The city finally came up with that list of city officials with whom lobbyists must report contacts under the new lobby reform ordinance that goes into effect a week from now. The lobbyists had been bitching behind the scenes because the city was taking months to come up with the…
I’m getting a a lot of e-mail from people who want to know how to look up their property on the FEMA flood risk maps to see if they are exposed to flooding since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has declared the city’s Trinity River levee system unsafe. I’ll…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Randy Galloway – who’s forgotten more Rangers’ baseball than I’ll ever learn – says a disgruntled former employee blackmailed the organization and ultimately leaked the story of manager…
Got a little e-mail debate going with Frank Librio, the spokesman for the city of Dallas, which I thought I should share with the Friends of Unfair Park. Always good to get a second opinion. Maybe people will agree with Frank that I have been unfair. I have a column…
Showed up at Room 5ES in Dallas City Hall this morning at 9 a.m. to cover an officially posted hearing of the Dallas Zoning Ordinance Committee on community gardens. Sat there. Alone.After a span of time I am not willing to divulge, I snapped to the fact that something wasn’t…
Dear Mexican: By now, I’m sure you’re aware of all the hate crimes against Hispanics in the last few years. By now, I’m sure you’re thinking that this is ¡Ask a Mexican!, not ¡Ask a Hispanic! But let me tell you that all the hate crimes against Hispanics have been…
Seven hundred percent. That’s the magic number. In a mile-deep swath running from downtown Dallas six miles west to the Walton Walker Expressway, north to Texas Stadium and in a brood loop around South Dallas, the risk of flood disaster from the Trinity River—at least as reflected in insurance rates—is…
Unfair Park reported yesterday that things might get uglier in the death and burial of the late Gen. Hugh Robinson, a leader in local Dallas business and civic affairs also prominent in national political and military circles of his time (a top aide to LBJ at one point, for example)…
Dueling obits — always a bad sign. This time the dark cloud of family unrest gathers over the death of Hugh Robinson (or Hughes, depending on which obit you read).The first obituary, which ran March 5 in The Dallas Morning News, did mention Major General Robinson’s stepchildren but neglected to…
Mark Austry was healthy. Not an obsessed fitness nut, but healthy. Played baseball at Texas Tech and with the Fort Worth Cats. Was a superb golfer. And, when he found time from being a devoted family man to wife and two kids, he got out and ran. Sunday he dropped…
We always knew you can’t beat City Hall. Now it looks like you can’t even meet City Hall. As of April 1, people or institutions deemed to be lobbyists at City Hall will be required to go online and report every meeting or contact they have with certain city officials…
Unintentionally hilarious item in The Dallas Morning News today: “Council’s Frustration Spills Over,” by Rudy Bush on the Metro front, in which council member par excellence Ron Natinsky asks a deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development if he can help get the U.S. Army Corps of…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *I said upon hearing the Josh Howard-for-Caron Butler trade during the NBA All-Star break that the Dallas Mavericks were not only re-shaping their roster but re-booting their playoff prospects. I had…
Make it 17 years and counting that SMU won’t be invited to March Madness. With head coach Matt Doherty’s rebuilding program on a pace that’s as slow as refrigerated honey – or is it simply a treadmill? – is it time for a change? SMU’s latest losing season was buried…
Dear Mexican: I’ve always been attracted to transgendered women since I was about 13. I’ve noticed, however, that most trannies are Hispanic. Now, before you say that this is ¡Ask a Mexican!, not ¡Ask a Hispanic!, I’ve also noticed that more than half of all Hispanic transsexuals are Mexican. What’s…
Dear Mexican: When I was in high school, everyone called the Mexican students like myself “cheddars.” I’m not sure where this originated from, or what it really has to do with Mexican culture. When I have asked other Mexicans what this means, they are not sure, either. “Cheddar packing” is…
Years ago an editor at another newspaper who thought I was worrying a story to death told me, “The French have a saying that to understand everything is to forgive everything. Remember, Schutze, we are not French.” No kidding. But I don’t think it forgives anybody to try to understand…
Doing some Trinity River research this week, I came across an item posted on Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert’s Web page talking about how the outcome of the 2007 toll road election was a real kick in city council member Angela Hunt’s ass. Hunt, of course, sponsored the unsuccessful referendum. “The…
I am here at the Big House, totally motivated, ready to blog the living hell out of today’s Dallas city council briefing on community gardens. A mob has gathered of approximately 11 community garden partisans. They are seated at the peanut gallery end of the council briefing room, where they…
Sometimes The Dallas Morning News does so many things so right I begin to worry. Tanya Eiserer’s work on how the Dallas Police Department faked the city’s crime reports so Dallas would no longer be the most crime-riddled city in the nation; everything Brooks Egerton does; in fact, most of…
10. You know it’s going to be an interesting trip when – upon the first hint of turbulence 30 minutes from touchdown in Las Vegas – the person directly behind you throws up sorta into the barf bag. “Turb-yoo-lance ain’t no good, mayne,” said the dude. Words can’t describe the…
Listen up, Dallas Area Rapid Transit! My man, Roscoe Betz, is still comin’. And some day he is gonna get you. This week Betz won again. I first wrote about Mr. Betz in June 2008, when he sued DART in the Justice of the Peace Court of Judge Al Cercone…
