Back during the campaign season for the 2007 referendum on the Trinity River toll road, Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow and I got into this really high-flown intellectual debate where I said, “Steve, you’re stupid,” and he said, “Jim, you’re dumb,” and I said, “Steve, you’re a ninny,” and…
Wow. Have I got a story for you! Headline: Ancient riddle solved! Dallas city officials join with local newspaper to discover root cause of crime. Apartment owners! Amazing. All these eons, moral thinkers and criminologists have been sorting through possible explanations. Poor impulse control. Socio-economic disadvantage. Chromosomal mishap. Old Nick…
Dear Mexican: I believe that the words people use to describe other people, intentionally or unintentionally, reflect their political values. But I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, so I write to you. You described César Chávez as hating “illegals” in a previous column, and as being…
Been talking to people on deep background about Mayor Tom Leppert and his proposed, alleged takeover of the Dallas Independent School District. Some of this is from people who know Leppert, and some is from people who know DISD. Here is the thrust:1) Leppert’s idea about taking over the school…
Merten just got back from City Hall, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just got through telling reporters that 34 of the 170 areas of the Trinity River levees are “unacceptable.” Sam will have more to come shortly — including a surprise cameo appearance by Mitchell Rasansky, who had…
If Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert doesn’t mention his ideas for taking over the Dallas school system at his town hall meeting Thursday at Harold Wendell Lang Sr. Middle School, you can bet somebody in the audience will bring it up. In fact, it sounds to me like people will be…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *At the risk of ruffling more Ticket feathers, the station treated one of its first-time, long-timers like shit rudely during its recent gaggle of 15th anniversary celebrations. The way I remember…
On February 11, I wrote a piece for the paper version of Unfair Park in which I said officials in New Orleans shared blame for the levee failures during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Specifically, I wrote, “The locals had pushed and pulled for a century to get the federal government…
So the Democratic Party in Dallas County is going to slit the neck of its own highest office-holding incumbent, Dallas County Judge Jim Foster, who has committed no sin. State Senator Royce West and Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, two of the county’s top Democrats, have declared publicly that…
Dear Mexican: What is the deal with Mexican denial when it comes to dealing with child sexual abuse? I know counselors who tell me that it’s a big problem trying to get Mexican families to admit and confront this. In my own experience, I have seen my Mexican relatives be…
I interrupt my usual smart-ass sports snarkiness for a serious item: Just a little over a week ago Megan Cherry was a talented teenager with a world of promise. She was a star soccer player for her Dallas Texans club team and Allen High School, with a scholarship awaiting at Iowa…
Here we are, one full decade — 10 years, count ’em, one-10th of a century — into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and City Of Dallas’s Trinity River Corridor Project, and tomorrow the city council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee has a briefing scheduled that I would summarize as,…
Because I’m home making elaborate plans for my sweetie’s Valentine’s dinner – or something – I had to (grudgingly) send intern Kelly Knickerbocker out to scope the Dallas Desire wannabes in Grand Prairie. Kelly, what’d I miss? Today at QuikTrip Park a group of beautiful – and surprisingly tough – young…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *I know the Mavs have the NBA’s longest sellout streak at 301 games, but the fans at American Airlines Center just don’t get it. Thursday night’s tense game with the Celtics…
You know what I love? When people live up to their own stereotypes.My column this week in the paper version of Unfair Park is about signs that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may have grown a backbone in the matter of resisting political pressure on flood safety. I talk…
Dear Mexican: I have a question from one Mexican to another: Why do gabachos think we know everything about plants? During conversations with the estadounidenses, I will get asked about plants, pruning, how to keep roses alive, etc. I understand many of my compatriotas working over here are gardeners (and…
I want you to see me here, sitting at my desk with my left hand clamped over my mouth. My right hand is twisting my own right ear. Painfully. What am I doing? Easy. I’m controlling myself. I am about to talk about the Trinity River Project—our decades-old massive public…
Unite Here!, the New York City-based labor organization gathering signatures for a referendum on subsidies to developers, tells me it will turn in its petitions tomorrow — and with plenty more than the required 20,000 signatures. City Secretary Debra Watkins told me this afternoon it isn’t clear that will mean…
Jim already offered his recap from the opening of Decorazon Gallery’s Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush exhibition, which went down in Oak Cliff Thursday night.What he didn’t tell you was that his dogged pursuit of this story in recent weeks earned him an invitation from gallery owners Hugo Garcia-Urrutia and…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *So Jerry Jones wanted Dan Reeves to pledge working X amount of hours per week. Maybe it’s part of the owner’s new get-tough policy, but isn’t that ridiculous? I seem to…
The Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush show at Decorazon Gallery in Oak Cliff was a great success last night. Across the street from Hattie’s in Bishop Arts, the gallery was wall-to-wall, cheek by jowl and elbows with artists, lookers, glancers and general voyeurs. I was there, of course.But I came…
My corner of the blogosphere was in its infancy – 14 days old, in fact – when I first lampooned the ridiculous, dangerous, 14-mile stretch of Central Expressway from Dallas to Allen known as the HOV lane. My road-ragey rant went something like this: The HOV lane dividers are made of what, light…
