When Mayor Mike Rawlings and sundry other dignitaries gathered in Pleasant Grove last month to unveil the almost-open Texas Horse Park’s enormous new sculpture, there was much self-congratulatory gushing, multiple allusions to an imagined horse/cowboy culture, even a laughable pitch by Councilman Tennell Atkins for the Trinity toll road (“We’ll…
Ted Cruz confirmed what was inevitable early Monday morning on Twitter. The Texas senator, sworn in just 26 months ago, is running for president. I’m running for President and I hope to earn your support! pic.twitter.com/0UTqaIoytP— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 23, 2015 Monday morning, Cruz formally confirmed his candidacy at…
Since we last left Faux Mayor Mike, his still criminally underfollowed Twitter has more than tripled its constituency. Faux Mike himself has continued to rampage around Dallas’ favorite Internet haunts as well, dropping f-bombs, extolling the virtues of pizza and decrying all the “jihadist anti-toll road goofballs.” Amid the profanity…
Update March 23: Villalba unblocked Rhoads on Saturday and promised her an exclusive after the bill gets its committee hearing on March 26. Jason Villalba’s taken a lot of heat for HB 2918. Some of it’s been deserved — even Villalba himself admitted to The Dallas Morning News that the…
On March 26, the U.S. Department of Labor will change the definition of the word “spouse” as it’s used in the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Any person legally married to another person in any state will become eligible for the spousal benefits provided for in the act. The…
Mayor Mike Rawlings is not happy with Dallas City Council member Scott Griggs. Two weeks ago, in response to a series of pro-Trinity toll road open-microphone speakers, Griggs tore into the road at a council meeting. “This is the worst boondoggle imaginable, and it’s time to get serious about developing…
Fort Worth oil heir Kenneth W. Davis Jr. is 89-years-old but continues to work every day as chairman of the Great Western Drilling Co. Impressive. Not too long ago, Davis decided to try something new: politics. The successful oilman cites unspecified “trouble” as his motivation to become political. “I never…
Nothing, it seems, trumps property rights. Not even the God-given right to carry a handgun anywhere you goddamn please that Republicans repeatedly cite. The Texas Senate voted Wednesday afternoon to approve so-called “campus carry” the second piece of major gun legislation the body has given the go-ahead this week. In…
On Tuesday morning last week, while most visitors to Klyde Warren Park were batting oversize foam tennis balls back and forth on the main lawn as part of some U.S. Tennis Association promotion, a handful of anti-circumcision protesters (aka “intactivists”) clustered on the park’s far eastern fringe. Clad in all…
CORRECTION: I mistakenly wrote that James Parker, who filed the ethics complaint against council candidate Sam Merten, said he wasn’t told a hearing on his complaint was scheduled. He was, and the corrected sentence is marked in bold below. The first ethics complaint to make it to a formal hearing…
We’re not going to take the time to fully debunk Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ column defending the Trinity Toll Road. Wylie H, Dallas’ preeminent City Hall gadfly and Internet commenter, has already — a day in advance no less — done that work on D Magazine’s Front Burner blog. Still,…
Friday, Unfair Park’s love/hate feelings about state Representative Jonathan Stickland took another turn. The Bedford Republican introduced a couple of bills on the last day of filing, one to cut off utilities to any National Security Agency facility in Texas and another, to make so-called “no knock” warrants illegal in…
State Representative Jason Villalba, a Dallas Republican, is close to a lot of cops. The best man in his wedding was a police officer. So is his uncle and various other friends and family members. So when his friends in the law enforcement community suggested the creation of a 25-foot…
Rafael Anchia has backed up claims that he would listen to his Texas House district when it comes to the Trinity toll road. Early Friday, Anchia filed legislation that would prevent the Texas Department of Transportation from providing funding for the Trinity roll road and require the road proposal to…
There’s all sorts of problems with pre-election candidate surveys. They’re high risk/low reward for participants, can be boring and suffer from a self-selection problem. That’s especially true when the survey is conducted by an interest-fueled PAC like the Dallas Green Alliance, one of two political action committees trying to fighting…
During a joint interview with Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price hosted by the Texas Tribune in Austin, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings spoke out candidly against the growing tide in the state Legislature against local control. Rawlings words come in the wake of a start to the 2015 Texas Legislative session…
Wednesday is Planned Parenthood lobby day at the state capitol in Austin. As you might expect, it’s brought out the best in our favorite local state rep, fetal gun rights advocate and constitutional scholar Jonathan Stickland. See also: State Rep. Jonathan Stickland Swears He Wasn’t Threatening to Shoot People, Just…
Yesterday’s Trinity Toll Road debate may have been unscheduled, but it was raucous. After two open-microphone speakers at the scheduled city council meeting spoke in favor of the road, council members Scott Griggs and Philip Kingston lambasted the two-decades planned South-to-North Dallas connector, despite the objections of Dallas City Attorney…
It’s no surprise that the Dallas City Council voted Wednesday to fix a loophole in the city’s code that allowed elected officials to take unlimited funds for an officeholder account, then use that money on their campaigns. It’s a surprise it did it before May’s council election, preempting months of…
Before getting into what actually happened Wednesday, we will note that council members basically never get rung up on city ethics charges. Complaints get filed, are briefly annoying and then just sort of fade off into the ether. Still, Vonciel Jones Hill and much of the rest of the council…
It’s only natural for Texas’ urban/suburbanites to assume that the choice of agriculture commissioner has little bearing on their lives. This is false. City dwellers eat food, which is grown on farms. They fill their cars at gas pumps and weigh their produce on grocery scales, both of which the…
The sam-sex spouses of Dallas uniformed employees are now eligible for survivor benefits. The Dallas Police and Fire Pension System Board granted the benefits, effective immediately, Tuesday. The move follows a February 18 vote by the City Council to give same-sex spouses of civilian employees pension benefits. The board’s vote…
