Scott Goldstein, who’s still new at covering City Hall for The Dallas Morning News, had a piece in the paper a week ago that expressed the longstanding Morning News strategy for new beat reporters, which is pretty much the opposite of the strategy at places where I have worked. He…
On the Opinion Blog of The Dallas Morning News today, editorial writer Rudy Bush identifies one Dave Neumann as “a clearly unqualified former council member” in reference to Neumann’s recent brief engagement as a public relations consultant to the city’s police and fire pension fund. Unfair? Could be. The fund,…
We really, really don’t need to discuss Social Distortion. Really.I have an embarrassing tendency to bait people into conversations where I just talk about cool things I am doing. Surprise, right? While it likely stems from being bored with hearing of the mundane achievements of others (babies, crappy jobs, cars),…
Apparently my destiny is to spend the rest of my life writing about Tod Robberson, an editorial writer for the The Dallas Morning News with whom I disagree about every single thing on the face of the Earth. In my column in the print edition this week, I disagree with…
Last week I got into a flame war on the blogs with Rudy Bush and Tod Robberson. They are editorial writers for The Dallas Morning News. We were arguing about the very controversial Jim’s Car Wash in South Dallas, target of legislative investigations, police mobilizations and endless City Hall politics…
Dear Mexican: Why do some Mexicans expect us to learn Spanish instead of them learning English? (NOTE: I did say SOME, not most or all!) I’m offended whenever I am ASSAULTED by listening to anything in Spanish on phone menus or see it on forms that I have to fill…
I’ve got a column in the print edition this week on the car wash on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard about which I have written so much over the years, and I want to call your attention to it because I believe it zeroes in on a central issue too…
In the past few years, it seems like everyone has been picking on country music. As the genre becomes more and more dominated by good ol’ boys looking for a good time, the term “bro country” has increasingly been used by music critics to pejoratively describe some of the most…
Former Dallas Observer journalist and current Dallas Morning News digitalist Robert Wilonsky was on Channel 5 just now talking about a new report ranking Dallas in the bottom five of 30 American metro areas for “walkability.” The problem is that we still have a lot of people here who will…
Recently, Dallas City Council decided that they didn’t want to force people older than 17 years of age to wear helmets when they’re riding bikes. Which is fine. I don’t believe that there has to be a law saying everything that’s fucking stupid is fucking stupid. If that were the…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
Ninety-nine point nine percent of what urban planner Larry Beasley says is brilliant, and usually when I do think I’ve got him being wrong on some point, it’s because I’m not being brilliant. It always turns out to be something I misinterpreted. That said, I think he may be one…
Dear Mexican: If dark-skinned people are so “undesirable,” unwelcome and put down by you gringos, how come you bake in the sun like zopilotes to get dark? Summer is fantasy time for all of you, when you can actually get some color in that white skin of yours. Maybe the…
Rudy Bush and Tod Robberson, writers on The Dallas Morning News editorial board, think it’s a great thing that police are barricading a car wash on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to force the owner out of business. Yesterday to buttress their case against the owner and rebut my own…
Yesterday in a blog item Dallas Morning News editorial writer Tod Robberson stated as fact that the controversial car wash on MLK Boulevard — topic of many Dallas Observer stories over many years — is “a major drug emporium for South Dallas.” The strong suggestion of the piece and an…
Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist and is the author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to…
Sunday I witnessed first-hand the Dallas Police Department’s new technique to force the owners of that troubled car wash in South Dallas to sell or go out of business. You may know which car wash. The one City Hall hates. See also: Dallas City Hall versus The Car Wash Normally…
The thing I felt when I read of Rick Finlan’s recent death was simple sadness. He was a hero. A jerk. So smart, so funny. A great source for reporters. Friend of mine. A jerk. For the better part of two decades Finlan marched against local government chicanery arm in…
Flickr/eyeliamMixing business with pleasure is a dirty game, isn’t it? While necessary, practice spaces exemplify the tension that comes with sharing a small area with a number of personal friends and acquaintances. It’s like living in a tiny house with eight other unbalanced roommates. Between paying rent, keeping the space…
Whoa. Wait up. Take five. Let’s take another look at that Wallace Hall narrative. He’s the University of Texas regent from Dallas who is supposed to be a crazy, nuts, Tea Party, Rick-Perry-buddy, off-the-wall, Neanderthal education-hater who needs to be impeached, criminally prosecuted and generally expunged. OK. But what if…
I found it in the children’s book section of Barnes & Noble. It was colorful. It had birthday balloons all over it. It was sent to my eyeballs from the devil himself. And now, I share this awful news with you: There is an Elf on the Shelf for birthdays…
It’s been a pretty terrible past few years for country music. The rise of “bro country,” music made for and by red-blooded, America-loving, beer-drinking white guys like Luke Bryan and Eric Church, has turned the country music airwaves largely into a cesspool. There is one glaring exception, though: reigning queen…
