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What does "the guy who heads up the Black contractors" mean?" Is there a "guy who heads up the White contractors" and "a guy who heads up the Hispanic contractors?" If I want to work in the construction business, do I have to be represented by a white person? Are Hispanics not allowed to work for a "black contractor," or if they are, then what does "black contractor" mean? I had no idea the construction business was so racially segregated...

And we're not asking about "accesibility" and who he meets with -- we want to know if Willis Johnson controls who actually ends up getting the contracts.

Caption for photo:

"And this is Tommy the Elf's Four Year Plan to Sell Out All of Your Futures."

According to an UnfairPark story dated January 24th, 2008, "Willis Johnson has sizable contracts with DART as a provider of telephone services and security equipment."

I'll be the first to admit I know very little about Willis Johnson other than the fact he's a radio personality. Prior to entering the broadcast business, did Willis Johnson have a career in telecommunications and/or the security business? If not and if I'm a minority contractor with experience in these areas, I'm not a happy camper.

If Willis Johnson used his influence with city officials to obtain "sizeable contracts" with the city of Dallas, and if "more capable" minority contractors were shut out of the process as a result of Johnson's influence, someone needs to investigate how contracts for city business are awarded.

Religion hit the nail on the head.

Leppert could meet with everyone in the city. That's not the question. But if Johnson has the say-so on who gets the contracts, all the meetings in the world are useless wastes of time.

I'm not comfortable with Leppert's answer. I'm not comfortable with it at all.

Sam, I am beginning to think that the Mayor does not like you very much.

"Rebecca, this is what Dallas used to look like before I became mayor. Now, I'm not going to show you a picture of what it looks like now because I don't want to scare you but rest assured it looks better. And no, I'm not going to answer any questions you might have. But rest assured that if I did answer your questions you would appreciate the answer that I gave. No, I don't have any candy."

I think you’re right, Nathan. There might just be some hard feelings from the Trinity referendum. Exposing someone as a liar tends to make some people a little touchy, and raising legitimate questions about the wisdom of building a convention center hotel probably ain’t making him happy either. But I guess if he liked me, I wouldn’t be doing my job, so I’ll embrace the hatred with open arms.

I'm trying to remember... What did Leppert do before becoming mayor....hmmm......

Didn't Ed Oakley get in a little hot water about trying to rezone some property for a potential developer?

Becoming a City official must be really lucrative when you have "developer friends" somehow. Who stands to get rich from the (unnecessary) hotel/convention center deal?

This whole thing stinks. I agree. We need some more transparency when it comes to developing ans awarding city contracts.

"Thanks to the new tollroad, we have plans to convert this area called Reunion right here into 24-hour truck stop and PCP distribution center. Imagine the lights and neat noises from the jake brakes, kids!"

This continues to get more and more juicy as each day goes on. Loving it.

Ok, i'm going to go ahead and insinuate when i held off on the other day..

Are they 100% it was a murder/suicide?.... Or is it possible that it was staged?... I'm just sayin...

Alysa, I am sure they are both gone from this world, but you make a great point.

I mean, less than 24 hours of the act, there was SO MUCH INFORMATION available to the public from the phone call and email to the son and voicemail to West.

Oh, lest we forget the emails and faxes that just so happened to surface from summer?

Hmmmmm...Veddy veddy interesting...

Are they 100% it was a murder/suicide?.... Or is it possible that it was staged?... I'm just sayin...

Alysa, the Shaws phoned their son to let him know that they were about to snuff it, so that would seem to rule out someone else having murdered them both.

btw, one of the local news outlets mentioned that when police went through their home, they found evidence of even more financial shenanigans. It still doesn't seem like enough to drive a normal person to suicide, but who knows what further investigation will turn up.

I'm just guessing, but the police may have released all that info quickly in order to nip any conspiracy theories in the bud.

"all the happy people of Dallas crossed the magical Calatrava Bridge, that led to the enchanted Tollway Park...now at this part, kids, not all of you have access to the happy ending"

Sam, you need to ask better questions. Open ended questions are fine, but you also must ask leading questions.

You were doing fine up until "What about the idea that he’s kinda the trigger guy for any and all minority contracts? What would you say in response to that?"

The question to ask is "Do you award contracts that Johnson disapproves of?" Something along those lines. The open ended question that you asked lets Leppert speak generally on the issue, which is fine, but it doesn't pin him down enough. He needs yes and no (leading) questions when it gets down to the nitty gritty.

Leppert's response to your last question is a good sound bite, but it doesn't actually answer what you were asking. It was your wording of the question let him get away with it.

I'm not complaining, just some pointers for the new guy. Keep it up. You'll get him eventually.