We told you it was getting weird in there: At last night’s meeting of the city’s Redistricting Commission, the most important person in the room wasn’t even in the room. That would be Sandra Crenshaw, cactus juice addict, Schutze co-star and, increasingly, the commission’s biggest headache.Crenshaw was scheduled to appear…
Hey, that’s not me bestowing that particular appellation upon Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Eddie Burns — that’s from last year’s round-up of America’s Worst Bosses, where Burns ranked No. 1. You probably know why — all those sexual harassment and discrimination suits piled up at Burns’s feet, which have cost the…
Hundreds of former Dallas Independent School District teachers flocked to Harold Wendell Lang Sr. Middle School late yesterday. They were hoping to find new jobs after being told earlier this week that they were caught at the fault line of a shifting, budget-tightening rearrangement. The school’s parking lot was packed…
Here’s a moral conundrum for you, Friends of Unfair Park: Do personal property rights trump the exigency of a wild animal dying in a live trap? Apparently, they trump each other, because when certified wild-animal rehabilitator Bonnie Bradshaw loosed a raccoon from pest-controller Lon Menefee’s trap, each earned a trip…
MediaBistro has picked up on KXAS-Channel 5’s video taken from one of its traffic cams earlier in the week, in which an illuminated something-or-nother can be seen falling from the sky before taking a sharp turn to the right. The NBC owned-and-operated says UFO investigators (?) have been asked “to…
Shortly after Pilgrim’s Pride announced that its second-quarter results were dismal (as in, “a net loss of $128.1 million”), the chicken-seller delivered some very bad news: It’s closing its mammoth Dallas processing plant by September. The plant, on Ferris just south of downtown, employs 1,000 hourly and salaried employees, says…
The Texas Education Agency won’t officially release its based-on-TAKS-scores state accountability ratings till ’round 1 this afternoon (here, for those so interested), at which point Commissioner of Education Robert Scott will hold a press conference in Austin. But the Dallas Independent School District’s not wasting any time releasing its results,…
Back in mid-June we attempted to make an offer on a Bell 407 helicopter, which was being auctioned off by the city. But the bids piled up, and after 60 the $985,000 starting price climbed to $1,467,500, which was $1,467,500 out of our price range. And, besides, the Dallas Police…
A Friend of Unfair Park who lives near the Majestic Theater (lucky!) wonders what’s going on inside the historic venue, which, earlier this year, had its roof replaced and new air-conditioning unit installed (lucky!) courtesy some ’06 bond money set aside for much-needed improvements. So happens that today the city’s…
Over the weekend, The Dallas Morning News blessed us with a pay-walled profile of First Baptist Dallas’s Robert Jeffress, no stranger to the Friends of Unfair Park. And while briefly touching upon some of the pastor’s more, oh, let’s say controversial offerings in recent years, for the most part Scott…
It must be Christmas in July or Unfair Park’s birthday or something, because there are two Redistricting Commission meetings this week. The second one is tonight, and the main event will probably be Sandra Crenshaw’s presentation of her two proposed maps. We suspect she may follow that up by expanding…
A little while ago, the Dallas Police Department’s Central Division posted this heads-up to its Facebook page:A homeless black male who possibly goes by the name “Poochy” is stealing puppies and selling them to residents in downtown Dallas along Main Street. The suspect is approx 53 yrs old, 5’6″, 140lbs,…
Bob Musgrave sends word: “Polly Platt died yesterday.” She was 72. Cinephiles know the name: The ex-wife of Peter Bogdanovich, she worked on such films as Paper Moon and The Last Picture Show before becoming a longtime collaborator of James L. Brooks’s. And she was instrumental in turning Wes Anderson’s…
Actually, it was just one Picasso — along with “real estate, boats and other personal water craft, luxury vehicles, artwork, furniture, antiques, musical instruments, jade, expensive jewelry and wine.” Still. That’s not how Tony Rand and his boys Greg and Bill were supposed to be spending more than 300 investors’…
*Look for first-round draft pick Tyron Smith to be signed in time for this afternoon’s practice. He might be signing as we speak. *But as for Stephen Bowen, I hear he’s talking to the Redskins. *Even though Tony Romo and Kevin Ogletree wore backward caps, Dez Bryant donned a headband…
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve received numerous emails suggesting I sign up for something called Leadership DISD, which promises to develop “education-focused, informed leaders within the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) service area who affect positive change and help to lead support efforts to bring about significant improvements…
A couple of times, including this morning, we’ve noted that Mayor Mike Rawlings has scheduled a dinner with the entire city council on Tuesday, which has prompted a few Friends of Unfair Park to wonder: Like, isn’t that a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act? Technically, no. Says the…
I don’t trust that Oncor power-outage map — mostly because it doesn’t show operating-on-emergency-back-ups Unfair Park HQ on the in-the-dark list, or maybe we’re just the unlucky 26 sans juice in Dallas. (Says 1,088 are sweating it out in Fort Worth.) Course, it could be worse: We could be living…
10. Was it just me and Fox 4’s Mike Doocy, or was owner Jerry Jones choking up a bit yesterday when talking about the voyage that was lockout negotiations? “We took the boat out into a perfect storm and got the boat back home.” The older he gets, the more…
We already know who won’t be attending the gas drilling task force’s public hearing on Tuesday night: Mayor Mike and the city council, who at that time will be breaking bread at Rawlings’s request — maybe some dogs and a beer, or perhaps just a slice? Anyway. City Hall says…
Comes the dawn: That’s it? After a good 14 years of Trinity toll road rah-rahing and questioning the integrity of anyone who suggested that putting a road between the Trinity River levees was a bad idea, D Magazine has apparently (and quietly) changed its mind. “Let’s Ditch the Trinity River…
You think the NFL lockout made you crazy? I submit to you the mind-set of Cowboys linebacker Victor Butler, who last week was so discombobulated that he inexplicably claimed to go eight hours without checking his phone for lockout updates, said he’d almost forgotten his July 29 birthday and developed…
