Today’s proceedings at the City Hall federal corruption trial opened with a determined attempt by the Dallas city attorney, once again, to bar witnesses from talking about anything that may have happened in a closed “executive” session of the Dallas city council. Basically, Judge Barbara Lynn told the city’s lawyer…

Laura Miller has begun testifying in the federal City Hall corruption trial, giving the jury her history in politics. She’s poised, of course. Prosecutor Sarah Saldana began by addressing her as “Ms. Miller,” then caught herself and asked, “Is that how you address a former mayor?”Miller smiled and said, “Yes…

Believe it or not—and I’m actually trying to talk myself into it—there may be a way to look at this terribly depressing City Hall corruption trial now under way in federal court and come away feeling optimistic. And I’m not talking about watching the trial while drunk. There’s sort of…

O.K., I want to give you an example of the very good lawyering being done by the defense in the City Hall corruption trial going on right now at the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse. The witness on the stand this morning is the same guy who was on…

This is an interesting morning, City Hall federal corruption trial-wise. The government is presenting witnesses who are real City Hall lobbyists to show the jury how they work. Some of these — like Willie Cothrum, for example, who is up next — are the people who really make the wheels…

Don’t tell me I may be losing my Tom Leppert. What would I do? I’m just not ready for the mayor of Dallas to leave me. I have so much more in mind for him. The speculation is that Leppert might consider running for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat early…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Uh-oh. I’m back in the sand. Just can’t keep away from that stuff. I should see a doctor about my sand obsession. I will. Later.Right now I am staring at a table of Trinity River soil boring results I just received from the City of Dallas, and I am just…

I was injured by last week’s storm, personally wounded in a way that burdens me with a sense of grievance. I am uneasy. But I am having trouble putting my finger on the exact nature of my grievance. I did notice that the 10 p.m. TV news didn’t say, “Vicious…

Last night about midnight I was watching the Trinity River flow gauge in downtown Dallas on the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System Web page and saw that the flow was really spiking. So, even after a horrible day at home with flood and electrical crises of my own,…