A week ago, code enforcement officials reported on progress plowing through that backlog of restaurant inspections. The backlog was taken care of with the help of an outside company, they told a City Council committee. From now on, with a few new hires, the department would be able to handle…
It just so happens that this week, both the Little People of America, which provides support to people with dwarfism, and the National Federation for the Blind, which advocates for people who can’t see, are hosting their annual conferences in Dallas. A coincidence, no doubt, but it got me thinking…
The Observer is always looking for college interns to contribute to Dallas’ award-winning newspaper and web site. Specifically, we’re looking for students (any major will do) with a demonstrated interest and some experience in journalism, non-fiction creative writing, social media, multimedia, photography, filmmaking, joke-telling, or woodworking. (We’ve always wanted a…
The Dallas Observer is always looking for talented freelance writers, photographers, videographers and other content creators to contribute to our newspaper, web site and four blogs, Unfair Park (news), DC-9 at Night (music and nightlife), City of Ate (food and restaurants), and Mixmaster (arts and culture). Prospective contributors should spend…
The Dallas Observer is always looking for talented freelance writers, photographers, videographers and other content creators to contribute to our newspaper, web site and four blogs, Unfair Park (news), DC-9 at Night (music and nightlife), City of Ate (food and restaurants), and Mixmaster (arts and culture). Prospective contributors should send…
It takes a special type of person to sue televangelist Pat Robertson over a weight loss shake and say things to a reporter like “Me and Robertson are coming in a head-on crash,” and “This ain’t no goddamn game. He wants to come after me? Bring it fuckin’ on.” It…
Friday’s Democratic primary run-off debate between Domingo Garcia and Marc Veasey for the 33rd wasn’t quite as bitchy as we had hoped, in that Garcia didn’t refer to his opponent, a grown-ass black man, as a “boy” this time, which is positive, right? At the beginning, hell, we even thought…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Paul Quinn College in South Dallas is empty, most of its students home for the summer, but…
When video surfaced earlier this year of EPA’s regional administrator Al Armendariz comparing his strategy for regulating the oil and gas industry as the EPA’s regional head to crucifixion, Republicans gladly accepted the former SMU professor’s proffered head. Then, when they asked him to Washington to be pilloried in person,…
At the end of the day yesterday, the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation sent a dispatch from its president, Brook Rawlings, reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. “Make no mistake,” Rawlings wrote. “This outcome is a net negative for every Texan — and every…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Amira Matsuda lives with her husband and children in a Plano manse decorated with ornate vases and…
Incoming DISD superintendent Mike Miles might have been getting the impression that Dallas wasn’t as friendly as billed, what with all the pointed questions about administrators’ pay scale. So, to prove we really do love him, the Dallas Regional Chamber is unrolling a billboard campaign timed to coincide with the…
Fine. So the Toll Road Creature Who Comes in the Night paid a visit to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings bedroom recently, and now he’s a “Toll Road Guy.” Yesterday the Toll Road Guy handed out an utterly specious document — a near laughable and transparent fabric of lies and hoodoo…
The $1.15 billion 2012-13 budget approved unanimously by DISD trustees last night contained no real surprises. We already knew the state was cutting $37 million in funding. The district opted not to seek a tax increase, so to compensate, the district trimmed $22.8 million, or about 2 percent, from last…
When the U.S. Census Bureau released figures Thursday estimating cities’ growth between 2010 and 2011, the big news locally was that eight of the 15 fastest growing cities are in Texas and, of those, five — Plano, McKinney, Frisco, Denton, Carrollton — are in our corner of the state. The…
If you love very old things, sweet excitable people, and a damn good coincidence, this might be your favorite human interest story in a long time. From his childhood in Mexico throughout his life in Texas, Ruben Marroquin has surveyed his surroundings for coins, bones and any small treasures that…
In this week’s Dallas Observer, we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here On November 22, 1963, the day President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza, Robert Groden…
Texas electricity regulators voted today to raise the price cap on wholesale electricity from $3,000 to $4,500 per megawatt hour — the equivalent of powering roughly 330 homes for one hour — by Aug. 1. It’s only June and already the electrical grid is being tested by record peak demand,…
Last month, Mayor Mike Rawlings asked the Texas Department of Transportation for figures showing the relative merits of building the Trinity toll road versus reviving the abandoned Project Pegasus, which would improve downtown’s current highways of hell. This was after numbers provided by toll road opponents prompted the mayor to…
We’ve known for a while now that the city will keep the the 2013 commemoration of John F. Kennedy’s assassination “classy,” we just haven’t known exactly how. We still don’t, but we now know that it will involve a fairly significant touch-up to Dealey Plaza. The architecture firm Good Fulton…
We at Unfair Park will never, ever tire of hearing Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Irving-based ExxonMobil, the largest private oil and gas company in the world, admit that the product he peddles has in fact caused the earth’s climate to change. This is the corporation that has for decades…
Update at 9:40 a.m.: Check out the full decision below. Original post: We were planning to try to localize the Supreme Court’s decision this morning on the Affordable Care Act, do some sort of informed, level-headed analysis like the DMN’s Michael Lindenberger prepared last night. But that would require a…
