The end is near … sort of. The city’s Redistricting Commission is inching towards putting together a city map it can forward on to the city council, and everyone — the public and commissioners alike — is trying to get in a parting shot before then. Last night’s meeting was…
Call him Steven Phillips, collector of broken men. After all, he should know a thing or two about breaking. The man spent a quarter century in prison for a string of rapes in the early ’80s. In 2007, he was released on mandatory parole to ease overcrowding in Texas prisons…
Whether you’ve reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End:*Only at a Cowboys’ training camp can you look on the sidelines one day and see the guys from Deadliest Catch and the next find a dork in an ill-fitting suit and bow…
And speaking of the Dallas Independent School District …It’s just been sued over a $40-million technology contract that the district awarded to Lewisville-based Delcom Group in May and yanked in June, when the board gave the contract to one of the company’s competitors. At stake: the district’s digital classroom initiative,…
And the hits just keep on coming: One week ago today the Texas Education Agency officially announced that the Dallas Independent School District had more campuses deemed academically unacceptable (33) than exemplary (30) — a radical shift from last year’s stats, thanks in large part to the state doing away…
A blow has been struck in the name of fun: Owners of the ultra-lounge Plush fought for their right to party and won today at the City Plan Commission, when the panel voted to extend the club’s specific use permit (SUP) for one year. As we mentioned yesterday, the club…
On the other side is the budget briefing handed to media members when we arrived at City Manager Mary Suhm’s fourth-floor conference room for a 3:45 meet-the-presser. Long story short: She managed to balance the budget without cutting too much, she said, thanks to the state taking less than originally…
Back in March I introduced you to the Relatives, heretofore overlooked Dallas greats better known in Austin than in their hometown. And now they’re beloved in France and Australia; New York too. And still, still, Rev. Gean West and brother Tommy and the greatest gospel-funk-rock-n-soul revue in town have yet…
Yesterday City Hall put out the call: It’s now accepting entries in something called the 2011 Dallas Great Streets Visual Essay Contest. Which is …? Well, long story short, the city wants you to take up to six pictures or shoot a video no longer than two minutes in length…
The Woodall Rodgers Deck Park is still a good year from opening; as you can see in the construction-cam screengrab of moments ago, there are still 64 concrete crossbeams in need of installation, and that won’t happen till October. Crews will spend the summer waterproofing, and fireproofing, the deck. The…
With a bright blue Frisbee on his head and a blow-up ball hanging from his lips by its mouthpiece, 9-year-old Emanuel spins around in circles so fast, his new camouflage backpack lifts from his body like a parachute at the moment of landing. Today is his birthday, but it feels…
First, let me apologize for the headline — I was listening to Billy Bragg and friends on the way into work this morning, and it could not be helped. Now, then. It’s been a whole two days since last we discussed flow control — I know, right? — which, as…
CBS Early Show’s Marysol Castro’s in town — can’t imagine why. Oh, right. It’s hot. Still, not so hot that two high-school footballers can’t spend their after-practice hours toiling in the sun — one on a construction site, the other decorating doorknobs with fliers, both hoping to buy a car…
10. To accommodate the veterans who will practice with the team for the first time tonight and to give those fans who get off work later a chance to see their ‘Boys, the team has moved its 2:30-5:30 practice this afternoon to 6:30-9:30 tonight at The Alamodome. Players like Doug Free…
For those who don’t recall, on February 23 Dallas Police officers were dispatched to the Hudspeth Avenue home of Dianne Irons after a call concerning some kind of a domestic dispute at the East Oak Cliff residence. Irons and her nephew, who’d once lived at the house, were arguing over…
Miracle whip: Buzz is heartsick we can’t drive to Houston this weekend to attend The Response, Governor Rick Perry’s big prayer meetin’. That means we’ll miss witnessing firsthand any miracles wrought by the convocation of several thousand mostly white, Republican, viciously homophobic “prayer warriors.” The timing of the event also…
The Cowboys’ biggest loss of the season started with a fist bump. While attractive free-agent defensive backs such as Eric Weddle, Dawan Landry and Johnathan Joseph were plucked by NFL teams during the first frantic days of post-lockout training camp, Dallas sat inexplicably idle. Fans who remember last year’s defense…
Like any father trying to stay ahead of his responsibilities, Don Hardge faced plenty of tension-filled, fist-pounding days as he juggled family, work and social commitments. Life as an Oak Cliff drug dealer and gang member was muddled with fights, drug deals and crack-addled customers to confront. At 18, Hardge…
To do our part to conserve energy as Dallas streaks toward 1980-level awfulness, we’re going to cut the lights on the two Observer signs that adorn our Oak Lawn headquarters. So when your alarm clock is still on when you wake up tomorrow morning, you’ll know who to thank. We…
Last week, our friends across the office at DC9 introduced us to a new way to creep on people in the Twitterverse: Undetweetable, an invention by professor Dr. Dean Terry and grad student Bradley Griffith, both of the Emerging Media + Communication program at the University of Texas at Dallas. Undetweetable…
That sure happened fast. Behold, the Three Stages of Lawyering Up: Stage 1: A perceived injustice occurs — in this case, a July 29 letter from attorneys representing the Diocese of Dallas and Kevin Farrell, the recently installed, Dublin-born Bishop imported from a titular see in Algeria, ordering the Calumet…
With each passing day this week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas sets a new record for peak demand — and today is no different. One day after hinting that rolling blackouts may be headed our way, ERCOT sends word that at 2:50 this afternoon it initiated Energy Emergency Alert…
