Westchester

What Does the Dallas Outcome Tell Us About HUD? What Does It Say About Feds in General?

I'm headed out of town for a week's vacation. Spent a good deal of yesterday thinking about the outcome in the HUD case against Dallas. As you know by now, HUD folded a couple days ago and withdrew its racial segregation allegation against the city. If you were here yesterday, I already bored you wi ... More >>

Dallas Won. HUD Lost. Oops.

City Hall announced late yesterday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has caved on the 4-year-old Lockey/MacKenzie racial segregation complaint against Dallas officials, vacating most of the findings of a four-year federal civil rights investigation. A settlement signed ... More >>

Ebola House Update: Decorations Aren't Coming Down, Display Now Benefits Charity

James Faulk is, apparently, very serious about this. Despite any negative reaction he may have received after media coverage of his Ebola-themed Halloween decorations -- and there were probably at least as many that were positive -- the University Park dad plans to keep the hazardous material drums, ... More >>

While Dallas Leaders Talk about Paying Back HUD, the Feds' Real Payback Is on its Way

The other day, I was talking here and Rudy Bush was talking in The Dallas Morning News and Scott Griggs and Philip Kingston were talking on the city council about the $810,000 the city had to pay back to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). I just want to point out before the ... More >>

How to Read the News and Not Pass Out

Always fun for me to read The Dallas Morning News on Sunday, or, as I call it, Pravda Day. That's when the big think-pieces come out in the special "Pointy Section" of the paper ... oh, 'scuse me, it's really called the "Points Section," but you get my point. It's the Sunday editorial section, and i ... More >>

Mayor Rawlings and Merten Tell Me the Whole HUD Thing Was Just HUD's Big Goof. Wow.

Very interesting press conference Friday in the Flag Room at Dallas City Hall ... wait ... wait. Oh, no. Did I just tell you there was an interesting press conference in the Flag Room at City Hall? Tell me I did not just say that. No, what I meant to say was that there was a typically turgid Kabuki ... More >>

If Dallas Thinks It Can Bluster Its Way Around HUD, We Should Visit Our Sister in Sin

We should be doing what we can to keep up with news about our sister community, Westchester County in New York. It's the other local government entity in the nation, along with the city of Dallas, formally accused by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of practicing deliberate racia ... More >>

How City Hall Resegregated Dallas

The city was becoming less divided. Then corruption stepped in.

Dallas Doesn't Have To Be the City Portrayed in the HUD Segregation Complaint

As the full implications gradually become better known, the federal investigative report released late last month accusing Dallas of segregation will shine a bright national light on the city. One housing policy watcher is already calling the case "Westchester on steroids," a reference to the last ... More >>

Dallas City Hall Claims HUD Was in on Local Misdeeds. They Were Still Misdeeds.

Yesterday in its first official response to a federal investigation that found Dallas guilty of misappropriating funds and furthering segregation, Dallas City Hall said the feds were in on the whole thing themselves from the beginning: "It is important to note that HUD has given final approval of ... More >>

How City Officials Keep Dallas Segregated, and the Two Developers Suing to Stop Them

Yesterday I wrote about Curtis Lockey and Craig MacKenzie, who were on my mind Tuesday night as I watched the final electoral votes for Obama click into place. Lockey and MacKenzie are real estate developers suing Dallas in federal court over what they claim is massive misuse of federal de-segregati ... More >>

Cook Hall Opens, Love Shack Closes and More From a Very Busy October

Another very busy month has come and gone, and with it several Dallas restaurants have opened while others have closed their doors for good. Read on for the full list and be sure to share tips about restaurant openings or closings in the comments section below or at dish@dallasobserver.com. Opening ... More >>

Ankle Braces Ahoy, Stiletto Stampede is Here

John Tesar is a Jedi of Self-Promotion

Allison V. Smith​Back in January, chef John Tesar announced he was kind of over the whole Commissary, One Arts Plaza thing. He was pulling out and shifting his focus to a new restaurant on Westchester Drive in Preston Center. Spoon was what Tesar called the space, and bloggers got to bloggin ... More >>

The Commisary's John Tesar on a Few New Restaurants and One Double-Decker Burger Bus

Last week we got word of John Tesar's trifecta of plans for 2012. First, he's sold his share of The Commissary to co-owner Lucy Billingsley and plans to open other two other independent Commissaries; one at Northwest Highway and Midway and the other in cowtown at the Museum Place. Then, in April ... More >>

Whistle-Blowers Claim City Misused Housing Money

Federal dough meant for affordable housing went to downtown.

Something Borrowed Will Make You Blue

A chilly, impersonal comedy of love and betrayal.

The Beaver: Mad, but not Madcap

This time Mel Gibson just plays crazy.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work -- Too Much Work, Too Little Joan

City Hall Had Better Look Over Its Shoulder Because HUD Is Ready To Kick Some Fair-Housing Butt.

Catherine Crier Takes a Dallas "John Doe" to Court Over ... Her Wikipedia Page

Former Dallas County judge and prosecutor Catherine Crier left her hometown long, long ago -- exactly 20 years ago, matter of fact, when she swapped the bench for the bright lights of CNN, then ABC, then Fox News Channel, then Court TV and a series of books. Says her bio on Crier Communications Inc. ... More >>

Stay Hungry, Live Longer: the Science Behind the Calorie Restriction Diet

An SMU biologist thinks the secret to the fountain of youth may be found by putting fruit flies on a diet.

The Invisibles

I have seen the future, and it is Frisco

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Has Family Issues

Sidney Lumet's Long Journey

Venerable director returns with a devilish thriller

At Gordo's, Everything Must Go. Including Gordo's. For Now. Not Forever.

Daddy needs a new baby grand -- and a nice fountain, which, come to think of it, would look amazing in the front yard. Good thing we know where to get one: tomorrow and Sunday, from 9 a.m to 5 p.m., at the great Gordo's on Lovers Lane. Hard to believe, but tonight's the last night at that location, ... More >>

BookScam

In The Hoax, a lying president (Nixon) begets a lying author (Richard Gere). Good thing that wouldn't happen today.

The Warped, Twisted and Strangely Funny Reality in Your Own Backyard

I know this didn't sneak up on you, but the AFI Dallas International Film Festival makes its bow tonight with the screening of Music Within -- the true-life tale of the Vietnam vet behind the Americans with Disabilities Act, starring Office Space's Ron Livingston -- tonight at the Majestic Theater, ... More >>

Career Moves

Loudon Wainwright III brings his listeners along for the ride

Naughty Bits

It's just a word, right?

Death on tap

Cryptosporidium kills AIDS victims in Dallas. Who will the pathogen claim next?

Off the cliff

Maria Maggenti, the director of Incredibly True Adventure... declares her independence