Microsoft PowerPoint

Private Tollway Will Be a Moneymaker, Say Firms Hired by Private Tollway Company

Our transportation overlords at the North Central Texas Council of Governments have been accused of massaging numbers to justify letting a company called the Texas Turnpike Corp. build a tollway from Dallas to Greenville that no one who lives in the way seems to want. The council of governments, ak ... More >>

Fed Up Rails Compellingly Against Big Sugar

Worth the Wait, DISD's Potential New Sex Ed Curriculum, Teaches Some Really Weird Stuff

This year, a group of parents and administrators at the Dallas Independent School District embarked on pretty much the most thankless task there is: finding a new sex ed curriculum for the district's students. The job is thankless in large part because no matter what they do, someone's going to get ... More >>

The Dallas Morning News Keeps Promising More and Keeps Delivering More Boredom

Every week, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz. This week, Buzz has a familiar villain in his sights. Oh, man, Buzz is so depissed©. No, that's not a typo. It's our own neologi ... More >>

The Frackers and the Environmentalists Will Square Off at Dallas City Hall This Week

This was all supposed to be wrapped up months ago. The City Council formed the Gas Drilling Task Force more than a year ago, which was initially scheduled to wrap things up and have a final recommendation by November. A handful of issues -- proper setbacks, whether to allow drilling in parks and flo ... More >>

Dial "F" For Fraud: Auditor Craig Kinton to Tell Council City's Code of Ethics Comes Up Short

​Shortly before the holidays, Leslie sat in on an Ethics Advisory Commission get-together during which its members stewed in an existential funk, asking themselves such questions as: ""Are we accomplishing what we were created to accomplish?" And: "What does the culture of ethics look like?" And: ... More >>

LINC'd In, Or: Next Up, Trying to Really Connect Downtown Dallas with the Trinity River

​If you've got time this afternoon you may want to dial up the meeting of the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee, which will hear from Dallas CityDesign Studio second-in-command David Whitley about "community and economic development" around the river. Not sure how much Whitley's going to ge ... More >>

City Hall's Very, Very, Very, Very, Very, VERY Early Look at Next Fiscal Year's Budget Gap

​For those who forgot the phrase "Meet and Confer," you may want to reintroduce yourself to the city's agreement with Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire-Rescue that saved the city $22 million during the "painful, painful, painful" dog days of 2010, when Mary Suhm had to gut $131 million from ... More >>

Bicycle Advocates Win a Game of Chicken

City Hall turns back on fudged numbers for bike lanes.

But Why Do You Want Complete Streets?

​Actually, you probably just want better streets -- most of Dallas does. But a Complete Streets PowerPoint prepared for tomorrow's council briefing, during which redistricting will probably eat up most of the morning, reveals the findings of a Collective Strength survey conducted in August by Prom ... More >>

"Intelligent Design" Materials Sneak Onto DISD Teachers' Curriculum Site. Maybe God Did It?

​Turns out, Rick Perry was right after all.What you see at right is a slide I received last night from a fellow Dallas Independent School District parent. It was, until this morning, available on the district's Curriculum Central website, accessible only to teachers and administration and a resour ... More >>

City's New Deal: Let Us Dump All the Trash at McCommas, and We'll Create "Stimulus Fund"

​Wednesday's council briefing is shaping up to be action-packed, in the words of Ronnie Dawson: It'll have redistricting, a look-see at Dallas Fire-Rescue's budget (which includes that proposal to move and mothball engines) and ... dunh dunh dunh ... flow control, otherwise known as Marys Suhm and ... More >>

DISD's Teach Around: District Has a Lot of Vacancies and Not a Lot of Time to Fill Them

Via.​Last we checked there were around 800 teachers vying for 700 vacancies scattered throughout the Dallas Independent School District. Which, sure, sounds a little odd, given that only a few months ago the district was considering thousands of layoffs due to the state's decision to gut public ed ... More >>

Here Are the Proposed Texas Science Lessons Freaking Out the Scientific Community

New state ed board chairwoman Barbara Cargill is worried her board isn't conervative enough.​As you've probably heard, the Texas Board of Education is in the process of picking new supplemental science materials that will be used to complement the state's outdated science textbooks. The state ... More >>

Dealey Plaza Redo Will Be Public-Private Deal. And It Has To Be Done By November 2013.

Just two of the many amazing photos found in the Dealey Plaza redo PowerPoint​Schutze went to that Dealey Plaza chitchat at City Hall this afternoon. Only, the Quality of Life Committee didn't have quorum, so, per council rules, all the council got was a read-through of architect Jonathan Rollins' ... More >>

And Now, the Dallas Independent School District's "Budget Reduction Plan Version 3.0"

​Almost one month ago to the day the Dallas Independent School Board received an updated version of the district's budget reduction plan made necessary, of course, in the wake of the state budget shortfall emptying classrooms of teachers and filling them with more and more students. Moments ago, t ... More >>

Dallas ISD Wants Your Suggestions On How to Trim $253 Million From the Budget ...

​... but keep it short -- you only get 255 characters.Oh, yeah -- the district also just launched its 2011-12 Dallas ISD Financial Outlook website, which I told you yesterday was on its way. The DISD's calling it a "Districtwide Clearinghouse of Ideas and Information." You'll find pretty much ever ... More >>

Dallas ISD Serves Up Yet Another Very Special, Sad Episode of The Michael Hinojosa Show

​WFAA-Channel 8 ran an "exclusive" last night recapping some of the potential staffing cuts on Dallas ISD campuses, should the super's worst-case scenario become reality. Of course, those are the same grim numbers Dallas Friends of Public Education had already posted to its website -- cuts ranging ... More >>

All The Bad News the Dallas Independent School District Could Fit in 27 Pages

​For those who weren't fortunate enough to sit through Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's budget-gutting presentation this afternoon, what you'll find below is the complete PowerPoint presentation given to the board of trustees. In it, you'll find what the super l ... More >>

An Early Look at "Repurposing" Plans for A. Maceo and North Dallas High Schools

Via The Past Whispers​Back to the Dallas Independent School District trustees' to-do list for Thursday ...Like I said, lots of interesting stuff there, beginning at the top of the briefing agenda: "Discussion of 2010-2011 Repurposing Plans for Academically Unacceptable (AU4) Schools." That AU4 ref ... More >>

The Downtown Dallas of the Future Looks a Whole Lot Like the Downtown Dallas of the Past

Main and Akard, then and now, as shown in the Downtown Dallas 360 presentation last night​Grimes and I went to the convention center last night for the unveiling of the Downtown Dallas 360 plan -- which is to say, the 164-page PowerPoint thumbed through in advance of the final plan that'll be pres ... More >>

Downtown Dallas 360, Meet The Community

To get to last night's Downtown Dallas 360 meeting you had to walk through the Chase set, which was using the convention center as Chicago O'Hare International Airport.​Last night a hundred or so folks interested in downtown development gathered at the Dallas Convention Center -- where they were f ... More >>

We're All Winners When It Comes to the Trinty River Corridor Project Photo Contest

The Dallas City Council doesn't have the most exciting agenda today -- though if you're interested in the state of sales tax revenue from '02 to '09, I've got just the PowerPoint for you. But to the more interesting business: First thing this morning, Dave Neumman, chairman of the Trinity River Corr ... More >>

Sneak a Peek at the Flood Map Presentation Being Given to Trinity River Property Owners

​As you may recall, the city sent word last month that it needed to meet with Trinity River property owners to discuss those revised Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps, due to debut in February before the final ones are drawn up in December 2011 and go into effect in June 2012. West-si ... More >>

West Dallas Chamber Chair Is Not Pleased With Plan to Put Salvage Yard Near Trinity River

From Victor Toledo's PowerPoint​On May 20, the City Plan Commission gave Bruce Heydarian the okee-doke to plant an enormous scrap yard on Singleton Boulevard and Pluto Street, not terribly far from the Trinity River. Only two commissioners voted against the plan, among them Michael Davis; the rest ... More >>

Camped Out at City Hall for the Latest Briefing on Permanent Supportive Housing

​Now that Steve Salazar's run the City Council's Public Safety Committee out of the briefing room, his Housing Committee is powering through the afternoon in here for a look at the latest on efforts to place homeless folks into permanent supportive housing. With bullet-pointed stats presented in s ... More >>

Liveblogging This Morning's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee Meeting

From the PowerPoint proposing a new Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Gateway connecting Fair Park to the Trinity​The very top of the very morning to you, Friends. Here I am at City Hall once again (still haven't regained my Foursquare mayorship, very upset about it) to bring you live updates from ... More >>

The City's Going to Ban Fake Weed. But Is It Also Trying to Outlaw Pipes and Bongs?

Here. You may need this.​On July 29, Mayor Tom Leppert, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and Dallas Police Chief David Brown issued the joint press release calling for the ban on synthetic marijuana and salvia divinorum. The mayor got the so-called K2 ban on the fast track: The council's scheduled to ... More >>

Where's the Subsidized Housing in Dallas Located? Let's Go to the PowerPoint.

​Forthcoming, my very early-morning chat with Mayor Tom Leppert, during which we touched on, among other things, his call for a citywide fake-weed ban, the now-sidelined Dallas Watersports Complex and the fallout from Monday night's surprise announcement concerning Cliff Manor. But during the inte ... More >>

Safelight Dude and the Red Light Enforcement Commission Get Plugged In to Traffic Safety

From the Automated Red Light Enforcement Commission's PowerPoint given this morning​City Hall's all parked up, and when I told the garage guard where I was headed, he assured me "everyone's going to the red light camera meeting." It's hard to tell who "everyone," might have been, because I'm joine ... More >>

Dallas ISD Trustees Will, Yet Again, Debate the Merits of Opening Over-Age High School

​At the Dallas Independent School District board meeting two weeks ago, the trustees held off on voting yea or nay on Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's plan to open an over-age high school in the 2010-'11 school year. Most agree that, yes, it's probably a very good thing to put, say, college-age h ... More >>

Demolition Girl on Top, or: Liveblogging the Council's Housing Committee Meeting

Carolyn Davis makes a point -- several, actually -- concerning a proposed ordinance that makes it easier to demolish historic homes.​What it do, Friends? Today's Housing Committee meeting, which Robert warned you I'd be liveblogging, got a late start because of the overflow of the previous Pub ... More >>

What the Downtown Planners Are Talking About: Tunnels, Gateways, More Deck Parks ...

​On Tuesday we looked at the mammoth PowerPoint assembled by MIG for its May meetings with downtown shareholders as the company prepares to hand the council the Downtown Dallas 360 plan at summer's end. In the past those slide shows have been accompanied by recaps of what was discussed during thos ... More >>

Mayor Leppert Just Stopped Checking His E-Mail to Chime In on the Love Field Concessions

Sam MertenMayor Leppert, five minutes into the presentation.​Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano began this afternoon's Love Field Concession Committee meeting by letting folks know why the committee was formed -- to clear up "perception issues reported by the newspaper" -- and what the groun ... More >>

Even Stephen Hawking Couldn't Figure Out the Fuzzy Math Behind How We Are Going To Pay For the Trinity River Park.

If Nothing Else, the Trinity River Corridor Project Inspires Some Awfully Nice Photos

Paul Sokal's grand-prize winner in the city's Trinity River Photo Contest​Meranda Cohn at Dallas City Hall directs our attention to the winning photos from the Trinity River Photo Contest, for which our pal Allison V. Smith was one of the four judges. You can view as either a PDF or a PowerPoint. ... More >>

Ain't Gonna Work on Samuell Farm No More? Per City Docs, Four Options for the 320 Acres.

The Pavillion at Samuell Farm, which the city is considering tearing down -- unless a gust of wind beats it to the punch​Last Friday, we broke the news that the Texas Attorney General's Office is threatening to take control of the W.W. Samuell Trust if the city of Dallas doesn't turn over by Septe ... More >>

Sooner Than Later, DISD Wants a High School "Geared Toward the Nontraditional Student"

Tonight, of course, is the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees' called board meeting, at which the board will discuss and approve campus staffing formulas for the 2009-'10 school year; Schutze is attending, but of course. But at this very moment is the lengthy warm-up: a regular ol' ... More >>

Trinity Parkway Already Taking Its Toll

The Dallas City Council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee gets a briefing at 9:30 this morning on hurdles facing the Trinity River toll road project. They'll have people there from the North Texas Tollway Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I really wish they had thought to ask ... More >>

YACHT

Thursday, November 6, at Club Dada

Full Speed Ahead: Council Hoping to Get Dirt Flying on Hotel By April

As the mayor and city council keep marching forward with the convention center hotel project despite an upcoming vote in May -- and it’s safe to assume the anti-hotel folks wouldn’t have turned in the petitions so early if they weren’t 100 percent sure that at least 20,000 would be verified -- ... More >>

In the Absence of a Trinity River Project, Fun and Fascinating Meetings

As mentioned earlier, I spent this afternoon at City Hall digesting PowerPoint presentations during the council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee meeting in hopes of getting to the bottom of some possible delays in the Dallas Floodway Extension outlined here. But having been to enough of th ... More >>

Gunfight at the Trinity

The biggest shoot-out in Dallas' political history

At Least Tom Leppert's Done Bullshitting

Neighborhood Watch

See how it's easy bein' green

What a Woonerful World

Ed Oakley gets himself a Dutch treat

Corn Hole?

This week's paper version of Unfair Park examines the infatuation some Dallas entrepreneurs have with renewable fuels--go-go juices like corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel. It's a warm, fuzzy feel-good article; you know, fuels grown in the heartland by American farmers who by all accounts ha ... More >>

Pointless Exercise

How they got the media to miss the point on the Trinity River

Big-Ticket Laura

No fix for potholes, but big parks for the fat cats