Casey Thomas will officially throw his hat into the ring to unseat Dave Neumann on Friday at 11:00 a.m. Thomas will make his announcement at Tejano Restaurant at 110 W. Davis St. in Dallas. Casey wants to represent District 3 which stretches from West Dallas, through Kessler Park and as far south as Mountain Creek. Should be a fun event.

As promised, here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2009. 1.  Drink less than 25 sodas. 2.  Eat 125 bowls of Khashi cereal. 3.  Read 12 Books (2 Fiction) 4.  Finish rough draft of my book by March 1. 5.  Read the entire Old Testament 6.  Bike 500 miles. 7.  Transcribe one scripture each day. 8.  Attend NABJ Conference in Tampa. 9.  Cook Turkey and Dressing for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I'll update everyone on my progress throughout the year.

BY JASON JOHNSON Don't dive head first into that pool when it comes to your resolutions. Take it slow. Ease your way into the pool. Start at the shallow end. Spend some time in waist-deep water. More specifically here is what I would recommend for you starting January 5th. Make S.M.A.R.T goals. Smart is an acronym for Specific,Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Tangible. S-specific. Try to be very specific with your goals and write it down. Study after study has documented the correlation between writing down goals and achieving the goals. It works. Write the goal on paper and keep it somewhere visible as a constant reminder. For example, don't say "I want to lose weight." Instead, make your goal "I want to lose 30 lbs by March 1st." M-measureable. This goes hand in hand with specific. Try to make your goals measurable. By measurable, I am talking about things like pounds, inches, percentage of bodyfat, distance, etc. For example, a measurable goal would be "I want to weigh 140 lbs by March 1st " "I want to be 12% bodyfat by June 1st."Or, "I want to run a 5K by June 1st" A-attainable. You need to make a goal ...

Today we're running down the Top 8 stories posted at Dallas South in 2008.  Feel free to share some of your 2008 memories -Dallas South or otherwise- as well. 8. The story of Clarence Otis Jr. - Darden CEO leads Red Lobster and Olive Garden Jan 10th I received an email regarding Mr. Otis and thought it would be a great story to share with the Dallas South Family. There were a number of folks who were glad to know C.O. was out there doing it big as the CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., the largest casual dining operator in the nation. Darden is the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster. The story was later picked up in the North Dallas Gazette. (16 comments) 7. Soledad O’Brien speaks with Dallas South about upcoming CNN special on King Assassination April 3rd I received an email from CNN asking if I would promote Soledad O'Brian's upcoming special about the Martin Luther King Assassination. I agreed and then sent a message back requesting an interview with Soledad via email. CNN responded and apologized for not being able to meet my request, but asked me if I were interested ...

I received a text message out of Louisiana today late this afternoon: Mychal Bell arrested for shoplifting and assault for hitting a security guard with his elbow trying to get away. A quick check of the net proved my source was right on it.  According to the News-Star out of Monroe, Louisiana, Bell is free on bond after being arrested on Christmas Eve.  He's charged with shoplifting, resisting arrest and simple battery, related to an incident at Dillard’s in Pecanland Mall in Monroe.  This comes less than less than a month after he completed a sentence for his role in a fight with classmate, Justin Barker, at Jena High School in 2006. Here's more from the Star-News article: Police said Bell and an unidentified male were spotted Wednesday by store security after they placed $370 worth of merchandise in a Dillard’s shopping bag. After the two separated, Bell left the store, was followed by a security officer, and began running through the parking lot. Bell was booked into Richwood Correctional Center and released on $1,300 bond. He will be arraigned at a later date. Each of the charges carries a possible penalty of up to six months in jail. Louis Scott who has represented Bell in ...

BY JASON JOHNSON 2009 is right around the corner. One of the most common New Years Resolutions for many people is---> "This year, I'm going to lose weight!" What does the average person do next? You are so motivated and pumped up to lose weight, you dive head first into the pool! You start a strict exercise program, and completely change your diet. Starting January 5th (the busiest day of the year at gyms nationwide, statistically, by the way) you tell yourself, "starting today-I'm going to the gym 6 times a week." You pack your own lunch every day with healthier food options. You immediately cut out all sodas, alcohol, fried foods and sugar from your diet. The vending machine (aka junk machine) at work that you so frequently visited no longer exists to you. You walk right past it. The intern brought donuts for everyone in the office on Monday, there is cake for Jane's birthday on Tuesday, Happy Hour after work for Bill's last day on Wednesday, on Thursday a co-worker brings in homemade fudge and insists "you have to try this", and on Friday there is another Happy Hour after work for your boss' birthday. But ...

According to TheHill.com, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is calling for a United Nations investigation into Israel’s attacks on Gaza for what he sees as a disproportionate response to Hamas rocket attacks.  Here are highlights from the article posted by By Ian Swanson. The criticism stands in stark contrast to the statements of other Democrats, who have offered near-unanimous support for Israel amid the latest violence in the Middle East. Kucinich likened the Israeli attacks on Gaza to its war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006. In both cases, he said, civilian populations were attacked and “countless innocents” were killed or injured.  “All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law,” Kucinich said in a statement. “Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable.”  Kucinich said in his statement that he had sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requesting an independent inquiry. He said the attacks on civilians represented collective punishment, which he said was a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

It's been a tough few days for old Shawn.  With Dallas South down since Friday, I really didn't know what to do with myself.  There's good news and bad news as a result of this. The good news is that the problems is that we've got so much traffic coming into Dallas South these days. The bad news is that I have to find somewhere else to host the site.  We'll be good for a little while though. So give me a little time to get my blogger legs back under me and we'll be ready to finish the year out strong.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Fully half (54%) of American women worry they or someone they know will be a victim of domestic violence. Younger women ages 18-29 are most worried, with more than two-thirds (68%) saying they are worried about this threat. Of these younger women, 36 percent say they are "very worried" and 32 percent say they are "somewhat worried." In contrast, half (50%) of older women ages 30-70 say they are worried about domestic violence, with 23 percent of them saying they are "very worried" and 27 percent "somewhat worried." These results are reported in a recent YWCA USA survey report, What Women Want: a National Survey of Priorities and Concerns, based on a telephone survey of 1,000 women ages 18-70 conducted on Oct. 28 - Nov. 2 by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Race is another factor that influences women's degree of concern about domestic violence. Six in 10 (60%) Black women say they worry about being a victim or knowing someone who is a victim of domestic violence, compared with 52 percent of White women. Further, 34 percent of Black women say they are "very worried" about domestic violence, compared with 23 percent of White women. "These are truly ...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Asian Americans are less attached to their racial identity than black Americans. This finding confirms that minority politics in the United States today is more complex than generally realized and that understanding the increasingly multicultural nature of the U.S. requires perspectives that incorporate, but go beyond, the black historical experience. The study which led this finding was conducted by political scientists Jane Junn (Rutgers University) and Natalie Masuoka (Tufts University). It is entitled "Asian American Identity: Shared Racial Status and Political Context," and appears in the December issue of Perspectives on Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The article is available online at http://www.apsanet.org/media/pdfs/POPDec08Junn.pdf. Asian Americans exhibit relatively high levels of economic and residential integration with mainstream white America, leading to predictions that they are assimilating more rapidly than black Americans and other minority or immigrant groups. They are also among the fastest growing minorities in the United States, having grown from less than 1 million people in 1960 to 14 million today. In political terms this growth has made Asian Americans a decisive swing vote in states such as California, New York, and Washington. Yet, despite their differences with black Americans, Asian ...