You can’t really understand Dallas politics without grasping the concept of the white-people deal. It’s a key element. I’ll give you an example. In 2000 a professional lobbyist named David Dean and his wife, Jean, bought a 1916 Georgian Revival home in the Swiss Avenue Historic District and announced they…
Former Dallas Observer ace reporter (and sometime-Unfair Park contributor) Matt Pulle has a great piece up today on the Texas Watchdog Web site revealing that in 2008 alone, state Sen. Royce West’s 10-person law firm billed the City of Dallas, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the Dallas Independent School District, the…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *You’ll have to savor this offering like a cow with its cud, because this morning I’m headed out to the Byron Nelson to chug margaritas and chase girls in The Pavilion…
Dear Mexican: My wife and I have an argument going on about pirates. And since you’re the source for all things Mexican, I thought I’d ask: While I know there were Spanish and Portuguese pirates back in the early 1600s and 1700s, were there ever any MEXICAN pirates? Not pirates…
A concerted effort is under way to pit communities against each other—especially Hispanic against black—over public school resources in Dallas. It’s sort of like going to a starving village somewhere and spreading rumors about secret midnight feasts. It is not an effort with virtue in its heart. But, look, let’s…
On Tuesday of this week Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander responded to questions I had asked him last week for my column this week about per-pupil expenditures at high school campuses. Unfortunately, his response by e-mail reached me several days after my deadline had passed. Mr. Dahlander is…
Today’s meeting of the Dallas City Council’s Trinity River committee — during which the committee endorsed this alignment for the proposed Trinity River toll road – was dull and uneventful in ways that were of keen interest to trained Kremlinologists. By observing which members of the committee made eye contact…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Of the Texas Rangers’ hot start – they are 20-14 compared to 14-20 last year – the most amazing feat is pitcher Matt Harrison’s back-to-back complete games. If you’re looking for Nolan…
Last night’s decision by the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees to delay voting on budget cuts for the district’s enhanced schools was more than just a stall. The debate leading up to that decision shed a little more light on the question most people watching all this have…
My wife is from Michoacán state. We’ve bought a home in the small town of her birth. I love everything about the quiet little place. Even her mother is kind to me, as if I were her son. The food is incredibly good. The puerco is killed that morning and…
For the last several weeks, a certain story has emanated from the superintendent of schools in Dallas and also from a majority of the school board and a cast of lawyers. I paraphrase: Dallas’ splendid magnet schools and learning centers, the crown jewels of a beleaguered school system, must be…
Thanks to the tip from loyal Sportatorium reader, Luca: If you’re not busy Sunday morning and you always wanted to barf on a pew, head down to Ovilla’s First Baptist Church. Now appearing at the pulpit: David Bliss. Yep, that one. Actually, the church’s website boasts a speaking engagement from a David Bliss,…
I spoke this morning with Ben Barlow, the Fort Worth attorney for the Dallas Independent School District system who had informed me yesterday that no waivers were available under existing law for Dallas’s magnet schools facing severe budget cuts under federal Title I funding rules. The thing was, an hour…
At about 5:50 pm today, I received a call from a Fort Worth attorney, Ben Barlow, representing the Dallas Independent School District on the magnet school and learning center issue. He informed me that my piece posted to Unfair Park on Friday night was dead wrong and that there are…
Things are popping a bit today on the Dallas Independent School District magnet schools front.Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’s office confirms that Johnson is talking to the U.S. Department of Education seeking “clarification” of its current position on Title I money and school funding. Dallas school headquarters has been insisting it…
The Dallas Independent School District is about to do massive damage to its magnet school and learning center programs. The magnets represent the best of the district’s academic efforts. The learning centers are the last remaining legacy of a successful decades-long court battle to cleanse the district of apartheid. The…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Looks like The Ticket’s parent company – Cumulus Media – is asking forcing employees to take five unpaid days off before June 30. Ouch. Maybe not a big deal to on-air talent with…
Is it true that most Mexicans are carriers of the swine flu because they eat a lot of chicharrones, or is it the fact that your women are so pig-like? I knew that Mexicans have muy shitty diets, but now we have to worry about them infecting us with a…
Does truth get more difficult the smarter you are? On August 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton told a Washington grand jury, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is….[I]f ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is…
Last night’s four-hour “hearing” on the Trinity River toll road was one big toothache for most of the 100 or so folks on folding chairs in the very gloomy, Soviet-seeming Dallas Convention Center Arena. I put hearing in quotes because it was clear from the very outset that the event…
The Dallas Independent School District board of trustees seems to be moving toward Draconian cuts in staff and budget for the district’s two most distinctive programs, magnet schools and learning centers. The board appears likely to acquiesce to the urgings of Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who is telling them that pressure…
I paid a visit today to the Margaret Hunt Hill suspension bridge construction site on the Trinity River because a frequent correspondent had expressed concern about the effects of recent heavy rains. His worry was about the two big pier footings right by the river’s edge: When viewed from the…
