Celebrity Sighting: Mark Cuban at Jason’s Deli

A cello-playing FBvian just ran into Cubes at the Jason’s Deli on Mockingbird. Said he was rocking a sly smile, so maybe he finally convinced Avery to move Josh Howard to shooting guard and start Brandon Bass. Come on! It’ll work.

Fort Worth City Council Goes Touchy-Feely

Bud Kennedy over the S-T sends a note contrasting the Rhome council agenda with the Fort Worth council’s love-in today.

Good Work, Asst. DA Allison Palmer

Scott Henson raises a very disturbing point over at Grits For Breakfast:

Without the fiction of rescuing a sixteen year old rape victim to justify their military-style entry into the YFZ Ranch, everything that’s happened begins to look like a modern day witch hunt. I’ve argued repeatedly that any real sexual predators would go free because the raid has been mishandled, and this shows why.

Zac Crain Is the Burger King

Zac is working on a profile of one of Dallas’ most famous residents (coming in your June “print product”). Said celebrity made the observation that Zac resembles the King, of burger fame. And you know what? Yeah, I can see it.

Was There “Probable Cause”?

Now that the Zion arrest warrant seems to have been based on a hoax, authorities are scrambling — and making unsubstantiated blanket accusations. Assistant DA Allison Palmer says it doesn’t matter. But, of course, she would say that, since she is the one who submitted the false information to the judge. CPS spokesperson Marleigh Meisner also says it doesn’t matter, since

“What we feel we found was systematic abuse of children.”

What Meisner feels she’s found and what she’s actually found may be two very different things. Have Judge Barbara Walther, the Legislature, and the federal courts ceded interpretation of the 4th Amendment to somebody’s feelings?

All Politics Is Local

And the more local it is, the more, er, spirited it gets. Here’s the agenda for the city council’s upcoming meeting in Rhome, Texas.

The Worst Part About Living on a Polygamist Ranch

Interesting story today by Robert T. Garrett about the Eldorado kids (great name for a band). This paragraph, in particular, caught my eye:

Until this month, the youths inhabited a cloistered world where they couldn’t swear, curse, date, dance, watch TV, go to malls or movies, play Nintendo, or surf the Web.

Two points: 1) That sounds like an itinerary for my perfect Saturday. 2) When I asked Zac what the difference was between swearing and cursing, without missing a beat, he said, “Maybe they are witches.”

Deep Ellum Is Not Being “Gentrified”

So says dal-brian, and he makes a good case for why the word is inapplicable.

Ferris Speed Trap

The Ellis County Observer has the numbers. Robert Guest asks the pertinent question: is the speed trap illegal under Texas law?

Oh, Yeah. The EDS Byron Nelson Started.

The weather decided to cooperate and the golf tourney is under way. If you want to follow live scores, go here. If you want to read a DMagazine.com featurette about Saturday’s exhibition round, go here. Writer Curt Samson followed the foursome of Tony Romo, Tripp Keuhne, Harrison Frazar, and J.J. Henry. The latter two, locally based pros had a hand in the redesigned course.

Stay tuned to FrontBurner for reports from the field.

ACLU: “We’re Too Busy”

That’s basically the response from the Texas ACLU in answer to a donor who wants to know why they aren’t engaged in the Zion debacle. The full letter below:

(more…)

The Story Behind The Thin Blue Line

I was just catching up on the May issue of GQ, which is a good’un. In particular, there’s a profile of documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, who many may know as the director of 1988’s The Thin Blue Line, the movie that exonerated Randall Adams of the murder of a police officer in Dallas in 1976. The magazine profile (timehook: Morris’ Standard Operating Procedure) is full of goodies, or, at least, goodies that the movie had that I forgot. Read the whole thing. (Or don’t. It’s up to you.)

Blockbuster Branches Out

Big news at BBI’s Dallas-area stores as the company tries out some different strategies and inventories, like having a soda jerk fountain and selling HDTVs. I bet some of you saw that in the business section and thought, “Adam is sooo going to link to that.” (Sigh.) I’m so predictable.

Leading Off

1. Pacman is officially a Dallas Cowboy. In related news, the Rangers have traded for Donkey Kong and plan to bat him cleanup. Oh, yeah–nailed it!

2. Look out, Dallas: Fort Worth has its own Trinity project. Like most things in Fort Worth, there is little to no chance of me ever seeing it, especially now that there is a Spiral Diner in Oak Cliff.

3. The city has long cited sovereign immunity as its protection from lawsuits related to the late Jabari the gorilla’s “one in a million” leap over the wall in 2004. Not so fast, my friend.