Water Transportation

Vonciel Hill Loves on a Road for Rich People While Projects in Her Backyard Suck Wind

Transportation projects are like the rest of life. Sure they offer benefits, but they carry costs, as well. Powerful Dallas City Council member Vonciel Hill, chair of both the council's transportation and legislative lobbying committees, stops meetings to introduce the rich people whose families wi ... More >>

Steve Blow Apologizes for a Price-Perot Column, So I Also Apologize. But Not for Long.

In yesterday's Dallas Morning News, columnist Steve Blow apologized for calling me a "tinfoil hat" (nutcase) in 2008 when I reported that Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price was sabotaging a major shipping development in his own backyard while having compromising links to the powerful Perot ... More >>

Morning News Denies Its Own Sorry History in Price-Inland Port Story

Oh, I swore I wasn't going to respond to the stuff yesterday by Tod Robberson on The Dallas Morning News opinion blog yesterday, but now "Wylie H Dallas," the scarily well-informed omnipresent pseudonymous blog commenter, has got me all stirred up. This morning he posted an old Steve Blow column f ... More >>

Dallas Leaders Walked Arm-in-Arm with John Wiley Price in the Betrayal of Southern Dallas

You could almost forget about the indictment last week of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, put it out of your mind's eye, not even think where it will end and better spend your time thinking about trucking. It's the more compelling story. Logistics is the business of taking cargo off sh ... More >>

The Inland Port Can Still Win the Race for Jobs If We Don't Let Fixers Screw Us

Atkins: Inland Port is Two Years Behind, Will Be Four if Nothing Changes

The Inland Port, the sprawling warehousing and transportation center meant to be an economic boon for southern Dallas County, has never really taken off. It opened in 2005 and has seen some development, but the project was stalled by a rocky economy and the bankruptcy of its largest property owner, ... More >>

Two Months and Counting: Affidavit Outlines Price Case and Sets Clock Ticking on Indictments

How John Wiley Price (Allegedly!) Sold Dallas

OK, I've got my idiot coloring book out again. Sorry. Just have to do this. I just want to help people not get totally lost in the delicious detritus of the FBI affidavit released yesterday in the Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price corruption probe. The details are delectable -- a web-work ... More >>

Dallas versus Sprawl! It's a Fight-to-the-Finish Cage Death-Match, Not a Church Picnic.

If The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Arlington sponsor a big seminar on regional cooperation, how many people at the seminar are going to come out against regional cooperation? Yeah. Not to be self-important or anything, but I believe that's my job, Pilgrim. So here it is: Regi ... More >>

The News Tries to Edit Itself Out of Some Unhappy History in Southern Dallas

Ah, wait a minute, hold up one second. I spy a small but significant, history-bending, rug-sweeping moment occurring on this morning's editorial page of our city's daily newspaper. Let me take one minute to remind us what's under that rug. The Dallas Morning News has the whole trumpet section, the ... More >>

The Inland Port Is Still Screwed. Score One for the Perots.

​I guess if you took a pickax and a fire hose to it, you could have dug out a little bit of the truth from this morning's City Hall briefing on the inland port, but you needed to have your tall rubber boots on. Before we wade into the bullshit, please allow me to tell you what's really going ... More >>

Inland Port, Executive Airport Land on Council's Radar During Talk of Economic Development

​Before the council's Economic Development Committee got 'round to talking about Dallas's employment figures -- and it was a brief briefing -- familiar Unfair Park figure Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the Office of Economic Development, gave the council an hour-long-plus overview of what his office of ... More >>

JWP Rally, Making a Judas into a Saint

​I hate to say I told you so ... no, wait, that's a lie. I love to say I told you so. A week ago I said in column that we were about to see a lot of high opera in the John Wiley Price FBI corruption investigation. The season opens Saturday with Aida. As Unfair Park has reported, The National ... More >>

The Perots Gave Willis Johnson's Wai-Wize Its Start, and It's Been Hot Ever Since

​Digging back through old files, I can see some patterns emerging that I missed back in the day. For example, the connection between Willis Johnson, the luckiest radio host in the world, and Ross Perot Jr. Johnson is a close personal and political associate of Dallas County Commissioner John ... More >>

Price Investigation's Royal Pains

"Queens for a day" could be a sign that feds are getting really ambitious.

Mike Rawlings Vowed to Clean Up Dallas, But the Feds Are Spilling Dirt Everywhere

To keep his promise, Dallas' new mayor will have to distance himself from the city's political machine. Good luck with that.

Unintended Consequences, or: How Our John Wiley Price Reporting Helped Birth a Bad Bill

​Our coverage of the Inland Port scandal in Dallas may yet produce some new federal law. If it does, I don't think it's going to be anything we will be bragging about. Yesterday Wilonsky posted a 2-year-old deposition he found on the website of embattled Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley ... More >>

Oh, There's Former County Judge Jim Foster's Deposition ... On John Wiley Price's Website

From then-Dallas County Judge Jim Foster's Septemner 2009 deposition​Back in May '09 we ran a few pages from the first part of then-Dallas County Judge Jim Foster's deposition taken by County Commissioner John Wiley Price's attorneys concerning those "shakedown" comments Foster made to Schutze whi ... More >>

The John Wiley Price Affair: Suddenly, a Few People Are Looking a Whole Lot Smarter

​Last week I was talking to a very well-known Dallas television investigative reporter about the Dallas County federal corruption probe. I won't name him here, because it was a personal call to discuss something else. But he made a point that kept coming back to me all through the long holiday ... More >>

Fun With Audio, Part 2: EBJ and JWP Talk About the Inland Port, Kathy Nealy, Ross Jr. (and Me)

​This weekend I have been sitting around ruminating on the last three years of reporting I have done on the Inland Port story, which now seems to an element in the FBI corruption probe of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. By the way, I happen to know the FBI has been hearing about this ... More >>

Some SALT to Season Those Subpoenas

​So, the feds want Pettis Norman and Jon Edmonds to appear before a grand jury on July 20 -- can't imagine why. Oh, wait. My bad. And speaking of the Inland Port, for those who knocked off early for the Christmas holidays in '08, after the jump is a doc you might want to read (or re-read) this mor ... More >>

Watch Carefully as The Dallas Morning News Tippy-Toes Away from John Wiley Price

​If you are a regular reader of The Dallas Morning News, Dallas's only daily newspaper since 1991, and if you are following the federal corruption investigation of John Wiley Price, the county's most powerful black politician, then from here on out you need to put on your magnifying specs and ... More >>

Suddenly, the Morning News Cares About Minority Neighborhoods

Anyone smell a rat?

The Word on John Wiley Price: Judas

​Southern Dallas, especially the ministerial leadership, seems to be pretty locked up behind mayoral candidate Mike Rawlings. In explaining that to myself, I do allow for Rawlings's charismatic personality and his track record on community issues. He's got things going for him. (Well, maybe no ... More >>

Wade Emmert Counting on Dissatisfaction With Both Parties to Land Him in County Judge's Seat

Wade Emmert​Just came back from an interesting chat with Wade Emmert, the 40-year-old lawyer who is the Republican candidate for Dallas County Judge in the November election. I asked him how a Republican can win in what everybody is now calling a Democratic county."I don't think it's such a Democr ... More >>

Something Stinks About the News' Position on Moving Smelly Businesses Along the Trinity

Who the Hell is Clay Jenkins, And Why Am I Being Told to Vote for Him for County Judge?

Was County Judge Jim Foster Really the Disaster His Own Party Claimed. Maybe, Maybe Not.

The Inland Port Files For Chapter 11, Which Doesn't Surprise Given The Economic Climate And The Political One (aka John Wiley Price)

Still a Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

Brandon Thibodeaux​Lots of speculation going on around town about whether the next shoe to fall in Dallas's ongoing City Hall corruption woes may be a Gucci to the head of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. Today, matter of fact, Kevin Krause has posted a tidbit on The News's City hall ... More >>

Good News -- Really -- From the City Hall Corruption Trial

Maybe Northern and Southern Dallas Should Consider a Free-Trade Pact

Be Careful What You Ask: Judge Foster Spills the Beans About an Alleged FBI Investigation of John Wiley Price and the Inland Port

In a sworn deposition filed in Dallas today, Dallas County Judge Jim Foster is quoted saying he has spoken with the FBI "on many occasions" concerning an ongoing FBI investigation of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and the southern Dallas "inland port" project. Reached for comment this ... More >>

Richard Allen brings jobs to the black community.That makes him racist?

During Debate, Atkins Explains, Look, He's For Hotel Because He Didn't Want to Waste a Vote

Tennell Atkins and LeVar Thomas debated for an hour last night at Paul Quinn College in South Dallas, as the two candidates in the District 8 city council race offered opposing views regarding the inland port, the convention center hotel and giving more power to Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle. At ... More >>

Somewhere, John Stemmons Sr. Is Shaking His Bony Fist and Laughing His Ass Off

By now I'm way way too deep into the story of the Trinity River Corridor Project. I have actually developed a kind of side interest -- a hobby, maybe -- involving the history of the Trinity River Project. I'll know it's time to see a doctor when I start collecting Trinity River project-related memor ... More >>

Judge Rules That John Wiley Price Can Take County Judge Jim Foster's Deposition

Today Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price made some progress in his legal battle against Dallas County Judge Jim Foster, who has been ordered to submit to a deposition so that Price might investigate whether he wishes to pursue a defamation claim against Foster for statements he made to the ... More >>

Jim Foster Says They're Out to Get Him. Whatever Gives Him That Impression?

Perhaps you read Schutze's column "Democratic County Judge Jim Foster May be the Latest Target in the Inland Port Battle" in last week's paper version of Unfair Park. An excerpt, for those who did not:Foster took a tough stance against [state Sen. Royce] West and [Dallas County Commissioner John Wil ... More >>

Democratic County Judge Jim Foster May be the Latest Target in the Inland Port Battle

Slumdog Millionaires

If the Morning News considers itself the "conscience" of southern Dallas, it has a lot of explaining to do.

Port Whine: Delays on Inland Port Part of Familiar Pattern

On a clear day, you can see why development in southern Dallas has been screwed forever

Foster's Brook, or: The Dallas County Judge is Smarter Than He Lets On

This should be said: One of the heroes in the otherwise ugly stupid saga of the inland port development in Southern Dallas has been Dallas County Judge Jim Foster.First of all: He figured it out. A very good source close to the county commissioners told me, "He's like a little detective. He's quiet, ... More >>

Congresswoman Calls Out John Wiley Price for Shaking Down Development Deal

Local pols back off a master plan that would have put the squeeze on a major southern Dallas development

For Now, At Least, Mayor Leppert Won't Try to Sink the Inland Port

It's over.Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert just cried "Uncle!" in the battle over the Southern Dallas "inland port," an expandable map of which is available at right. Chris Heinbaugh, the mayor's spokesman, confirmed for me by e-mail mere minutes ago reports I heard yesterday afternoon that Leppert was pull ... More >>

What's Commish John Wiley Price's Real Beef With the Inland Port?

Dallas' Inland Port of Gall

Old boys act like a bunch of hicks over the inland port that could mean progress in South Dallas

Why is Mayor Leppert Putting the Brakes on Dallas' Inland Port Future?

The Perots have solid business reasons to slow down Dallas' inland port. But why is our mayor helping them?

Downtown Dallas Will Have Big Balls

Three of them, as a matter of fact -- as in, "The World's Largest Inflatable Beach Balls." At least, that's the plan for Sunday, when Carnival Cruise Lines bounces into town in an effort to enter the Guinness Book of World Records (and garner plenty of free pub, well played). It's bringing to Dallas ... More >>

Truckin' Up the Trinity River

The Dallas Morning News story about the Trinity toll road referendum campaign finance reports, which was buried yesterday inside the Metro section, did a fine job of not telling anybody anything. Anybody grateful? Late in the day Tuesday, long after The News had published its story, the City Secr ... More >>

Port of Call

Wanna know why three of your city council members--Ed Oakley, Bill Blaydes and Ron Natinsky--are in China at this very moment? (To beat the heat? For the food? To spend a small fortune of taxpayers' money on a summer vacation?) Well, Sarah Dodd of KTVT-Channel 11 will probably provide the answer whe ... More >>