Shortly before the holidays, Leslie sat in on an Ethics Advisory Commission get-together during which its members stewed in an existential funk, asking themselves such questions as: “”Are we accomplishing what we were created to accomplish?” And: “What does the culture of ethics look like?” And: “How do we define…
A Friend of Unfair Park wondered Saturday afternoon: Is the “unknown teen” named Robert Patterson heard singing “Tell Me How” and “Dear Debbie” on this purchased-this-morning Future Records single none other than the Bobby Patterson? Why, yes, yes it is; just listen to that voice. Said Bobby when I asked…
Behind the paywall this morning is The News’s exclusive concerning “stealth billionaire” (Band Name Alert™) Kelcy Warren’s purchase of the naming rights for the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park, which henceforth shall be known as Klyde Warren Park — so named for the Energy Transfer Equity CEO and chair’s 9-year-old son…
Contained in the stack of memos sent to the city council late last night was the rare note from Mayor Mike Rawlings. In it, he asks the Fab 14 to make every attempt to attend one of the three committee briefings in coming days during which council members will be…
At the risk of turning this into Uplift Park …At long last, peace has been made between Uplift Education and those business operators and property owners in Deep Ellum worried that a charter school in the neighborhood would spell the beginning of its end as an entertainment district. It’s the…
Speaking of the Dallas Independent School District’s doings … No doubt you recall the ugly allegations that came out of Ebby Halliday Elementary School in the fall, stories of abuse and intimidation that resulted in principal Kamalia Cotton going to another campus (Phillis Wheatley Elementary School) while furious parents demanded…
On the other side is a missive I just received from Dallas Independent School District board member Edwin Flores, in which the longtime District 1 trustee announces that he will not seek another term. I asked Flores why not — if, maybe, this had something to do with the furor…
The University of Texas Energy Institute cast a skeptical eye on the likelihood that the actual act of fracking could result in groundwater contamination. Particularly in the Barnett Shale, where aquifers sit thousands of feet above the shale rock, head researcher Dr. Chip Groat reasoned that the danger of fracking…
Bandele Tyehimba, who, with his wife Akwete, owned Pan African Connection, a 23-year-old South Dallas art gallery and meeting space, died in his sleep Wednesday night. He was 58 years old. We wrote about Tyehimba and Pan African just a month ago; at that time, the Tyehimbas were recovering from…
Long before the downtown Omni opened we were treated to a sneak peek of its light show, which folks either think is the right shade of shiny or plain tacky, a debate that becomes especially heated when you add in the new-look Reunion Tower and all the other lite-brites decorating…
Digging through the federal filings this morning I came across this item of some intrigue: TriStar Investors, Inc., v American Tower Corporation, filed yesterday at the Earle Cabell and a surprisingly insightful and riveting read. Neither company’s actually based in Dallas, but their dispute is: TriStar’s claiming that American Tower,…
In May we hopped about this ad-adorned Dallas County Schools bus, one of many so decorated courtesy an ad agency specializing in school-bus advertising (hence the name of its website). As Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander explained at the time, the district contracts with Dallas County Schools to…
I had been contemplating a host of assorted humdrum news items with which to begin this gray Friday when Friend of Unfair Park PeterK dropped in the in-box the photo you see above, taken from an E.W. Kelley stereograph presently up for grabs on eBay for the buy-it-now price of…
“When do we get to go home?” Alice Gossett inquired, a little irritably. She wore brown pajamas and soft purple booties. Tiny in her wheelchair, her feet didn’t quite reach the ground. “As soon as we get our treat!” the nurse answered, beaming at her. Gossett was not impressed. “Never…
Last month, you’ll no doubt recall, City Manager Mary Suhm told the city council that 2012 bond program, which we’ll vote on in the fall, will be a fraction of a shadow of a hint of its mammoth ’06 predecessor, which appears to be the gift that keeps on giving…
A couple of years back Scott Goldstein wrote quite the flattering profile of Dallas Police Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson — as in, “In a profession that demands toughness, Simpson embodies compassion.” Simpson was former Chief David Kunkle’s right-hand man — the man Kunkle put in charge of the Patrol Division,…
If you need a new benchmark to measure just how broke you are, try “asset poverty.” Asset-poor households would be unable to survive for three months at the federal poverty level if some crisis caused them to lose their source of income. As Robert mentioned earlier, asset poverty is the…
Lubbock personal injury attorney Kevin Glasheen, who represented a number of Dallas exonerees and successfully lobbied the state legislature to more than triple the amount paid for each year spent wrongfully imprisoned, was found innocent Thursday of professional misconduct charges brought by the State Bar of Texas. Three of his…
Council member Delia Jasso is officially disturbed by ERCOT’s charts, particularly the bar graph showing a big gray empty space between the reserve margin we need to make sure the lights stay on during hot summer afternoons and the colored part that indicates how much generation capacity we’ll actually have…
At this very moment Anna’s at the press conference over at Communities Foundation of Texas’s Caruth Haven HQ, where Mayor Mike Rawlings, among others, are poring over the details of the CFT’s latest study, conducted by Corporation for Enterprise Development, which looks at “the scope and scale of financial insecurity…
Back in November the Texas Rangers invited media folk out to the Ballpark in Arlington for a sneak peek at $11.5 million worth of renovations being made out in Vandergriff Plaza, where, among other things, the team’s adding a private-party zone, retooling the kids’ area and building a new bar…
Yesterday we emailed Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban to ask why he decided to save the Greenville St. Patrick’s Day Parade. “I didn’t want to see it go away,” he wrote back. A great answer. A noble answer, especially since he also cut a $25,000 check to a Dallas ISD…
