Seems like it was only a month-and-a-half ago that Stefani Carter, the Republican state rep from North Dallas, was just another face in that Mitt Romney campaign piece about how, despite having just been booed during his speech to the NAACP, black people love him. Now, she’s a full-fledged surrogate…
The Democrats are gathered in Charlotte for the quadrennial circle jerk in which they deliver bombastic speeches and anoint their presidential nominee. Last week, the Republicans did the same in Tampa. These respective echo chambers inevitably lead to an increase in the type of one-sided political babble that is entertaining…
Twice in two months, the city’s 911 system failed, and failed badly. In July, a family watched their Oak Cliff home burn to the ground as 911 callers were put on hold. Last month, a woman called 911 as she was allegedly being murdered by her ex-husband. Police were dispatched…
The Living Plaza project, the temporary installation of people, food and miscellanea in front of City Hall, has been breathing life into the desolate concrete wasteland at 1500 Marilla for more than a year now. It’s fueled by the type of creative energy one doesn’t expect from the great edifice…
Over the last several years, California has basically existed as a tutorial for how not to run a state government. It’s faced years of crippling budget deficits, has had several of its cities declare bankruptcy, and has been hit especially hard by the recession, all with help from one of…
The Flashback, alas, is not long for this world. In less than a week, the iconic Six Flags roller coaster will take its last passengers backward and forward through its loop before being dismantled. The same fate will befall the parachute ride. Ah, well. Progress marches on. The rides will…
Texas’ delegation at the Republican National Convention seems to have mostly behaved itself in Tampa this week. Soon-to-be Senator Ted Cruz lobbed overblown rhetoric at the Obama administration, and Rick Perry said he’d “absolutely” consider running again, but that’s standard fare. At least no one tossed peanuts and racial insults…
Last I checked, Domingo Garcia lost his bid for Congress. Marc Veasey got about 53 percent of the vote in last month’s Democratic primary runoff, which is more than half, which is what it takes to win an election. Except Garcia doesn’t see it that way. “While it may appear…
A few weeks ago, City Council member Dwaine Caraway ventured down to the first floor of City Hall, where he saw a sight that made his blood boil. Among the people waiting in line at the Bureau of Vital Statistics window was a very young man with his pants hanging…
BMWs are not native to White Rock Lake, though they found a welcoming habitat among the mansions along Lawther Drive and have established colonies in the arboretum parking lot. On Sunday, for one day only, the car company will briefly introduce a new specimen: the 2013 X1. The vehicle –…
The shooting death in late July of felon and suspected drug dealer James Harper by Officer Brian Rowden during a foot chase at a South Dallas drug house has re-opened some barely closed wounds, touching off a painful debate about crime, enforcement, and police presence in low-income black and Latino…
The city of Dallas is awfully proud of its efforts to be green, what with the cuts to its greenhouse gas emissions and the garbage plan that promises zero waste by 2040. Add another item to that list: the city’s first comprehensive sustainability plan. The plan, which will be mulled…
Lubbock County Judge Tom Head is raising taxes just in case, steeling himself for the U.N. invasion that will almost certainly follow an Obama win in November. But what is the U.N. doing to get ready for its occupation of Lubbock? Maybe buying some Red Raider gear to fit in…
Texas isn’t really a red state anymore. It just doesn’t know it yet. The Hispanic population nationwide grew from 35 million to 50 million over the last decade or so, and 20 percent of that growth was in Texas. Meanwhile, the white bloc that does all the electing around here…
Ten ICE agents, including one from the Dallas office, are suing ICE and Homeland Security in a Dallas federal court over a directive from President Barack Obama that would defer in some cases the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought here as children. Dallas enforcement and removal officer David A. Engle…
Last year, on a short block between Pearl and Olive, a few dozen groups hijacked some metered parking spaces downtown for a day. There was music, pop-up museums, a little bit of soccer, and a good deal of lounging. They were miniature parks, set up by volunteers for Dallas’ inaugural…
Yesterday, the Dallas City Council approved a new slate of municipal judges after months of contentious debate. The city’s court system was seen by some as too lenient and not generating as much revenue as it should. In shot, they were too damned fair. What had been a mostly arcane…
Lubbock County Judge Tom Head raised some eyebrows yesterday after he told a local TV station that the tax hike he was pushing for? Oh, it’s just so the county can be prepared for when Obama, upon reelection, orders UN tanks into town and sparks a second civil war. In…
This has nothing to do with Dallas, except that Dallas and Lubbock are both in Texas, but a Friend of Unfair Park passed along an article from a local TV station about a proposed tax increase in Lubbock County. More specifically, it’s about County Judge Tom Head’s reasons for asking…
Many people were not happy when the city unveiled its long-term solid waste management plan. It’s goal of achieving zero waste by 2040 was admirable enough, but the plan pushed consideration of such measures as a plastic bag ban, mandatory recycling and increased composting efforts out a decade or more…
Texas’ game of women’s health pingpong continues. A panel of judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction yesterday that had allowed Planned Parenthood to remain in the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. In other words, PP is out. Again. The nonprofit was booted from the…
In case you missed it last week, Glenn Beck invited oft-discredited historian David Barton onto his show to discuss his latest pantsing. Christian publishing house Thomas Nelson had recently announced that it would pull his latest work, The Jefferson Lies, from the shelves after it “lost confidence in the book’s…
