Food for Kids or Terror Funding?

While the Holy Land Foundation trial focuses attention on the role, if any, the Dallas-based charity had in financing Hamas, another Dallas-based charity has quietly dropped its lawsuit against author and former Bush administration official Matthew Levitt and his publisher over similar allegations. Writer Greg Krikorian of the Los Angeles…

Ron Kirk is Not Cheap

Ron Kirk made a few bucks off the TXU buyout. Last week, Texans for Public Justice reported that TXU and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG Capital, who are finalizing their deal to buy the energy provider, spent nearly $17 million this year “to convince state officials not to…

Buy Out Lake Dallas’ Famous Duck Inn

These folks, at least, love the catfish and hush puppies at the Duck Inn in Lake Dallas; then again, the joint has been around since World War II was still raging, so, yeah, it’s probably not so bad. (Says the family that’s owned it since the joint was nothing more…

Dick Armey’s Local Think Tank Says Music Piracy is Killing America

There’s a new death-of-the-music-biz report circulating today, courtesy the Lewisville-based Institute for Policy Innovation. Titled “The True Cost of Sound Recording Piracy to the U.S. Economy,” the 28-page study says that the music industry’s losing, oh, $12 billion in revenue each year — and thousands and thousands of jobs as…

Terry Fator’s No Dummy

So, in the end, the judges on NBC’s America’s Got Talent decided they liked the guy with the dummy better than the guy who sang reggae-tinged covers of creaky pop hits. Sorry, Cas Haley — looks like Dallas ventriloquist Terry Fator is the million-dollar man, and, well, there’s little doubt…

Logrolling In Our Time

A former professor of mine at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Stephen Fried, has just released his fourth book, and while it has nothing to do specifically with Dallas, it’s a great read for any married man — or any married woman. Fried, who is best known for…

No, Baby, You’re So Money

Swinging — and not, like, on the playground — is big business, says this Reuters piece. But the very last paragraph makes us wonder, like, why: Swinging also boosts ancillary services such as breast enhancements and erectile dysfunction drugs. “Viagra is definitely part of the adult scene,” said Deborah, a…

How Much More Evidence Do You Need?

After we posted Avi Adelman’s much-commented-on short film yesterday, we got an e-mail from Allen Gwinn, who wanted to know whether we’d seen the video he posted to Dallas.org on Saturday. Not at the time, but we have now: It’s a clip from some surveillance footage provided by a woman…

Dallas Moms are Nothing if Not Industrious

You went through all the trouble of having a baby — the screwing, the swelling, the pushing, the cooing, the gawking, the beginning tinges of regret — and now what are you going to do? Cover the damned thing up, of course! With a Secure2Me baby blanket. Designed by Dallas…

The Frisco Kids

Not going to lie: The only reason I am linking this story — about the first synagogue in Frisco — is because I wanted to run this picture. Because when you’re a 10-year-old Jewish kid in the summer of 1979, there’s nothing better than a movie starring Dr. Frederick Frankenstein…

Crime Does, In Fact, Pay

Them prison bars are made of gold for portfolio manager Jamie Cuellar. Jamie Cuellar is a portfolio manager at Brazos Mutual Funds on Sherry Lane; I know, exciting, right? Only, yeah — at least Forbes thinks so in its new issue. That’s because Cuellar has seen the future of investing…

Hal Samples Works Hard, Cares More

Hal Samples is featuring over on his photog blog the latest video from self-proclaimed local “reggae-jazz-dub” band Aton. Writes Hal, the video for the song “We Are All” is “compiled of images from a live performance they recently did for some of my homeless friends. Most of the DV you…

Intelligent Design for Living Here

A Friend of Unfair Park sends word that in June, the Institute for Creation Research relocated its headquarters to Dallas, all the way from California. And, no, it’s certainly not Big, Big News — say, Comerica big — and the ICR has had an office in Dallas for several months,…

Wiki, Wiki, Wiki

Mike Godwin feels your pain. Eighteen years ago, I was the managing editor of The Daily Texan, and Mike Godwin was the editor of the University of Texas student daily. We did not get along well — something having to do with me trying to lead a mutiny, and, oh,…

Recalling the Recall

Now that my 4-year-old’s been exposed to more lead than a pencil factory, I would like to thank RC2 Corp. for the $2.49 check we received on Friday — to cover the cost of sending back the tainted Thomas the Tank Engine toys we hustled out of the house faster…

Spoiling for a Fight

Peter Schulte: He passed the state law enforcement test on the first try! Last month I talked to Peter Schulte about his nascent campaign to unseat incumbent Sheriff Lupe Valdez in next year’s Democratic primary. He seemed smart and nice, but a little too timid for the game, as though…

Full Of Love. And Sports.

Akin Ayodele wants Tony Romo’s publicist. His stylist too, no doubt. The woman who only recently began watching football is suddenly tackling some of the biggest and best Dallas Cowboys. You may remember Vivian Fullerlove — you know, the anti-Kim Etheredge. While T.O.’s former mouthpiece was bathing the entire publicist…

But Who’s the Mayor of Airport City?

NASA’s Earth Observatory “Similar in shape to the traditional metropolis made up of a central city core and its commuter-linked suburbs, the Aerotropolis consists of an airport city core and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses.” That’s University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor John D. Kasarda writing…

Avi Adelman: The Next Lars von Trier?

Because it’s early and we have a long day ahead of ourselves, we’ll leave it to you to read precisely why Barking Dog Avi Adelman and Whisky Bar owner Jim Slaughter have a beef with each other. Us, we’re not really that interested in the whys and hows, only in…

Some Final Friday Kernels of Korn

We’re pretty sure this is Dallas boy Zac Baird, who’s currently playing keybs in Korn. Like, his nickname is Horse, of course, of course. Some housecleaning before the weekend: Jeff “Cottonmouth, TX” Liles writes in to remind us that Zac Baird — the homegrown keyboardist who’s played with the likes…