Maybe John Wiley Price IS a shakedown artist

Boy, there are times I miss living in Dallas, not just for the cultural life, but for the news world fun.

Hearing that Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price is under investigation by the FBI is indeed one of those times. Supposedly, the $100K found in his house might be related to ... some "gravy" from Kwanzaafest and/or the south Dallas County inland port deal, which hopefully this will kill deader than a doornail. (Some tax paperwork from Kwanzaafest is here.)

Of course, Jim Schutze of the Dallas Observer is the go-to person on this, noting not only the "shakedown" angle that JWP tried to pull on Richard Allen and The Allen Group over the inland port, but about how the Dallas Morning Snooze is trying to pretend it's never kissed JWP's ass.

Here's the alleged "shakedown":

In 2005, Price led an effort to stymie development of a massive rail and shipping development called the Inland Port in the black part of the city. The Inland Port promised more than 60,000 well-paid jobs with benefits in an area of the city that has had a Third World economy since Reconstruction.

The main developer, Richard Allen, had just completed five years of land purchases, planning and permission-seeking from Dallas and other communities involved and was ready to start selling and leasing land. But Price decreed that the whole thing needed to be put on hold. He said lots more planning was needed before Allen would be ready for prime time.

This was just after Allen had shot down an attempt by four of Price's allies to get Allen to give them $1.5 million and a 15 percent cut of his family-owned company in exchange for their help making sure he didn't have any political problems with southern Dallas politicians.

Having lived in Lancaster during this whole time, I know people there and nearby were desperate for this to take off, even if it wasn't really viable. For Price allegedly to want to be handed a stake in Allen's company, including possibly some subcontracting jobs for best buds of his, at any cost, was beyond tragic.

Schutze is right. Here's my take on a butt-kisser from the Snooze back in 2009 (original article gone), specifically trying to soft-pedal JWP's "shakedown" attempt and what he said about it to Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. More of my blogging on this here.

Now, this all said, I still wonder what state Sen. Royce West's angle is in this. He's a much smoother person than JWP, but ... does he still strike me as an "operator"? Just one with a bigger, as well as smoother, swing? Well ... what do you think?

Of course, with the economic slowdown having killed low-cost logistics storage, The Allen Group declared Chapter 11 18 months ago.

Meanwhile, it looks like JWP is also creative in the world of land acquisition.