- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Dallas and help keep the future of Dallas Observer free.
Doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to see where this is headed: The Dallas Morning News is reporting this afternoon that after an exhaustive review of documents and e-mail exchanges between city council members and Live Nation staffers, it has determined that council members and their friends and families received hundreds of gratis tickets to Smirnoff Music Centre events (of course, now it's the Superpages.com Center). At the top of the list: Pauline Medrano (66 freebies), with Steve Salazar coming in a close second. Also raking up the goodies: former council members Gary Griffith, James Fantroy, Don Hill and Leo Chaney.
Course, this comes about a month after the City Auditor's Office revealed that Live Nation owes the city $842,970 for lease payments dating from 2001 to 2006. And it comes a week after the council amended the Code of Ethics to "provide further guidance to City Councilmembers regarding the solicitation and acceptance of gifts, tickets, meals, travel, lodging, entertainment and honoraria." Awesome timing, people. Awesome. --Robert Wilonsky
Keep the Dallas Observer Free... Since we started the Dallas Observer, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Dallas with no paywalls.
