Breaking News! Edwards endorses Obama

John Edwards just endorsed Barack Obama for President! This pic was just taken in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (courtesy CNN).

Edwards brings a working class group of supporters that can do nothing but help Obama's campaign. Those 19 pledged delegates don't hurt either.

Plus, he just muted the Hillary Clinton/West Virginia news cycle. Nice work.

Vote Done

The final call on today's vote surrounding the hotel was 11-2.

Yes: Leppert, Caraway, Medrano, Neumann,Salazar, Davis, Atkins, Kadane, Allen, Koop, Natinsky
No: Hill, Hunt

Not voting due to conflict: Garcia, Rasansky

Thanks to those that supported.

Dave's In!

Councilman Dave Neumann has voiced his support to purchase the land. That makes 8-1! Hopefully the upward tick continues and a strong majority votes for this proposal.

Back in Session

The City Council is now back in session after a lengthy break for the Police Memorial tribute. The discussion continues with the hotel motion still on the table.

Sheffie Supports!

Councilman Sheffie Kadane is in support of the motel. This makes the informal count 7-1. You have to figure this is a done deal, with most of the people that have not spoken today known to be in support.

It's 4th and 99 on the one yard line with one second left for the opposition.

Live Blog of Convention Center Land Purchase Vote

This vote, which involves the city of Dallas essentially committing to build the hotel, is one that will change our city.

I will be live blogging the folks that are in support/against of this hotel:

Vote Tally: 6-1

So far:
Mayor Tom Leppert: In support
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway: In support
CM Natinsky: Made the motion, In support
CM Allen: Seconded the motion, therefore in support
CW Davis: In support
CM Atkins: In support

Mayor Tom Leppert: Why our city needs to finance and own a convention center hotel

This is a reprint of the DMN op-ed written by Mayor Tom Leppert on the Convention Center Hotel. Most things that have been written on blogs are by folks that are against the hotel, so I wanted to post something that supported it:

The full op-ed is after the jump.




This week the Dallas City Council considers moving forward to buy the land for a convention center hotel and for the city to finance and own the hotel itself. With such an important decision ahead, I want to answer some key questions so taxpayers know their City Council is moving forward in a fiscally responsible way. Why is this so important?

The Dallas Convention Center is a $1 billion asset for the city, an economic engine we must protect. But without an attached hotel, its financial future and Dallas taxpayers are at risk. Each year, more major conventions ­ those bringing 20,000 to 50,000 people ­ won't even consider Dallas without a convention center hotel. That means less revenue to service the center's existing debt. If that decline continues, taxpayers will have to fill the gap. Like any business, we must reinvest to remain relevant to our customers and compete.

Is convention business that significant?

Yes! In 2005, the hospitality industry had a $2.6 billion economic impact in Dallas and supported 50,000 jobs, and those visitors reduced our property tax burden. Convention-goers spend on average $290 a day, including sales, hotel, ticket and car rental taxes. When they go home, we don't have to educate their kids or pick up their weekly trash. Without tourists, Dallas homeowners would pay on average another $844 a year in taxes to make up that revenue gap.

Why is the land at Young and Lamar streets the right choice?

More bang for our buck. The eight-acre site next to the center will house the 1,200-room hotel and the meeting and ballroom space our customers say we lack. It also leaves room for a retail-entertainment venue and creates an economic engine, an anchor in that part of downtown to draw conventioneers into the West End, downtown core and Victory Park, reinforcing the exciting things happening there now.

Will the city run the hotel?

No, the city will hire a professional hotel chain to operate the hotel. The city will simply own the structure. This isn't unusual. The city owns the American Airlines Center but contracts with someone else to operate it, and that facility is considered a resounding success.

Why would the city finance and own the hotel?

Because the city can issue tax-exempt bonds, borrowing costs are dramatically reduced. And expert analysis shows a solid, positive cash flow from day one. Other cities have done this too. Houston, Denver, Phoenix, Chicago and more have financed and own their convention center hotels. With private ownership, the city would have to pay cash out of pocket, fund a significant financial gap and never get that money back. Owning the hotel is clearly the best deal.

What is the risk?

While Dallas taxpayers are ultimately responsible for the debt, the financing will be structured with several stopgaps in place, including $50 million in reserves. So, if tourism takes another 9/11 type hit, those reserves all would be tapped before taxpayers.

Shouldn't the private sector build this?

Ideally, we'd all prefer that. But while we've waited for those perfect economic conditions, other cities have built their own hotels and lured away conventions. Houston was never a major competitor of ours. It is now. And its hotel has proven so successful, Houston is selling it and using the profits to build a second hotel.

Won't this hurt other hotels?

It will offer some competition, but other hotels will also benefit as major conventions return to Dallas. When a convention draws 30,000 people, only so many of them can stay in a 1,200-room convention center hotel. In fact, cities like Denver have seen their hotels perform better once a convention center hotel has come in.

Wednesday's vote will be a crucial step for Dallas, and could send a very clear signal that Dallas is confident and able to compete. With all the exciting things going on in our city, we clearly believe that, with a level playing field, Dallas will regain its convention standing as a world-class destination.

DISD Bond Passes

The DISD Bond Vote has passed. I may have more to say later, and it's not about the result. I just thought that more people cared one way or the other to exercise their right to vote; I guess I was wrong.

The Proposed Convention Center Hotel

Everybody's talking about the planned convention center hotel that is proposed for our city. I will publish a lengthy piece on the concept sometime in the near future; I just haven't had the time to type it up. It will be a lot different than what you've been reading recently in our city. Stay tuned.

GREEN development in Lower Greenvile

According to Avi Adelman of Barking Dogs, the old Arcadia site will be redeveloped as 20,000 SF of green (!) multi-use retail. From checking out the site plan, it looks like they want two restaurants, a coffee shop, and one other retail space to go in at this site.

They want $40 per square foot. I remember when very few neighborhood properties south of Mockingbird could fetch that kind of asking price.

Times are changing! I'm glad to see it happen.

Obama is Moving Closer

Depending on which news source that you check, Barack Obama is between 5-7 superdelegates short of being tied with Clinton, The CNN article indicates the lead is seven. This morning, MSNBC cites two new endorsements including one that switched from Clinton to Obama.

ABC, which admits that this is an imperfect science, is saying that Obama has the lead in superdelegates.

The margin according to Barack Obama.com is:
33 PLEDGED DELEGATES needed for a majority (of pledged delegates).
165 TOTAL DELEGATES needed for the nomination.

Time Magazine, as witnessed by this week's cover, is calling the election.

Superdelegates are the last bastion of hope for Clinton; he is already comfortably ahead in pledged delegates and will likely have a majority after the Oregon election.

Shawn Williams of Dallas South has the links to the Time Magazine articles. I plan to get my copy today.

We Have Your Back

Yesterday, I saw these two posts from my friends Janet Morrison (link) and Sylvia Baylor (link). I wasn't going to write anything regarding the DART bus fiasco because we don't do this for
press, but after reading those posts I felt the need to write.

The bus hadn't run through Turner Courts at night since last year. It's about time!!!

To my Turner Courts family:

Thank you for your support of Dwaine and me. It means the world to us.

I love y'all like family. Every setback and every step forward in your neighborhood deeply affects me. I admire your determination, resilience, and faith.

I would never ask you to do anything that I wouldn't do myself. The progress we have made in your neighborhood is as much a result of your hard work and dedication as it is ours.

Change in your neighborhood has been slow by our standards, but we will continue to push. We are trying to overcome years of neglect, and there are people that are still in positions that literally don't care what happens to you.

I told y'all before last year's elections that Dwaine was the truth. It's about more than the cowboys stadium and other big-dollar projects with him. That's why he was on that bus Monday night. As you have witnessed first-hand, you have the elected advocate that you have never had for your neighborhood.

No matter what people claim happened or didn't happen during the course of city business, no many how many biased columns Jim Schutze or other haters write from week to week, it doesn't register with us. The people in our District know what we do. And that's what matters.

This Race is Over

Barack Obama crushed Clinton in North Carolina, and came very close to winning Indiana last night. Hillary is still wearing rose-colored glasses as witnessed by her speech last night, but numbers don't lie.

The results:

North Carolina (99% reporting):
Obama 890,695 56% 58 pledged delegates

Clinton 657,920 42% 42 pledged delegates

Indiana (99% reporting):
Clinton 638,274 51% 37 pledged delegates

Obama 615,862 49% 33 pledged delegates

On the DMN Trailblazers blog, I predicted the following (my comments are at the 4:15PM mark).

North Carolina: Obama 56%- Clinton 44%
Indiana: Clinton 52%-Obama 48%

The democratic primary has now become a battle for superdelegates. According to CNN, Obama has 1,584 pledged delegates. A majority of all pledged delegates is 1,627 (according to Politico.com). He's 43 pledged delegates from a majority with about 217 pledged delegates up for grabs. Who wants to bet that Obama gets 19-20% of the remaining delegates?

Dylan Lowe of Huffington Post says, "Obama cut into Clinton's base dramatically. Hillary only won voters making less than $50,000 by a four point margin in Indiana." That's major.

New overnight news (h/t to Huffington Post for the links):

• Obama shifts to a general-election mode (link).
• Obama to hit states that are related to the general election in addition to upcoming primaries (link).
• Associated Press reports that Clinton loaned her campaign $6.4 million in the last month (link).

Barack's speech from Raleigh, NC (text here):

Latest Round of Indiana & North Carolina Polls - Obama vs. Clinton

Here are the last polls from Indiana:

In this poll, the Clinton number is first.

RCP Average 05/02 – 05/05 49.0-44.0 Clinton +5.0

Zogby Tracking 05/04 - 05/05 644 LV 43%-45% Obama +2.0

InsiderAdvantage 05/04 - 05/04 502 LV 48%-44% Clinton +4.0

SurveyUSA 05/02 - 05/04 675 LV 54%-42% Clinton +12.0

Suffolk 05/03 - 05/04 600 LV 49%-43% Clinton +6.0

PPP (D) 05/03 - 05/04 851 LV 51%-46% Clinton +5.0

LV = Likely voters

Here are the North Carolina polls:

In this poll, the Obama number is first.

RCP Average 04/28 – 05/05 50.0%- 42.0% Obama +8.0

Insider Advantage 05/05 - 05/05 774 LV 47%-43% Obama +4.0

Zogby Tracking 05/04 - 05/05 643 LV 51%-37% Obama +14.0

SurveyUSA 05/02 - 05/04 810 LV 50%-45% Obama +5.0

PPP (D) 05/03 - 05/04 870 LV 53%-43% Obama +10.0

Rasmussen 05/01 - 05/01 831 LV 49%-40% Obama +9.0

Research 2000 04/29 - 04/30 500 LV 51%-44% Obama +7.0

Mason-Dixon 04/28 - 04/29 400 LV 49%-42% Obama +7.0

It will be interesting to see how this shapes up after the results come in for these two hotly contested primaries, and how close the polls are to the actual outcome.

"My Vote Doesn't Count?"

The results from Guam:

Barack Obama: 2,264 votes (50.1 percent).
Hillary Clinton: 2,257 votes (49.9 percent).

An election was won by seven votes. Seven.

This is bigger than Guam; it's about cynics and lazy people that claim that their vote doesn't count. It takes less than five minutes to vote.

Highlights of the North Carolina Jefferson-Jackson Speech on Friday, May 2nd:

All About DCAD

One the big news stories this morning is that DCAD has upped the value of the property being considered for the proposed convention center hotel.

One fact has rarely been mentioned in this whole brouhaha...everybody knows that DCAD isn't a reliable source for commercial real estate valuation. The DMN does provide some behind the scenes info on the DCAD valuation process.

Take a look and see how many perfectly good Uptown apartment buildings have extremely low appraisal numbers. Nobody trades commercial real estate based on DCAD other than to factor the amount of property taxes into holding costs.

I remember the first time I got laughed at by a real estate pro when trying to use DCAD to justify a property value. Their numbers simply aren't reliable for commercial properties.

Latest Indiana & North Carolina Polls - Obama vs. Clinton

Again, polls don’t mean everything, but here are the most recent ones from Indiana:

In this poll, the Clinton number is first.

RCP Average 04/23 – 05/01 47.1-43.0 Clinton +4.1

Zogby 04/30 - 05/01 680 LV 42 42 Tie

Rasmussen 04/29 - 04/29 400 LV 46 41 Clinton +5.0

TeleResearch 04/25 - 04/29 943 LV 48 38 Clinton +10.0

PPP (D) 04/27 - 04/28 1347 LV 50 42 Clinton +8.0

SurveyUSA 04/25 - 04/27 628 LV 52 43 Clinton +9.0

Howey-Gauge 04/23 - 04/24 600 LV 45 47 Obama +2.0

Research 2000 04/23 - 04/24 400 LV 47 48 Obama +1.0

LV = Likely voters

Survey USA’s last poll had Clinton up by 16%, now she’s up by 9% in that poll. It appears that Clinton had the momentum earlier in the week but polls are now tilting towards Obama.

Here are the North Carolina polls:

In this poll, the Obama number is first.

RCP Average 04/10 - 04/21 49.0%- 40.6% Obama +8.4

Zogby 04/30 - 05/01 668 LV 50 34 Obama +16.0

Research 2000 04/29 - 04/30 500 LV 51 44 Obama +7.0

Mason-Dixon 04/28 - 04/29 400 LV 49 42 Obama +7.0

Insider Advantage 04/29 571 LV 42 44 Clinton +2.0

SurveyUSA 04/26 - 04/28 727 LV 49 44 Obama +5.0

Rasmussen 04/28 - 04/28 774 LV 51 37 Obama +14.0

PPP (D) 04/26 - 04/27 1121 LV 51 39 Obama +12.0

After next Tuesday, there are only 217 pledged delegates up for grabs. If Obama does well or wins both states, the rest of the superdelegates could pledge as early and Wed according to various outlets. If not, expect more of the same.

None of the polls are new enough to show the effect of Indiana superdelegate and former DNC chair Joe Andrew switching his endorsement from Clinton to Obama. As said in this article:

“This was a real stunner, and it’s gotten an enormous amount of attention,” Larry Sabato, a national political analyst at the University of Virginia, said of Andrew’s announcement.

“It’s not that the general population has a clue who Joe Andrew is, it’s just that the activists do — (and) the super activists are the superdelegates. For that reason, his decision has really sent shockwaves through the Clinton campaign.”

Obama also picked up the endorsement of US Rep. Baron Hill (he represents Indiana's conservative 9th district in southern Indiana), and Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel (Mayor of the largest city in southern Indiana). Southern Indiana is home to many conservative voters that may hold the key who wins or loses this election results.

No polls exist in Guam, although there are 4 pledged delegates up for grabs on Saturday.

New Polls Coming

I will post the new democratic primary polls on Friday morning. Check back on Tuesday as well, as I will do one last poll update before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

Bye Avery Johnson, You'll be Missed

You'll be back, coaching in the NBA this year or next. You deserved better.

Register to Vote on Facebook

That's right, if you're on Facebook you can register to vote online. Thanks to a group of students at University of Washington, the app 'Your Revolution' can now be added to your Facebook page. Check it out.

You can also invite your friends to vote. Hat tip to Jack and Jill Politics for the link.

Breaking News: NY Cops found Not Guilty

CNN just reported that the three cops involved in the Sean Bell shooting were found not guilty.

Sean Bell, 23, was killed hours before he was to be married on November 25, 2006 in a 50-shot barrage that also wounded his friends.

I pray that there will be calm in New York City this weekend.

Latest Indiana & North Carolina Polls - Obama vs. Clinton

Not to put too much weight into polls, but here are the most recent ones from Indiana:

UPDATE: New numbers are posted as of Friday May 2nd (link)

In this poll, the Clinton number is first.

RCP Average 04/10 - 04/24 45.5-44.3 Clinton +1.2

Research 2000 4/23 - 4/24 400 LV 47 %- 48% Obama +1.0
Downs Center 4/14 - 4/16 578 LV 45 - 50 Obama +5.0
LA Times/Bloomberg 04/10 - 04/14 554 LV 35- 40 Obama +5.0
SurveyUSA 04/11 - 04/13 571 LV 55- 39 Clinton +16.0

LV = Likely voters

How could one poll be Clinton +16%, when the others are so close? Who knows.

Now if you take out the one SurveyUSA poll, then the avg is Obama +3.7%

Survey USA is the only poll that went up for Clinton, and they don't publish all of the questions. The last poll they took had Clinton +9%. But still, they haven't polled in almost two weeks. Research2000 is the first poll taken post-PA, and it has Obama +1%

Now if you take out the one SurveyUSA poll, then the avg is Obama +3.7%

Survey USA is the only poll that went up for Clinton, and they don't publish all of the questions. The last poll they took had Clinton +9%. But still, they haven't polled in almost two weeks. Research2000 is the first poll taken post-PA, and it has Obama +1%

Here are the North Carolina polls:

In this poll, the Obama number is first.

RCP Average 04/10 - 04/21 51.3 %- 35.8% Obama +15.5

SurveyUSA 04/19 - 04/21 734 LV 50 -41 Obama +9.0
PPP (D) 04/19 - 04/20 962 LV 57-32 Obama +25.0
InsiderAdvantage04/14 541 LV 51-36 Obama +15.0
LA Times/Bloomberg 04/10 - 04/14 691 LV 47-34 Obama +13.0

Facts and Figures: Obama vs. Clinton

These numbers have been grabbed from various sources.

Pennsylvania Results: 99.44% Reporting

Clinton 1,258,748 54.7%
Obama 1,042,962 45.3%

Total Votes 2,301,710

Delegates: 158 tied to April 22 primary, 29 superdelegates

Delegates Gained in PA primary (est): Obama 74 Clinton 84 (Clinton +10)

Est % of remaining delegates needed to clinch:
Obama 30-32%, depending on the source
Clinton 68-70%.

Average of Polls for May 6th primaries:
North Carolina (115 delegates) - Obama +15.5%
Indiana (71 delegates) - Clinton +2.2%

(Guam has four delegates for their May 4th primary but no polls are available).

Some additional analysis from Robert Creamer of Huffington Post:

The fact is that to whatever degree Hillary might have more appeal among independent rural and blue collar voters, Obama more than makes up in additional appeal to independent suburban voters. Obama's ability to mobilize new young and African American voters in the general election is indisputably greater than Clinton's.
And of course, Obama will not go into the General Election burdened by the towering Clinton negatives that her own negative campaign strategy increases daily.

and...

Finally is a fact that is generally overlooked by pundits. At the close of the primaries, Obama will not need a stampede of Super Delegates to clinch the nomination. In fact he will only need about 40% of those that remain today.

Let's make the most conservative assumptions about the outcome of the remaining races: Guam, even; North Carolina, 58%-42% Obama; Indiana, 54%-46% Clinton; Kentucky, 60%-40% Clinton; West Virginia, 60%-40% Clinton; Oregon, 56%-44% Obama, Montana 56%-44% Obama; Puerto Rico, 60%-40% Clinton. That would leave Obama at 1,846 delegates at the close of the Primaries.

He would need only 41% of the Super Delegates remaining today to clinch the nomination with 2,025. And let's remember, he has picked up almost one Super Delegate a day for the last month. There is no reason to believe he won't keep picking up Super Delegates as the contest continues. So by the end of the primaries he will need an even lower percentage of the Super Delegates that remain.

Clinton has a tough road to go, and with the number of states left she is essentially out of opportunities to overtake Obama.

Manufactured Distractions are put on Notice

This is from the Colbert Report last week. Have a look:

2505 Turtle Creek is gone

Earlier today, 2505 Turtle Creek which was just noted as one of the city's finest examples of midcentury architecture in today's DMN is now a pile of rubble.

As one of the people that voted against the plan to turn the building into a hotel and condos with a liquor-serving restaurant, I can say that I voted against it because I thought various aspects of the plan needed work e.g. the traffic plan and having liquor near the park. We can only vote on land use and not issues of preservation (except in landmark commission appeals).

I realize that the building wasn't protected, but this still sucks. And yes, maybe preservationists didn't buy the building to save it but this still sucks.

I often vote for developers in many cases if I feel a zoning change is merited, but this ones burns me a little bit.

Maybe next time it would be nice to take the asbestos and freon out first before they demo the building. And oh yeah, post the demo permit next time. Nicely done.

Thanks for the Love

Thanks to all that subscribe to all of our posts. We are now nearing 150 subscribers that read Dallas Progress using feedreaders or e-mail.

It's so easy to sign up.

You can also click the Feedburner button, and add Dallas Progress to any of your sites like MyYahoo, Google, AOL, Newsgator and everybody else. It's a great way to stay updated! The button below also allows you to add posts to digg, del.icio.us, or your facebook page.

This can be done by clicking the icon in this post and subscribing to the Dallas Progress feed.

Also, you can get on the e-mail list by entering your E-mail in the box below and clicking the subscribe button.

Thanks for reading!

DISD Bond Election Townhall Meetings

Here are the remaining townhall meeting being held by various trustees. Hopefully all interested people can attend. The dates are as follows.

Host	Date	Time	Place

Trustee Lew Blackburn Monday, April 21, 2008 6:30pm Tommie Allen Recreation Center Trustee Ron Price Wednesday, April 23, 2008 6:30pm MLK Jr. Recreation Center, 2922 ML King Dr. Trustee Nancy Bingham & Trustee Ron Price Monday, April 28, 2008 6:30pm Pleasant Grove Library, 1125 S Buckner Blvd. Trustee Jack Lowe Monday, April 28, 2008 6:30pm Skillman Southwestrn Branch Library, 5707 Skillman Street Trustee Carla Ranger Monday, April 28, 2008 6:30 PM Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center, 5150 Mark Trail Way Trustee Leigh Ann Ellis Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7pm Central Luther Church, 1000 Easton Rd. Trustee Ron Price Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:30pm Lakewood Branch Library, 6121 Worth Street Trustee Dr. Edwin Flores Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:30pm Marcus Rec Center, 3003 Northaven Rd. Trustee Leigh Ann Ellis Tuesday, May 06, 2008 7pm Owenwood United Methodist Church, Lakeland R. (by SS Conner ES) Trustee Lee Ann Ellis & Trustee Jack Lowe Wednesday, April 23 7pm Ridgewood Recreation Center, 6818 Fisher Rd.

More on Imus

I thank all of you that sent your responses from all over the country.

It seems that the prevailing attitude is to ignore Imus and render him irrelevant.

This is exactly why I wanted to bounce this off of my nationwide people. To get a perspective. One of my favorite responses came from the AAPP, who said “forget about Don Imus he is yesterday's news, unless we make him today's news,” and Eddie Griffin who said, “another Imus boycott would be a standoff and a lot of time and energy wasted, plus the negative repercussions on the election.”

After some thought I agree with them – many of you have called him on his remarks but he doesn’t deserve our pub. Maybe he’s trying to inject himself into the conversation and get unmerited attention.

By the way, I hope you saw that Barack drew 35,000 people at his Philadelphia rally on Friday. My hometown made me proud; now it’s on to watching the PA primaries and beyond.

Don Imus is at it Again

This time, Imus uses expletives to describe Barack Obama on his radio show, words that we don't use on this website.

Imus wanted attention, and now he's got it. It's time we ended this nonsense and ignorant discourse in what should be a great time in our nation's politics.

I am calling on my political blogger nation (and we are deep, believe me) to put an end to Don Imus' career, once and for all. The nationwide political blogger groups should be called into action.

Link to the video is here (from MediaMatters).

Please link to this post and put the info out to your readers and sources. Just like Dunbar Village, the war against B.E.T. and other topics, it's time for us bloggers to take the lead and make the establishment stand up and take notice. Join us in calling for the end of Imus' hate-radio career.

Tighter Sex Business Regulations in Dallas

On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council passed new laws that will further regulate the sleazy strip clubs and other sexually oriented businesses in the city.

Among the highlights:

*An automatic one-year revocation of licenses for sexually oriented businesses found to be employing or entertaining minors.

*Prohibiting the operation of closed-door VIP rooms in which sexual performances or activity is taking place.

*Requiring any sexually oriented business owner to designate an official club operator who’s present during club operating hours and responsible for activity within the club.

*Requiring sexually oriented clubs to keep on file detailed records of all employees, including dancers. The employee records must include the person’s age, an original photo, valid driver’s license copy, fingerprints and a Texas criminal history report.

*A business can be shut down within 10 days after being cited for violations. Before it was 30 days.

Sharon Boyd of Dallas Arena also weighs in with some of the behind-the-scenes info and history of the fight against these types of businesses.

The businesses that are closed can appeal to the Permit License and Appeal Board and ultimately to District Court. However, as being privy to a similar process with the motels we've shut down, I can tell you that these seedy spots will only succeed in buying a few months until they are forced close for good.

These new rules will take effect on Monday! This change in laws wasn't published by all local news sources; maybe they were busy on other things.

It's a great day for the city when swift action can be taken against businesses that seek to harm our communities and the people within them.

Peace

Sometimes, taking a little time away is required to refresh and re-energize. My wife and I did just that.

When you travel to different countries you realize the peace that exists in other lands, how the people manage to do more with less in terms of money and natural resources, and how blessed we are to live in America.

It allows you to focus on what's really important in life. Now it's time to get back to work, with a new perspective.

A Time of Reflection

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, Dallas Progress will take a hiatus. I'll catch y'all around the middle of the month.

Martin Luther King Jr's Assassination - 40 years later