At last night’s Gas Drilling Task Force public hearing at Dallas City, citizens’ outcries ranged from polite thank-yous to pleas for tighter restrictions all the way to full-on verbal assaults that made fracking sound like the onset of The Apocalypse. Several of the people who spoke at the task force’s…
The poster at right is for what could be the best Better Block event yet, scheduled to take place in and around the parking lot of R.L.’s Blues Palace No. 2 in the shadow of Fair Park — an institution. Jason Roberts, QB for Team Better Block, says there are…
I didn’t sleep a wink last night — kept replaying over and over the myriad mistakes made by Ron Washington and the Texas Rangers last night, twice one strike away from Winning It All. They’re recounted below, blow by painful blow; how Sam gets it up for tonight’s Do-or-Die preview…
The intellect of one of the best managers and greatest players in baseball history short-circuited at the worst possible times for the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the World Series, but Monday night’s match-up wasn’t won or lost on brain farts by Tony La Russa and Albert Pujols…
The Sierra Club gave Luminant Generation Company, downtown-based and one of Texas’s biggest power suppliers, notice Thursday that it plans to sue them for thousands of alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at two of its coal-fired power plants in northeast Texas. According to environmental law organizations Earthjustice and…
Let’s talk (some more) about red light cameras, the subject of a report released today by the Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG), a watchdog organization that researches various subjects of public importance. The report, Caution: Red Light Cameras Ahead, examines private companies’ agreements with municipalities (about 700 throughout the…
Those following along with our World Series open threads — and, programming note, Sam’s Game Six’er opens at around 6 — know by now that my 8-year-old’s favorite present-day Texas Ranger is Ian Kinsler, who he stuck with even during that awful 1-fer mid-summer slump. But after the jump, courtesy…
Over the years, the re-do of the Continental Building downtown has started to feel like a bit like Guns N’ Roses’s Chinese Democracy. Forest City, the developers behind turning the vacant building on Commerce into condos (complete with spa and yoga studio) kept telling us it would be done. They…
Speaking of issues with redistricting …There’s an online petition being virtually circulated concerning the new council districts map sent to the Department of Justice earlier this week; so far it’s been signed by 105 who also want Justice to slap down the city’s official submission. Among the reasons:With community assets…
I had to call Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the city’s Office of Economic Development, about something that turned out to be nothing this morning. (Well, if you must know, I wondered if “The Collective” referred to here is just “The Orleans at La Reunion” by a new name, and it…
Moments ago, Ed Pensock, the interim director of the Texas Turnpike Authority, explained to the Texas Transportation Commission down in Austin why Dallas so desperately needs the so-called Horseshoe Project — otherwise known as the redo of IH-30 and IH-35E over the Trinity River, once part of Project Pegasus. Long…
Just in time for the holiday season: your opportunity to give a loved one, or yourself, something from the Dallas County Collection of Seized and Forfeited Jewelry. And it’s quite the collection at that, with lots filled with multiple rings, watches, necklaces, bracelets and even collectable coins — including this…
Overnight, several Friends of Unfair Park sent different versions of the same story, which says: The state quite deliberately submitted to the Department of Justice new election maps that discriminate against the Hispanic voter — especially in Dallas-Fort Worth. As in: “There is direct and circumstantial evidence that the development…
It’s been a banner year for Texas’ pro-life movement. In May, lawmakers approved state-issued “Choose Life” license plates, with proceeds earmarked for medically questionable, anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy” centers. A few days later they passed a bill requiring women to undergo a sonogram, listen to a fetal heartbeat and hear a…
During the debate in the Texas Legislature over the family-planning cuts, many Democrats didn’t vote at all. In the Legislature’s color-coded voting system, a green light means yes, a red light means no and a white light means present, not voting. Since the money would be disbursed into other worthy…
Welcome to sunny Greece: The very week that Governor Rick Perry, campaigning for president in South Carolina, announced his plan to overhaul the federal tax system, an ugly report emerged on the condition of the 50 states’ finances, which are awful — even in the miracle land of Texas. Perry…
On a warm late-summer afternoon, Pete Dexter trudges across the living room of his home perched high above Puget Sound on Whidbey Island, Diet Coke in hand, and steels himself to tell the story of how he was once beaten half to death by a pack of drunken thugs in…
Texas ranchers, bowed under the driest year in state history, are looking to Gov. Rick Perry for help. In an online petition, they’re asking him to use the Texas National Guard and any state resources at his disposal to bring hay into the starving ranch country. Drought has withered much…
When Lisa Chambers was hired in June 2010 to become Dallas County’s new Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, John Wiley Price had nothing but the nicest things to say about the former intelligence officer: “She’s got the kind of background that says she can handle the job,” he…
They’ve been shooting Dallas at Saint Ann Court all day; and first-day-of-filming footage has been making the rounds today courtesy TNT, which will air the next-gen reboot in the summer of 2012. But let’s turn our attention instead to a different Dallas-set series set to air sooner than that: ABC’s…
As chair of the city’s gas drilling task force, Lois Finkelman has a pretty tough job, directing task force meetings, guiding discussions, fielding calls and emails from concerned citizens. (Did we mentioned she doesn’t get paid? Strictly voluntary.). And with a public hearing coming up tomorrow, the task force’s deliberation…
Spent the better part of last night re-re-re-re-re-reading Mike Shropshire’s Seasons in Hell, about the ’73 to ’75 Texas Rangers, which wasn’t really the worst team in baseball, though it makes a great story. (The ’74 Rangers finished second in the AL West, behind Oakland, which went on to win…
