Dallas News Blog

Kimberly Thorpe

A suburban Dallas Santeria feast ceremony

​Santeria is a religion practiced by one to five million people in the United States; still, because of its clandestine nature, estimates of practitioners of the Afro-Cuban religion vary widely. Some Euless residents were shocked to learn that the religion was practiced in their neighborhood -- especially the part about animal sacrifice. A nearly three-year legal battle between Jose Merced and the city of Euless ensued, which helped lead to this week's cover story, "Blood Offering," in the paper version of Unfair Park

The case was ultimately heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and decided in Merced's favor. But all is not quiet again in the sleepy neighborhood: The city still has the option to appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Merced has resumed his religion's practices.

As an online extra, we're including photographs in this slide show, shot inside Merced's home on the day after 40 animals were sacrificed to the Santeria gods. The animals have been cooked and prepared, and it's a day of celebration and feast.

Sam Merten

According to juror Nedra Frazier, the arguments against conspiracy surrounded Rickey Robertson, seen here leaving the courthouse with his wife and baby daughter after the jury found him guilty on two counts.

A few hours after she and 11 other jurors found Don Hill and his four co-defendants guilty of 23 of the 29 charges against them in the Dallas City Hall corruption case, Rowlett resident Nedra Frazier gave me a behind-the-scenes peek at the deliberations. Much like my lengthy interview with Don and Sheila Hill, the majority of my conversation with Frazier didn't make it into the cover story in the current paper version of Unfair Park because of space constraints, so I've again pulled together the highlights in the form of a Q & A after the jump.

Frazier, a 43-year-old wife and mother of two children, had planned on spending the last few months trying to find a new job to replace the one she held for 10 years at Avaya, a telecommunications company, which had been shipped overseas to India at the end of January. Instead, a last-minute challenge in June by the defense alleging that the prosecution had been eliminating jurors based on race resulted in her addition as the last of four black jurors selected.

Because the case involved several defendants and numerous counts, Frazier endorsed a plan to discuss each count as it appeared on the jury's verdict form, which juror Rachel Secore of Dallas confirms. Each count was read out loud, followed by the definitions of the counts, the count as it appeared in the indictment and then the definitions once again. "There was a lot of discussion about the definitions. That part we took very seriously," Secore says.

The jury spent the most time discussing count 20, Frazier says, eventually finding both Hill and Darren Reagan not guilty. "There just wasn't enough evidence on that one." After that decision, jurors took a second look at approximately four other counts, especially regarding Sheila Hill's and Rickey Robertson's involvement. "There were several we had to go back and just really, really think about it and talk about it."

Photos and cutlines by Danny Fulgencio

An inclination for religious references did not save Don Hill from lawful judgment.

A little more than 24 hours after a jury found Don and Sheila Hill guilty on a total of 12 counts in the City Hall corruption case, the two sat down with me for a lengthy interview at the offices of Baker Botts on the 11th floor of Trammell Crow Center. Space constraints prevented much of our conversation from appearing in this week's cover story about the trial, so I've pulled together the highlights in the form of a Q & A after the jump, along with a slide show, which includes some never-before-seen photos from the trial.

The Hills were generous with their time (we spoke for approximately two and a half hours), and even though Sheila's attorney, Victor Vital, and Don's consultant, Ken Carter, were on hand, there was little interference. And no question was off-limits. In the aftermath of the verdicts, both seemed focused on their 16-year-old daughter from Sheila's previous marriage to Eric Farrington, who's also a convicted felon. Don says his stepdaughter, who's a junior in high school, wants them to be at her graduation next year. "She's strong, and rightly so, she is a little anxious about what this all means for her mother and pops and her own life in what she wants to do."

Don says his two grown daughters from his previous marriage to Vivian have "pretty much" stuck with him throughout the trial. "It's difficult when your dad's name is in the news and across the paper. Sometimes they wonder about what they should say."

Since the indictments two years ago, Don says he's been smeared professionally, impairing his ability to earn an income, so he and Sheila have scaled their lifestyles down to the bare essentials. They've depended on strong support from their church, family and friends to supplement the limited amount of law Don has been able to practice while Sheila has been serving as his assistant. "The government went to people I've developed relationships with and interviewed them, showed them evidence and played wiretaps," he says.

Even though they both have no complaints about their representation, the two are optimistic about their chances of winning an appeal. "We're not knocked out. We're just going to keep pressing through to the very end," Don says. "We thought today would be truly the first day of the rest of our lives because we'd be moving on, but we're not. We're still in the fight."

Mark Graham

Larry Friedman

Southern Methodist University and Dr. Robert Tafel have agreed on an undisclosed settlement regarding the lawsuit filed by Tafel and attorney Gary Vodicka in which they allege that SMU defrauded residents of the 350-unit University Gardens Condominiums in a land grab for the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

"Dr. Tafel is satisfied that he has accomplished what he set out to accomplish," says Larry Friedman, Tafel's attorney. "This was never about money for him. This was about transparency."

John McElhaney, of counsel with Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, which represents SMU, confirmed the settlement, but was unwilling to offer any further information. "All either side is saying is that we've reached a settlement," he says. "That's the extent of what we're going to say."

How about a comment on how close he is to settling with Vodicka? "No," he says while laughing. "I certainly will not comment on that."

Both Tafel and Vodicka previously rejected $1 million settlement offers, as chronicled in our July cover story about the lawsuit.

Brandon Thibodeaux

John Greenan, founder and executive director of nonprofit Central Dallas Community Development Corp., a subsidiary of Larry James' Central Dallas Ministries

​In the paper version of Unfair Park this week I took a longer look at Re:Vision Dallas -- you know, that self-sustaining development John Greenan and Brent Brown want to build on a parking lot behind Dallas City Hall sooner than later. Right, that one. Anyway. In the piece, Greenan (founder and executive director of nonprofit Central Dallas Community Development Corp.) and Brown (head of bcWORKSHOP) talk about how for-profit developers get their pretty conceptual renderings on the front pages of business sections all the time -- about a year before they fall into foreclosure. Meanwhile, most folks think their edible abode is but a water-pipedream: "Dallas doesn't believe in the capacity of the nonprofit to do anything significant," Greenan says.

Which prompted me to write this sentence: "If those with money can't make a go of their European crossroads, such as the Glen at Preston Hollows project promised for Walnut Hill Lane and North Central Expressway, or their mini Manhattans, like the one stillborn near the Galleria Dallas, then how in the world will a nonprofit make a go of a highfalutin hilltop in the shadow of City Hall?" Which prompted Greenan to write this response today on his blog, where he uses the city's all-of-the-sudden ginormous investment in Forest City's Continental Building to show that, look, nonprofits do it cheaper -- which ought to be a T-shirt. Writes Greenan, in part:

I can build the building 4% cheaper and Central Dallas CDC doesn't need to make a ROI of 38.55%. Somewhere in the briefing documents, I would bet, there is also a Developer's Fee (probably buried in the $11,295,000 of soft costs). A typical fee for the developer on a project this size would be about $4 million. That's ten years operating costs for Central Dallas CDC. We don't need more than that.

I know not everybody is willing to work out the math, but the truth is that a well run nonprofit ought to be able to put a project together much cheaper than a for-profit. Giving up the 40% profit on the deal is a heckuva cost savings. Or, to look at it another way, it would cost a for-profit developer $70 million to build the same project -- Re:Vision Dallas -- that we'll do for $50 million.

The Wells Fargo bank tower off Highway 183 in Irving, an ordinary office building in a sea of concrete, isn't the sort of place you'd expect to find a zen-like sanctuary with roots in Gandhi's India. But that's exactly what lies on the top floor: Here, Dr. Om Prakash, an 85-year-old psychologist-turned-life coach who, as a young man, served as an organizer for the Mahatma, counsels patients and coaching clients on how to live a balanced life. Prakash, the subject of this week's feature in the paper version of Unfair Park, teaches all of his therapy patients and coaching clients how to meditate. The practice, he says, is a crucial tool for maintaining physical and mental health.

For a tutorial, check out this video of Prakash leading a guided meditation in his office with local writer Barbara Blanks. And for a meditation on Prakash himself and why psychologists nationwide are converting their practices to life coaching, take a look at the story.

​Newspapers 'round the country are filled this morning with obituaries, such as this one from The Washington Post, mourning Norman Borlaug, who died Saturday at the age of 95 at his Dallas home. All the obituaries more or less read the same: father of the "Green Revolution," Nobel laureate, the man who saved hundreds of millions from starving to death. The man who fed the world.

But in 2002, former Dallas Observer food critic Mark Stuertz profiled Borlaug for this cover story, which chronicled Borlaug's battles with enviroactivists who damned his efforts as "a Western public relations stunt designed to fatten the agro-industrial complex, not feed the hungry." Why? Because he advocated using chemical fertilizers and genetic alterations. Far as they're concerned, it's organic or nothing.

What does Borlaug say to those who advocate such agricultural methods? "God bless you," he says. "Use all of the organic matter you want. But don't deceive the world into believing that we can feed 6.2 billion people with organic matter alone. If we tried to do this, we would plow up all of these marginal lands, cut down much of our forests, and much of that would be productive for just a few years. Without chemical fertilizer, forget it."

Mark won a James Beard Award for his piece, which is worth a revisit this morning.

​Even if you've never heard of the Fan Cost Index, the name is pretty self-explanatory: It's what a family of four could expect to spend at a sporting event, simple as that. Factored into the costs, per Team Marketing Index's arguable equation: the price of two adult average price tickets, two child average price tickets, four small sodas, two small beers, two programs, parking and two adult-size caps. The ball-cap buy seems like an unnecessary add-on; then again, only two beers ... and smalls? So maybe it evens out in the end.

This season, the Texas Rangers' FCI is $150.64 -- far less than the Major League Baseball average of $196.89. Last season, the Dallas Mavericks' FCI came in at $344.86 -- or $52.93 above the National Basketball Association average. (But his season, yet again, the Mavs are offering some 500 $2 tickets for most home game.) And, last season, the Dallas Stars' FCI of $244.18 was well below the National Hockey League average of $288.23, though who knows what happens with dynamic pricing!

All of which is a long, throat-clearing warm-up to today's news: Your Dallas Cowboys are now the most expensive ducat in the National Football League, and with an average ticket price of $159.65, well, that brings the FCI out at Jerry Jones's EnormoDome up to $758.58 -- which, if I read my numbers correctly, is a 78 percent increase over the numbers for the final season in Texas Stadium. (And, yes, that number does take into consideration the $29 standing-room-only party passes and the sold-out $59 offerings.) By comparison, the New England Patriots come in second with an FCI of $597.25. And the NFL average? $412.64. So, Richie Whitt, is it really worth it?

The biggest African American funeral home in the Southwestern U.S. is located here in Dallas, and it's called Golden Gate Funeral Home. Its CEO, John Beckwith Jr. -- a man who dreams of burying everybody in Dallas, black and white -- is the subject of this week's cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park. Patrick Michels made this video to accompany the piece; then there's this beneath-the-casket-lid look available in our slide show.

You may have passed Golden Gate in Oak Cliff while heading south -- it's the building on R.L. Thornton Freeway with all the white limousines, Cadillacs, Lincolns and Hummers parked out front. And during many evenings the parking lot is crowded with friends and family members of the deceased. One cop told us he thought Golden Gate was a nightclub the first time he drove past it.

But no, this is where some 2,000 bodies will be buried or cremated this year. And Golden Gate is growing bigger still. James Shoemake, the president of Dallas Institute of Funeral Service, says "Rumors are they are becoming the largest funeral home in the Dallas area, volume-wise."

Anand Jon Alexander with Paula Abdul, who he claimed as a client

​Much thanks to the many Friends of Unfair Park who've sent an update concerning the fate of fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, about whom we first wrote in May 2007 in the paper version of Unfair Park. In that piece, several aspiring Dallas models, many underage, accused Alexander of sexually assaulting them after he'd promised them modeling jobs -- a story that would repeat itself in New York and Los Angeles. And it's in L.A. where, yesterday, Alexander was sentenced to 59 years to life in prison after having been convicted of sexual assault in November.

In October '07, three arrest warrants on sexual assault charges were issued in Dallas County for Alexander. District Attorney Craig Watkins's office has promised to offer comment later today concerning how Dallas plans to proceed.

Hal Samples

Learn more about The Bridge, the city's homeless assistance center, in this week's Observer.

The city council this morning approved three-year contracts totaling $5.3 million with 14 area nonprofit groups -- including The Salvation Army and Central Dallas Ministries -- to provide assistance to those on the verge of becoming homeless and folks recently finding themselves homeless.

The council's Quality of Life & Government Services Committee received a briefing yesterday afternoon from Teressa Page-Davis, assistant director of the city's environmental and health services department, detailing the city's plans to spend a significant portion of the city's $7.9 million allocation from the $1.5 billion included in President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program.

As we discussed last month, Dallas received $7.1 million from the feds, and the city also received approximately $800,000 in state HPRP funds, which will be divided equally between the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center and West Dallas Multipurpose Center. Of the $7.9 million total allocation, $4.5 million will be spent on homeless prevention, and $2.8 million will be spent on rapid re-housing, which helps people who become homeless move quickly into permanent housing. The city also plans to spend $105,000 on data collection and $380,000 on administration costs.

Ray Hutchison

​"Did Kay Bailey Hutchison cross an ethical line by supporting a rail line that is a payday for her husband?" That's the question addressed in this morning's Texas Watchdog piece written by former Observer-er Matt Pulle, who examines the Texas gubernatorial candidate's involvement in procuring funds for Dallas Area Rapid Transit's Green Line -- for which Ray Hutchison's law firm, Vinson & Elkins, served as co-bond counsel when DART sold a $740 million revenue bond in July 2008 to cover the rail line's construction costs after the feds coughed up $700 million. For its efforts, Vinson & Elkins pocketed more than $350,000 in hourly fees -- meanwhile, Ray's bio boasts of his having "represented Dallas Area Rapid Transit System since its creation in 1983." Hence, the phrase "ethical headache."

The central question posed in this week's cover story is this: Can teaching rebellious young girls how to become old-school "ladies" save them from a cycle of teen pregnancy and poverty?

Teen pregnancy is a riddle in Texas, a state that has the second-highest teen birthrate in the country behind California. Abstinence-only education doesn't work. And, as of 2004, teen childbearing in Texas was costing taxpayers at least $1 billion, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Not to mention that teen pregnancy is the single greatest factor in determining future poverty and homelessness for women and children.

This week's paper version of Unfair Park explores how one sexually active teen girl (Nyjai) was impacted by a debutante course designed by an advocate who was once a teen mother herself (Trenette Wilson). The 16-week course culminated in a June 13th formal debutante ball at the Hilton Anatole. Patrick Michels put together this video (a mini-documentary, really) from the ball, which includes the ring ceremony during which the girls promise to evermore abstain -- and if they were already sexually active, well, they get to be virgins again. Symbolically, of course.

If you prefer, watch it here on YouTube.

Mark Graham

Before Haseeb Chishty was released from the Denton State School last year, his mother Farhat visited him nearly every day.

Last year, Jesse Hyde wrote several stories for the Dallas Observer and Unfair Park about Farhat Chishty's quest for justice for her son Haseeb, who, till last fall, had been one of 630 residents at Denton State School -- where, in 2002, Haseeb was savagely beaten by a caregiver who later admitted to being in a drug-fueled rage. (He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the assault.) Supervisors at the school were accused of covering up the beating, and in 2004, Farhat filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of her son against the state, in which she demanded enough money to allow for her to care for Haseeb, at home, for the rest of his life. But, as Jesse wrote last October, "The lawsuit was dismissed on grounds of sovereign immunity, which protects the state from civil suits." Said Farhat, "I am losing faith in the state ever being able to correct the wrong it committed against me."

But as the Austin American-Statesman notes this morning, the state Senate voted 24-7 to allow Farhat to sue the state after all. Reports Ken Herman, the vote "came just over four hours before the deadline for action on the measure and marked the first time since 2001 that lawmakers voted to allow anyone to sue the state." Dallas's John Carona introduced the measure -- a similar one failed in 2007 -- and said after its passage, "The testimony reveals gross mismanagement of the personnel there at the facility, rampant drug use. Just horrible, horrible conditions existed." The measure is now in the hands of Governor Rick Perry.

The paper version of Unfair Park this week features the story of Ron White, the 2009 U.S.A. Memory Champion, who lives in Euless.

To help document his quest to prove that everyone -- even a college dropout -- can not only accomplish daunting mental feats but literally do anything they put their mind to, he kept a journal of his training regimen leading up to the national championship. White was kind enough to open the book for this slide show.

Below, check out Patrick Michels's terrific video of White working a crowd, practicing card memorization at home and training under water, as he gears up for November's world championships in Bahrain.

DWI attorney David Burrows

Several hundred defense attorneys are attending an all-day conference at the Belo Mansion today to learn about the next wave of DWI defense work: the blood alcohol test about which we wrote last month. In recent years, police departments across the state have moved away from offering the breath test to those suspected of driving while intoxicated. They are increasingly demanding the suspect give them a blood sample, even if they have to strap down that person to get it.

DWI trail lawyer David Burrows is hosting today's conference and has lined up a number of speakers to dole out "practical" instead of academic advice, which basically means advice that has worked in the courtroom. So, Dr. Gary Wimbish, who is Burrows's favorite defense trial expert, took the microphone just after 9 this morning to explain to lawyers in the room the science behind the blood sample. A blood sample is the best specimen to test somebody's level of intoxication, he said. However, the sample must be collected and tested according to forensic standards, which are not often met in a hospital setting.

Sam Merten

Ed Oakley ran a below-the-belt ad attacking Tom Leppert in his attempt to beat him in the mayoral runoff. Now he's joined a group formed to defend Leppert against the negative attacks from the anti-hotel group. Got it?

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 focused on his facial tic, along with claiming his construction company was up to no good during his tenure.

So we were a bit, well, confused when Oakley told us he was throwing himself into the hotel campaign because of the anti-hotel group's TV ads attacking Leppert and mailers portraying the mayor and council member Ron Natinsky as "criminals."

"I'm personally getting involved in this campaign because I'm offended by the ads," Oakley said, sitting in a Starbucks just hours before attending a pro-hotel rally in front of City Hall.

Five days later, Oakley became a member of Enough is Enough's steering committee, a group of businesspeople and politicians outraged at the personal attacks of Leppert coming from the anti-hotel group. But when we spoke with Oakley, he revealed shaky confidence in some of Leppert's statements issued during the Trinity River toll road campaign.

Although he doesn't remember it, Oakley was in attendance at the September 2007 Oak Cliff debate where Leppert assured the audience that the North Texas Tollway Authority pledged $1 billion to the road and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "signed off" on the project. As a former chair of the city council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee, Oakley admitted that if he or former Mayor Laura Miller were debating instead of Leppert, their knowledge about the issue would have been much greater given Leppert's short duration in office at the time.

"He took the facts that he had, and he either misinterpreted them or misspoke," he said. "And I would call that the amount of experience that came with the job from June to October."

If Leppert did misspeak, Oakley said it doesn't make him a liar. "He may have not had all of the information or he may have mixed information up," he said. "But I think what he said in there, he believed."

Sam Merten

Now we know why Jerry Allen hasn't been allowed to debate about the convention center hotel.

While researching our upcoming cover story on Mayor Tom Leppert, which will appear in the paper version of Unfair Park Wednesday, we sat down with Lake Highlands city council member Jerry Allen, who announced in a recent council meeting that he believes anything that comes out of the mayor's mouth. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway quickly overshadowed Allen's comment when he said he'd "take a bullet" for Leppert. Caraway declined our interview request for the story.

Allen says he issued that comment in the heat of battle, revealing that he and Caraway played a game of what they call "tag team" to defend the mayor. "It is strong to say that," he says with a country boy chuckle. "I've had no reason not to. I think that's probably the key. He's never given me a reason to sit and scratch my head and wonder if he's telling me the truth or not."

While Allen votes with Leppert the majority of the time, only recalling one zoning issue where they disagreed, he says that's because they're like-minded. He stresses that he does his own research, and while Leppert is "a great source of information," he listens other places too. In fact, Allen and Leppert originally were on opposite sides on the strengthened smoking ban, but Allen changed his mind after listening to the voices of his constituency -- 85 percent of which he claims favored the new ordinance.

Allen, a senior vice president at Colonial Bank, says his position on the convention center hotel came from his 30 years in banking and researching the risk assessment and return on investment, claiming hotel opponents don't understand the revenue streams and economic impact attached to the project. Much like Leppert and other council members, he also cites the $3 million annual subsidy given from the city's general fund to support the convention center, which he says won't get any better, although that scare tactic has been debunked.

"If we don't build that hotel, and I hate to say it like this because I'm not a fear guy and try to put fear in people's heart and all that kind of stuff, but man if we don't build that thing ... you might as well just demolish that convention center," Allen tells Unfair Park. "It sounds corny, but just tear the damned thing down. Just tear it down and let someone else have it and do something. But seriously, get out of that -- get out of that business. Make the decision that you're not going to be in that business."

On Monday the Texas Senate passed two bills related to drunken driving. The first would mandate statewide sobriety checkpoints; the second would allow police officers to draw blood from DWI suspects. The other sexually oriented newspaper in town focused on the sobriety checkpoints and mentioned that the blood draws would be related to serious accidents involving injury. That's not the whole story.

In fact, the second bill includes an amendment crafted by the Dallas Country District Attorney's Office that would allow Dallas police to draw blood from every single person arrested for a DWI. You're always welcome to read more about the "no-refusal" policy in this week's paper version of Unfair Park.

Alexa Schirtzinger

Stormwater Management Assistant Director Errick Thompson, left, gets a lesson in southwest Dallas developer politics from farmer Frank Bracken.

Thursday morning, Cedar Vista neighborhood advocate Frank Bracken -- the southwest Dallas farm owner profiled, in part, in this week's cover story about the taking of the trees -- finally got the city to lend an ear -- or, rather, two guys willing to get their shoes muddy. Bracken led Zaida Basora from Building Inspection and Errick Thompson, assistant director of Stormwater Management, on a tour highlighting the problems with the Grady Niblo "moonscape." There's trash around the perimeter, piles of concrete waste, too few trees around the homes that have been built and dying trees whose roots were clipped when developers clear-cut the property. The biggest concern, in Thompson's view, is rapid erosion and silty runoff from the land.

The Grady Niblo property has at least five years' worth of skeletons in its closet, mostly in the form of noncompliance with various city codes, ordinances and board decisions. Basora admitted that there's often confusion on whether a violation -- such as the presence of sidewalks in a Planned Development like Grady Niblo, which isn't supposed to have them -- falls under the Department of Code Compliance or Building Inspection. Basora says her department deals only with open permits, and that Code Compliance takes care of pretty much everything else. But questions of compliance are easily lost in cases like Grady Niblo: a maze of foreclosure, changing ownership and multiple Board of Adjustment hearings.

Ian Willms

Army deserter Kim Rivera -- waiting for news on her stay of deportation -- rests while her husband Mario tends to their baby, Katie, in their Toronto apartment.

This week's cover story in the paper version of Unfair Park profiles Mesquite's Kim Rivera and her fellow Iraq war deserters fighting for refuge in Canada. Because many of them are facing deportation, the Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign dubbed late January "Let Them Stay Week."

Our accompanying slide show by Toronto-based photojournalist Ian Willms captures images of Private Rivera -- a 26-year-old mother of three -- and her family in their new home, as well as Airman Dale Landry of Mansfield, who deserted from Dyess Air Force Base.

In 1961, while compiling the Robert Johnson collection King of the Delta Blues Singers, producer Frank Driggs sent Don Law a letter with a few questions concerning the bluesman and his sessions in San Antonio and in Dallas in November 1936 and June 1937, respectively. Law -- who worked for Brunswick Records in the '30s and who produced the sessions that resulted in such immortal songs as "Hellhound on My Trail" and "Cross Road Blues" -- provided his answers in the margins. And among his scribbled revelations was the note that Johnson had recorded in Dallas "in a makeshift studio in our own branch office," which was located at 508 Park Ave. in downtown.

That letter, turned over to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in 2005, cleared up the long-standing mystery of where, precisely, Johnson had recorded in Dallas in June 1937. But I hadn't actually seen the letter till Michael Taft, director of the American Folklife Center, faxed me a copy during the course of my research for this week's cover story about the plight of 508 Park Ave. and other vacant downtown buildings. Which is why I've posted the entirety of the historic document after the jump.

Translating live improv comedy to the page is tough, so for a companion to our cover story this week about Mark Orvik, a comedian who's fighting a life-threatening illness with humor, check out these videos of the troupe's on-stage shenanigans. And hey, amidst waves of layoffs and foreclosures, we could all stand to follow Orvik's lead and use humor as a coping tool.
     

As addressed in our March 2007 cover story, Senator Royce West is a powerful guy who makes a lot of dough collecting legal fees from the Dallas Independent School District. At the time, former Observer staff writer Matt Pulle reported payments of nearly $2.5 million from DISD to West in a five-year period.

We think it's time for an update.

From October 2002 to October 2008, West's took in a hefty $3,890,219.67, according to an open records request filed by Unfair Park. We were told DISD records don't go back prior to October '02. Additionally, a request with the city of Dallas showed West earned $205,622.75 in legal fees from May 2006 to April 2008.

The cover story in this week's paper version of Unfair Park is a look at Galveston months after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on Texas's Gulf Coast. To accompany the piece, Daniel Kramer and editor Monica Fuentes offer this multimedia piece depicting the city as it (barely) stands today. --Patrick Michels

Governor Rick Perry sent us a Christmas card -- awful nice of him, though I wish I could tell where he went to college. So, in the spiriting of giving, we figured we'd share -- along with his list of who's been naughty but who he was nice enough to pardon on Friday. Mazel tov, Jerry Wayne Crownover of Arlington, Marlyn Ann Linguist of Cedar Hill and Thomas Clyde Reedy of Denton. A regular Christmas miracle. --Robert Wilonsky

Well, as it turns out, Dallas Independent School District superintendent Michael Hinojosa was far more engaged than we all thought. We just received the superintendent's annual evaluation of Eric Anderson, the district's former chief operating officer who has been widely blamed for DISD's epic financial crisis. Long story short: Hinojosa thought Anderson was absolutely terrible at his job.

The entire evaluation is after the jump, and this week's cover story on the super in the paper version of Unfair Park should be posted shortly. But till then, some background: Last spring, district officials told the board that DISD was about $52 million over budget on payroll for teachers. But Anderson specifically told DISD trustees that everything would be just fine. The district now expected to collect more revenue from the state than it had anticipated, while also realizing millions of dollars in savings from its operating budget. That would offset the deficit.

Well, as 375 teachers now know, Anderson and his staff's projections were dead wrong. The savings never materialized, and the district wound up overspending its 2007-2008 budget by more than $50 million. Even worse, the district was poised to blow its current budget by $84 million and had to fire teachers and administrators to stay solvent.

Many of Hinojosa's detractors say that the superintendent should've had Anderson prove that the district could cover a $52 million payroll shortfall. Don't take his word for it. Make him run the numbers in front of you. It's hard to argue with that.

In last week's paper version of Unfair Park, we took a look at the local GOP through the eyes of Dallas County Republican Party chair Jonathan Neerman. One of Neerman's critics, Texas Workforce Commission chair (and my former boss) Tom Pauken, says Barack Obama was an important reason why the Democrats did so well in Dallas County. However, he stresses that there are some major changes needed in the Republican leadership in order to level the playing field for Republican candidates.

"Nothing against Jonathan and his predecessors, but if you keep doing things the way they've been done the past two election cycles, things aren't going to get any better," Pauken says. "We've got to get a warrior in there, to be frank. Get a Ken Molberg type on the Republican side as county chair. That's what we need."

Pauken says a priority should be addressing the alarming discrepancy in straight-ticket voting, which amounted to a gap of more than 100,000 Democrats in this year's election. This advantage, he claims, made it impossible for strong judicial candidates to have a fighting chance or Lowell Cannaday to have an opportunity to unseat Lupe Valdez, someone he describes as a "terrible" and "incompetent" sheriff.

"We need some grassroots leadership to go back to organizing neighborhood by neighborhood, precinct by precinct, as we did way back when we were in the minority," he says.

On Tuesday night, Farhat Chishty got the news: The U.S. Department of Justice, after months of investigating, had completed a scathing report on the Texas State Schools for the disabled and was threatening to sue the state for violating residents' constitutional rights. Chishty, whose crusade to improve conditions after her son Haseeb's brutal beating at the hands of a Denton State School staffer was chronicled in the paper version of Unfair Park in July, sat down at her computer to read the feds' 65-page report. By the time she finished, it was past midnight.

"I was shivering," she tells Unfair Park. "I was crying."

The portrayal of the isolated and dated mental institutions reads like a litany of medieval horrors, with staffers neglecting to notice residents ingesting non-food items such as latex gloves and, in two cases, Swiss Army knives; failing to prevent falls or self-inflicted injuries; denying adequate medical care and overusing restraints and straight jackets, in some cases to the point of breaking bones in the process. Chishty, who had long felt like a lone voice speaking out against the system, says she has mixed emotions about the report.

"I'm really happy, but at the same time very sad," she says.

This week’s cover story probes the pole-dancing-as-fitness trend and poses the following question: Is swinging ‘round stripper-style a healthy way to empower one’s femininity as those who do the classes attest, or is it just plain demeaning? Would you learn The Swing as a way to embrace your sexuality and surprise your man for a special occasion, or do you take offense to terms like “set your table?”

Check out the video after the jump, give our story a read and discuss. And I ’spose the mens can weigh in as well, if they’re so inclined. --Megan Feldman