A lot of things have changed in Dallas in the past 40 years — just look at the skyline or Uptown or the exploding suburbs — but not everything. I was reminded of that this morning by the city’s Facebook page. There, spokesman Frank Librio posted a brief history of…
Perhaps you’ve heard by now: the Morning News reports that negotiations “have all but broken down” between the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, who own the neighboring Museum Tower, which its critics say is really lighting up the neighborhood. But a statement sent to…
Update at 2:41 p.m.: I just heard back from Garcia. It was his personal account that was targeted, and it’s still down. “They changed the email to the account and changed the password, and they unfriended everybody,” he told me. Why someone would do that, he wasn’t sure, but he…
Six Republican members of the U.S. Senate — including Texas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn — have requested an investigation of the EPA’s decision to accuse a natural gas producer of contaminating a North Texas water well. In a letter sent last week, the senators asked the EPA inspector…
Dallas Fire-Rescue has not, judging by the lawsuits, always been the best place to work if you’re a woman. A for instance: way back, oh, three years ago, one might have found semen in one’s coffee cup. But the department’s working to change that, making considerable progress, in fact, DFR’s…
After years of struggle, Dallas may be on its way to regulating the city’s boarding home facilities. Finally. City Council members are set to vote Wednesday on a new ordinance that would require licenses and annual inspections for boarding homes, as well rules aimed at keeping the homes “safe, sanitary…
Is “Stuff Dwaine Caraway Likes” officially a meme yet? If not, can we make it one? Because every time he opens his mouth, something fascinating emerges. (See sagging pants and, again, sagging pants, and the roof at Fair Park Coliseum, all in just the few weeks I’ve been paying attention)…
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down much of Arizona’s illegal immigration law Monday morning, leaving its most controversial, show-me-your-papers provision standing, and that only provisionally. Experts say the decision provides a road map to federal courts evaluating immigration laws enacted in places like Alabama, Georgia and even Farmers Branch, Texas…
Hypothetically at least, the 6,100 Dallas restaurants, bars, school cafeterias, and food trucks are supposed to be inspected twice a year by city health inspectors. But when the responsible department’s budget is cut by 43 percent and its inspection staff by more than a third, its ability to conduct such…
The Trinity Strand Trail will someday run about eight miles from the old Trinity River channel, pass under Stemmons Freeway and out of the Design District, lope alongside Turtle Creek, loop beneath the DART/TRE tracks and the Tollway, then link up with the Katy Trail. That’s the plan, at least,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
Corpus Christi Congressman Blake Farenthold appeared on CNN yesterday to tell Soledad O’Brien that he disapproves of President Obama’s recent executive order, which will keep the Department of Homeland Security from deporting some undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children (for now, anyway.) “The president needs to come to…
The Dallas City Council loves art. Sure, council members like getting dressed up all fancy and going to look at the pretty pictures as much as the next person, but they aren’t so simpleminded as to think art is purely for aesthetic enjoyment. This is Dallas, remember, where our leaders…
