Politicians and social media have opened up a new low in the art of political discourse. Late Thursday night and early Friday morning, Dallas Republican state Representative Jason Villalba took to Twitter — something he does often with inconsistent results — to say that he plans to push for an…
After nearly ten years of marriage, Marlena’s husband left her. This would not be the first time he had left her and their two young children — many times he had disappeared for days with no explanation. He was always in and out of jail. But this time, it would…
The city of Dallas got poured out of court again yesterday in its decades long extra-legal persecution of Kennedy assassination expert Robert Groden, making the 82nd time the city has lost against Groden in its own municipal courts, not counting a major slap-down suffered by the city in the 5th…
I’ve given up proposing that we kill the homeless. No one ever takes me seriously. Some wag like Tim Rogers at D Magazine always chimes in saying I’m copying Jonathan Swift (“A Modest Proposal,” 1729) – in other words, it’s satire – in spite of my very best efforts to speak…
The entire dilemma faced by the national Republican Party – all of it, top to bottom, start to finish – can be explained through the prism of one small news item: Former Texas Governor Rick Perry will appear on the upcoming season of the television show Dancing with the Stars…
Dallas Police Chief David Brown is retiring from the Dallas Police Department. His last day on the job will be October 22, according to letter from Brown posted on DPD’s DPDBeat.com blog. “After much prayer, I am announcing my retirement from the Dallas Police Department after 33 years as a…
One good indication an institution is up to no good and probably guilty of the sin you suspect it of is an extremely thin-skinned response to your complaint. If they’re not feeling guilty, they wouldn’t be thin-skinned. With thin skin as my scale, I don’t know who measures up as…
There are a lot of the recommendations contained in the report the Boston Consulting Group regarding the loose dog problem in southern Dallas. To a member, the city council members at Tuesday’s specially called meeting voiced approval for all seven of the recommendations made in the BCG report. What became…
Maybe this is all moot. Letters and emails are flying around all over town, one side accusing or attacking the other in the debate about privatizing Fair Park, but I think the deal is done already anyway. No matter what anybody says about it, Mayor Mike Rawlings probably has the…
On Monday, the battle for the future of Fair Park began in earnest. Dallas’ fight over handing the park over to the Walt Humann-led foundation had been a proxy battle at the park board level. Those skirmishes ended earlier this month when the board signed off on the proposed management…
Did anybody else notice that Inclusive Communities Project just got its hat handed to it on its big lawsuit against the state over placement of subsidized housing in already segregated neighborhoods in Dallas? No, I didn’t think so. Welcome to Weirdtown. After yesterday’s City Council briefing on a new city…
This is like two weeks before Christmas when I was 7 years old. I’m so excited. I know it’s going to be something very good. There is no way the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would devote this much energy to keeping something away from little old me…
The lawsuit filed this week against Dallas City Council member Tiffinni Young accusing her of barratry in the death of a woman by dog attack will provide us all with an opportunity to learn what barratry is. I know one thing already. This is going to be all about gray…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is not going to quit fighting against Texas’ transgender community. Tuesday, Paxton filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Franciscan Alliance, a religious hospital network, against the Obama administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in an attempt to block HHS from…
Dallas is waiting for the seemingly inevitable local transmission of the Zika virus, but in the meantime there is preparation to be done. When someone in the city of Dallas contracts the birth defect-causing disease from a local mosquito, Dallas County — home to 30 residents so far who’ve caught…
Do you know what a carbuncle is? It’s something awful, swollen, painful and pus-filled under the skin. Oh, sorry. But I think of the fake kayak rapids that the city built five years ago in the Trinity River – closed for use the same week it opened because it’s too…
Wildebeest-gate. Please let me say that to my knowledge the Dallas Police Association (DPA), the main police union, is not responsible for the placement of a photo of a dead wildebeest on the mayor’s desk to intimidate him in labor talks like the scene in The Godfather where the guy wakes…
When Mark Montgomery beat incumbent Wade Emmert to become the chair of the Dallas County Republican Party, it was widely viewed as a fluke. Montgomery’s short stint at the head of the local party drove the point home. The unknown Tea Partier proved unable to raise money and resigned earlier…
When you think you’ve got a done deal at Dallas City Hall, that’s when you need to check to see if you’ve still got your wallet. No, that’s when you need to check to see if you’ve still got your pants. Oh, sure, I told you here a week ago…
It’s common knowledge that the child welfare system in Texas is broken. Most advocates and professionals in foster care would probably agree that the years of severe underfunding have been the largest contributors to the flawed system. There’s nothing new on that front. Texas Department for Family and Protective Services faces…
Here’s a shoutout from Dallas to national Republicans, asking if you think your grand old party is capable of keeping a person with serious mental problems in office just to prevent a Democrat from getting the job. If you live here in Dallas, it’s an important local question. If you…
Think of me as the guy in the safety glasses behind the window in the little wire-cage tool room, standing at the counter all day jotting stuff down on a pad as it goes out and comes back in. Only instead of “Tool Room” over the window, it says “Mayoral…
