About Those Proposed Permit Fee Hikes …

For months Theresa O’Donnell, director of the city’s Sustainable Development and Construction department, has been meeting with contractors and developers about how to loosen up the permit-granting, inspection-making logjam caused in recent months by departmental layoffs and other budget-busters. Says O’Donnell, TEXO, which reps most of the major commercial contractors…

Now, Look, Mayor Tom is Nobody’s Intern

A few weeks back, you no doubt recall, Virgin America announced that in December, it would begin flying out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The announcement was made in Houston, at the National Business Travel Association confab, and, turns out, Time’s Stacy Perman was on-hand for the announcement. So too…

Checking Out the Dallas Library Cuts

This morning the council takes its most detailed look yet at Mary Suhm’s proposal to gut the libraries’ budget for the coming fiscal year. The briefing goes back a few years too — back to when branches were open 47 hours (some on Sundays) and were fully staffed, when the…

From the Right and Left, the “Texas Influencers”

Many thanks to the several Friends of Unfair Park who’ve forwarded along Austin American-Statesman PolitiFact Texas’s editor W. Gardner Selby’s list of Texas Influencers — which consists of the 50 most-powerful Democrats and Republicans in the state.Not all are presently working in Texas — like, oh, former Dallas Mayor Ron…