As you may have noticed, Wikipedia, the world’s leading purveyor of pretty accurate information, was offline yesterday, one of thousands of websites blacked out in protest of Congress’ SOPA and the Senate’s PIPA anti-piracy bills. Giants such as Facebook, Google and LinkedIn issued letters of protests, as Internet companies and…
A few years back there were some questions on the Dallas Historical Society’s chatboard about what in the wide, wide world of sports Exposition Plaza’s supposed to be. Because, sure, you drive by the circular mini-park at Canton and Exposition all the time if you’re heading from downtown to Fair…
So says CNN: “The Texas governor will make the announcement before the CNN debate in South Carolina.” And Politico: “Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to end his presidential campaign Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich.” (Ooooh, speaking of.) A press conference has been scheduled for 10ish this morning, after which…
In the end, the Dallas City Council voted this morning to remove Municipal Court Judge Phyllis Lister Brown from the position she’s held for 17 years. But she’s not about to go quietly. Far from it. Brown landed in a legal tangle with the city when she filed her candidacy…
Had a lengthy talk with Mayor Mike this morning about yesterday’s doings at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in D.C. Long story short, said the co-chair of its Work and Opportunity Task Force: “This is not about labor or business. I think the Democrats will say, ‘We’re pro-labor and pro-small…
Dallas Public Library system interim head Corinne Hill says she wasn’t pushed out. The decision to quit Texas for Tennessee and helm Chattanooga’s Public Library system was hers alone. But the city’s leisurely search for a new director — and a blown Thanksgiving deadline — sure “didn’t help,” she told…
We first told you the tale of Municipal Judge Phyllis Lister Brown in mid-November — when the city council-appointed judge sued the city to stop from being booted off the bench. Said the 17-year veteran of the muni court, she didn’t want to end up like Elizabeth Frizell, who, in…
A Friend of Unfair Park gave me the heads-up: Tune into C-SPAN2 right now, where Mayor Mike Rawlings has the floor for the next several hours. Which is right: Per the agenda for the United States Conference of Mayors’ 80th Winter Meeting, the Dallas mayor is leading the chitchat about…
Tomorrow morning Mayor Mike, City Manager Mary Suhm and the city council will chit and chat about what they hope to get done by year’s end. Nothing much — just things like, “Improve Dallas’ standing among safest large cities (1M population) from 7th to 5th.” And: “Further develop affordable housing…
The council’s Economic Development Committee kicked off its morning meeting by taking up the Texas Horse Park, which came up $14 million short in private funds but remains high on the city’s to-do list. Hence, as we’ve noted in recent days, Park and Rec and the city manager’s hope that…
Speaking of this morning’s meeting of the council’s Economic Development Committee …When he’s done talking about sinking $750,000 in city funds into growing small business, Office of Economic Development honcho Karl Zavitkovsky will ask the council for $7.5 million in TIF money for The Collective, a proposed $48.3-million mixed-use development…
I was out wandering around not far from my house this morning when I was lucky enough to catch a bit of the annual Elite News-sponsored Martin Luther King Day Parade. Hundreds of people turned out to watch, lining the former Forest Avenue for at least a mile. The marchers…
A little later than promised, here’s the 44-page Texas Horse Park briefing the city council’s Economic Development Committee will review tomorrow morning. We’ll follow along as Paul Dyer, head of Park and Rec, attempts to convince the council to spend $12 million in ’06 bond funds to build out Phase…
Jason Roberts broke the news yesterday: Israel “Dallas” Torres, 32 years old and an experienced cyclist, was hit by a car Saturday afternoon while riding on the Jefferson Boulevard Viaduct. He was just beginning a 40-mile ride, a daily occurrence, when he was struck: “The impact threw him into the…
Far as Dallas City Hall’s concerned, it’s hard out there for a small start-up, which is why it’s spent years loaning and granting money to businesses via, say, the South Dallas/Fair Park Trust Fund and the Southern Dallas Development Corporation, both of which have suffered their share of sputters since…
It’s been close to two years since Greg Davis, WRR’s longtime general manager, left the city-owned classical-music radio station — and, remember, he didn’t quit, he retired. But tonight, buried in the stack of docs prepared for next week’s council committee meetings, we find this bit of breaking news: The…
Technically I could have filed this under “Today’s History Lesson,” since most of you who even recall the Texas Horse Park likely considered it a thing of the past. After all it’s been around since the mid-1990s and was included in the $246-million capital bond program for the Trinity River…
Couple of days back I noted that Corinne Hill, the interim director of the Dallas Public Library system since July 2010, is slated to give a talk about “Re-imagining the Public Library in a Post-Recession Economy” when the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting comes to town next week. But she…
“It’s mid-January,” Dallas Animal Services Commission member Bonnie Matthias said emphatically. “And we’re caught with our pants down again.” As usual, there’s good news and there’s bad news at Dallas Animal Services. This week, shelter manager Jody Jones and head of Code Compliance Jimmy Martin put in two appearances at…
If you gave me 100 tries to guess how Rick Perry is similar to Rocky and Babe Ruth, I don’t think I’d come up with “Champion.” But there it is, in all its strings-and-keys glory. Soak up the magic while the YouTube channel still exists…
From time to time the city will post to Lone Star Auctioneers some of the finer offerings being sold out of the City Store, where there’s always a bargain to be had. This week, I see, Richard Matthews is making available, among other curious (four “SelfCheck Checkout Stations”), an assortment…
As he does every week, Dallas Cothrum of MasterPlan Consulting sat in the front row of the city’s gas drilling task force meeting yesterday, attentively tuning in, occasionally sighing and taking notes in order to deliver his energy company clients the latest news from the home front. Yesterday was slightly…
