As I type this, Mayor Mike Rawlings is in a room at Shanghai’s Purple Palace Hotel, 7,000 miles away and 13 hours ahead of us. That makes it about 1 a.m. over there, so you might expect him to be sleeping, resting up for another big day at the U.S.-China…
A few moments ago, Parkland sent word that John Dragovits, its executive vice president and chief financial officer, is leaving the struggling hospital. Come mid-July, he’ll become the president and COO of Anthelio, a healthcare IT provider headquartered in Dallas. The press release, of course, makes no mention of Parkland’s…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Leslie Finical Halleck, author of research papers in plant ecology and botany, and general manager of one…
Texas is no stranger to beefs with the federal government. Look no further than its perennial pissing match with the EPA. Last week, Texas officials declared victory in another front of their skirmish with the feds, this one involving an obscure reptile, the dunes sagebrush lizard, found only in four…
Turns out, the people of Dallas don’t care much for voting — Dallas County ranked fourth in the state (out of 254 counties) for the fewest ballots cast among voting-age people. Even Harris County had a slightly better turnout, which unfortunately means the Asshole of the Universe, has us beat…
This morning, the DMN gives us more details (paywall) about the guy who allegedly tried to blow up a gas main in Plano but was instead taken to the hospital with shrapnel wounds. He now has a name, Anson Chi, a past conviction on a concealed weapon charge in California,…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. So it didn’t end well for the Mavs this year. But it’s still good — it’s still…
First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress gets most of the press for his outspoken views on homosexuality and Mormonism, but over at the Dallas Voice, John Wright highlights the, um, retrograde views of another prominent local preacher, Dwight McKissic of Arlington’s Cornerstone Baptist Church. McKissic successfully introduced a resolution at the…
While American Airlines is busy feuding with its unhappy pilots, Southwest Airlines is dealing with the PR fallout from yet another customer who had an unpleasant run-in with the airline’s self-appointed clothing police. A woman who only gave her first name, Avital, told the website Jezebel that she was traveling…
When Texas Democrats gathered in Houston last week for their annual convention last week, the mood was glum. Republicans have, after all, held every statewide office since 1994 and, while demographics are likely push the state back into Democratic hands by, oh, 2050 or so, there’s not a lot to…
Yesterday, a company named Clear, which bills itself as “the nation’s pre-eminent biometric secure ID program” announced that it will set up shop at DFW Airport’s Terminal E on June 27. Says the news release, the company’s “innovative biometric technology combined with members-only lanes allows travelers to speed through security,…
At a hearing Wednesday, Chairman Ralph Hall and his Republican colleagues put their powerful U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to its highest, most noble use: Namely, bringing the election-year hurt to the Obama administration for whatever perceived shortcomings reside in the committee’s broad wheelhouse. Reading from a…
Every morning at a METRO stop along the Katy Freeway in Houston, several dozen commuters gather and wait. Except they’re a little out of place. “There’s a main area where the buses pick up the people who park up at the park-and-ride lot and, not far from there are relatively…
We know the value of things at Unfair Park. We appreciate a fine wine. A beautiful painting. A rare book. That excellent marijuana you had to drive across town and sit in your dealer’s living room for 40 minutes feigning an interest in his girl problems to get. Yeah, we…
On June 28, the Texas Public Utility Commission, the state agency that regulates energy, will likely vote on whether to sharply increase the top amount that electricity generators can charge retail providers such as Reliant and TXU for power when supplies run short. In other words, when we’re all whimpering…
Farmers Branch hasn’t so much grown as its complexion has darkened over the last 20 years. You wouldn’t know it by looking at the City Council, though.
At its meeting today, the board of the North Texas Tollway Authority approved a plan to publish the names of every person who has 100 or more unpaid tolls. It will be an updated list of more than 25,000 drivers who owe something like $12.5 million. I can get behind…
Damage estimates from the hail storm that pummeled, to name a few things, historic slate roofs, delicate glass sculptures, the Midway sign at Fair Park, and my car. Also, the head of state Rep. Eric Johnson’s wife Nakita when a hailstone boulder crashed through his car’s sunroof, which might have…
Why is Fair Park so deserted? It’s a question that has baffled city officials forever, but so far no one has come up with a plan to draw people to the 277 acre fairgrounds in months that don’t start with “O.” It’s a puzzle no longer, because council member Dwaine…
Update at 5:26 p.m.: Just kidding. Great Clips sends word that they are in the process of dismissing the lawsuit. “We have come to an amicable resolution with Mr. Ross,” the company said in a statement. You may not have noticed, but the hair-styling landscape in Dallas is shifting beneath…
Yesterday, when it came out that the guy who said he had been injured by a hit-and-run driver during a midnight jog had actually been attempting to blow up a natural gas main (the shrapnel was a dead giveaway), people went bat shit. My Twitter feed exploded (figuratively) when the…
First, the bad news. Next year, the city estimates that residential users will pay 5.7 percent more for water, according to City Manager Mary Suhm’s latest budget briefing (page 35). Wilonsky told you it was coming, right after the city hiked rates last year, again more than five percent. The…
