My Dallas Super Bowl Coverage for Yahoo

I've been busy all week writing about the Super Bowl, and Dallas in particular, for Yahoo. According to reports I get, they've received tens of thousands of hits in the past couple of days. Following are links to my articles:
Winter chilling Super Bowl activities in Dallas
Winter weather puts damper on Super Bowl week
Hangouts in the Dallas area for Packer fans
Hangouts in the Dallas area for Steelers fans
Super Bowl pre-game events in the Dallas area
Where to go after Super Bowl XLV

Politicians with no shame

My latest article concerns a Dallas politician who is being accused by a voter of improper help in filling out a mail-in ballot. The incident shines a light into the whole issue of "vote harvesting," in which susceptible voters, usually the elderly, are targeted for their votes. Voters are then "encouraged" or "helped" into voting for a certain candidate, and in some cases, ballots are outright stolen, filled out, and submitted by someone else. It has been a problem in southern Dallas for years, and every election, new accusations surface.

To read what one voter accused Dallas county commissioner candidate Elba Garcia of doing, click right here to read my article.

My Dallas Morning News Op-Ed Piece

My latest column is an op-ed piece about the changes downtown that make the political process at city hall more transparent. It runs in Saturday's printed editions, but you can read it now by CLICKING HERE. Now, more than ever, it is important that we keep our elected officials to a higher standard, but it takes all of us becoming more engaged in the system. Pick an issue: graffiti, rezoning and development, ONCOR mowing down all of our trees, or anything else, and get involved. There are meetings and forums on budget and city issues all the time. If we don't stay involved, we can't complain about the corruption downtown or the poor state of our neighborhoods.

Dallas' Clinic Closings

I've been watching with a lot of interest the developments of the city of Dallas closing three clinics that provide services to the poor and needy. The closings would save the city nearly $3 million, and city officials were claiming the services could be absorbed by the county. Many, including myself, were concerned the move would leave a lot of folks without an outlet for practical health services, including immunizations.

Some have said Parkland would be a perfectly fine alternative, but sitting in the emergency room for six to eight hours is hardly practical. Parkland's outpatient program, which operates clinics in various locations, is already so overburdened that new patients have to wait three months after they qualify to get a doctor's appointment. There needs to be a place for immediate attention outside of the total beating of waiting at Parkland.

I doubted the county could take on the burden immediately, and after seeing news reports in the Morning News that people were being turned away at city clinics because nurses were already quitting ahead of the closure, I became more concerned. Thankfully, it looks like the city is taking the welfare of the working poor seriously.

I emailed several councilmembers about the situation, and only District 1 councilwoman Delia Jasso followed through with me. She forwarded to me a memo from assistant city manager Forest Turner to city administration that they have been working with the county to transfer their state grants to them so there would be no lapse in service. The city has informed the state of the plan and the city will be briefed on the progress in early September.

I'm glad to see the city is actually taking the needs of its citizens into account here. It would have been so easy to pass the buck and make it someone else's problem, so let's hope this works without a gap in service. I was critical of Ms. Jasso during the election, but she and her staff have been great in addressing the issue and keeping me informed. Kudos to them for their work in following up and their professionalism.