Metroplex Atheists, with the legal aid of Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) delivered a letter last week to the Rowlett City Council requesting that they be added to the list of invocation leaders. It’s not the first time the group has sought recognition with the City Council, but this latest…
When last Unfair Park checked in on Mark Burroughs, the then sitting Denton mayor was holding hostage a piece of artwork belonging previous owner of his Arts District luxury condo, socialite Angela Barrett. Barrett sued the Burroughs for the return of “Vertigo,” a Teresita Fernandez sculpture. Earlier this month a…
For Ofa and Rex Clark of Allen, the typical newbie parent worries were multiplied by five on June 17 with the birth of their three daughters and two sons: The third set to arrive at Parkland Hospital in the hospital’s history. The babies — Vianca, Alessandra, Perrin, Noah and Scarlett…
Damon McClendon has been in this spot before. For the second time in less than five years, the North Texas man was arrested for spending counterfeit U.S. currency. The first time around, in 2008 and 2009, McClendon was a participant in a ring that created non-legal tender created using an…
Dallas County Judge Roberto Cañas has a grim job: He presides over a county criminal court that specifically sees domestic violence cases. While Cañas does not hear felony cases, he sees plenty people come through his court whom he worries would be more than capable of more violent acts. This…
Community leaders in Oak Cliff’s Elmwood neighborhood are happy that an illegal casino has been crippled by the Dallas Police Department, after they spent months putting up with nuisances and threats from it and its patrons. Elmwood residents first noticed something out of the ordinary was going on at the…
The woman behind the curtain is busy today. She has too many orders to fill. Bottles of chemicals surround her as she leans over a small table and mixes a little from one and then another to create a “house blend” recipe while customers linger in the front room of…
Houston-area House member Steve Stockman never fails to make Unfair Park grateful it’s based in DFW rather than anywhere near the congressman’s Bayou City fiefdom. The guy has suggested arming infants, walked out of one State of the Union address and invited Ted Nugent to another. He’s also raised funds…
For a major bureaucratic initiative, County Judge Clay Jenkins’ plan to house around 2,000 unaccompanied immigrant children in Dallas County is falling into place very quickly. Just this past Saturday, Jenkins announced at the Texas Democratic convention his plan to shelter these kids in Dallas by the end of the…
Christopher Key seems to have set the ball rolling. Last week, his lawyer filed a lawsuit claiming his boss, Neil Chopra, at a Carrollton janitorial services company sexually harassed him by punching him in the testicles and, one time, stun-gunning him in the groin. On Monday, three more employees filed…
Jonathan Holden did not meet a good end. He suffered from psychotic episodes, delusions and paranoid schizophrenia. He used meth. About two years ago, because he broke into a car to escape a cold night, he found himself in a high-risk unit of a jail in Fort Worth. One day,…
You could be dealing with a mosquito-virus one-two punch this season. Along with West Nile, a new virus could rear its ugly head in Texas. It’s name is chikungunya, and it’s pronounced “chicken-goon-ya.” This mosquito season already has one twist to it. Because of the drought, mosquitoes that carry West…
For 25 years, people arrested in Dallas County but not sure why have been protected under more or less the same rule. Dallas cops have three whole business days to figure out what to charge an arrested person with and get the paperwork in, not including the day you were…
Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes and Steven Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower have two things in common. They both delve into complicated topics of teenage bullying and social struggles, and Highland Park High School parents don’t want their kids reading either of them. Both contain passages of sexually explicit…
Dallas County Health Director Zachary Thompson gathered the media on Monday to address reports, from Unfair Park and others, that there was a federal investigation into the department’s use of funding designed to treat people with HIV. To be clear, Dallas County Health Department Director Zach Thompson declared, there is…
See update at bottom. A defamation lawsuit filed against anti-doping authorities and United States track and field star Tyson Gay is likely on the move after the United States Anti-Doping Agency asked that the case be moved from a state district court in Tarrant County court to federal court. Jon…
Total Building Maintenance, Inc., in Carrollton, is in the business of cleanliness. For its corporate clients, it cleans carpets and washes windows, among other janitorial duties. But if a new lawsuit filed recently is to be believed, the company, especially its chief operations officer, Neil Chopra, has been engaged in…
Ranji Charles, a Dallas man implicated in two early Sunday morning murders in southern Dallas, is in critical condition at Methodist Central Hospital, police say. Charles is alleged to have been riding in a car with two men — Corey Shannon and Elliot Byes — when the trio pulled into…
It’s not a new problem, but it does appear to be a growing one, and it’s definitely one politicians are talking more and more about in public settings. The flood of unaccompanied children migrating to the United States from Central America is expected to reach all-time highs this year, with…
Of all the things that one thinks might derail a trainee cop’s trip through the academy, an allergy isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Mishandling a weapon or failing a drug test, sure, but not an allergy. But in a lawsuit filed in Dallas County late last week,…
As Nicole Guerrero lay alone in a cell, moaning and crying in excruciating pain through the birth of her daughter, she heard the detention officers laugh, she says. “What are y’all going to do with her?” they said, according to a lawsuit Guerrero filed recently against Wichita County. Later, she…
The few parts of the vaunted New Cities Summit that actually dealt with Dallas left Unfair Park feeling a bit nonplussed. We were glad Dallas was selected to host the conference, of course. Anything that brings together a bunch of really smart people to discuss pressing urban issues like density,…
