After early voting numbers showed Clay Jenkins with a commanding lead in the three-way Democratic primary race for county judge, talk last night among the small group gathered at the Belmont Hotel supporting Judge Jim Foster focused on how the race appeared to have been won by dough (Jenkins raised…
In the online discussion related to this afternoon’s Unfair Park post regarding Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’s campaign finance reports, several comments about Dallas County Republican Party chair Jonathan Neerman appeared, pointing to a fine he received from the Federal Election Commission and alleging that Neerman is the target…
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has paid family members or businesses they own more than $85,000 from his campaign funds, according to Unfair Park’s review of his campaign finance reports. In addition, after his election in November 2006, Watkins begin paying utilities for his campaign office, which include a…
If you thought the efforts of former Dallas City Council members Diane Ragsdale and Sandra Crenshaw to get Terri Hodge reelected were futile, think again. While lawyer Eric Johnson “would make a fine representative,” says Dallas County Democratic Party chair Darlene Ewing, she predicts that he’ll fall short when votes…
We’re still trying to figure out why Bill White continues to burn through campaign dough since his only significant competition in the Democratic primary is Farouk Shami, but perhaps the former mayor of Houston is aiming to embarrass Shami at the polls worse than Shami embarrassed himself as White makes…
U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn sentenced former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill to 18 years in federal prison, calling his conduct “outrageous and unacceptable.” His wife, Sheila, who Lynn said was “right in the thick of it,” was given nine years. Earlier this evening, Lynn sentenced ex-City Plan Commissioner D’Angelo…
As Dallas County Judge Jim Foster told us February 15, after releasing the first of three reports as part of former FBI agent Danny Defenbaugh’s investigation of the constables, the second report regarding Kwanzaa Fest alleges that approximately 49 deputy constables under Jaime Cortes and Derick Evans earned more than…
Prior to his gig tonight at the Granada, Kinky Friedman made a campaign stop at Urban Dog Coffee as he continues his bid for the Democratic nomination for agriculture commissioner. Given his close relationship with gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami, who had five key campaign aides resign yesterday, we wanted to…
Between March and May, as you’re no doubt aware by now, Aldi’s set to reshape the local grocery-shopping landscape — just get your quarters ready if you need a shopping cart. And, just fair warning: When I lived in Wisconsin years ago, I tried shopping at Aldi but found the…
After a cursory glance at former FBI agent Danny Defenbaugh’s 92-page report released Monday afternoon at a press conference held by Dallas County Judge Jim Foster, we e-mailed Chris Heinbaugh, Mayor Tom Leppert’s chief of staff, for a comment regarding the following: JCCW2761 reported that in early May 2008, he…
Judge Jim Foster conducted a news conference late this afternoon to tell anxious reporters that, well, he hadn’t yet read former FBI agent Danny Defenbaugh’s 92-page report about Constable Jaime Cortes, which Foster said his office had received just minutes prior to the 4 p.m. gathering inside the chambers of…
That’s what we gather by looking at the pics sent to us by Kurt Watkins, cousin and PR man to Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins. Kurt also sends word that Craig endorsed Democratic gubernatorial primary frontrunner Bill White on Thursday, and the DA subsequently began campaigning for White during…
If today’s University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll — which had former Houston Mayor Bill White with a whopping 50-11 lead over Farouk Shami (30 percent claimed to be undecided) — wasn’t enough to hand the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to White, Shami ensured that the 10 million bucks he vowed to…
It’s obvious, apparently even to Debra Medina, that her three-paragraph explanation following her disastrous interview with Glenn Beck yesterday wasn’t enough to put the wheels back on her campaign. So Medina has decided to face the music, or in this case, a group of reporters anxious to hear WTF she…
Just when it looked like Debra Medina could maybe possibly somehow sneak her way past Kay Bailey Hutchison into a runoff with Rick Perry for a chance to grab the Republican nomination in November’s gubernatorial election, she melted down during an interview this morning with Glenn Beck, who questioned Medina…
While the Mavs haven’t given folks a whole lot to get excited about lately with five losses in the team’s final seven games heading into Sunday’s All-Star Game (capped off by Tuesday night’s 36-point shellacking in Denver), hundreds of fans lined up yesterday afternoon at the Dallas Convention Center to…
In the current paper version of Unfair Park, we detail the lengthy battle between Robert O’Donnell and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who extinguished O’Donnell’s child support collection business after several courtroom victories. Despite the efforts of Abbott and his office to find O’Donnell’s company non-compliant with federal law, several…
Among the several nonprofit groups updating media folks this afternoon at the Trinity Trust was the Dallas Watersports Complex, which surprised us, since, well, we hadn’t heard of it. Victor Toledo, who was there representing the DWC, explained why. “We purposely haven’t talked about it much until we had all…
As he prepared to board an airplane bound for Austin at approximately 6 p.m. on Wednesday night, Dallas County Judge Jim Foster received a flurry of phone calls related to the now-infamous meeting that Dallas County Constable Jaime Cortes had with approximately 30 of his deputies. With Dallas County Sheriff…
Reaction to Terri Hodge’s plea deal with the feds continues to trickle in, with Angela Hunt telling us this afternoon that she has withdrawn her support of Hodge “for obvious reasons” and now supports Eric Johnson in the March 2 Democratic primary. (Update: Hunt, Craig Watkins, Royce West, Rafael Anchia…
Democratic precinct chair and former City Plan Commissioner Neil Emmons was certainly not alone in his support of Terri Hodge in her bid for an eighth term in Texas House District 100, as Hodge’s endorsements included several of the city’s most notable politicos. But even after Hodge pleaded guilty in…
Robert O’Donnell stands rigidly in the courthouse hallway, his arms folded across his chest, trying to keep his rage in check. Like some Americans, O’Donnell is fed up with big government, but his simmering anger has nothing to do with Wall Street bailouts or health-care plans. After more than six…
