Thursday morning, Cedar Vista neighborhood advocate Frank Bracken — the southwest Dallas farm owner profiled, in part, in this week’s cover story about the taking of the trees — finally got the city to lend an ear — or, rather, two guys willing to get their shoes muddy. Bracken led…
Word around my Northwest Dallas neighborhood is that home burglaries have become troublingly common in recent days, as police officers have ID’d men between 15 and 22 who’ve been known to knock on the front door before breaking down the back door. Just the other day, a neighbor reported two…
Shortly after Dallas-based Blockbuster reported a quarterly loss of $359.7 million yesterday, CEO Jim Keyes hopped on a conference call with analysts to reassure them that, look, all’s not lost. And while there are myriad reasons for the current state of hurt ar 1201 Elm Street that has led to…
Back in January, we told you the sordid story of Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy Standric Choice, who, with two other men, was arrested for plotting to steal cocaine so they could deal cocaine — how HBO. Two months and one confidential informant later, the 36-year-old former law enforcement officer is…
In case you haven’t noticed, the Dallas Mavericks’ new head coach is Prick Carlisle. His weekly radio shows with The Ticket’s Norm Hitzges have gotten progressively less insightful and decreasingly courteous. And last night he turned down right surly with ESPN Radio’s Chuck Cooperstein. For no reason. On the Mavs’ pre-game…
T Bone Burnett was raised in Fort Worth: He graduated from Paschal High School, started recording there in the 1960s (chiefly with Loose Ends, whose “He’s a Nobody” is a Texas garage-rock classic), played Panther Hall plenty and, only two years back, was the chair of the Lone Star International…
On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will finally address what many have considered one of the larger loopholes in the city’s Code of Ethics. For the last nine years, folks who serve on Tax Increment Finance District boards have been allowed to not only own and acquire property within the…
Instead of watching college basketball yesterday, I decided to get out the sticks for the first time this spring. Cue the Guinness guys: Brilliant! While one of my upsets delivered (Western Kentucky over Illinois) and one of my Final Four teams inexplicably pratfalled (Clemson?!), I carded a fresh 76 at…
I’ve been trying for some time to talk to Tom Hicks about livin’ it up in Liverpool, where every day it’s something: Liverpool FC sales talks with the Kuwatis “going really badly,” the re-signing of manager Rafael Benitez, the declaring of a cease-fire with partner and frienemy George Gillett. Today,…
A Friend of Unfair Park who teaches in the Dallas Independent School District directs our attention to school board trustee Carla Ranger’s blog, because we missed last night’s post concerning a proposal to trim teachers’ minimum contracts from two years to one. (The max, incidentally, appears to be five.) Writes…
As the Dallas City Council gets back to business next week, I thought we’d start sneaking a peek at next Wednesday’s council agenda. A few easy ones out of the way first; need to stretch amd warm up after a two-week layoff. Like, oh, Agenda Item No. 51, which calls…
At 8:50 this morning, The Real Estate Council sent to local media its Government Affairs Committee’s endorsements for the upcoming Dallas City Council race. Not a whole lot of WTF there: All the incumbents got the nod save for Carolyn Davis, as the GAC went instead with Dallas school board…
To my delight, I returned from vacation and discovered that the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Trinity Turnpike has finally been released. It would have been a nice read on the plane ride home, but rest assured I’ll be scouring the 1,942 pages and reporting back shortly. In…
Schutze is on an East Texas retreat with Dallas administrative judge C. Victor Lander this week, so he won’t mind me posting this T-shirt suggested by Friend of Unfair Park “ericthegardener.” It all started in the comments section of yesterday’s item about the May 5 Trinity Parkway Public Hearing at…
Snagged this poster during All-Star Weekend ’97 in Cleveland. It’s the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players. Was going over it the other day and wondering how different it would look today? Would Kobe Bryant bump someone off? Who’d get cut? Would Tim Duncan squeeze into the picture? Steve Nash? Our own Dirk Nowitzki?…
The Economist takes a gander at Texas — “America’s most robust big state” — and concludes (spoiler alert!) that “many now fear that Texas’s low-tax, low-spend model will need revision.” Why come?In December 2008 and January 2009 the state lost tens of thousands of jobs. Unemployment reached 6.4% in January…
Two weeks ago, the AFI Dallas International Film Festival finally announced its complete line-up — save for the closing-night title. Pardon — titles. Because, as hinted at, the fest has opted for two final films: James Toback’s doc Tyson, which is indeed about the travails of the former heavyweight champ,…
State Sen. John Carona’s bill that would allow counties to levy taxes and other fees to fund transportation projects is getting major play this a.m. Carona, a Dallas Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Transportation & Homeland Security, made his case to a packed house down in Austin yesterday…
Jim Smith’s been a hard man to track down this a.m. — though, seeing as how he divides his time between his three Saturn dealerships (in Irving, Lewisville and Plano), that’s completely understandable. (And, as a former wide receiver for the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions and the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland…
What good timing. Perhaps, by now, you’ve read Alexa’s cover story on the grand canyon separating what the city says and what the city actually does when it comes to planting new trees and protecting the ones we’ve got. As in, the mayor says he wants more “Dallas trees and…
Only 19 days until the Texas Rangers open the 2009 regular season at home against the Cleveland Indians. In other words, time for some mid-spring training grades. So far, so good I’d have to say. No major injuries. Josh Hamilton is pounding the ball. Michael Young is flawlessly fielding grounders at…
“Gimme Shelter,” by Megan Feldman, March 12 No sympathy Cowards. I enlisted before 9/11 and still knew what I was getting into. I have deployed twice, have been in college and taken out of college for military reasons. I have dealt with leaving parents, wife, family, friends, etc.—just like other…
