Opinion & Commentary

OK, let’s get over the thing about “no one has been indicted” in the ongoing federal corruption investigation of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. It’s true. No one has been indicted. But let’s be real. Somebody will be. I am working on a column for next week’s paper about…

I have been looking back at the federal corruption conviction that forced the late Al Lipscomb off the Dallas City Council in 2000. That conviction was set aside two years later by a conservative panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. We have lessons, people…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans , where we meet some of the people behind the local music scene — those who aren’t necessarily members of local bands, but the people who make the scene move. Brian Fiegelman came to DFW from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. His friend Scotty Teece…

Wilonsky and I attended the John Wiley Price rally together yesterday. He has already done a fine job here reporting on what happened. The only reason I would even open my mouth is in response to some of the comments I see in response to his item. One commenter asked…

While we await word of court dates in DeShawn Stevenson’s Irving arrest and shrug at yet another blemish on the record of former Texas running back Cedric Benson, some TCU football players and a former Dallas Cowboy were arrested over the weekend in Dallas. According to Dallas police, former Frogs…

Interesting blow-black — so muted you might call it whisper-back — to recent stories and an op-ed piece in The Dallas Morning News extolling so-called economic progress in Southern Dallas. One instance is on the paper’s op-ed page today, a column from respected Southern Dallas blogger-journalist Shawn Williams, who echoes…

Whether you’ve reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Derek Holland looked unusually sharp from the first pitch last night. Seattle’s woeful offensively. I had a feeling, so I Tweetcalled for a no-hitter in the bottom of the 1st. Holland…

Somehow I’ve taken some heat for this blog post from Monday, in which I admit to being initially skeptical about women’s World Cup soccer but, in the end, apologizing to the sport and thanking the U.S. for the thrills and chills. Guess I should expect it from a blog penned…

First, Casey Anthony. Now, Roger Clemens. The judge in his perjury trial this morning declared a mistrial after prosecuting attorneys showed jurors evidence against his wishes. Isn’t anyone guilty of anything anymore?…

Dear Mexican: Say the immigrant makes a few bucks and goes back to his/her hometown. Think they’ll put up with the shit that prompted them to move in the first place? (How ya’ gonna keep them down on the farm?) —Putting the Red into Redneck Dear Gabacho: Absolutely not. I…

Ever come home from vacation and find spoiled milk in the fridge? When new Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings gets home, he’s going to find the whole cow. It’s not just the FBI raids on his campaign supporters. Last week, while Rawlings and his wife vacationed in Paris, Allynmedia, the local…

Dallas Morning News managing editor George Rodrigue has lambasted me in his most recent “Ask the Editor” column for having lambasted the News in a column here two weeks ago. Now I have to lambaste him back. Whole lotta lambastin’ goin’ on. Anyway, I share with you this open letter…

Gromer Jeffers has a pay-walled column in today’s Dallas Morning News trying to explain community support for embattled Southern Dallas leader John Wiley Price, now the target of a major FBI investigation for money laundering and other crimes. I respect Jeffers for struggling with a very tough issue right at…

Welcome to Local Music’Mericans, where we meet the people in the local music scene that you don’t see on stages. Frank Campagna’s first mural, painted at age 16, was a 9-foot-by-12-foot rendering of a clown wearing a police uniform, sporting a badge that said “pig,” and all in front of…

Thank you, Angela Hunt, for putting the B-word on the table. I could make an argument that fear of the B-word is the main reason we can’t get off the dime about homelessness. Bum! There. I said it, too. Bum bum bum! Some of them are not simply “homeless persons.”…

I need to correct an error and an omission. Yesterday I posted an item identifying the lawyer who defended Dallas County Judge Jim Foster from an intimidation attempt by Commissioner John Wiley Price as Ken Barr. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Ken Barr is a former mayor of Fort Worth and member…

Part of what we do in the reporting biz is look for the anomalous response. I emailed Parkland Hospital earlier this afternoon asking about information I received that the FBI showed up there last night with search warrants related to the Commissioner John Wiley Price investigation.Candace White of the Parkland…

Our coverage of the Inland Port scandal in Dallas may yet produce some new federal law. If it does, I don’t think it’s going to be anything we will be bragging about. Yesterday Wilonsky posted a 2-year-old deposition he found on the website of embattled Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley…

Dear Readers: Ever since the Mexican national soccer team thrashed the American side, 4-2, in last month’s Gold Cup final, Know Nothings have railed about how Mexis in the States root for El Tri against the norteamericanos. They’ve invaded the Mexican’s mailbox with preguntas sobre fútbol, so rather than answer…

Federal agents of both the IRS and FBI persuasion have fanned out across our fair county and state, maybe even traveling to exotic shores, trying to tease truth out of the densely woven fabric of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price’s financial affairs. Lots of luck. As of last week,…

Last week I was talking to a very well-known Dallas television investigative reporter about the Dallas County federal corruption probe. I won’t name him here, because it was a personal call to discuss something else. But he made a point that kept coming back to me all through the long…