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…
The battle for the city council’s District 13 seat is already quite a pricy one, as Ann Margolin takes on Brint Ryan for the right to take over for Mitchell Rasansky, who’s leaving because of term limits. Both candidates have been flooding area residents with mailers and campaign materials over…
In separate 10-2 votes, the Dallas City Council approved developer and operator agreements with Matthews Southwest and Omni Hotels for the convention center hotel, leaving the $525 million bond issuance as the final vote remaining before the project is officially given the green light. While the city waits to float…
Yesterday afternoon, the council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee learned about the inner workings of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from their newly appointed liaison, Kevin Craig. Described by Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan as the No. 2 civilian at the corps’ district office in Fort Worth, Craig previously…
Few weeks back, we directed you to an online survey Dallas City Council candidate Ann Margolin was taking as she vies for Mitchell Rasansky’s District 13 seat at the horseshoe. Well, the results are in, and Margolin writes in a mass e-mail sent to her would-be constituency today that the…
“Attention to detail delays Army Corps of Engineers, frustrates Trinity Parkway supporters.” The headline of Michael Lindenberger’s latest story on the Trinity Turnpike in The News serves as a powerful reminder of the fundamental difference between supporters and opponents of the toll road. The opposition views the U.S. Army Corps…
So says the former president’s chief of staff, Andrew Card, who also told Politico that Bush has been “very, very busy.” Doing what, exactly? Well … lots of things. No mention of his trip to Calgary, where Bush is expected to pocket some serious Canadian bacon. Garrison Keillor, though, sees…
