Opinion & Commentary

Domingo, Domingo, Domingo. You were named after the day of worship. Why do you always wind up using names against other people? Yesterday, state Representative Rafael Anchia jumped on Dallas congressional candidate Domingo Garcia for calling a black opponent an “errand boy.” In a press release, Anchia said, “Calling a…

I usually don’t allow anyone to hijack this columna, but an exception must be made for California State Assembly member Gil Cedillo. He’s been fighting the good fight for decades, recently trying to get driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and ceaselessly supporting DREAMers. Cedillo was so moved by the undocumented…

Last week’s big battle over a plan to use parkland by White Rock lake as overflow car-parking for the Dallas Arboretum sort of came out of nowhere. I’m sure somebody out there had to be thinking, “What’s an arboretum?” Please. You don’t have to put your hands up. But there…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Lima, Peru, native John Nicholson has helped out a lot of DFW musicians over the years. His early gigs included Sound Warehouse, Bill’s Records and label promotion for Polygram, A&M and…

Wow. I wonder how many other ancient mariners of the Dallas public school situation put down their daily newspapers this morning, nodded as I did, and thought to themselves, “So they’re messing with Ison-Newsome.” That’s serious. It could mean somebody’s smart. Or stupid. I’m leaning toward somebody’s smart. I’m leaning…

Tried to get past these two very irritating issues but couldn’t pull it off. Woke up in middle of night last night reaching for the shotgun. Please indulge. Eye and ear protection recommended. First clay pigeon I’d like to try a couple 12-gauge shells on: a throw-away line in an…

If you have a chance to visit Dallas’ most beautiful garden on a rainy night, it’s a rather sublime way to experience the lushness. For the opening of Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto’s new exhibition, “Cuddle on the Tightrope,” our friends at the Nasher threw a soiree with South American roots…

WFAA Channel 8 aired a story last night, reprised in this morning’s Dallas Morning News, about a series of armed robberies on and around the Katy trail — three over the weekend and five more during the previous month. Both stories said Dallas Police had refused to comment on the…

Several of you have asked me to explain a point in my column in this week’s newspaper about the Trinity River toll road and why it may be unstoppable. Sorry. Should have done it in the column. And as it turns out, I had this wrong on two scores, one…

Dallas City Hall. Enough to drive a sane person crazy on any given day. What is it they don’t get — other than everything? In today’s Dallas Morning News, Paul Dyer, the very decent man who is director of the Park Department, gives an absolutely honest and totally infuriating explanation…

BUY TACO USA! Gentle cabrones, my much-promised Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America has finally hit bookstores! Place your order with your favorite local bookstore, your finer online retailers, your craftier piratas! Dear Mexican: I’m getting sick and tired of all these dirty, stupid Mexicans running around. The first…

Three things. The Trinity River toll road doesn’t have to happen. But it can happen. And stopping it will take money. Those are the three big practicalities looming over the debate about building a big highway through what was supposed to be our downtown urban park perched against the Trinity…

At some point during last evening’s North Texas Tollway Authority/Texas Department of Transportation Incredibly Boring Event, I realized I was having almost as much fun seeing all the same old pro-toll road partisans again as I was running into my fellow usual-suspect road-haters. These things have become high school reunions…

Of course I can’t read about the ugly mess at the Dallas Arboretum without remembering Bobby Scott, my weird brilliant friend and enemy who patrolled in front of my house for a year muttering that he wanted to kill me. Then at the very end I visited him in the…

You were out on Saturday, Dallas, playing nice and paying no mind to moderation. A fair amount of you were responsible for the sold-out showing at the Granada for Sarah Jaffe, John Singer Sergeant and Zhora. But at midnight, after a sun-drenched afternoon of day-drinking, you could tell the party…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Jason Whitbeck’s come a long way since his earliest days in Deep Ellum, as a street rep slinging free Camel cigarettes. He’s become quite a successful video director, shooting for notable…

In his speech last week endorsing a new highway in the Trinity River flood zone, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings threw down a gauntlet. It was sort of a buried line. I guess not everybody heard it. I did. He said at one point, “I’m a regionalist,” and then he said…

Dear Mexican: I am a 20-year-old tall, slender, blonde Jewish Russian-American. He is a 24-year-old short, muscular Mexican. At face value, you would never think we would work well, but we do. He is never down, always smiling and positive while I worry. However, I noticed he is the most…

Eminent domain, the principle that allows government to force a landowner to sell, is usually thought of as serving public purposes, like building new highways. But in the last two years Dallas County’s public hospital district has been adventuring in a new version — eminent domain for profit. Acting on…