Articles for June 27th, 2011

Meanwhile, Dallas Economy Collapses

Or at least that’s what Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider would have us think. His headline for the quarterly Fed survey report is:

Dallas Disaster: Texas Regional Index Plunges To -17.5

Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. And make some money. Apparently, we need it.

posted by Wick Allison | June 27th, 2011 3:54pm | filed under Economy | 3 Comments »

Kanye West Hides Mavs Hat in Front of Dwyane Wade

Love this picture.

posted by Tim Rogers | June 27th, 2011 3:07pm | filed under Local News | 1 Comment »

Maurine Dickey Just Needs to Hush

Listen, I may have poked fun at the Great Bobo Outburst of Twenty Aught Eleven, but I have a bone to pick (actually, two) with Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey.

For one, I take issue with the idea that a FBI raid on John Wiley Price’s offices and home is a “happy day for Dallas County.” No. No it is not. Anytime a public servant is investigated by the federal government, it is not a good or happy thing for his or her constituents. At best, it means a distraction from doing the business of the county. At worst, it means that he or she screwed over his or her constituents. I would posit that is the exact opposite of happy, because either way there is a long-reaching, long-living mess left to clean up.

And secondly, throwing Mike Cantrell under the bus when you’re a) not an FBI spokeswoman or b) a county spokesperson is just not classy. In fact, it can’t even aspire to be klassy. As it turns out, he was not raided. He’s not part of the investigation.

You can disagree with people and their politics. You can differ ideologically. But to display on a personal level the vitriol this commissioner’s court does to each other is a primary example of why the same commissioners are elected every election season – nobody else wants to sign up for this. You want a better class of coworkers? Try being a better class of commissioner.

posted by Bethany Anderson | June 27th, 2011 12:03pm | filed under controversy, Gripes | 55 Comments »

Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: June 27

True Blood, that holy grail of mindless summer entertainment, has returned. The plot might be totally off the rails, and don’t we all wish Tara would just bite the dust (har, har) already? But there’s this. Which is one big reason why Monday mornings will continue to pale in comparison to Sunday evenings.

But. Tonight shouldn’t disappoint. Liz Mikel, fresh off awesome reviews in New York, is back for her regular Blue Monday concert. She’s co-opted her Dividing the Estate co-star, Akin Babatundé, to duet their favorite songs. It’s free over at South Side on Lamar. And as we discussed at the theater roundtable last week, one of the best things we can do to make Dallas even more theater-friendly is to support our local talent. Start with Mikel, who’s about a hop, skip, and a jump away from Broadway, and Babatundé, a regular Renaissance man who acts, writes, directs, and obviously, sings. That being said, if punk music is more your thing, Bryan Street Tavern also has a free show for you. The Blind Shake, a garage punk trio out of Minnesota, will play around 7 pm.

And finally, for those of us mucking around downtown this afternoon, pop over to the Texas Visual Arts Association at lunch to check out their summer exhibit of graphic novels, cartoons, and anime and comic books. I like the sound of this already, especially since it features a mix of amateur artists and professionals. It’s only around until Thursday.

For more things to do with your evening, go here.

posted by Liz Johnstone | June 27th, 2011 11:47am | filed under Things to Do in Dallas | 1 Comment »

Ross Avenue Got a Better Block Makeover


I really dislike the sun. I only go outside from 9 p.m. to midnight in the months of June, July, and August. So when I signed up to help with the Build a Better Boulevard project and agreed to spend at least 12 hours in the sun (half of that doing manual labor), I knew I was in for trouble.

Though I got a very painful sunburn (trust me, I did put on sunscreen and reapplied multiple times), I wouldn’t trade yesterday for anything. Jump to find out why or check out the video by Robbie Curtis.

(more…)

posted by Krista Nightengale | June 27th, 2011 11:45am | filed under Business, Entertainment, Events, GOOD IDEAS, Urbanism | 6 Comments »

Breaking: FBI Raids John Wiley Price, Ctd.

Reports say that the offices of Price’s political consultant, Kathy Nealy, and those of Commissioner Mike Cantrell’s office are also being searched. Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey tells the Observer: “Should I dance, or should I sing?” Meanwhile here’s a photo of the feeding frenzy outside the Commissioners Court. Update (11:55): Dickey was the source of the Cantrell info. Unfair Park reports that FBI says that Cantrell’s office is not the focus of their search.

photo

posted by Tim Rogers | June 27th, 2011 11:30am | filed under Local News | 6 Comments »

Why is a Natural Gas Drilling Spot Called a Play?

Because these companies aren’t so much as investing as they are placing massively uncertain bets?

Kinda get that impression, reading the New York Times piece over the weekend, which cited many troubling communications about the natural gas industry from both insiders at major energy companies and investors who keep an eye on the business. Relatively few wells are paying the dividends expected, and production at some established wells is falling off at an alarming rate, including in our own local Barnett Shale.

And this is scary stuff:

“Money is pouring in” from investors even though shale gas is “inherently unprofitable,” an analyst from PNC Wealth Management, an investment company, wrote to a contractor in a February e-mail. “Reminds you of dot-coms.”

“The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work,” an analyst from IHS Drilling Data, an energy research company, wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 28, 2009.

posted by Jason Heid | June 27th, 2011 11:12am | filed under Local News | 2 Comments »

Breaking: FBI Raids John Wiley Price

This ain’t gonna be pretty.

posted by Tim Rogers | June 27th, 2011 10:34am | filed under Local News | 17 Comments »

Dallas Ranks Terribly on College Degrees

A research report by G. Scott Thomas for the Business Journals Digital, an arm of  the DBJ’s parent company, places Dallas-Fort Worth as 115th amid metropolitan areas with the percentage of 18-34 year-olds with a college degree or higher. We have 1,620,281 in that age cohort, and only 336,310 hold degrees.

For the fourth largest metro area in the country, this is not good news. Houston ranks even worse, and Texas as a whole looks abysmal. My first response was to assign the results to our influx of younger, uneducated immigrants. But Austin ranks 20th in the nation. (College Station, by comparison, ranks 165th, making it one of the worst among college towns in the country.)

The oil and gas industry has made Texas look very good economically in the current recession, but the future is in the numbers, and the numbers don’t look so good.

posted by Wick Allison | June 27th, 2011 9:11am | filed under Education | 25 Comments »

Leading Off (6/27/11)

Ciao Mayor Dwaine, Welcome Mr. Rawlings: The new mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, will be sworn in today. Dwaine Caraway will return to just being a regular council representative. But in an exit interview with WFAA, our most entertaining mayor of recent years says he is likely going to run for the city’s top office at some point. He also, characteristically, says some other funny things. For example, one of Caraway’s accomplishments, he says, was keeping the “D” from falling off of “Dallas.” And then I love the logic of this comment on the Arthur and Archie incident:

“Some of things that were in the news shouldn’t have been in the news, and had it not been for me being a newsmaker, it wouldn’t have been reported… probably.”

Exactly. You got it.

Second Death Linked To Dallas “Rave:” Thanks to the Electric Daisy Carnival, that four letter R-word that so scared mothers and politicians in the 1990s is back. Now a second death is “linked” to the dance party that took over Fair Park a week ago. A 22-year-old man took drugs and ran into freeway traffic on his way home. Beware the dance music kids. It makes you crazy.

Ogando Not Rangers’ Ace In the Hole?: After a 7-0 start to the season, which had Rangers fans believing that the young pitching prospect, Alexi Ogando, would step up and be the ace Cliff Lee was for the team last season, Ogando has gone 0-3 with a 9.31 ERA in his last three starts. Is he wearing out already?

posted by Peter Simek | June 27th, 2011 8:28am | filed under Drinking, Events, Local Government, Local News, Music, Sports | (0) Comments »