Dallas has a knack for self-regard. Self-promotion? Not so much. The city’s efforts at branding itself (“Live Large. Think Big.”) are, well, embarrassing. We’ve had nothing with the catchiness, not to mention production values, of Las Vegas’ “What happens here, stays here.” But Vegas has a slush fund of $95.5…
In case you haven’t been paying attention, the race for the 33rd Congressional District is still a pissing match likely to end up in a runoff between between Domingo Garcia and Marc Veasey for the Democratic nomination. A quick recap: Garcia called big SUVs un-American, which led Veasey to proclaim…
While some in Congress have raised concerns about Facebook’s privacy policies and others are already grousing about the company driving the “biggest Mack truck ever driven through the stock option loophole” with a $16 billion tax deduction, a pair of local congressmen are liking Facebook very much. Representatives Pete Sessions…
Super PAC Campaign for Primary Accountability, a bipartisan political organization that claims to have its barrels loaded for both parties, just fired its opening fusillade. It aims to oust two long-serving congressmen in what would otherwise be shoe-in primaries. The targets: One El Paso Democrat and U.S. Representative Ralph Hall…
Much has been written about the now-certain $25 million renovation and expansion of the Cotton Bowl and the subsequent announcement that the stadium will host the annual cross-border skirmish between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma (and their football teams) through at least 2020.But who cares about…
There are 11 candidates in the crowded Democratic primary for the new congressional district spanning from Oak Cliff to Fort Worth, but the race is quickly sinking into a political pissing match involving just two as the May 29 primary approaches. Marc Veasey, a state representative from Fort Worth, and…
It was Dallas city council member Tennell Atkins who, during yesterday’s discussion of the city’s still-far-off gas-drilling regulations, posed the million-dollar question. “Do you think that it’s safe to drill in the city of Dallas?” he asked task force chair Lois Finkelman. Finkelman was noncommittal. That left others to speak…
The Washington Blade, D.C.’s main LGBT news outlet, is reporting that Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has placed Chief of Staff Murat Gokcigdem on leave following questions about a 2010 e-mail.According to the piece, staffer Chris Crowe was seeking a letter of recommendation from Johnson for a position in Obama’s Treasury Department…
With early voting for the May 29 primary election already underway, and with the federal government’s tet-a-tet with Texas over its 2011 voter ID law far from settled, the ACLU of Texas wants to remind you that no, you don’t need to show an ID to vote and if a…
Four years have passed since Trinity East signed on as the largest gas lease-holder with the city of Dallas, and the company still doesn’t know when it will be allowed to drill its first well — if ever. As the company’s name suggests, Trinity East wants to drill for natural…
At some point, the vacant triangle of land running along the west side of Central Expressway just north of Lemmon — the plot where the McKinney Avenue Trolley recently laid down its new turntable — will house tall buildings, mostly offices, 30 and 40 stories high.That’s the idea at least,…
If you build it dump $82 million into it, they will come. Mayor Mike Rawlings sends word today that it’s a lock: The annual, traffic-snarling blood feud between the University of Texas and Oklahoma University known as the Red River Shootout will be played in the Cotton Bowl at least…
Update 12:45 p.m.: City spokesman Frank Librio sends word that, on second thought, there is plenty of parking available for the Chihuly exhibit at the Arboretum and no need to mow Winfrey Point. Attendance numbers for the current exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum appear to be within the facility’s ability…
A couple of weeks back, Dallas ISD trustee candidate Damarcus Offord filed an ethics complaint against someone named Mike Rawlins. It turned out that Rawlins was actually Mike Rawlings, mayor of Dallas, even though he had allegedly removed his mayor’s cape off before he endorsed three trustee candidates in the…
Late on Friday, we passed along a letter from the Dallas Arboretum celebrating an agreement with White Rock Lake neighbors that allows the city to turn the grasslands of Winfrey Point into a temporary parking lot. It was a strange missive to begin with — a botanical garden celebrating its…
After an agreement was reached earlier to let the city mow the wild grass at Winfrey Point, both City Hall and the Arboretum have come out firing PR-wise, trying to turn the tide of support for keeping cars off of the “prairie.” Below you’ll find releases sent by both City…
Rep. Ralph Hall finally found his General Services Administration-style confab scandal. No, it doesn’t involve EPA employees playing a blindfolded game of Crucify the Energy Executive during a conference at The Venetian. But it’s the next best thing: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with its heretical climate change studies…
Immediately after Mayor Mike’s extremely non-surprising show of support for the Trinity River toll road yesterday, the city council members retreated into executive session to continue talking about how to regulate the city’s boarding homes . After more than an hour off-camera, they came back and agreed to let staff…
I sat in the front row of the folding chairs yesterday and gazed around the ceremonial “flag room” at City Hall. Mayor Mike Rawlings and a majority of the Dallas city council were ganged up around the podium endorsing a plan to build a two-billion-dollar toll road next to the…
Something happened to me at City Hall today, where I went in hopes of chronicling the mayor’s Trinity Toll Road speech. I have really debated with myself about going public with it. But my hope is that if I tell my story, other men who have been through the same…
All right, I missed on one thing this morning in my predictive imaginary report on Mayor Rawlings’ Toll Road press conference at City Hall. I predicted that former city councilman Dave Neumann would bound around the room like a kangaroo shouting “Pickles and applesauce.” That did not happen. I think…
Citizen Mike Rawlings has put his Mayor cape back on and will host local, federal, state and Dallas ISD officials at a news conference Friday morning. The event, at 9:30 a.m. at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center, is geared toward providing new strategies for Dallas ISD to “increase regional…
