Wow. When did the whole topic of taxes turn into wild scary voodoo? Please. Taxes are numbers. Numbers are not snakes. A majority of the Dallas City Council has already voted once in favor of raising the current property tax rate by 4.9 cents per $100 in the value of…
Dear Mexican: What punishment could America give that would FINALLY make crossing America’s borders—repeatedly—unpalatable to Mexicans, when even Mexican natives admit that it is at least as harmful to Mexico as it is to America, and the “needless paperwork” in our immigration process is to TRY to filter out habitual…
City of Dallas Facebook pageFrom yesterday’s Pavaho Pump Station groundbreaking, though feel free to write your own captionDidn’t even get my print-edition column out the door this week before I got a major correction, and this one from a person who would know — city council member Angela Hunt. She…
I was supposed to meet Ernie Santos Saturday morning at Twin Peaks in McKinney. I’m digging into an Observer cover story on metroplex motorcycle clubs/gangs and he, being a member of the Dirty Bastards, invited me to a sort of meet ‘n greet with his crew. Seems one of their…
O.K., I’ve been laughing up my sleeve over the mayor’s whining remarks last week, complaining that certain unnamed “federal partners” aren’t being very nice to him. Hanging around City hall last week for various dumb events, I was able to chat up a couple of people who are keeping quite…
*Of all the teams that lost in Week 1 of the NFL season, betcha there’s only one that spent the last couple days explaining and defending their organizational flow chart: Your Dallas Cowboys. *On one hand I believe the Dallas Police Department officers who clubbed and beat the runaway motorcyclist should…
Dear Mexican: I work at a large hotel in Orange County where 80 percent of the employees are Latin American, primarily Mexican. I love all of them and enjoy working with them. However, the one thing that bothers me is that when they are speaking to each other, they speak…
If I tell you something weird is going on at Dallas public school headquarters, that’s not exactly a news bulletin, is it? But what if I’m talking about something deeply weird? Last week the school district headquarters staff tried to launch a major search and destroy mission to bring down…
I guess grassroots just aren’t what they used to be. Today an announced “grassroots” outpouring of support for embattled 30th District Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson amounted to a dozen preachers speaking to 20 human beings and 40 empty folding chairs in the Flag Room at City Hall. “We have come…
*If you’re Miles Austin are you more giddy about a six-year, $57 million contract or the fact that you get to look/touch/hit this on a regular basis? *Look, I’m as Muslim-skeptical as legally allowed, but I do see this as double-standardy: A couple dudes build a Mosque near Ground Zero…
Dear Readers: ¡VIVA MÉXICO, CABRONES! Happy 200th cumpleaños to America’s favorite country, to the land of pretty señoritas and eternal economic crises, to the world’s greatest, drunkest bola de hijos de la chingada! Celebrate this 16th, drive safe, and guys: Remember to wear a helmet before going into battle with…
In the last few weeks everyone has been talking about taking on a tax increase so we can give City Hall more money. I promise you this much: This story will make you wonder why on earth we would even consider giving the people at City Hall more money. Josh…
In the wake of Congressional candidate Stephen Broden’s latest bombshell about incumbent Eddie Bernice Johnson’s scholar-gyp scandal, we have to wonder about the whole Congress. Is Johnson’s fiddling of some scholarship funds from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation merely symptomatic of a much broader and deeper running syndrome? Over the…
A fellow citizen sent me this picture today after visiting the city of Dallas Department of Building Inspection at 320 East Jefferson Avenue in Oak Cliff. She reported that the sign had exactly the opposite of the intended effect on her…
*I took one thing and one thing only out of Cowboys 27, Dolphins 25 Thursday night in Arlington: I trust David Buehler. In the preseason a lot of things sputtered offensively for Dallas, but 10 of 11 field goals – including 4 of 4 against Miami – is enough for…
I could tell you that the Dallas Desire kick off their Lingerie Football League season this Friday against the San Diego Seduction. I could enlighten you that the Desire are growing up, playing in the Cotton Bowl this season after spending last year on a quasi-field in the outfield of…
Dear Mexican: I’m a naturalized citizen born in Ciudad Juarez but I work for la migra. I get a lot of shit from some of my family members because they feel I shouldn’t be doing this job. I always tell them that it’s better I got the job rather than…
We need to put political correctness aside at least for the moment and have a frank discussion about killing the homeless. Can a case be made for it? For the last couple weeks I have been talking to people about the homeless in Dallas, inspired first by the controversy over…
This item is a dilation of a comment I posted to yesterday’s item about 30th District Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and the scandal about scholarships and nepotism. It struck me after I posted the comment that maybe I owed the topic a better effort. In the mid-1980s I interviewed both…
Lot of interesting murmurs going around Southern Dallas the last few days concerning Christy Hoppe and Todd J. Gillman’s stories in the The Dallas Morning News about Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Democrat of Dallas, dishing scholarships to her own relatives and the children of her top aide, Rod Givens, from…
*By no means am I an alarmist, but we need to see something positive from the Cowboys’ first-team offense Saturday night in Houston. One long drive that ends in a touchdown. That’s all. Give me that and I’ll pronounce the team ready for September 12. With only one season-ending injury…
Apparently my column in this week’s print edition has sparked some controversy (I just hate that, shy fellow that I am), especially a quote from developer David Spence to the effect that he thinks a recent wild and woolly town hall meeting over housing for the homeless in North Oak…
