This is a special edition of my friend Ginger’s “Dispatches from Dallas” series. I very much hope Ginger will be back to providing regular editions soon.
This is a quick wrap-up of the year-end news for 2023 from DFW and some predictions and forward-looking stories for 2024, brought to you by the music of LCD Soundsystem.
- The DMN’s Texan of the Year: the eight whistleblowers who stood up to Ken Paxton. A bold choice and one that I’m sure really pissed off the wing of the GOP that stood by Collin County’s crookedest. The other thirteen 2023 finalists can be found in here. And from the end of the year, here’s a story on the DMN’s 2022 Texan of the Year, Opal Lee, in the Washington Post.
- Speaking of Collin County’s crookedest, he was a runner up for Bum Steer for 2023, losing out to his crony Dan Patrick. He did, however, win Dingus of the Year as awarded by writer Lyz Lenz. (She’s not wrong.)
- The Star-Telegram tells us all about the most embarrassing Texans of 2023, including Ken and Dan and Dade Phelan along with a rogue’s gallery of other dinguses. I think Elon Musk doesn’t belong on the list only because I’m not willing to concede he’s an actual Texan.
- Some local roundups of best stories: The 10 most read stories on KERA News for 2023; The Best of 2023, As Told by D Magazine Editors; The 10 buzziest CultureMap stories that had Dallas talking in 2023; and Dallas’ 10 Best Viral Moments in 2023 from the Dallas Observer.
- CultureMap has a list of notable Dallasites and Dallas figures we lost in 2023. Their list includes the late Craig Watkins, who founded the first Conviction Integrity Unit in the country, but was too early to catch the death of Eddie Bernice Johnson on New Year’s Eve. The Dallas Observer also has a list of Dallas music figures we lost last year, including a few people you may have heard of even if you’re not from Dallas.
- The DMN has five big court cases and eight major crimes in north Texas. That said, the numbers show that violent crime in Dallas dropped in 2023. And of course, 2023 included more J6 prosecutions; the Dallas Observer has a full list of Texans charged with J6 crimes for review.
- 2023 was the 50th anniversary of DFW International Airport and the DMN did a series on its past, present, and future.
- Looking forward, D Magazine has eleven stories that will shape Dallas in 2024.
- And the DMN has a series on the mixed forecast for the north Texas economy in 2024. Their overview is worth reading, as is the story about increasing insurance and utility rates because of what they call Texas’ brutal weather and the rest of us call climate change.