SBOE Pushes Back Against Imaginary Threat of Pro-Islamic Bias.

A Buzz prayer: We thank Thee, Yahweh/Allah/Brahma/Insert Name Here, for the Texas State Board of Education and its continuing efforts to make Texans appear like the biggest group of yahoos in the nation, outside of Oklahoma. We ask that You sustain them in their task of making our opinionating easier…

100 Favorite Dishes: Plah Sahm Rote
At Royal Thai

To celebrate Dallas Observer’s “Best of Dallas” 2010, available this week, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can…

Tom Colicchio Coming to Cook at Craft

Sorry about throwing up a publicist’s raw e-mail, but those of you who’ve been following our interview with Craft’s Jeff Harris might want to jump on getting a reservation before they’re booked up. That’s right, Mr. Top Chef himself, Tom Colicchio, is coming to town, and he’s gonna cook. Here’s…

Eddie Bernice Johnson and a Grandmother’s Broken Heart.

BUZZ Kids these days: Well, if that isn’t just about the saddest thing ever. We’re talking about U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, who has spent much of the past two weeks being raked over coals after The Dallas Morning News reported that she arranged for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation…

100 Favorite Dishes: Cachapa
At Zaguan Latin Cafe & Bakery

As a countdown to the Dallas Observer’s “Best of Dallas” 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can…

We Have Been Experiencing Technical Difficulties

You may have noticed a shortage of posts and the inability to comment on City of Ate today. Well, our servers crashed, our technical people tell us. (We think that’s just their way of saying “stop downloading those high-def food-porn movies from Tajikistan.”) Whatevs. We were lost, but now we’re…

Is Cliff Manor Just Round 1 in a Long Fight Coming?

What, no lawsuit?: Civil rights lawyer Mike Daniel didn’t even wait for us to ask a question when he answered the phone. So, he said laughing, the Observer wants to know where’s the lawsuit in the fight over Cliff Manor, the Dallas Housing Authority apartment building at the center of…

We Know What Illegal Means. So What?

English spoken here: This week, as part of a series on illegal immigration by the Observer and our sister papers at Village Voice Media, we bring you our cover story, “Seized,” by Phoenix New Times reporter Monica Alonzo. It’s a brutal read about the kidnapping, rape, torture and murder of…

ACLU Wants to Know How the FBI Profiles Ethnic Communities.

“I stereotype. It’s faster.” —George Clooney in Up in the Air Meet your neighbors: The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has joined a nationwide hunt for information about the FBI’s effort “to collect information about and map so-called ‘ethnic-oriented’ businesses, behaviors, lifestyle characteristics and cultural traditions in communities with…

Should Garbage Collectors Be Allowed to Live?

Is this thing on?: Last week, Buzz revealed our brilliant plan for a compromise on the fight over Love Field concessions contracts. Our scheme involved the city council bargaining with the companies selling food, drink and retail goods at the airport to get the companies to pay their workers better…

Our Brilliant Idea for a Love Field Compromise.

Show some Love: Buzz is so proud. All on our own, we’ve come up with a compromise in a battle that has split our beloved city council and reopened racial divides, tearing a hole in our civic-minded heart. In case you’ve forgotten: The council is divided over whether to give…

Taste of Dallas Kicks Off Tonight in Fair Park

Over here on that other Dallas Observer blog, Unfair Park, sometime City of Ater Andrea Grimes has the latest word on Taste of Dallas, which begins tonight on continues through Sunday at Fair Park. Don’t feel like clicking over to read the news about Andrea’s appearance as a judge for…

5 Awesomely Easy Ways to Imbibe
For the 4th of July

Ah, Independence Day. Nothing quite says “celebrate America” like the combination of barbecue, explosives, martial music and getting wasted. So here’s a list…(riiiiiip sound of needle being dragged across vinyl record). OK, wait right there. Earlier this week City of Ater Alice Laussade was invited to move her pinko butt…

Eating Fast Food Might Make You Fat, but not Necessarily a Slob

In a bit of tangentially related-to-food news, the Texas Department of Transportation is reporting that the state’s motorists are doing much better at keeping food-related trash off Texas roadways. Smokers, however, are pigs. TxDOT reported this week that food-related trash items, “which for years have been nearly tied with tobacco…

Did Joe Barton Have a Point?

Insane in the membrane: It’s gotta be a brain tumor. What else can explain the words our tree-hugging fingers are about to type? To wit: U.S. Representative Joe Barton might have had a (garbled) point when he apologized last week to BP chief Tony Hayward. His first apology, we mean,…

City Gets a Little Too Piggy for Farmers Market Vendors

Over on our news blog, Unfair Park, Robert “Fingers of Fury” Wilonsky has the latest word on the debate over how exactly City Hall will regulate the growing number of small farmers markets sprouting up around town. Fresh food fans should check out Wilonsky’s post. If you’re too busy, however,…

Craig Watkins Just Can’t Seem to Please Anybody.

Damned if you do: Short of handing his testicles to Republican County Commissioner Ken Mayfield to wear as cufflinks, what exactly could District Attorney Craig Watkins do to please those—like the local GOP and Morning News—who criticize his handling of the investigation into allegations of corruption by Constable Jaime Cortes?…

The GOP dredges up some local Dems awful pasts

Forgive and forget: Man, them Dallas County Republicans are coldhearted. Four local Democratic officeholders have atoned for their transgressions, got right with their higher powers, made searching and fearless moral inventories, humbly asked God to remove their shortcomings and followed the hallowed 12 steps into recovery. Any decent person would…