This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week in DFW-area news, we have a smorgasbord: follow-up on the Allen mall shooting, election cleanup, more on Thomas and Crow, MUD shenanigans, and computer snafus and more. Plus, Dallas gets lots of good sports news, art, music, and HEB BBQ.
The first few items in this roundup are about mass shooting/gun violence and intimate partner violence and murder. Please read and click through with care.
More on the Allen mall shooting: responses from local media are mostly about whether or not the shooting was a hate crime and what the political implications were. Typical of the former is Machismo, misogyny, misinformation: Why some Hispanic people become white supremacists (Archive link with a slightly different headline archived a few days ago) and Was the Allen Mass Shooting a Hate Crime? Authorities Still Haven’t Said. The question of whether it’s a hate crime is tied to several acknowledged anti-Asian hate crimes, including shootings in Dallas’s Koreatown, in the last few years.
Typical of the latter is Can politicians opposing gun reforms rely on Collin County voters after a mass shooting? The most important thing about this shooting is not whether or not Democrats can make hay out of it, but at the same time, if we want more than thoughts and prayers issued after this shooting the way we got after Uvalde and El Paso and … (here’s a timeline of the last 14 years in mass shootings here in Texas), we are going to have to vote the bastards out. And in Texas, they’re Republicans.
One last story that I was personally pretty bothered by is the Allen PD’s callout of one first-person account of the shooting as false. The story was gruesome and you hate to think that someone would make those details up for social media clout. You also hate to think that the cops would harass someone who helped at the scene of a mass shooting. Yet, here we are.
In other news:
- Last week, Gabriella Gonzalez was murdered in Oak Cliff (Archive), apparently by her (ex) boyfriend, who was angry that she had traveled to Colorado for an abortion. Weeks before her death, she had gone to DPD for help but even after her April 14 affidavit, in which Gonzalez described an attempt to strangle her (which according to this relates story, is a leading indicator of increasing violence), no charges were filed until after the murder. These links also discuss the ability of abusers to get guns despite laws meant to prevent that and how our legal system in Texas and in Dallas specifically fails to protect people from intimate partner violence. I honestly believe that the risk and threat of violence is part and parcel of our current Republican government’s plan to discourage abortion and restore a hierarchical world in which men control women. The deaths of women like Gabriella Gonzalez are just collateral damage. If we want to prevent more cases like Gonzalez’s, we have to vote the bastards out.
- Election cleanup: apparently an election site at a middle school in (Black) southeast Dallas turned away voters for hours (Archive link); ; the DMN editorial board celebrates (Archive link) the rejection of reactionary politics in suburban Dallas school boards; and Dallas voters dissatisfied with Eric Johnson’s unopposed march to re-election as mayor wrote in Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, and Willie Nelson along with almost 2700 other names.
- I know Charles is also covering both of these stories as well, but I’m noting them: His sights are on Ted Cruz, but Colin Allred likely to face primary challenge (Archive link) and His profile grew after Dallas police ambush; now this trauma surgeon running for Congress (Archive link). Dr. Williams is running as a Democrat, which the DMN doesn’t mention. He has a campaign website and a book coming out. I’ll be keeping an eye on him.
- In this week’s update on Six Degrees of Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow, apparently Sen. Wyden is serious about getting Crow to testify about all those gifts; in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, a federal judge says ethics complaints against Thomas were mishandled in 2011 and 2012 (Archive link); and it turns out one of the Fifth Circuit justices who heard the mifeprestone case earlier this week was sworn in in Harlan Crow’s library in 2018, with Thomas present.
- Another Dallas-connected story about rich people’s fingers in government business: “Dallas hotel magnate and generous supporter of conservative political causes” Monty Bennett used his MUD for his ranch to help a fellow landowner protect his land from eminent domain for a wastewater pipeline. Bonus Dallas link: Congressman Lance Gooden, who used to represent me until the most recent round of redistricting, helped Bennett by sponsoring the bill to create the MUD. Read the whole story; it’s ugly business.
- Here’s a Guardian intro to Jasmine Crockett of CD-30, which is centered on South Dallas but now extends into Fort Worth. She was Eddie Bernice Johnson’s handpicked successor and looks like she’s ready to make a mark of her own in Congress.
- Hundreds of Dallas County attorneys say they’ve not been paid in 6 weeks in payroll chaos (Archive link.) This outage also includes expert witnesses and court staff like recorders and is unrelated to the ransomware attack on the city. Apparently a payroll software update in April is the culprit.
- Meanwhile, the City of Dallas ransomware saga rolls on and the library definitely wants us to keep our library books (Archive link). Dallas is fine-free and it’s not like they can figure out where all these books go without their computer systems, which may be down for several more weeks or months. Overdrive and hoopla, their ebook services, are still working; I’m still able to check things in and out.
- Here’s a really ugly ProPublica story about a company I didn’t know was from Dallas: The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”. Coproduced with the DMN.
- DFW airport is getting a sixth terminal (Archive link). IAH better get busy or it’ll fall behind!
- In DFW sports news: The Dallas Stars advance to the Western Conference finals complete with cheesy headline from the DMN (Archive link); The Arlington Renegades won the XFL championship; and the Mavericks kept their pick (Archive link) in the June NBA draft lottery.
- Important questions: Is H-E-B’s True Texas BBQ still the ‘best barbecue chain in Texas’? Clearly we need to pick some up on our next HEB run and decide for ourselves.
- How to Build an Art Town. Harper’s Bazaar looks at Dallas’ art scene through the lens of the Dallas Art Fair. Somewhat related, or at least the Dallas Observer’s coverage springboards off the Art Fair, is this South African art exhibit at the African American Museum in Fair Park, which is on my list to check out now.
- Music for Texas state parks hits the airwaves. I am here for the upcoming “Texas Wild” album and if you’re at all interested in Texas music, you too should check it out.
I’m all for the DFW content! (I live up here now but still check in)