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…
Like the folks who rose up against Plano’s non-discrimination ordinance, Republican Texas Representative Debbie Riddle is quite concerned with which public restroom you choose to use. Riddle introduced a bill Friday that mandates that anyone over the age of 12 commits a Class A misdemeanor when he or she uses…
So the news here is pretty simple. The East Kessler Nighborhood Association in Oak Cliff scheduled a mayoral candidates forum for Tuesday. Challenger Marcos Ronquillo is going to be there. Until late last week, so Mayor Mike Rawlings, as far as everyone knew. Then, on Friday, Rawlings made it clear…
Who lives in Dallas? No, not not you, suburbs. We mean big D, little A, double L, A, S, the actual city, a curious place with some expensive, high-class entertainment areas and homes but then also a lot of poverty and some Detroit-like patches. City officials decided to investigate that…
Somehow, @fauxmayormike, Unfair Park’s favorite local, civic-minded parody Twitter account, only has 46 followers. This is a grave injustice, as @fauxmayormike is one of the rare parody Twitter accounts that is actually funny. Here’s some of what you’ve missed to this point: Would this face stop Kingston from asking questions?…
The sky over the Texas Horse Park on Thursday morning was clear and blue, unblemished by even a wisp of cloud; weather would not be dampening the morning’s ribbon-cutting celebration, which has been nearly two decades in the making. On the ground, the forecast was equally sunny. All the gathered…
If not for Adam McGough’s residency issues, the race to replace Jerry Allen in District 10 would be, far and away, the most boring bout on the 2015 Dallas City Council card. McGough and his opponent Paul Reyes are both longtime political operators. McGough was Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings chief…
