When the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report earlier this week that placed Texas second only to Mississippi when it comes to the swelling ranks of hungry residents, Jan Pruitt wasn’t surprised. After all, the president and CEO of the North Texas Food Bank had just released her own…
In advance of a formal presentation today on the SMU campus, USA Today sneak previews architect Robert A.M. Stern’s conceptual renderings for the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Yes, but will there be “freedom” involved?One feature of the library will be a “freedom collection” with videos of testimony from “freedom…
The chief and council member attended a little meet-and-greet in Northwest Dallas last night — big turnout too, about 150 folks who didn’t come for the way-too-early-for-those Christmas cookies but to talk crime. Margolin, though, spent much of her time talking about ethics reform at Dallas City Hall — “a…
I officially grew old yesterday afternoon. Once you’ve seen the rise and fall of a sports stadium, you’ve officially, um, been around the block. I remember a kinder, gentler era in Dallas when as a little punk I’d peer out the family Fury along I-35 and gaze in wonderment at The…
Patrick spent the better part of the morning watching A&R Demolition crews claw at the “legs” of Reunion Arena’s roof in the anticipation that the sucker would lean into a controlled drop rather than just, ya know, collapse. But, as evidenced by this video from Friend of Unfair Park “Human…
A couple of months, Schutze was all jacked up because someone on his street got a ticket for being parked the wrong way on a two-way street. Don’t look now, but seems the city’s done figured out that’s an awful easy way to make $45 a pop during these lean…
Just spent the better part of an hour watching a rough cut of National Geographic Channel’s The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination, a found-footage doc that makes its debut Monday at 8 p.m. C.S.T. Those burned out on Last Day of JFK documentaries need to take note: It’s not another…
Otto Lang and Frank Witchell built this city, more or less. Let’s catalog, shall we: the Dallas Power & Light Building, the Lone Star Gas Company HQ, the Sanger Bros. Department Store, the Fair Park Music Hall, the Sears, Roebuck & Co.’s Catalog Merchandise Center (now known as the Southside…
From the looks of the photos sent along by Mayor Tom Leppert’s chief of staff, Chris Heinbaugh, it appears as though Leppert and the other 21 members of a privately funded, weeklong trade mission through Asia have managed a solid swap: We give South Korea a Mavs jersey. They show…
Governor Rick Perry stopped by DISD’s Emmett J. Conrad High School on Fair Oaks Ave. yesterday to tout the Texas Workforce Commission’s $1 million investment in expanding robotics education programs across the state. Conrad, of course, boasts an estimable robotics club — the RoboChargers — that, for the last three…
Like the BCS, style points count. So do geeky, black-and-white stats such as touchdowns and quarterback rating. Wins and losses? Definitely. Leadership? Uh-huh. When it comes to my weekly NFL Quarterback Rankings – if I had one of those little encircled R’s to signify a trademarked idea, it’d go here – the…
Blockbuster’s torn: Stores or kiosks? Kiosks or stores? Says one analyst this week, Not stores, no friggin’ way. But how else will the Dallas-based videotailer host a release party? Our Gloria Levario was out and about early this a.m. and happened by the Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray shindig at…
It’s been a year since the city council’s Transportation and Environment Committee got word that Dallas had plans — and $300,000 courtesy the Regional Transportation Council — to update The Greater Dallas Bike Plan, created in 1985 and updated, barely, only a few times since. According to a memo sent…
The front page of this morning’s New York Times Arts section draws our attention (heh) to the treasure trove of comic-book art sitting directly across the street from Unfair Park HQ: 83-year-old comic-book artist Joe Kubert has decided to sell off his collection of originals via Heritage Auction Galleries, beginning…
Spent yesterday afternoon out at Cowboys Stadium, where about 30 mayors – from Southlake to Sunnyvale – convened for an update as to the goings-on about Super Bowl XLV. By the way, 445 days and counting … I was there hounding Roger Staubach about an upcoming Dallas Observer cover story…
So, how to end a Monday: with a Justin Terveen photo snapped downtown over the weekend, or with Gordon Keith and Rhett Miller performing the WKRP in Cincinnati theme song in a video sent to me by a Friend of Unfair Park who knows of my affection for WKRP, the…
Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle was at City Hall this morning for the first time since announcing his surprise retirement last week. Ostensibly, he came to discuss the newly updated crime statistics, but he kicked off a briefing of the city council’s Public Safety Committee by discussing his decision to…
Speaking of local landmarks getting adiosed …Reunion Arena!Finally!After the jump, the release from Dallas City Hall regarding the beginning of the end of the beginning of the end for the arena, which has cost a little more and taken a little longer than A&R Demolition and the city expected. But…
Washington Post writer Hank Stuever begins a three-day sign-and-speak stint in North Texas tomorrow — a sprint compared to the marathon of spending three years, on and off, living in Frisco in order to document how folks spend Christmas up thataways for his book Tinsel: A Search for America’s Christmas…
Nearly every day for 12 years, Dannie Lancaster has climbed the Texas Giant to help keep Six Flags’ wooden flagship roller coaster running as safely, if not as smoothly, as possible. On days when the heat was most intense, Lancaster says, he and the inspection crew might replace 50 heavy…
Talked with a guy I really respect this morning. Peter King has been watching and writing about NFL football for years and years. First met him out at Valley Ranch in the early 1990s and have read his stuff at Sports Illustrated ever since and now watch him on NBC’s…
Since April, city officials have been pushing — hard — to land the Federation Internationale de Football Association’s World Cup, either in 2018 or 2022. Matter of fact, they’re even asking locals to sign a petition demanding FIFA bring the soccer matches to Dallas; so far, looks like 6,556 have…
