Sure. Turnout for the Democratic runoff election for county judge on April 13 will be tiny. Few people will vote, but the outcome will be huge. The real issue is the character of the community. You know who the real candidates are, right? Let me paint it for you as…
Dear Readers: In honor of April Fools’ Day, I turn this column over to Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project movement, to answer your preguntas. Enjoy! Dear Mexican: I’m a white, college-educated, liberal, Democrat, socialist U.S. citizen. I don’t have any problem with Mexicans coming here to get a…
I guess Hobby Lobby Bobby — the PR guy for Hobby Lobby — is never going to call me back about the big bible museum planned for Dallas. So I’ll just have to go on breaking the story a little bit at a time as I learn things from my…
Last Sept. 12, SMU cornerback Derrius Bell suffered a concussion in a game at Alabama-Birmingham. Sidelined for three weeks, he returned against TCU and, on the game’s first play, violently hit a Frog receiver after a reception. The tackle forced a fumble, and gave Bell another concussion. The end. Bell, considered…
The headline of Michael Lindenberger’s big front-page to-do in the paper version of Sunday’s Dallas Morning News was “Grand Plans Delay Levee Fix.” It was, in many ways, a remarkable story for The News to publish, exposing as a serious public lie the repeated assurances of Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *While Donovan McNabb is dangled by the Philadelphia Eagles and Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers conveniently avoids talking to the police about possible rape charges, isn’t it nice that Dallas…
I just want to make a small point about the way Dallas City Hall does business. Not a huge point. City Hall tries to make things go away. It reacts to irritating stimuli the way I react to noises from the brakes in my car. Ignore them, and they will…
Dear Mexican: I just read that Speedy Gonzales is getting his own feature film and will be voiced by George Lopez. I read in The Hollywood Reporter that Lopez said he gave Speedy his “Latino Seal of Approval.” Who grants this seal? What does it look like? And how did…
10. Decided to take a day off today. At least from 105.3 The Fan. I’m working on a cover story for next week’s Dallas Observer, plus I’ve contracted some ornery strand of the common cold that has me so congested that diced jalapenos taste like nothing but texture. Seeing that…
The body of Major General Hugh Robinson will be released from a three-week limbo at a Dallas funeral home and buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, according to Scott D. Weber, a lawyer representing Robinson’s biological children. The remains of the late civic and military leader were…
The city finally came up with that list of city officials with whom lobbyists must report contacts under the new lobby reform ordinance that goes into effect a week from now. The lobbyists had been bitching behind the scenes because the city was taking months to come up with the…
I’m getting a a lot of e-mail from people who want to know how to look up their property on the FEMA flood risk maps to see if they are exposed to flooding since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has declared the city’s Trinity River levee system unsafe. I’ll…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Randy Galloway – who’s forgotten more Rangers’ baseball than I’ll ever learn – says a disgruntled former employee blackmailed the organization and ultimately leaked the story of manager…
Got a little e-mail debate going with Frank Librio, the spokesman for the city of Dallas, which I thought I should share with the Friends of Unfair Park. Always good to get a second opinion. Maybe people will agree with Frank that I have been unfair. I have a column…
Showed up at Room 5ES in Dallas City Hall this morning at 9 a.m. to cover an officially posted hearing of the Dallas Zoning Ordinance Committee on community gardens. Sat there. Alone.After a span of time I am not willing to divulge, I snapped to the fact that something wasn’t…
Dear Mexican: By now, I’m sure you’re aware of all the hate crimes against Hispanics in the last few years. By now, I’m sure you’re thinking that this is ¡Ask a Mexican!, not ¡Ask a Hispanic! But let me tell you that all the hate crimes against Hispanics have been…
Seven hundred percent. That’s the magic number. In a mile-deep swath running from downtown Dallas six miles west to the Walton Walker Expressway, north to Texas Stadium and in a brood loop around South Dallas, the risk of flood disaster from the Trinity River—at least as reflected in insurance rates—is…
Unfair Park reported yesterday that things might get uglier in the death and burial of the late Gen. Hugh Robinson, a leader in local Dallas business and civic affairs also prominent in national political and military circles of his time (a top aide to LBJ at one point, for example)…
Dueling obits — always a bad sign. This time the dark cloud of family unrest gathers over the death of Hugh Robinson (or Hughes, depending on which obit you read).The first obituary, which ran March 5 in The Dallas Morning News, did mention Major General Robinson’s stepchildren but neglected to…
Mark Austry was healthy. Not an obsessed fitness nut, but healthy. Played baseball at Texas Tech and with the Fort Worth Cats. Was a superb golfer. And, when he found time from being a devoted family man to wife and two kids, he got out and ran. Sunday he dropped…
We always knew you can’t beat City Hall. Now it looks like you can’t even meet City Hall. As of April 1, people or institutions deemed to be lobbyists at City Hall will be required to go online and report every meeting or contact they have with certain city officials…
Unintentionally hilarious item in The Dallas Morning News today: “Council’s Frustration Spills Over,” by Rudy Bush on the Metro front, in which council member par excellence Ron Natinsky asks a deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development if he can help get the U.S. Army Corps of…
