STREET TALK

Remember that old joke about knowing you’re in for a bad day before it even starts? You know, when you walk into your office in the morning and see Mike Wallace sitting in the reception area. Such was the case for the folks at the U.S. Attorney’s office who were paid a recent visit by the king of jugular journalism and a “60 Minutes” camera crew digging for the inside story on the I-30 condo probe.

Sources say Wallace was on the warpath, accusing the Dallas-based federal prosecutors of wasting time in getting to the bottom (read: getting to the men at the top) of the goings-on at the condo wasteland near Lake Ray Hubbard. “He was trying to jam a needle in our butts because the investigation was taking so long,” says one enraged G-man. “I think he was trying to suggest we were incompetent, dragging our feet, letting the real culprits go free.”

What a difference a day makes. Prosecutors say it was just a coincidence, but the day after the Wallace visit, nine people were indicted in connection with the I-30 probe, including a man believed to be a high-level participant, Clifford Ray Sinclair. We can’t wait until Mike’s next visit.



You may not have noticed, but another name is missing from the Dallas Times Herald’s masthead, that of editor-in-chief Will Jarrett. Insiders say Jarrett has long been out of favor with the Los Angeles honchos at Times Mirror Corp., the corporate parent of the Herald. The Times Mirror brass didn’t like the way Jarrett was running the news operation, but didn’t want further shakeups at the paper until they could fill a publisher vacancy.

The other shoe fell when the Herald hired Arthur E. Wible, former New York Daily News president, as publisher. Wible wants to build his own editorial team, so exit Jarrett. He’s rumored to be laying plans with another Times Herald casualty, former executive editor Kenneth Johnson, to form a media consulting company.



The Dallas Chapter of the Friends of the Kennedy Center and Rosewood Hotels Inc. have established a permanent endowment to raise monies to showcase Dallas and Texas performing arts talent at the national cultural center in Washington, D.C.

Rosewood Hotel officials plan to kick off the endowment with the grand opening of the Crescent in a $150-a-head gala fundraiser to be held April 4. Last October the Crescent helped finance the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s trip to the Kennedy Center for its first performance in the nation’s capital.