Articles about Civics
Rawlings Eyes ‘Accomplishing LGBT Objectives Long-term’
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings says he isn’t surprised that gay-rights activists are upset with him for declining to sign a pledge supporting same-sex marriage. But he hopes Saturday’s closed-door meeting with about two dozen LGBT leaders will lead to more understanding, at least.
Asked before a North Texas Commission luncheon today whether he expected such an uproar from the LGBT community over his stance, Rawlings replied, “I was not surprised. They are an important constituency and passionate about their concerns. I wouldn’t expect anything less of them.”
So, what will he tell them tomorrow? “We’ll be talking about how we accomplish their objectives long-term, and how we understand the different players.” Also on the agenda: “How they can leverage me as a mayor, and how I can best represent their concerns. … That can only be accomplished through good conversations, and that’s what we’re going to have.”
Urban Expert to Downtown Boosters: Dallas Is Screwed
Read between the lines, and that’s what former CEOs for Cities CEO Carol Coletta said at yesterday’s annual Downtown Dallas Inc. luncheon. Details on FrontRow.
Maxwell Anderson, Welcome to Dallas (Not the Metroplex)
The new top dog at the Dallas Museum of Art started earlier this month, and he’s already blogging. He also wants you to follow him on Twitter, where you can read cute little updates like
New bill: Love how droit de suite became droit du seigneur! Do artists get to sleep w successor collectors? http://tinyurl.com/6tkneue
See, I told you you’d like this guy.
That said, I thought I’d offer a little advice to get the new director off on the right foot. Jump for it.
New License Plate Law Kind of Screwed Up
So you know what happens when you wait until the last day of the legislative session to pass a whole flurry of bills? Some of them end up missing things, things that change the entire purpose of the law. Like in Arkansas a couple years ago, when they unintentionally made it OK to marry a baby, or something, by accident. Or this past legislative session in Texas, when they accidentally gave a law designed to make it a bigger deal to not have or obscure a license plate, but instead kind of gave it no teeth by forgetting the fine, apparently.
I’m no lawyer, or I’d be off lawyering and making big bank and scaring people. And man, I’d have this giant house with a maid that would just do floors, all day long. And two dogs – Herve Villechaize and Nipsey Russell. What was I saying? Right. I’m no lawyer, but if I got a ticket for missing a license plate after this law goes into effect, since the AG’s office will take six months to rule on the legalities, I might just fight it. I think.
Money for Nothing: Ex-Manager’s Defense Points to Others in DAS Animal-Cruelty Trial
In the felony trial that began yesterday of Tyrone McGill — the former manager of Dallas’ city animal shelter, where a cat was allowed to die trapped inside a wall last year — the defense is taking this tack with prosecution witnesses who worked at the shelter under McGill: So, why didn’t you do something about the cat? The strategy if successful would tend to shift blame for the animal’s death from McGill, who ran the place, to the subordinates who pleaded with him to take care of the situation. Which is, well, an interesting theory of management accountability.
Tuesday’s testimony also revealed that when the cat was finally pulled out of the wall, dead and badly decomposing after being trapped for 15 days, its nails were worn down completely from clawing to escape.
While details like that are heartbreaking, what also continues to rile animal-activist observers like Jonnie England is that McGill has been on “paid administrative leave” — in other words, drawing his $66,122 annual city paycheck for doing nothing — ever since being indicted on the animal-cruelty charge 15 months ago. “If a police officer is indicted on a felony, he’s put on unpaid leave,” England says. She adds that McGill’s treatment, by contrast, is “unbelievably outrageous,” and an insult to Dallas taxpayers.
More like one of a series of insults coming out of this wretched incident.
Be Careful — Bureaucrats Are Afoot
This official-looking sign is posted inside a fourth-floor men’s room at Dallas City Hall.
Leading Off (8/29/11)
Parents’ Bedwetting Punishment Kills Child: Because bedwetting isn’t enough of a humiliating ordeal, the parents of a 10-year-old Dallas boy decided to withhold water from their child for five days as punishment, and the boy eventually died when he collapsed and hit his head. That’s why Michael Ray James and Tina Alberson, both now in Dallas County jail, are this week’s winners of the most despicable and sickening parents in the world award.
Later This Week, The Sun Devil May Finally Show His Mercy: Forecasters are calling (sub. req.) for highs in the low 90s later in the week with a chance of rain. Couldn’t come sooner, as Sunday really strained the power grid. But the DMN article seems to lament that a break in the temperature later this week will mean we will come up short on breaking the record for most 100-degree days. I don’t really understand the desire. Seriously, just make it stop.
Jonathan Hudson Wins Dumbest Juror Ever Award: Why? Because he tried to “friend” the defendant in the case on Facebook. Nice.
Dallas Police Lineup Unit Stands Out From the Crowd: In this Boston Globe article (via the NYT, it would seem) Dallas’ special lineup unit gets a close look ahead of New Jersey’s efforts to overhaul their lineup program. Dallas assigns specially trained officers to lineups who have no relationship with individual cases to avoid witness coercion.
Perry Became a Millionaire While In Office: My favorite bit about this story is that when it comes down to hard cash, the anti-government poster boy, much like Michele Bachmann, has no problem pocketing government agricultural subsidies. Notice how both major Republican candidates have made their living/fortunes off the government or by leveraging their governmental positions.
Dirk Receives Germany’s Top Sports Honor: It’s called the Silver Laurel Leaf, and who else was going to win it this year, Andreas Klöden?
Beltre, Cruz Swap Spots on DL: The good news: Adrian Beltre starts a rehabilitation assignment in Triple-A Round Rock today and should return to the Rangers in a few days. The bad news? Friday night’s hero, Nelson Cruz, left last night’s game with a strained hamstring.
Yet Another Fan Seriously Injured At Ranger Game An unidentified 24-year-old man fell from a stairwell after the game Saturday night, proving once and for all that the Ballpark was constructed over an Native American burial ground and it is haunted by spiteful spirits, meaning the Rangers will need to move to a new stadium downtown preferably with a retractable roof so their starters won’t run out of gas mid-August.
DMN Asks: Who Is Minding the State?
I hate it when a very good question gets answered behind a pay wall, but I guess that’s how you get subscribers. But Colleen McCain Nelson talks about a question that popped up over the dinner table a few days ago – if Rick Perry’s campaigning for president, and David Dewhurst is campaigning for Senate, who is running the state?
McCain Nelson points out that yes, in this day and age it’s easy to work remotely. But she also points out that Perry is known to be an intense campaigner. (more…)
Former Councilman, State Rep. Fred Blair Dead at 70
Fred Blair, who sat at the Dallas council horseshoe from 1980 to 1984 (including stints as Mayor Pro Tem and Vice Mayor) and then was a state rep from 1986 to 1992, died Wednesday at age 70.
Blair was, according to his obit in the Dallas Morning News, only the third black person ever elected to the Dallas city council. D Magazine’s coverage of him (or at least some of it) can be found here.
Former DMN City Hall Scribe Heads To Politico
I keep forgetting to mention this, and so far Dallas South News’ Shawn Williams is the only one to say anything, but former prolific city hall beat reporter Dave Levinthal, who moved to Washington D.C. and took a job at the Center for Responsive Politics as the editor of its OpenSecrets.org, is changing jobs again.
This time, he will write for Politico, where he will continue his vast and astute reporting and tracking of the money involved in politics that garnered him appearances on all manner of national Sunday talk shows. He starts in the middle of this month.
Maurine Dickey Writes to AG to Review County Redistricting
Just a few minutes ago, I got a passel of documents from Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey, who has already expressed her extreme displeasure regarding the redistricting maps the commissioner’s court voted on a few weeks ago. Seems Dickey will now seek a review of the map by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and the U.S. Justice Department.
“The new map was approved by the Dallas County Commissioners without the benefit of public review or comment as required. I ask that the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Justice rule the new district map invalid and restore the original redrawn district map that was presented to the public for comment,” Dickey says in a press release. “The court failed to give the public proper notice which has resulted in what is, at a minimum, a disenfranchisement of thousands of voters.”
You can read the full press release here, read the letter here, and see the old map and the new map here and here, respectively.
Mayor Caraway Introduces Wooden Giraffe to Populace
I almost wanted to have a caption contest with the first photo in Rudy Bush’s blog post. But instead, I’ll just tell you that Dwaine Caraway put a wooden giraffe named J.J. in the foyer of the Mayor’s Office.
Also, those are not pajamas, as many on Twitter were asking me. It’s an agbada, a robe generally worn by important men in Africa. One also assumes that it would come in handy if you were trying to obscure the fact that your pants needed pulling up.
If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Time for an Outburst at Commissioner’s Court
Some day, I think, voters will suddenly get very tired of theatrics in their county commissioners, and will instead want to vote for people who want to conduct business without, I dunno, calling people bobos.
And yet, today’s Dallas County Commissioner’s Court outburst is brought to you by Maurine Dickey, who was upset about a county redistricting plan. And listen, maybe it was a bunch of hooey and she was right not to like it. But bobos? And this:
“If you would like to drag me out, please do,” she said. “Do you want to haul me out? I’m ready to go to jail.”
So yes, sigh. For one thing, what does that even mean? Is she referring to an ethnic group from Burkina Faso? A boogyman from Egypt? A Chinese boy band? Or, uh, any of these meanings? And secondly, seriously? There wasn’t a more professional way to register her displeasure? Or for that matter, for any of them to voice their displeasure?
Why You Should Probably Vote in City Elections
I know voting can be a giant pain in the butt. OK. No, I don’t. I was trying to sound sympathetic there, but no, voting isn’t a giant pain in the butt. This isn’t Afghanistan or something, where you vote and you might die. Voting in the U.S. is easier than finding an open checkout lane at Walmart, yet the people who will stand in a line 15 people deep to buy one Kit Kat will eschew voting because it’s too hard, even though you can vote early and pretty much walk right up to a voting booth. In the grand scheme of hard work, it’s closer to working an ATM than digging a ditch.
Dallas recently had an election to decide who would be mayor. Mayor of a whole city, a fairly big city, a city looking at a budget shortfall and an aging infrastructure that is home to some pretty awesome stuff but is also home to some pretty bad stuff that should probably get fixed. Someone should really have a plan for that. You know who usually has a plan for that? The mayor. (more…)
National Review Profiles Rick Perry
I read it. Twice (just like I read “Fed Up” twice). The takeaway? Rick Perry named his boots (Freedom and Liberty). That I get – I named my flip flops Tequila and Cherry Limeade. Other takeaway? The word crotchety is still so funny.
Home |
Masthead |
News from D |
About Us |
Contact Us |
Subscribe |
Advertise |
Privacy Policy |
Customer Service |
Awards | Archives | Reprints | d custom | Jobs | Advertiser's Index
Awards | Archives | Reprints | d custom | Jobs | Advertiser's Index