Left-wing activists have taken aim at a man whose name you’ve probably never heard: Edward DeMarco. He’s the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and he oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The presidential appointee has become a villainous figure to those who believe lenders should write…
It started an hour ago, and it’s continuing as we shudder, with Tweets like the ones above. And he’s right: There are other providers from which poor women can get health care. It’s just that, thanks to him, there’s no money to pay for it. See the whole Twihad below…
In this week’s cover story, we wrote about Dallas’ boarding houses, which are home to thousands of the city’s mentally ill, elderly, and disabled, as well as people recovering from alcohol and drug abuse. The homes aren’t regulated by any state agency, and despite a law passed some three years…
Pro-life groups in Texas are in an awkward position these days, as the Medicaid Women’s Health Program fights for its life. On one hand, they celebrate anything that they perceive as a blow to Planned Parenthood (which Catholic Pro-Life Committee of North Texas Executive Director Karen Garnett once memorably described…
I, the overbylined, hereby solemnly swear that Unfair Park (“The Blog”) will not, under any circumstances, devolve into a sycophantic shadow booster for the long-shot congressional aspirations of Jason Roberts (“That One Biker Guy”), even in the event that one Robert Wilonsky (“Biker Guy’s Cyber-Boyfriend”) returns to the blog after…
If you happened to stumble upstairs at the Londoner last night, you might have wondered just what the hell was going on. Why were so many of these men wearing suits to the bar? Is that a sweater vest in the corner? Everyone’s throwing the word “santorum” around with such…
State legislation requiring voters to present state-issued identification such as a driver’s license, a concealed-carry permit, or a U.S. passport or military ID was rejected Monday morning by the U.S. Department of Justice. “Because we conclude that the state has failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that the proposed…
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who worked as a nurse before heading to Washington, dropped by Martin Bashir’s show on MSNBC to denounce Governor Rick Perry’s stance toward Planned Parenthood (and to call Rush Limbaugh “un-American”.) “I don’t even know this governor anymore,” the congresswoman says in the clip above. “I…
Update, March 10: Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced late Friday in Houston that federal funding to the WHP would be cut. She said the program will wind down over the next several months, and that the feds are considering funding Planned Parenthood directly. In response, Allison…
Let’s just call it: Everyone in town is running for Congress. Okay, not everyone, but the race for the newly-created, much-argued-over Congressional District 33 has gotten very, very crowded, especially on the Democrats’ side. Last night we watched as former Dallas city council member — and mayor pro tem, state…
NASA was perturbed when Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell auctioned his checklist from the ill-fated mission through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions back in December. So perturbed, in fact, that NASA general counsel asked the auctioneer to halt the nearly $400,000 sale so that proof of ownership could be determined. The checklist,…
The Dallas Police Department’s downtown patrol is about to get a whole lot more, well, motorized. That much we can safely say. DPD announced yesterday that 7-Eleven was donating four new T3’s to the department, bringing the total to eight. They were so excited about the whole thing that we…
If you’ve been hiding under an especially sturdy and soundproof rock for the past month, perhaps you missed out on the increasingly bitter national debate over contraception coverage. Lucky for you, U.S. Representative Ralph Hall has taken a break from doubting global warming and talking about how incredibly safe fracking…
Speaking of the council’s Wednesday briefing and sewers and so forth …There are a few things council will actually vote mid-week, seeing as how they’re on spring break next week. Among ’em: a resolution tsk-tsk’ing the Columbia Packing Company in Oak Cliff, infamous for having been caught turning the Trinity…
And I was so looking forward to this Wednesday council briefing: Overview of Floodplain Management and Drainage Needs in the City of Dallas. Oh, well; guess it’s all Jim’s now. After all, he certainly knows a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to gettin’ in…
One month ago, City Manager Mary Suhm warned the city council: It’s early, very early, but it’s looking like the city could be short anywhere from $49 million to $87 million when it comes to putting together the FY2012-13 budget. And one month before that, Suhm warned the city council:…
Mighty kind of Dallas City Hall to offer all these briefings wrapping up a few loose ends before I get up outta here. First Sylvan Thirty, then the old Dallas High School, then the Cotton Bowl, and now Old Dallas City Hall, which one day should become the University of…
Shortly before the 2011 kick-off of Texas-OU’s annual clash at the Cotton Bowl we spoke with Willis Winters, Park and Rec’s second-in-command, about the need to once again renovate the Fair Park stadium in order to keep the Red River Shootout in Dallas past the 2015 contract. Said Winters, it…
Now that Sylvan Thirty’s out of the way …We learned at the end of last week that Wynne/Jackson intends to turn the 105-year-old Dallas High School on Pearl and Bryan into an apartment complex — that’s on Landmark Commission’s agenda this afternoon, as the developer’s seeking around $923,000 in historic…
The council’s Economic Development Committee’s being briefed this morning on two projects familiar to the Friends of Unfair Park — Wynne/Jackson’s redo of the old Dallas High School downtown, which we’ll get to shortly, and Sylvan Thirty, which is first up.The reason the latter’s on the agenda, says Karl Zavitkovsky,…
The speeches went on and on and on and on … and on, everyone on the stage thanking everyone else on the stage for having a hand in building this thing we were all standing on: the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Mayor Mike Rawlings, Friday night’s emcee, introduced “our new…
Strange timing that one of my last tasks for the Observer will be covering the opening (but not really opening) of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Shame I can’t get Schutze to be my date this weekend, so instead I’ll just have to schlep along my son, who wants to…
