Friday Roundup: Good Lord, I’m 40

Want another reason to legalize gambling, including poker houses. Here you go. Bring them out of the dark and you won’t have predators like James McDaniel poisoning the atmosphere and OD’ing coeds.

For once, I agree with Gov. Coiffure. Help the really needy, but not those who don’t need it.

How do you define “sociopath?” This is as good a start as any.

Why on earth wouldn’t you want to entrust your child’s future to DISD, given moves like this one?

Shakedown artist John Wiley Price is under the FBI’s microscope.

May 29, 2009 | Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, DISD, Police, Politics, The DFW | 4 Comments

Thursday Roundup: Wait, I Have a Blog?

Sorry for the absence. Shockingly, this blog doesn’t quite generate the revenue yet that would allow me to make it my sole daily endeavor. Blog FAIL.

Trial is underway for the man who gave SMU coed Meaghan Bosch the drugs that killed her. The defense is engaging in fantasy of the worst sort, and claiming poor James McDaniel is just a scapegoat. Yeah, if you pull my leg it plays Jingle Bells. If you want the whole sordid story of Meaghan’s tragic end, it’s here in what I wrote for D Magazine.

State Sen. Royce West is the champion of the overdog. (h/t Matt Pulle.)

There’s more to this story of Richardson politics than meets the eye. More to come on this later.

Public school delinquents with hearts of gold. A damsel in distress. This has the makings of a Morgan Freeman vehicle.

On the one hand, it’s a stupid move by the homeowner association and a silly rule. On the other hand, if you buy where there’s an HOA, don’t be surprised if they get ticked if you violate HOA rules. Solution: don’t buy where there’s an HOA.

May 28, 2009 | Filed Under FAIL, Media, Police, Politics, The DFW | 6 Comments

Friday Surrender

A picture is worth blah blah blah. I’m on deadline so today you’ll get nothing and like it. Back in swing Monday.

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May 22, 2009 | Filed Under Writer on Deadline | 5 Comments

Dallas Council Plays the Budget Fear Factor?

Saw this on Hit & Run:

Why Governments Are Lousy at Running Business, But Excellent at Scaring You About “Annihilating” Budget Cuts

Posted on May 21, 2009, 9:26am | Matt Welch

Good piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal from John Steele Gordon (hat tip: Veronique de Rugy), reminding a forgetful nation why it is that state-run enterprises almost always end in tears. Here’s one point that has resonance for those of us interested in California’s tribulations:

“Cost cutting is alien to the culture of all bureaucracies. Indeed, when cost cutting is inescapable, bureaucracies often make cuts that will produce maximum public inconvenience, generating political pressure to reverse the cuts.”
What’s that you say about “generating political pressure to reverse the cuts”? Here’s the headline on an L.A. Times news piece today: “California braces for brutal budget cuts.” The lede:

“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers scrambled Wednesday to avert a financial meltdown, and public officials across California braced for annihilating cuts on the day after voters trounced their leaders’ rescue plan for the state.”
Italics mine, to emphasize the objectivity.

Then I remembered I saw this in today’s Dallas Morning News:

While acknowledging the gravity of Dallas’ financial woes, many City Council members balked Wednesday at specific budget cuts that City Manager Mary Suhm says are necessary to close a massive deficit.

From senior services to swimming pools, council members defended the importance of pricey programs that Suhm has targeted to balance the city’s books for the upcoming fiscal year.

Rudy and Dave didn’t fall into the sand trap the LA Times did, but I see similarities from council folk.

May 21, 2009 | Filed Under Politics, The DFW | 1 Comment

Thursday Roundup: Everyone Leaves Something in the Bathroom

The lede of this story is worth the trip.

Oh come on. This is the kind of pointless lawsuit that’s sucking all the life out of life. And believe me, I know pointless lawsuits.

Meanwhile, this teacher is like something out of Dead Poets Society, only with none of Robin Williams’ annoying antics.

Yeah, but the $18,000 for fiberglass peaches in the city budget is just a little more than the $12,000 Councilman Ron Natinsky spent on pizza cutters, paper weights, pens, letter openers, and other junk with his name printed on them, isn’t it?

Finally, what beautiful spring day would be complete without this?

May 21, 2009 | Filed Under Fort Awesome, Life, The DFW | 5 Comments

Wednesday Roundup: Phoning It In

On deadline, so it’s brief today.

Stupid kid names?

Heritage is auctioning off a collection of comics worth as much as half a million. Includes a Batman #1. My birthday is coming up, hint hint.

Why is it the Bill of Rights wouldn’t apply at colleges? Can you imagine the outcry if people claimed that college students weren’t responsible enough to exercise their First or Fourth Amendment rights on college campuses?

Despite it starring Batman and being a new Terminator movie, here’s why I’m just not that jazzed about “Terminator: Salvation.“

May 20, 2009 | Filed Under Writer on Deadline | 4 Comments

Cheesus Tapdancing Christ. They Did It Again.

rick-louie-gambling I’m shocked, shocked to learn that supporters of the People’s Hotel at City Hall lied to Dallas voters about the updated feasibility study.