Dallas pot-stirrer, education activist and computer inventor Russell Fish — the subject of a Dallas Observer cover story a couple years ago — is making trouble Down Under. One of Fish’s many diverse and unpredictable hats is as an activist on sexual predation issues, apparently on a world-wide basis. Fish…
Here we sit, waiting for closing arguments to begin in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial in federal court. Judge Barbara Lynn is listening to the lawyers on both sides as they tell her what instructions they think she should or should not give the jury after the closing arguments,…
This morning, I think I saw the first little indicator of how the city plans to deal with these lean times. I’m coming back up my street from walking my dog, and I see a little natural-gas-powered city car with a Public Works logo on the side stopped with the…
In a word: Well, that answers that. Sort of. On Tuesday, Dallas Morning News reporter Rudy Bush attempted to answer a straightforward question: Would all the rain the city’s been having lately have flooded the toll road that City Hall wants to build alongside the Trinity River, between the levees?…
Rudy Bush has a story in this morning’s Dallas Morning News attempting, thank goodness, to do the reporting that Bruce Tomaso did not do yesterday in his blog item about flooding and the proposed Trinity River toll road. Bush has accepted our suggestion on Unfair Park yesterday that The News…
I had other work to do this morning, but Robert was right: I couldn’t stay away from Old Man River. A bit after noon I ventured down to the site of the Calatrava suspension bridge construction site to see how the high water of the last 48 hours is affecting…
Yesterday, in a pitch of live-blogging fever at the Dallas City hall corruption trial, I penned a little missive — as a sort of aside, really — about a certain sick symbiosis in Dallas politics between rich white arts mavens and sell-out minority politicians. Between my wife and Sandra Crenshaw,…
Judge Barbara Lynn, Ms. Punctuality, is 15 minutes late getting the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial started at the Earle Cabell this morning. Usually she keeps the jury informed about every little blip in court procedure, but today she sits down and fires up the day’s proceedings without a…
Look at the sequence of events: In early August, Carol Reed, a city council lobbyist and the top political consultant to Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, is mentioned in the ongoing Dallas City Hall corruption trial because she advised a client to keep giving private business contracts to a city council…
Aghast at the river of sleaze oozing out of the Earle Cabell Federal Building in the past two months, reformers on the Dallas City Council have called for a system of registration for local lobbyists. Great idea. Much of the testimony in the Dallas City Hall corruption trial in federal…
Five Dallas City Council members want the city to think about requiring people to register as lobbyists if they get paid to influence the council. The ongoing Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial has brought a series of revelations about so-called consultants — a broad term apparently meaning anybody who…
This morning at the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial at the Earle Cabell, we are getting insight into the involvement of Ann Lott, former CEO of the Dallas Housing Authority, in this whole sorry mess. I’m not sure where we’re headed. But so far, an hour into it, let…
Today at the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial at the Earle Cabell, defendant John Lewis, who has pleaded guilty and is testifying for the government, is being cross-examined by the defense. Lewis says he was part of a plot to buy votes from former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don…
Right about now, I’m flippin’. This has got to be one of the last time-windows for co-defendants to flip in the 2-month-old Dallas City Hall corruption trial in federal court. If I were any one of them, with the possible exception of former city council member Don Hill, I think…
Big news. Doug Greene has just revealed the core strategy of the defense in the federal Dallas City Hall corruption trial.Entrapment.He has also just been administered a smart spanking from the judge for wasting her time.I missed this morning’s proceedings in federal district court. I kept up, though, via Jennifer…
As Unfair Park has dutifully informed you, The Trinity Trust this week debuted an advertising campaign for the Calatrava signature bridge “under construction” (or not) on the Trinity River, called “Suspense is Building.” Oh, yeah?The purpose is to convey the impression that all is well with the bridge project and…
Victor Vital, attorney for Sheila Farrington, began the morning’s proceedings in the federal Dallas City Hall corruption trial by asking affordable housing developer Bill Fisher several questions about whether he hoped the jury in this case would render a “just and merciful” verdict. Finally the judge told him to move…
Today’s testimony from Bill Fisher, the government’s wire-wearing witness in the City Hall corruption trial in federal court, brings us an even more explicit bribery-extortion scenario than we have seen before in this two-months-old trial.Fisher is alleging a series of events that followed a meeting with hair-care magnate Comer Cottrell…
Everybody knew it was about “pay-to-play” at City Hall. Don Hill, a former city council member and 13 alleged confederates are accused of strong-arming real estate developers for money.But nobody knew…1. Carol Reed’s name would come up. Reed is the top political guru and campaign consultant to the old Dallas…
There’s a point I want to make about the Dallas City Hall corruption/bribery trial going on now in federal court. It’s simple. The trial probably seems impossibly complicated—14 defendants, lots of lingo, events scattered over several years. But look. It’s not, not if you put yourself in the position. Let’s…
O.K., this morning I think we are getting a more clear look at the government’s case in the Dallas City Hall bribery case, in which former city council member Don Hill is accused of using racial affirmative action and “fair share” requirements to squeeze bribe money out of real estate…
Victor Vital, Sheila Farrington Hill’s attorney, is cross examining Allen McGill, Darren Reagan’s partner in the Black State Employees Association of Texas (BSEAT), which prosecutors have characterized as a fake union and extortion scam. McGill, a defendant in the City Hall corruption case, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with…
