Several Friends of Unfair Park have gotten the jump on their Sunday New York Times and found within two stories with local ties. Chief among them: the magazine story about George W. Bush’s Freedom Institute on the SMU campus. Much of it rehashes the last two-plus years’ worth of controversy,…
When the pro-hotel group kicked off its campaign at City Hall, they touted the 195,000 room nights and more than $200 million in economic impact booked by the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau resulting from the city council moving forward with plans to build a convention center hotel. Led by…
Just arrived in Austin, only to find in my in-box, oh, ’bout a dozen Friends’ links to either Governor Rick Perry’s speech down in Houston or the Burnt Orange Report’s compendium of reactions to said speech. As you may know by now, the governor is saying no to more than…
Mayor Tom Leppert and Anne Raymond of Crow Holdings and Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel made another campaign stop at the Bachman Recreation Center in front of approximately 40 people eager to hear the pros and cons of building a convention center hotel. Although Leppert is always an active speaker…
Elizabeth Villafranca entered the limelight in 2006, as Farmers Branch began its illegal-immigrant battle that rages to this day. As we mentioned earlier this week, the Cuquitas co-owner has decided to run for city council in the FB. Unfair Park caught up with her yesterday for a Q&A — during…
You’ll no doubt recognize the headline as one of Chuck Norris’s favorite Chuck Norris Facts. Which I don’t mention solely because today happens to be Walker, Texas Ranger’s 69th birthday, but because of a freshly minted Chuck-penned essay on the conservative Web site World Net Daily. It was forwarded our…
City Secretary Deborah Watkins and her staff this morning in the Flag Room at City Hall announced the ballot positions for the May 9 city council elections, as Billy MacLeod, Victoria Walton, Tiffinni Young, John Jay Myers and Anita Dade gained an early leg up on the incumbents in their…
‘Bout 20 minutes from now, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk will go before the Senate Committee on Finance for his confirmation hearing as U.S. trade ambassador — finally, right? We’re having a watch party at Unfair Park HQ: Schutze brought the churros; Merten, the Moosehead. And I brought the Maker’s…
Back in November 2006, Megan Feldman wrote for the paper version of Unfair Park a lengthy piece about Farmers Branch and then-city council member Tim O’Hare’s fight to rid the city of illegal immigrants, especially those living in rental properties. Much of the piece dealt with the politicization of Elizabeth…
Despite Mayor Tom Leppert and the city council’s plans to begin construction on the convention center hotel April 1 and rush to sell bonds on the project to quash the May 9 referendum, it’s still a vote Leppert and his fellow Build the Hotel’ers (soon to be Vote No! Keep…
When the Dallas City Council last week replaced former council member John Loza on the DFW Airport board with Brenda Reyes, we were reminded of the memorable 1997 battle between the two for the District 2 council seat. Reyes struggled with controversy early in her campaign, and she later spent…
Anne Raymond of Crow Holdings and Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel in a missive sent to Mayor Tom Leppert yesterday accuses him of running a “campaign of negative personal attacks.” She also asks why Leppert is rushing forward with construction of the convention center hotel in an attempt to nullify…
Here you’ll find the Petition In Support Of A House Censure For Representative Leo Berman and be able to “join the movement” — which, truthfully, could be stronger. Despite a week’s worth of news coverage concerning one man’s efforts to reprimand the Tyler state representative for remarks made during a…
In his campaign to unseat District 7 freshman council member Carolyn Davis, Libertarian John Jay Myers is using the city’s plans to build a publicly owned convention center hotel as a key issue, posting the footage you’ll find after the jump to his Web site a couple weeks ago. Thanks…
A Friend of Unfair Park sends along this just-posted piece from Politico detailing Ron Kirk’s taxing issue before the Senate Finance Committee, which just today announced it was pushing back his confirmation hearing as U.S. trade ambassador till next Monday. According to a missive sent to journalists by Finance Chairman…
While Mayor Tom Leppert continues to dodge questions about his plans to take over the Dallas Independent School District, there’s been no shortage of politicos willing to offer their thoughts on the topic. Since the news broke one week ago today, we’d been attempting to get a hold of Senator…
The Dallas County Republican Party continued to pick up the pieces from another rough election cycle as it celebrated its largest annual fund-raiser last night at the Westin Park Central Hotel. The Reagan Day Dinner featured House Speaker Joe Straus and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who spoke to dozens…
Back in September, we said the race to replace District 13 council member Mitchell Rasansky (who’s leaving because of term limits) was all but over as Ann Margolin announced a jaw-dropping list of endorsements to go along with her experience on the Dallas City Planning and Zoning Commission, Parkland Hospital…
While his colleagues assembled at City Hall, council member and Build the Hotel’er Ron Natinsky spent yesterday morning at the Farmers Branch Recreation Center selling the convention center hotel to approximately 40 members of the Preston West Republican Women’s Club. Several of the audience members aren’t Dallas residents and can’t…
Barack Obama nominated Ron Kirk as U.S. trade representative a week before Christmas. A month after that, Obama was sworn in as president. A month after that, the former Dallas mayor’s still waiting for his hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, which still doesn’t have Kirk pencilled in on…
In the comments of a blog item regarding council member Tennell Atkins’s questionable campaign finance reports, someone using the name “joe” suggested that, along with being a hobbit, my motivation in digging around Atkins’s reports was his support of the Trinity Turnpike and convention center hotel. Then he wrote: “cue…
Ten days ago, we extended Tennell Atkins an invitation to provide us with an explanation regarding the office space he’s spent nearly $9,000 in campaign dough to rent that he claims doesn’t exist, but not a peep so far from the freshman council member. In the meantime, we’ve continued to…
