This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth we have several big topics: the Roberson execution that wasn’t; the HERO amendments, pro and con, and the Texas Observer’s expose on Monty Bennett; and the fallout from the Cruz/Allred debate earlier this week. We also have more election news; news from and about the Tarrant County jail; what’s up in Keller ISD and other local districts; how a US District Judge in North Texas is having and/or causing problems because of his investments; all the stories coming out about Fair Park’s management problems; more on the Taylor Swift guitar that was smashed in Ellis County a few weeks ago; the new exhibit at the Amon Carter that has a mature content warning now; and more.
As a reminder, early voting starts on Monday. DFW voters can check out the voting guides from the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Plus the ongoing endorsements from the Star-Telegram and the DMN, which will be updated through Election day. As always, I urge readers to get out and vote.
This week’s post was brought to you by the music of the Electric Light Orchestra, whose farewell tour is coming through Dallas this week.
I really thought I was going to spend a lot of time in this post talking about the Allred vs Cruz debate, but then we had the last-minute reprieve for Robert Roberson and the Texas Observer profile of Monty Bennett and his puppet organizations and the Dallas HERO charter amendments, so it’s a big week for news.
Let’s start with Roberson. I’m writing on Friday afternoon and everybody is sighing with relief that the state didn’t execute Roberson over the shaken baby death of his daughter back in 2001. The last minute maneuvering around the case was reported nationally (Washington Post) and local reaction has been favorable as well (Dallas Morning News; Star-Telegram op-ed; Dallas Observer). The Texas Tribune has details of the Lege’s legal strategy, and I’d like to call out local reps Jeff Leach (R-Plano) and Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian), two of the leaders of the House movement to force the stay; they really did the right thing this time. I hope the stay results in a commutation or pardon for Roberson, who has suffered enough based on a conviction over an allegation that’s now known to be based on junk science.
Second, let’s talk about the HERO amendments here in Dallas. In case you’ve forgotten, the key amendment would force Dallas PD to take on about 1,000 officers (about 1/3 of the current force) immediately and to divert half of any monies above the current budget to law enforcement, hamstringing the city’s ability to plan in the future. The other two amendments are also terrible, but the interference with, nominally for, law enforcement and budgeting is the worst. Dallas HERO, the group that sponsored them, is a front for local hotel billionaire Monty Bennett.
The powers-that-be have launched their offensive against the HERO amendments complete with an op-ed from revered former police chief David Brown against them as well as a commentary piece from DMN name-brand political reporter/analyst Sharon Grigsby against them. Meanwhile, Bennett stooge Pete Marocco, who used to work for the Trump administration, just so you know who we’re dealing with, is playing defense as best he can with the usual canards about how the city council doesn’t understand what he’s trying to do, etc. None of this is great: the local powers are blowing a lot of smoke and there are improvements we could make, especially with Mayor Eric Johnson running off competent city administrators. But “we’re gonna give all the money to the cops” is exactly the wrong way to go about it.
And on that note, this morning I read this Texas Observer expose on Bennett, which draws on Bennett’s history of legal shenanigans, his desire to be the Wilks/Dunn of Dallas, his use of astroturfing and his purchase of the brand of the historic Dallas Black newspaper the Dallas Express to amplify his astroturfing toward his goals. It’s a long read but very much worth your time if you’re interested in North (and Central) Texas politics. I’ve covered bits and pieces of this in my time writing here, but this is pulling it all together and laying it out for you. Monty Bennett is a problem, y’all. He’s my problem and Dallas’ problem right now, but he’s on his way to becoming everybody in Texas’ problem, if not a national problem like some of our other Texas billionaires.
Third on my list: it’s been three days since the Allred-Cruz debate, but the debate is already old news. I’ll give you the local post-game analysis: the DMN on the key takeaways; the Star-Telegram’s Ryan Rusak for Republicans and Bud Kennedy for folks who are slightly more liberal than that; and Substacker Jay Kuo with the perpetual Dems’ hopes are up to beat Ted Cruz. Mine are not; I think the fundamentals are not here the way they were in 2018. Specifically, the presidential election favors Cruz. Maybe Trump’s increasing instability and what looks frankly to me like dementia will mean fewer of his voters come out, but I’m not counting on it. All that said, there is a relevant local item I want to point out, which is Cruz’s mention of Venezuelan gangs here in Dallas. WFAA has a story about what really happened which is not nearly as exciting as Cruz thinks it is. (Yes, there may be Venezuelan gangsters in Dallas; no, this is not part of some big gang influx.)
With all that out of the way, let’s look at other news:
The Texas Tribune and ProPublica took a look at the rise of Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, a frequent target of my ire and despite. It’s worth your time.
The DMN’s Gromer Jeffers opines on which way Tarrant County will swing next month. Somewhat related: the Fort Worth Report tells us who’s on the ballot for seats in the Legislature for Tarrant County this time around.
Dallas County is making sure their ballots are aligned properly, which I like as a Dallas voter, but they’ve had to do it three times to satisfy Republicans in the Lege. It’s a complicated process; I’m not surprised they had to do quality control; they found the problem and fixed it. Clearly we need more programmers and fewer election deniers in the Lege.
Speaking of which: Here’s a writeup of the ballot security measures in Tarrant County as announced by County Judge O’Hare. Many of them are not news but it’s nice to have a roundup.
A Democratic Fort Worth area State Representative has asked the Justice Department to oversee Texas’ elections in November.
Substacker LoneStarLeft, whom you may know from blogging as Still Blue in Texas, has a piece on Beth Van Duyne vs Sam Eppler in CD-24. This is my district; Van Duyne is weird, as Tim Walz would say; and for the same reasons I expect Cruz to win, I expect Van Duyne to beat Eppler. Van Duyne’s weekly newsletters break my brain. About half of them are full of normal stuff, like meeting with local officials and companies, showing kids around Congress, the usual. The other half is election denialism, xenophobia, and other Trumpism-related garbage. It’s no surprise to me that the DMN endorsed Eppler. The Star-Telegram hasn’t made an endorsement as of this writing.
The Dallas Observer reports that UT Dallas aren’t stoked about the presidential election and their interests are mostly local. The big exception is Palestine, where neither of the parties aligns with their stance. My interest in this article is that it was written by the former head of the UT Dallas paper, who lost his position when the administration sacked him, allegedly over coverage of the pro-Palestine protests on campus.
Would you like to know which developers spend the most on Fort Worth elections? The Star-Telegram has you covered.
In polling place news, AT&T Stadium will serve as a voting center in Tarrant County. And the DMN has more on where you can vote in Rowlett and the certificate of occupancy for Freedom Place Church.
Last but not least on elections, we have an important endorsement in the Dallas city elections: Willie Nelson wants us to decriminalize marijuana. I’m with Willie.
Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who killed Botham Jean by mistake, was denied parole after serving half her sentence.
Also this week, Fort Worth honored Atatiana Jefferson on the fifth anniversary of her death at the hands of a police officer.
Tarrant County has a lot of jail news. They’re extending the contract with My Health My Resources (the group they also gave the juvenile mental health/diversion contract to after ditching the group the county had previously contracted with for ideological reasons) despite the number of deaths in the jail and specifically the number related to mental health. Plus, it looks like the county commissioners may be considering privatizing the jail based on an agenda item that was later removed as residents protested it. Meanwhile, the state says Tarrant County is violating a Texas law that requires independent investigations of deaths in the jail.
Meanwhile, not officially a jail issue, but related: former Tarrant County Sherriff’s deputies claim they were sacked in retaliation for complaints about drug use, misuse of official resources, racial discrimination and more by fellow officers. They’re suing.
Ken Paxton is suing a doctor at UTSW for treating trans kids with hormones. The Dallas Observer and KERA have the details.
Keller ISD continues to make news, and it’s never in a good way. Currently they’re giving basic sandwiches to kids who have more than $25 in student lunch debt. Because we don’t fund our public schools, Keller is asking the community to pitch in to retire lunch debt, which is already at $37,000 for the 2024-2025 school year. Plus, parents in the district are also protesting alleged censorship by the superintendent, who is now approving or vetoing every student play or musical, including vetoes of some previously approved productions. (You may recall that interfering with student productions is what bit the former superintendent in Sherman ISD.)
There’s more on Fort Worth ISD’s troubles, as well. The Fort Worth Report notes that more principals left the district last year than in any year since 2017. And the Star-Telegram asks who will lead the district after the sacking of the last superintendent.
Lewisville ISD is having budget and enrollment shortfalls. They may have to close or consolidate 20 campuses at the elementary and middle school levels, with decisions to come no earlier than December.
You may remember I said I thought there was something going on with the sudden suspension of the Grand Prairie ISD superintendent? The superintendent sued the board and the judge blocked the board from firing him. The DMN has more.
Dallas City council is asking questions about the Fair Park management contract and the missing $5.7 million we talked about last week. The DMN has several stories about a possible new contract, the operator’s claim it’s owed $2.1 million, and the Dallas Park Board’s president wanting another audit. I’ll admit I find all this confusing, but mostly it looks to me like the parties are lining up for a lawsuit that will resolve the financial claims and sever the current operating agreement.
I’m sure you’ve encountered North Texas US District Judge Reed O’Connor’s name in connection to the suits he’s heard. WFAA notes that he’s currently in charge of the X/Twitter vs Media Matters case and even though he has an investment in Tesla that’s worth as much as $50,000, he’s not recusing himself. The article notes that Xitter is headquartered in Austin, which is in the Western District of Texas, but its terms of service require lawsuits to be heard in the Northern District. Meanwhile, Chris Geidner of Law Dork reports on some other cases where O’Connor’s stock holdings have forced a recusal. Geidner explains why the shenanigans around these cases are going on and how O’Connor’s stock holdings are a problem. The other half of the newsletter is also about the Northern District and Matthew Kacsmaryk, and is also worth your time.
KERA has a story about the small-town volunteer fire department in Collin County and how the county isn’t paying enough for it to serve the unincorporated areas around it. If you’re interested in exurban and rural infrastructure issues, this story should be on your list.
Haynes Boone is doing the third-party investigation into Robert Morris, founder of Gateway Church. The report on the events that took place in the 1980s, which is to say when he was molesting a teenaged girl, should come out sometime this fall, probably next month.
Speaking of crooked religious types, Tarrant County just sentenced the mistress of a religious scammer called The Money Doctor to life in jail over her part in a $31 million Ponzi scheme. She was laundering the money he brought in.
Last week the Star-Telegram announced it was pivoting to online and only publishing in print three days a week. The Fort Worth Report has their take on this news with responses from subscribers.
The DMN would like you to know that their letters to the editor lean left because that’s what they get from the public. I’m being kind of a smartass about this, but I get a lot of emails from folks like Indivisible suggesting I write a letter to the editor about whatever subject they’re flogging right now. (I write to y’all instead.) It sounds to me like this PR strategy on the part of outside groups is working well here in Dallas.
Following that big expose of the body disposal scandal at UNT in Fort Worth, Tarrant County has adopted a new policy for dealing with unclaimed bodies so that they’re treated with dignity. It’s expected to cost the county $675,000.
The Dallas Black Dance Theater season opened with new dancers after management, as you may recall, sacked the entire company, but not for unionizing. It’s no surprise, then, that the first performance was picketed by the fired dancers.
You may remember that fellow in Ellis County who smashed the guitar that may or may not have been signed by Taylor Swift, depending on who you listen to. He bought it for $4000, and it sold on eBay for $6550, which, like the original $4000, is going to the Future Farmers of America. I cannot verify the next part but the rumor in town is that the guitar was sold with the hammer, which puts an entirely different cast on the viral video.
Here’s a touching story about how DFW-area shelters opened their arms to 130 animals from Florida after the Florida shelters were overfull before Hurricane Milton. Our two cats came to us after a similar nationwide dispersal effort after a hoarding situation in Missouri was resolved, so this one is personal for me.
The Star-Telegram has an interesting piece of local history about a con man from Fort Worth who claimed to have reached the North Pole before Admiral Peary.
The Athletic has the story of how F1 failed in Dallas back in 1984. When I sent this to a mutual friend of our host’s and mine who is seriously into F1, she referred me to this article about the 1984 race from the Formula One people. I learned a lot from both of these articles. Thanks Karin!
The Amon Carter in Fort Worth has a travelling exhibit called “Cowboy” that opened at the end of last month. It briefly closed after a couple of weeks and now has reopened with a mature content warning. I have plans to do some museum visiting in Fort Worth in a few weeks and will now really have to check this exhibit out.
The Village Bakery in West, which claims it’s the OG kolache shop in that storied town, will reopen under new management with the original recipes. I’ll also have to report back on this story when I next head down to Austin.
Related Posts:
Tim O’Hare? I blame Beto https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2024/10/tim-ohare-i-blame-beto.html