texas. Many more bodies lie undiscovered in the desert. Because of increased border enforcement in urban areas, illegal immigrants are increasingly turning to more hazardous routes across…
The first speaker against the plan was Neil Emmons, a plan commissioner. He was representing Cay Kolb, a former city planning commissioner and former DART board member. She could not attend the meeting today, Emmons told the council, because she is tending to her husband in an intensive care unit–and…
