Richard Allen

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 Method, Old East Dallas' New Craft Coffee Shop, Is Finally Open

Add Method to Dallas' growing list of serious coffee shops. The shoebox-sixed storefront on the corner of Ross Avenue and Hall Streets opened Saturday to an enthusiastic bunch of java junkies. Maybe they were jonesing so hard because they waited so long. Owner Louie Corwin has been working on the ... More >>

Key Opponent to Tearing Down I-345 Likes to Keep the Race Card Up His Sleeve

This morning, Eric posted an item here with a particular quote that I just could not let pass. Eric saw through the quoted statements immediately, so I guess I'm just piling on. His story was about remarks made recently to The Dallas Morning News by a powerful regional transportation planner who not ... More >>

The Way Dallas Certifies Minority Contractors Is a Suckers Game, News Shows

Ed Timms and Kevin Krause had a great story in The Dallas Morning News on Sunday about a local agency that certifies businesses as minority or women-owned. The North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency seems to be sort of the same outfit as something called All Temps 1 Personnel. The agenc ... More >>

Stage West Gets Stuck in the Shtick of Starbright & Vine

Dreaming of Owning Your Own Coffee Shop? There's a New Space on Ross Avenue

Richard Allen had the whole deal wrapped up in a bow. The owner of the building on the corner of Ross and Hall Street already has a furniture store and Joyce and Gigi's occupying two of the three spots. A coffee shop would round out the building nicely, capitalizing on the adjacent parking lot that ... More >>

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 >>

Mayor Mike's Version of Regionalism: Selling out Dallas to the 'Burbs

In his speech last week endorsing a new highway in the Trinity River flood zone, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings threw down a gauntlet. It was sort of a buried line. I guess not everybody heard it. I did. He said at one point, "I'm a regionalist," and then he said of people who oppose his view, "For tho ... 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 >>

Price Investigation's Royal Pains

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

Now We Have a Much Better Idea What Feds Want Hillwood to Produce in JWP Investigation

Ross Perot Jr.​We've known since June 30 -- days after FBI agents raided the homes and offices of John Wiley Price and Kathy Nealy, among others -- that the feds had also paid a visit to Ross Perot Jr.'s Hillwood HQ. As Haynes and Boone's Barry McNeil told The News: "The FBI has served subpoenas t ... More >>

Dear Morning News: We Hope This Finds You Well. Where Have You Been All These Years?

​Dallas Morning News managing editor George Rodrigue has lambasted me in his most recent "Ask the Editor" column for having lambasted the News in a column here two weeks ago. Now I have to lambaste him back. Whole lotta lambastin' goin' on. Anyway, I share with you this open letter I am sendi ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

They're From the Business Community and Here to Help You. Yeah, Right.

​The Reverend Gerald Britt Jr. of Central Dallas Ministries (now called "CitySquare" for some unfathomable reason) had an op-ed in The Dallas Morning News yesterday that made my heart ache. Britt, a good guy deeply dedicated to southern Dallas, recited all the recent population numbers that s ... More >>

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

SMU's Jillson Says Local Democratic Elected Officials "Are Not to Be Trusted," Questions Friends Chosen By Jenkins

Danny FulgencioCal Jillson​Much like Richard Allen's interview, our conversation with Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson didn't make it into the cover story on Dallas County Judge Jim Foster appearing in last week's paper version of Unfair Park. But that's not to say ... More >>

Richard Allen Blames Economy, Not John Wiley Price For Bankruptcy, Amazed Voters Chose to Replace Jim Foster

Richard Allen​Space restraints prevented us from including our interview with Richard Allen, CEO of The Allen Group, in this week's look at departing Dallas County Judge Jim Foster -- available wherever paper versions of Unfair Park are given away tomorrow. Of course, TAG is developing the Dallas ... More >>

Richard Allen Sounds Mighty Cheerful for a Guy in Bankruptcy

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

The Inland Port Files For Chapter 11 -- But, Look, "It's a Balance Sheet Problem," K?

​Speaking of financial obligations ...Schutze will be along shortly to explain what this means, exactly -- after all, he's the expert when it comes to all things related to Richard Allen, the man behind the Inland Port, and he just got off the phone with Allen. The reason: The breaking news that D ... More >>

Richard Allen on Logistics Hub's Chapter 11: "It's a Good Project. It's Just a Timing Issue."

Richard Allen​Over the last year, whenever I have spoken with Richard Allen, CEO of The Allen Group, he has been open at times, guarded at others. But I have to say today, when he and I talked about his entry into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, he sounded better than he has in some time -- more confidant ... More >>

What Don Hill's Conviction Means for Dallas

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

That's the Dallas Way! Schutze is Live Blogging From the City Hall Corruption Trial.

Sam MertenLow-income housing developer Brian Potashnik, who's still on the stand in the City Hall corruption trial​In federal court today Ray Jackson, lawyer for former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, has been working on affordable housing developer Brian Potashnik in an attempt to get him to tel ... More >>

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 >>

Mayor's New Pro-Hotel Pal Can't Defend Leppert's Promises During Trinity Campaign and Advocacy of Inland Port Delay

As mentioned in this week's cover story, one of the reasons former council member Ed Oakley says he lost to Tom Leppert in the '07 mayoral runoff was his decision to run a negative campaign in the final weeks. Oakley's negativity climaxed with taking a cheap shot at Leppert by airing a TV ad that fo ... More >>

"Off Course," | Cheap Bastard, | Same Old, Same Old

Why We Take Everything News ME George Rodrigue Writes With a Grain of SALT

If nothing else, the paper version of Unfair Park has a most devoted reader in one George Rodrigue, the Dallas Morning News managing editor who, yet again, tears himself from the ads in the back of the Dallas Observer just long enough to read Schutze. As Jim's out of the office today -- he's decided ... More >>

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

The DMN Buries the Lede and Common Sense

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 >>

We Give Steve Blow a Tip of the Hat...and Middle Finger

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

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

A Dash of SALT, or: Inside the Infamous Inland Port Proposal

Santa came to my desk a day early. I have been papering City Hall with public-records requests for several weeks, and today, just in time, I finally got the one document I was hoping for: the written proposal to developer Richard Allen from three businessmen who wanted to be his Southern Dallas cons ... 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?

Cash Money

When we least expected it, a real opportunity in southern Dallas