Archive for the ‘Government’ Category

It’s Veterans Day, and Dallas will pause to pay tribute to the men and women who fight for our freedom.

A downtown parade will honor the military. It starts at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday at Houston and Young streets and will end at City Hall Plaza.

The Houston Street Viaduct will be closed to line up the floats and marching units. Thousands are expected to line the streets.

VFW posts, patriotic floats and marching bands will all participate in the event, concluding with the playing of “Taps”.

In sweeping changes today, the Dallas City Council passed ethics reforms to help shed themselves of the black cloud hanging over them since the corruption trial of former Councilman, Don Hill.

In four separate votes, the council has agreed to:

- Pass an ordinance requiring lobbyists to register
- Limits campaign contributions from developers
- Dilutes individual council members’ power over zoning
- Requires annual disclosure of gifts to council members

Begins: Tuesday, September 1 2009 at 7:00 PM
Ends: Tuesday, September 1 2009 at 9:00 PM
Location: Whole Foods Market
Address: 11700 Preston Rd., Dallas, Texas 75230

As you may know, Texas-based Whole Foods Market is being subjected to a nationwide BOYCOTT by SEIU and other left-wing groups after its CEO John Mackey had the courage to speak up against the Administration’s health care ‘reform’ plan.

They’re trying to kill Whole Foods’ sales and oust John Mackey as CEO.

There’s a group who is not prepared to leave fellow Texans to stand alone in their battle with SEIU, and you are being invited to join.

A COUNTER-EFFORT to let SEIU and other’s from the opposition know that Dallasites STAND IN SOLIDARITY with John Mackey and Whole Foods Market.

The NATIONWIDE kick-off for the BUYcott will begin on September 1. The St. Louis Tea Party will kick off the show at 6:00 pm. We’ll be following their lead here in Dallas at 7:00 pm.

This call is going out across the nation and NATIONAL COVERAGE is expected for this event.

You are welcome to JOIN in standing up AGAINST the SEIU and FOR LIBERTY!

If you will be attending this event please RSVP by visting this link ATTENDING: http://dallasteaparty.mojo4m.com/events/event_rsvp.php?a=1&e=303&u=12659

The Dallas City Council voted unanimously this morning to hand the Dallas Zoo’s management, employees and animals over to the Dallas Zoological Society.

The privatization of the zoo will take effect Oct. 1 and is expected to save the city some $1.5 million this year and tens of millions in coming years.

According to backers of the plan, the privatization will also open the door for increased donations to the southern Dallas attraction.

Council members Dave Neumann and Angela Hunt voiced some concern about the speed with which the city pushed the plan forward.

They also sought information about the city’s continued oversight of the zoo and the public’s access to zoo records, particularly as they relate to animal welfare.

Overall, though, the council agreed that the plan will be a boon for both the zoo and the city.

“This zoo I think can and will be regarded as one of the best in the nation,” Mayor Tom Leppert said.

Texans soon will have a new way to identify their vehicles, with the first digitally produced license plates they chose themselves.

The Texas Department of Transportation began shipping the new, general-issue plates to all 254 county tax offices this week. They should be in stock no later than June 12.

Texans chose the Lone Star Texas plate last year from among five designs. The plate design received 455,878 of the more than 1.1 million votes cast, according to TxDOT.

“At TxDOT we affectionately call it ‘The People’s Plate,’” Ed Serna, TxDOT assistant executive director for operations, said at a news conference today.

The Texas Transportation Commission, which by law must approve the state’s general-issue plate, unanimously agreed with online voters and approved the plate on Feb. 28, 2008.

The agency decided it needed to move to a seven-character plate after realizing it was going to run out of the six-character plate patterns.

The Lone Star Texas design features clouds in a blue Texas sky and brushes of red and blue with the familiar Lone Star in white.

The digital process creates a more environmentally friendly plate, eliminating the use of 484 gallons of paint thinners and 396 gallons of ink annually, and the energy to power huge ovens that dried the plate ink. The factory at the state prison in Huntsville, where the license plates are manufactured, was outfitted with new equipment for digital production, according to TxDOT.

Owners of new vehicles or Texans whose license plates are 7 years old will be eligible for the new plates. County tax offices must exhaust their current plate inventory before issuing the Lone Star Texas plates.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to speak in Dallas today at The Women’s Museum.

The Democrat will share the stage with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison as part of the Women’s Museum Stories From the Top series.

The program, which will be moderated by WFAA-TV’s Gloria Campos, starts around 3 p.m.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area was one of four major metropolitan areas that grew by more than 100,000 people between the years of 2007 and 2008, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau Report.

The report says in the span of a year, the D/FW metro area added 147,000 people, while Houston added 130,000 people. Phoenix and Atlanta followed, adding 116,000 and 115,000 people, respectively.

Dallas-Fort Worth also was home to the ninth-ranked fastest growing county: Rockwall.

When evaluating the fastest growing counties, 94 of the top 100 were located in either the south (71 counties) or the West (23 counties), with the remaining six counties located in the Midwest.

Fort Worth is credited for growing by 41,000, which accounted for a significant portion of the Metroplex’s population gain.