What If You Held A Recession, and Nobody Came?

The unemployment rate in Dallas just dropped again, to 4.3%. The rate for Texas hit a 30-year low at 4.1%. Insert your comment about (a) illegal immigration taking American jobs,  (b) Wall Street panics, or (c) the media below.

Dallas Mayor Chats With Austin Editor

The Austin editor in question is Evan Smith, who sits down with Tom Leppert for this week’s Texas Monthly Talks. I’ve watched the first half of the interview. So far, zero mentions of Leppert’s ultra-lengthy digits.

Jeff Crilley Calls It Quits at Channel 4

Uncle Barky has the scoop. The reporter plans to set up his own PR shop staffed solely with former practicing journalists. I would say something snarky, but I don’t want it to come back and bite me two years from now when I ask Crilley for a job.

The DaFoWo Show Hearts FrontBurner Hard

The Star-Telegram’s silly (in a good way) online webisode interslice thing just posted its second chapter, in which host Kristin Campbell kicks out a shout to FrontBurner — more specifically FB commentor Danno — for inventing the term “carsonist.” All well and fine. Thanks for that. But we urge McClatchy management to take a bigger role in the selection of Campbell’s wardrobe. As Eric noted earlier, the red sweater is handsome. Boo to the floral-print blouse.

D Mag Intern Turns Up “Dead”

When Spider Monkey walked over and said her intern Blair was dead, my heart soared because I thought that meant Blair had nothing to do and could finish off some fact-checking for me. Wrong. Blair is participating in Highland Park High School’s “Shattered Dreams” program, which is designed to scare the you know what out of students in an effort to keep them sober come prom night. The school has been doing this for a couple of years, and we’ve covered it in Park Cities People before (no link, sorry). I’m doubtful these scare tactics work, but jump for Blair’s account from the grave. (more…)

Re: Two of Three Cops Fired

Just spoke with Shanna Lopez, whose courage made uncovering that story possible. All things going well, she’s slated to start again at the police academy next week. She told me last year that she wanted vindication so her son, Micah, would see that the good guys do come out on top sometimes. For once, that looks to be happening. Oh, and Officer Nick Novello, who came forward and gave us a lot of the background information for the story and wasn’t afraid to be named, is apparently going to be part of a story on Fox 4 tonight. So tune in. (Photo by Kevin Hunter Marple)

Newcastle Club’s Dallas Ties Get Stronger, Younger

A soccer-minded, friend-of-mine FrontBurnervian just passed along this item about Emerson Hyndman, an 11-year-old Dallas soccer phenom who’s headed to Newcastle’s academy. Not bad. (The kid’s got good soccer genes; his grandfather is SMU’s legendary head coach Schellas Hyndman.) Also Dallas-y on the Newcastle front, and vice versa, is the news of Kenny Cooper Sr.’s job as chief scout for North America. Cooper’s kid, as you know, plays for FC Dallas.

Pictures From Fashion at the Park I Forgot to Include Earlier

For all three of you (hopefully!) who care, jump for a couple pics, mostly of Simon Doonan and his heels. And one of Mr. Doonan and one of my favorite ladies. Also, it’s worth mentioning that last night’s event was sold out, and if you want to go, click here for tickets.
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Um, Why Aren’t I Frequenting Whisky Bar More Often?

According to my D Magazine Nightlife section on the Hyperglobal Interslice, this is Jenn Garner, a bartender at Whisky Bar. Hi, Jenn. Let’s create beautiful page views together.

Re: Fox 4 and Internet Addiction

Trey, that reminds me of a story the Dallas Observer ran in 1995 about a St. Marks student, Zach Loafman, who was supposedly “addicted to the Internet.” We giggled hard about that one. Oh, and, looks like Mr. Loafman did just fine in overcoming his “problem”: he went on to get his degree from a little place called Carnegie Mellon, with a double major in discrete mathematics and logic. Now, if we could just find some stories about how those darn video games are the new addiction concern: oh, wait, here ya go.

Two of Three Cops in Phony Ticket, Bogus Arrest Scheme Investigation Fired

Justice is slow but, barring the endless appeals sure to come, it does happen sometimes. We just got word that Senior Corporals Jeff Nelson and Al Schoelen (first two, from left) were fired this morning from the Dallas Police Department after a lengthy investigation stemming from the story we broke in June 2007. The third officer involved, Senior Corporal Timothy Stecker (far right), got off light with a 10-day suspension. Given what’s attached to Stecker’s name, you can bet he’s going to be useless to the department going forward, as any defense attorney who can tie her shoes will be able to impeach Stecker’s credibility in any future charges he tries to bring against any suspect.

Sen. Florence Shapiro Gives DMN Exec the Fantods

Yesterday Ebby Halliday received the 79th annual Linz Award at a luncheon held at the Fairmont. The Linz Award is co-sponsored by the Zale Corp. and the Dallas Morning News. So DMN publisher Jim Moroney was on hand, natch. Here’s the funny part: Sen. Shapiro gave Halliday’s intro. In it, I’m told, Shapiro said something to the effect of, “The very best description of Ebby comes from a story that ran in D Magazine.” She went on to quote from this story written by Candy Evans. I’m told Moroney thought that was totally awesome.

Fashion at the Park Kicks Off

It’s that time of year again, everyone! Fashion at the Park began last night at NorthPark Center, and once again, we put on our happy faces and made our way to the tent constructed in the parking lot. Stephanie will tell you more later, but I thought I’d fill in some of the first details. The first show of the weekend was Barneys New York, and wonderful (and tiny) creative director Simon Doonan was there to emcee. He began the presentation by walking down the catwalk in very high heels, which maybe you had to be there to find funny. Jump to find out who was there.
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Re: Dallas Area Is Fastest-Growing in U.S.

The headline is misleading. In terms of absolute growth, yes, we top the nation. But a more meaningful measure, it seems to me, our percentage population growth puts us farther down the list.

In a related note, kudos to the DMN for reporting the story without once using the word “Metroplex.”

Dallas Area Is Fastest Growing in the U.S.

The Census Bureau says The DFW added 162,000 people between July 2006 and July 2007, 90 percent of whom prefer to be in front of me on the highway when I have to be somewhere important and I’m running late.

Fox 4 Shows Why Everyone Takes Local TV News So Seriously

Breakthrough localized report on the latest crippling disease — Internets addiction — including such unheard of, dire consequences as college students staying up all night and skipping class. Here’s to you, Ms. Localizing A Bogus Story to Fill Air Time.

Leading Off

1. Tennessee’s governor suggests that the superdelegates powwow before the Democratic National Convention and figure out the whole Clinton vs. Obama thing. Where? Dallas. You know what that means? Two words: cactus juice.

2. I actually was accused of having a fake inspection sticker in court once, because the mechanic put it on backwards. Why was I in court? I’ve said too much already.

3. Barack Obama’s pastor isn’t coming to Dallas after all. Next on Jeremiah Wright’s itinerary: a six- or seven-month fact-finding tour of a little place called You’ll See. Since it was early and I forgot Trey already got this, No. 3 is now a wild card item: surprise.