In federal court today Ray Jackson, lawyer for former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, has been working on affordable housing developer Brian Potashnik in an attempt to get him to tell the jury that he was forced against his will to plead guilty to bribing Hill. I don’t think…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Once upon a time Walter Cronkite was the “most trusted man in America.” His death got me wondering who wears that crown today? The answer hurts: Oprah. *Sure smells like the…
I’m not even trying to change the outcome. It’s a freight train. Strapping myself to the tracks is not my idea of fun. But I want you to see what an enormous mistake we’re about to make in choosing a second DART rail line through downtown. Downtown Dallas 50 years…
Dear Mexican: The mainstream media is making big noise of Sonia Sotomayor likely being the first Latina Supreme Court justice, and that all Latinos should be proud. But Puerto Rican ain’t Mexican! The Supreme Court won’t have a shade of brown until a Mexican is among Roberts and Scalia. What…
So I am here, back in the overflow room at the Federal Palace of Justice downtown watching the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial, and I see that we have come to one of the most fundamental and time-honored traditions of Dallas politics: that fine old institution called “walking-around money.”Victor…
Dear Mexican: How can I get Mexicans to arrive to a meeting ON TIME? —Punctual Pete Dear Gabacho: Tell them you’re offering green cards on a first-come, first-serve basis. And then diles a gabachos to eliminate the concept of arriving “fashionably late” the way they did the Polish joke. I…
This afternoon at the Don Hill et. al. Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial, the defense was hard at work trying to make this thing look like Laura Miller got more than anybody else and got away with it. As in: Why are all these black folks on trial for…
Just an interesting little moment in the life of the city, perhaps a cautionary tale: A couple weekends ago on a Saturday morning I get a distress call from an old friend back in town for the weekend who’s apartment shopping with her kid. They are sort of well-known people…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *With the way the Texas Rangers have played and the way Andruw Jones and Elvis Andrus and Darren O’Day have performed, Jon Daniels gets my vote for MLB Executive of the…
When Schutze told me the Dallas Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers asked him to speak this afternoon, I had to tag along, mostly because I was sure he’d made it up. But, sure enough, turned out Jim wasn’t just going to the Maggiano’s at NorthPark Center for…
Dear Mexican: Why is it that ever since the United States/California let you people immigrate, tunnel, weasel or whatever into this country that nothing good has happened and/or come from it? California’s welfare program is burdened with low-life Hispanics. The prison system is 70 percent Hispanic, 45 percent gang-based. Real…
Forever the foreigner. More than 30 years I’ve been here, sawing this same log. How many bazillion articles have I written about race in Dallas? I wrote a book about it, and I still don’t get it. My wife is right. Once a carpetbagger, always a carpetbagger. Last week I…
Like it did with you, all these recent deaths – Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Alexis Arguello, Steve McNair and Best Damn Sports Show – got me to thinking about my own mortality. Today, the day I celebrate turning halfway to 90, I thought I’d dip my toe in the deep,…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Any day now expect 103.3 FM ESPN to announce it has signed Michael Irvin and co-host Kevin Kiley to a new contract keeping them in the 11 a.m.-2 p.m. slot. Considering the…
Dear Mexican: Looking back recently on my distant youth in northwest Ohio, I came to the realization that the sweetest, most beautiful girl this gabacho ever went out with (indeed, in my entire senior class) was the pure-blooded daughter of Mexican immigrants. Am I under the sway of 1) simple…
Last Monday, at the end of the first day of the Dallas City Hall corruption trial in federal court, I thought I picked up a little note of letdown in the press corps. I even heard one reporter sniff that the government’s bribery accusation against former Dallas City Council member…
The defendants’ legal team in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial filed today a list of the exhibits it plans to introduce when it’s their turn at bat. The list, which you will find in its entirety after the jump, strongly reinforces two major themes that defense lawyers already have…
I will miss some of this morning’s testimony in the City Hall corruption case, because this is the day of the Observer’s weekly story meeting. But based on what has happened already in court, a certain summary or caution is appropriate.Yesterday’s surveillance tapes played for the jury were exculpatory of…
I’m at the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse waiting for the afternoon session of the City Hall corruption trial to launch. The feds presented their case this morning. The only substantial news was a confirmation that affordable housing developer Brian Potashnik will, as expected, testify against former Dallas Mayor…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope of merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Ventured down to the Mavs’ draft last night and it was … sad. Not the selection of Rodrigue Beaubois – though underwhleming – but more the lack of buzz. I remember…
Dear Mexican: You once asked why Mexican bands don’t hit it big in the good old U.S. of A. I think the simple answer is that there are no Mexican Mouseketeers. You don’t get to be Justin Timberlake by picking a guitarrón. Slater from Saved by the Bell doesn’t count…
As we mentioned earlier, tonight’s jam-packed Dallas Independent School District board of trustees meeting has this among its hot-button agenda items: the naming of an elementary school after Dallas lawyer and longtime Latina activist Adelfa Callejo. Opponents of naming a school for Callejo will offer the document you will find…
