Waxahachie Daily Light! You’re on notice. Because when you get crossways with local firebrand Linda Lewis, protesters will march, media will descend, and comically high settlement demands will be made. Kentucky Fried Chicken got a taste back in 2006. Lewis claimed she found baby cockroaches sprinkled over her chicken sandwich…
George Gimarc called the other day, said he’d just been rustling through stacks of paperwork left behind by Brent Stein — better known as Stoney Burns, father of Dallas’s underground press. Stein died in April, and in recent days those trusted to dispose of his estate have been offloading what…
The voter ID law passed by Texas lawmakers in May continues its circuit among activists, lawmakers, academics and social commentators as a discriminatory, unjustified and absolutely necessary measure, depending on who’s yelling. Words like “voter fraud” on the right and “disenfranchisement” on the left stir up serious emotion with people…
Actually, you probably just want better streets — most of Dallas does. But a Complete Streets PowerPoint prepared for tomorrow’s council briefing, during which redistricting will probably eat up most of the morning, reveals the findings of a Collective Strength survey conducted in August by Promark Research, during which 518…
I’ve yet to make the transition to Kindle; I was reminded of yet another reason why over the weekend, which I’ll explain later. But when a colleague, peeking over my shoulder, saw the news release in the in-box late yesterday — the one from the city titled “Kindle e-book downloads…
Wow. I think Dallas Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan broke a major national story at today’s meeting of the Dallas City Council Trinity River Corridor Project committee. She told the committee that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — the quasi-military agency in charge of the nation’s flood control levees…
Craig Miller’s one of the most visible members of the Dallas Police Department — has been for years, as Miller served as commander of the Dallas PD’s Homicide Unit, its narcotics unit and then as its deputy chief over Crimes Against Persons. Whenever there’s a homicide or a kidnapping or…
As we make the slow transition to bringing sports back to Unfair Park, several have asked: Um, how ’bout a Rangers playoff liveblog or open thread? To which I say: Absofreakinlutely. I had hoped to bring Best of Dallas-winner Jamey Newberg, namesake of The Newberg Report and the man to…
It’s all but official now. We’ve strung together the 12 driest months in Texas history. State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon estimates we got 13.69 inches for the year. The average is 27. It’s been hell on ranchers, as we reported in this week’s cover story. And it may get worse. Texas…
On Friday, in a briefing sent to the city council, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance and the downtown homeless shelter The Bridge announced they would be separating their leadership, something that became effective Saturday. The Bridge is now its own separate non-profit and will be a member of the MDHA,…
By now you’ve probably heard that the Magnablend chemical-manufacturing plant in Waxahachie is on fire, “sending huge plumes of black smoke and explosions billowing into the air,” per KDFW-Channel 4’s characterization of the blaze. What you see above is the view out Unfair Park HQ’s window of the smoke that…
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a very confusing ruling in the case involving Dallas County’s voting machines — a case, you’ll recall, that stemmed from Linda Harper-Brown’s 19-vote victory over Democrat Bob Romano in 1998. Long story short: The Texas Democratic Party (represented in part by attorney…
Before the council’s Economic Development Committee got ’round to talking about Dallas’s employment figures — and it was a brief briefing — familiar Unfair Park figure Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the Office of Economic Development, gave the council an hour-long-plus overview of what his office of up to — everything…
In a few minutes, the council’s Economic Development Committee will take up the subject of Dallas’ Workforce and Jobs, which comes with this 29-page PowerPoint worth a look-see even if you’re not planning on following along, which we are. Long story short: “In an ongoing weak national economy,” says the…
Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked if we’re planning on covering this morning’s scheduled hearing concerning Yucatan and Service Bar’s lawsuit over the Greenville Avenue Planned Development District ordinance. As you’re well aware by now, City Code now dictates that in order for Lower Greenville businesses to stay open…
Tony Romo isn’t solely to blame for the Cowboys’ loss to the Lions, described alternately as “epic,” “historic” and just plain “embarrassing” (that’s from the team’s own website). The defense, stout in the first three quarters, surrendered 17 points to Detroit in the final period, including that three-on-one jump ball…
In 1997, an insurance company called Rushmore sued Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in federal court, insisting that Jones owed close to $1 million in workers comp claims filed by former players — among them Harvey Martin, Tony Dorsett, Billy Joe DuPree, Randy White and Bob Breunig. The suit…
What you see above is the new plan to improve the Trinity River levees, which is markedly different than the one outlined on Page 46 of the April 2010 Dallas Floodway System briefing that showed the so-called cut-off wall sunk into the levees. Of course, back then it was guesstimated…
Got an email from Kirby Warnock a few days ago that said Jimmie Vaughan would be returning to Oak Cliff on November 10 — to the Texas Theatre, matter of fact, as part of his ongoing “Soul of Oak Cliff” series, which means seats are extremely limited with ticket prices…
Danny Fulgencio spent this glorious First Day of the Fair where he’s always perched this time of the year: on Main Street, along the parade route for the State Fair of Texas’s kick-off parade that’s a little bit o’ this and a whole lotta that. One of Dallas’s finer traditions…
Just got off the phone with a lovely young lass from PETA, America’s favorite activist group turned performance troupe. They’re always really nice to talk to, those PETA folks, right until they start trying to reincarnate your lunch. Apparently they had applied for a booth at the State Fair of…
A few days ago, Noah Fleisher at Heritage Auction Galleries sent word that our ‘cross-the-street neighbor would be auctioning off some 250 pieces that once belonged to the late Ted Pillsbury in its October fine-art auction. Just got ’round to browsing the virtual catalog when I saw this item of…
