I’m dialed into the inaugural meeting of the council’s Arts, Culture & Libraries Committee, tasked by Mayor Mike, as you’ll recall, with finding “alternative funding sources” to help make Dallas “a smart, cultured and creative city.” And God bless her, Maria Munoz-Blanco, director of the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs,…
For those Friends of Unfair Park who don’t have Jewish mothers, I will tell you: They get stuff done. That would probably be their motto, if they ever organized themselves into some kind of union. (Possible sub-motto: “But, Really, Would It Kill You To Call More Often?”)This morning, in front…
Speaking of Dallas ISD public hearings …A few weeks back, in advance of a series of town halls, we sneak-peaked the district’s vague suggestions offered to improve its 33 academically unacceptable campuses. But on the board’s meetings-and-agenda website, you’ll find the so-called School Improvement Plan for each individual campus prepared…
Next week’s council agenda makes it official: The long-talked-about expansion of César Chávez Boulevard and Pearl Expressway downtown, from Commerce Street to Live Oak Street, is on track to begin in December. The council is set to sign off on paying $12,473,920 to Tiseo Paving Company to do the job,…
Tony Romo was gutsy last Sunday in San Francisco, but because the Cowboys lost he wasn’t heroic. Jason Garrett should be fired for his insane 3rd-and-2 play call in the final minute that led to the loss to the 49ers. Dan Bailey might be a former NFL kicker. Jesse Holley is just…
Here’s what we know about the Dallas Independent School District’s search for a new superintendent to replace Michael Hinojosa: nothing. Here are the criteria the trustees have agreed on for what they’d like to see in a new superintendent: none yet.Now that I’ve summarized the salient points of last night’s…
It’s not a matter of if, but merely when. The Big 12 is kaput. When the Board of Regents at OU and Texas yesterday empowered their respective school presidents (David Boren and Williams Powers) to explore new conference affiliations, it officially signaled the beginning of the end for the Irving-based…
This afternoon at 1, the city council’s Budget, Finance, and Audit Committee will get together with a jam-packed agenda that will include an appearance by City Auditor Craig Kinton, who will outline his FY2012 to-do list. (Which includes a look-see at the city’s ethics, as in: “Assess and evaluate the…
That’s the full title of the latest JWP protest being staged by the National Black United Front, not to be confused with the Judean People’s Front or the Popular Front of Judea, who will return to the Pan-African Connection Bookstore across the street from Fair Park, scene of last month’s…
Nothing like a good baseball pennant race. Too bad this year there ain’t one. No divisional “race” is closer than 5 games in the season’s last week and even the Wild Card is producing nothing more dramatic than a two-game edge. With another Angels’ loss Monday the Rangers inched closer…
Anna’s going to swing by Midway Hills Christian Church tonight at 7, where Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores will host a town hall. The point of this meeting, per a DISD heads-up: “Dr. Flores requests input from the public on selecting a new Superintendent of Schools.” Oh, I…
Maybe you read the piece in the paper over the weekend about how all those Dallas County deputy constables who blew all those whistles on Dallas County Precinct 1 Constable Derick Evans and former Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes are scared of losing their jobs. They have good reason: The…
The First Unitarian Church of Dallas hosted a special guest last week: Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. The CRR, if you recall, is the New York-based organization that recently won a preliminary injunction against Texas’s proposed sonogram law. In the church’s main sanctuary, Northup spoke to…
Back in February we noted that former municipal judge Staci Williams — a Hockaday graduate with a Georgetown law degree — had filed a federal suit against the city of Dallas over her dismissal in June 2010, when the city council’s Ad-Hoc Legislative Committee refused to reappoint her to that…
Now that it’s wrapped budget amendment talk, the council’s in executive session, where one of the agenda items reads: “Legal issues regarding proposed resource flow control ordinance.” And not a moment too soon. Not only is council set to return to read over those flow control Q&A’s we posted Saturday,…
The council’s wrapped up straw-voting on those budget amendments, one of which involved those changes to Dallas-Fire Rescue’s dispatch scheduling. Sheffie Kadane had proposed leaving the schedule as it is now: with DFR employees working one 24-hour shift, followed by 72 hours off. Because, he said, going City Manager Mary…
Jerry Jones said he was “outstanding” despite last week’s loss to the Jets. Sunday afternoon in San Francisco the owner almost shed a tear in talking about the quarterback’s gutsy performance in a 27-24 overtime victory over the 49ers. It’s already been a controversial, mesmerizing, fluctuating season for Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo. And…
A little after 9 this morning, the city council just took up those budget amendments we mentioned Saturday morning. First up was the slam dunk: the en masse suggestion, led by Mayor Mike Rawlings, to eliminate one more city-worker furlough day, fill those five pools and up funding for the…
These days give me a good UFC card over a boxing match, but Saturday night was quite the intriguing spectacle inside the squared ring. Getting his ass whipped early by Floyd Mayweather, seems Victor Ortiz resorted to a head-butt. But then, after what looked like a kiss to Mayweather’s cheek and…
On Wednesday, two Dallas Fire-Rescue workers told Mayor Mike and the rest of the council that two proposals in the city manager’s budget were “a disaster in the making.” They take issue with Mary Suhm’s proposal to alter and reduce shifts for dispatchers, which Suhm says will save around $1…
It wasn’t so long ago that Dallas Police Department would show witnesses for the prosecution six photos of would-be suspects and ask: Which one? Which is how, in part, Dallas became what Innocence Project of Texas founder Jeff Blackburn called “ground zero for criminal justice change” in our 2007 cover…
10. Like me, were you scared to death that Jesse Holley was going to fumble while holding the ball up in premature exclamation at the end of his 77-yard overtime catch? 9. Rob Ryan may be a defensive genius, but it doesn’t show when he has Anthony Spencer trying to cover tight…
