This essay against a proposed Dallas Convention Center hotel by longtime Dallas journalist Carolyn Barta. Calling the political establishment-backed project "madness," Ms. Barta writes, "This rush by the city to dump vast amounts of money into a convention center hotel would be questionable in the best of times. In the worst of times, it seems downright foolhardy."
• And now a moment of personal privilege: While on vacation last week, I not only celebrated my favorite holiday of the year but my 5th anniversary as a Dallas City Hall reporter. My first story? Coverage of an ultimately doomed effort by preachers in Dallas' southern sector to recall then-Mayor Laura Miller. Ted Benavides served as city manager and Terrell Bolton as police chief. And of the 15 Dallas City Council members in office today, only three -- Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia, District 6 council member Steve Salazar and District 13 council member Mitchell Rasansky -- were around then. Certainly, a lot has changed. But without question, covering Dallas City Hall, and the myriad issues inside of it and out, is as rewarding a job as ever.
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I've watched hockey a loong time. I was one of those people who'd get excigted hearing the 'Hockey Night in Canada' theme song start up, in anticipation of a good game. I grew up in a town with a 'dynasty' team, who had a good run of Stanley Cup winning years. But as I grew into my feminism, I also became increasingly aware of just how fucked up the professional world of sports is - including hockey. Media would report on the 'dark' side of junior hockey (the road to the NHL, for many North American players), particularly the sensational, but undeniably sexually-themed hazing rituals, the sexual abuse of players by trusted members of coaching staff, and - recently - a court case involving allegations of forced 'group sex' between players and their girlfriends at the hands of a coach. In professional hockey, we know that the funding and optics of women's versus men's leagues are seriously skewed, with the greatest salaries, the rampant advertising, and professional respect reserved for the NHL. As in many other sports, a few 'exceptional' women have broken through the wall of testosterone to garner some acclaim, like Hayley Wickenheiser. As a younger woman, I was pretty excited to see Manon Rheaume was signed as a free agent to the Tampa Bay Lightening, and got the go-ahead to play goal them. Then I realized how it was: she would start in goal for an exhibition game, which had no competitive value, and was pulled early for no apparent reason. The coach later acknowledged it was pretty much a publicity stunt for the expansion team, and reports focused on that angle, as much as for her good looks.
Last night, though, something interesting happened that absolutely stunned me. Dallas Star player, the widely disliked bad boy Sean Avery, was suspended by the league for uttering disparaging remarks about former girlfriends, Rachel Hunter and Elisha Cuthbert (who are now dating other NHL hockey players). Long story short, he ensured all media cameras were on, then called the women his sloppy seconds. Which is a jaw-droppingly bonehead manouvre to begin with. But what really stunned me was the league's willingness to indefinitely suspend Avery for these comments, and THEN for the coach of his team to publicly support the censure, stating that, if the NHL hadn't of done it, he would have.
Clearly, there are other incidents that have led up to this moment - Avery has been known as a pot-stirrer in many ways, engaging in a lot of 'unsportsmanlike' behaviour on ice, on the bench and, obviously, away from the rink. As I said to my partner last night, this was just the last straw in a series of ill-will engendering actions. Now, he may have provided team management with a reason to get rid of a controversial, yet increasingly unpopular player. But, what the hell, NHL? You surprised me.

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I understand that Boston has a decent team this year, and that not every game can be won, but after three straight bad losses, something is just fundementally wrong with this team. After losing to the Bruins 7-4 the team has now allowed 18 goals against in their past three games for an average of six goals against per game. There is no way to win like that. In fact Buffalo has lost five of their last six games, allowing an average of 4.7 goals against per game.

When you score four goals in the first period you should not lose, especially if you have a two goal lead. Even as Boston caught up, Buffalo should have been able to continue to take advantage of the Bruin's mistakes, but instead they just gave up. As soon as Boston was up 5-4 most of the Sabres stopped skating hard despite there still being half of a game left to play.

Mair and Peters both hurt the team by taking some bad penalties. Over the last weekend they were two of our best guys, but now they are even hurting us. The refs really were trying to hurt the team as they called a number of rediculous trips that never should have been penalties. Also there was the diving call on Gaustad. Paul Gaustad does not take dives. He simply does not. If it was Roy I'd give it the benefit of the doubt, but to call that a dive on Gaustad is just insane.

Miller looked really bad this game, and finished the first period with a .571 save percentage. Lalime on the other hand looked good, alowing nothing past him in over 18 minutes of play. He should have gotten in the game much sooner, as some of the goals that Miller had allowed against in this game were really bad, and completly his fault.

The Hecht, Pominville Vanek line actually played well in this game and finished with a combined for three goals, four assists, and a plus two rating. Rivet also had a good game plus two with an assist for a team that was all around bad. One line can not carry a team though, and the others need to play hard as well.

Chara had a good game for Boston, putting in two powerplay goals from the blueline. The Sabres should know better than to let his blasts get through. Marc Savard also had a good game getting four assists, including both of Chara's goals and getting himself a goal as well.

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seven-run performance last night against the Marlins (he came up short of his career high 11th win), the moment is upon us: We are one loss from 100.  Man, weve come a long way. Shit, it seems like only yesterday that we were 10 losses from this thing actually happening. Maybe thats cause it was just 14 days ago.
The Nats have four games left to reach the milestone, but wed really like to see them get it out of the way tonight, at home, in front of the dozens of loyal fans who have been there for the highs and lows. But mostly the lows. Lots and lots of lows. Those fans deserves to witness this ultimate mark of ineptitude.
Whenever it happens, we have, um, big, big plans. Yep, lots of stuff planned here for the 100th loss. Unless it happens on Sunday, in which case we probably wont notice.

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The American Experience The Battle Over Citizen Kane Product Image
Arguably the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane almost never saw the light of day. In this documentary from directors Michael Epstein and Thomas Lennon, the story behind the legendary film is told, highlighting the attempts by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to kill the thinly-veiled biographical film by first-time filmmaker, 25-year-old Orson Welles. The meteoric rises of both figures are chronicled, drawing parallels between the lives of not only Hearst and the fictional Charles Foster Kane, but Welles, as well. Along with archival footage and clips from Citizen Kane, the documentary includes interviews with journalists, historians, and filmmakers, such as long-time Welles assistant William Alland, newspaper writer Jimmy Breslin, and director Peter Bogdanovich. Mr. Epstein and Mr. Lennons film tells one of the stories behind Welles clash with publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst over Citizen Kane. Angered that Charles Foster Kane was a thinly veiled version of himself, Hearst used his considerable money and influence in a variety of ways to try to prevent the film from ever being seen. Of course, his plan ultimately failed, as Citizen Kane is routinely hailed as the greatest film ever. However, the feud that erupted between the two men is as fascinating as anything that Welles ever put on the big screen. This film was also the basis for the HBO film RKO 281.
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Raburn Out as Ceo
In the category of what have you done for us lately?, Eclipse Aviation has fired its CEO and Founder Vern Raburn. 
Nice.
Raburn has been a controversial figure in aviation, mostly for his in-your-face approach to the business.  But he was the visionary behind the very light jet market.  As many founders do, however, his management of the business was said to be lacking. He is blamed for the Eclipse not living up to many promises, including a lengthy delay in certification for known icing and the lack of some  features.  Eclipse also faced an emergency AD last month when a stuck throttle forced an emergency landing in one Eclipse 500.
Raburn will stay on as the non-executive Vice-Chairman, which is to say he will keep his parking space but not much else.
He is replaced by Roel Pieper.
Eclipse also announced it has secured the next round of financing to take it to being cash flow positive.  Eclipse has burned through $1 billion in cash and Raburn says his ouster was a condition of the new round of funding.  Without it, its believed Eclipse may have collapsed.
Meantime, Raburn will stay busy.  He sits on the board of ICON Aircraft, makers of the amphib LSA.

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