After the jump is a video just posted by SMU and the school’s Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility in which student Christina Rancke, Class of 2013, talks about losing her father in the collapse of the World Trade Center’s south tower on September 11, 2001. She was in…
About a month back we espied the winning entries in the CityDesign Studio’s competition intended to find someone to artistically hide that Oncor power station at the western foot of the Margaret Hunt Hill lest those headed to Ray’s come spring find it unpalatable. (Keeping in mind, of course, that…
As often as I can, I take a stroll or bike ride through Fair Park — I’m lucky enough to live across the street from one of my favorite places in Dallas. And while the landscape is usually the same beautiful, quiet ghost town, recently things have been changing. The…
In an email headlined “A sad day for all Texans,” a law-practicing Friend of Unfair Park forwards along a just-posted opinion from the state Supremes, who have decided that the state Legislature’s so-called “pole tax,” which collects $5 from each admission paid to a topless joint and directs those dollars…
After our back-to-back items about redistricting last night — one involving the city of Dallas, one concerning the Dallas Independent School District — I received a missive from Bill Betzen, about whom Anna wrote a couple of weeks back as his proposed map for the city’s new council districts worked…
We came in late to the fight over 600 Elsbeth: Back in October, we discovered that Jane Bryant was selling, through Heritage, a door to Lee Harvey Oswald’s old Oak Cliff apartment, on Elsbeth and Davis. The apartment building itself is mentioned here in the Warren Commission Report; Lee and…
Speaking of contentious redistricting …A little while ago, the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees was treated to its own redistricting drama courtesy the public speakers lined up, for the most part, behind trustee Carla Ranger, who has accused board president Lew Blackburn of wanting “to take by force”…
In case you haven’t noticed, the map that the Redistricting Commission voted to forward to the city council on Tuesday night has one major change: It would place both Vonciel Jones Hill and Dwaine Caraway in District 4, meaning that the two council members would have to run against each…
Seven months ago was when we got our last comment on this item about Rebecca Miller’s post-Channel 5 cake-makin’ plans following her unceremonious dismissal from the NBC owned-and-operated — and it ran in March of ’08. Of course, can still be seen delivering the weather on local TV — as…
Corinne Hill has been the interim director of libraries for the city of Dallas since June of last year. That, she says, will change soon enough: Either she will be made the permanent director, or the city will install someone else in that position. City Manager Mary Suhm acknowledges as…
Upcoming is a chat I had this morning with Corinne Hill, the interim director of the Dallas Public Library system. I called her to talk about the new Arts, Culture & Libraries Committee debuted on Tuesday when Mayor Mike Rawlings sent word of his new council committee appointments. She said…
Theresa O’Donnell, director of Sustainable Development and Construction for the city of Dallas, confirms: Sylvan Thirty’s zoning ordinance won’t go before the City Plan Commission till October 6, a month later than originally scheduled. The delay is due, in part, to a request made by the Belmont’s Monte Alexander on…
This is what happens when you fail to sign Nnamdi Asomugha. Insanity. Out of desperation more than inspiration, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones yesterday gave a five-year, $27 million contract extension (including $10 million guaranteed) to … Orlando Scandrick. I don’t know whether to laugh. Or vomit. On the Top 50…
Things all went wrong for Renee so recently she can still count the days: 32. That’s how long it’s been since she lost her job, her car was repossessed and her house was foreclosed on. “Everything just fell apart so quickly,” she says.She’s in her mid-40s with bright green eyes…
I guess it’s just plain dumb luck that I happened to be drifting through tiny Dublin (population 4,000) on the one day a month delicious Dublin Dr Pepper is bottled. Now, for the uninitiated, Dublin Dr Pepper distinguishes itself from its Plano-based brethren in one key respect: It’s made with…
Well, that didn’t take long. From almost 8 games a week ago tonight, the Rangers’ lead in the AL West is suddenly down to 2.5. The magic number, seemingly tumbling toward the 20s, is now stuck at 30. This is a good thing. Because, seriously, if the lead stretched to…
Observer’er Daniel Rodrigue espied this offering on Craigslist: “kennedy assassination morning news printing plate.” Then, he asked, “Shouldn’t this be in a museum or something?” Sure, along with most everything Heritage auctions. That’s the way historic artifacts go. Still, curious, I called the owner to ask about their provenance. The…
10. If Wednesday night’s crowd at Rangers Ballpark was 30,000 it killed Cowboys’ practice across the street. I’d say there was 15,000 inside Cowboys Stadium, tops. I guess $1 Hot Dogs > $10 Parking. 9. Early in camp in San Antonio linebacker Keith Brooking intercepted a pass and began sprinting down…
Real loser: So, pretend you’re a jury pool consultant. Pretend ace white-collar criminal lawyer Billy Ravkind hired you to advise him on the mood and mindset of potential jurors in the eventual and inevitable federal corruption trial of his client, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, currently the target of…
Long before the baseball that was the catalyst to his accidental death at Rangers Ballpark, Shannon Stone grabbed another souvenir in Arlington. This one — a foul ball caught in 1983 off the bat of his favorite player, Buddy Bell — perished when his parents’ house in Johnson County burned…
Hardy Haberman was in his local dungeon a couple years ago, beating a friend at a “play party,” when things suddenly got weird. Wielding a soft leather flogger — a thick-handled instrument that resembles a whip, but with a dozen slender tails — he was lashing the slightly younger man’s…
Been watching Gawker’s mini-series The Worst 50 States in America solely to see where The Great State of Texas landed up — figured surely it would rate Top 10, if only because of a certain presidential candidate who’s now the GOP’s front-runner. But, no. Texas comes in today at No…
