This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth, it’s a grab bag with a lot of topics, including: cybersecurity; avian flu; scary anti-abortion GOP types; Tarrant County commissioners up to their usual shenanigans; immigration news; heat islands in Dallas; another theory about the Dallas City Council’s Project X; South Dallas news about Fair Park and the Forest Theater; the bling of a World Series ring; and baby Jameela the gorilla finds a foster mom at last.
This week’s post was brought to you by the ambient modern classical music of Nils Frahm, which is good accompaniment to writing.
This week we have something of a grab bag, so let’s dive into it:
- Starting off with cybersecurity, we have several local stories: first, the Tarrant County Appraisal District hack, which is getting an update as investigators dive into the matter. The big deal here is the responses from officials, which are night and day compared to last year’s failed rollout of a new web site. I’m keeping an eye on this as part of my regular review of everything related to Tarrant County and its Commissioner’s Court.
- Second on the list is the big AT&T data leak. AT&T is a local company so this got big headlines in Dallas, but it’s also getting national coverage and industry coverage. We’re AT&T customers so we’ve gotten initial notification but nothing more at this point.
- The other local business that’s been hit by a cyberattack is the Omni hotel chain, which is also getting industry coverage. Supposedly the outage will have been resolved Thursday and things should be back to normal by the time you read this. But it was a ransomware attack so we’re probably going to hear about threats of a data leak by the thieves.
- File under “oh $#!+ science news”: a person here in Texas was treated for bird flu that they caught from cattle, the second case of a person with bird flu and the first caught through cows. Also seen at the Texas Tribune and the Washington Post. And if that didn’t scare you, the largest US egg producer found bird flu in its chickens in the Panhandle and had to cull 3.6% of its flock. Cook your chickens and your eggs well and keep an eye on egg prices.
- As our host noted, Crystal Mason’s voter fraud conviction was overturned. About time and then some, and I hope there’s no further appeal by the state. The Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News have the local view on this case.
- Speaking of voter registration issues, I assume y’all have read this piece about the big surcharge Votec is billing big major counties here in Texas (like Tarrant and Dallas) to keep them afloat. I’m wary of this, but also why isn’t the state using a better system? I mean, we all know the answers, but the question is still worth asking.
- Texas Monthly has a worthwhile read about the settlement of Collin County’s favorite AG’s securities fraud case. This is another one where we all know the answer: when he was acquitted, it became too dangerous to prosecute Paxton, so the case was settled.
- Our senator, John Cornyn, visited Bonton Farms here in Dallas recently. I knew Bonton Farms because I saw their produce on local restaurant menus, but I didn’t know they were involved in post-prison rehabilitation and reintegration. I like them even better. In related news, they got a big donation to help them deliver food in South Dallas, which is a grocery desert.
- Quelle surprise, T.C. Broadnax is starting that Austin City Manager job on May 6. Good luck to him, and really good luck to us, because replacing him with someone who can do a good job and get along with Mayor Johnson is going to be tough. Also, not surprised he’s getting a $5K monthly allowance for six months to make that move. Austin ain’t cheap, y’all.
- Since its merger with the Daily Beast, I don’t really think of Newsweek as an authoritative source, but they were the only news source that carried this one: Hood County Dems caught local GOP bigwigs attending a meeting held by Abolish Abortion Texas (AATX) in Granbury. They got some footage, which the article links. I haven’t watched it because my doctor wants me to keep my blood pressure down, but apparently the AATX men are all about prosecuting women who have abortions for murder. As usual, the right answer to this is to vote all the candidates who have anything to do with this kind of talk out of office so hard their heads are spinning. And don’t believe anyone who says they won’t do it; they ran this up the flag to see who would salute and the Hood County GOP did.
- The Dallas Observer has an analysis of the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) reports from Collin, Denton, and Tarrant Counties. The Dallas County report was deficient for technical reasons and wasn’t included.
- You may remember that Dallas has a controversial ordinance making “manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution” illegal. The city isn’t enforcing it and the DMN explains why.
- Meanwhile, in Tarrant County, the Commissioner’s Court is trying to overhaul the administration of the criminal courts, which the judges don’t appear to be keen on. The initial plan was punted but the commissioners still want to fire the court’s chief administrator, claiming the current court administration has mismanaged finances. More from the Star-Telegram, which is worth reading to see the division among the county commissioners. I don’t claim to know what’s going on but it’s hard not to read the news around this case and think Tim O’Hare and his allies don’t like the courts administrator and want to take over his functions for themselves.
- Related, at least in terms of division in Tarrant County’s Commissioners Court, is the party line vote on switching to prenumbered ballots. The Republicans won and so elections officials will be using the prenumbered ballots in November. The Star-Telegram has an analysis and explainer and is not impressed favorably by the decision.
- I didn’t know Rowlett had a DEI commission but from the sound of things, it won’t for much longer.
- Here’s an interesting interview about a case filed in Fort Worth where the judge kicked it back to Washington DC for forum-shopping. Banking associations and the US Chamber of Commerce sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to keep the CFPB from capping credit card fees. Bravo to Judge Pittman for sending the bankers back to the drawing board.
- Here are a few items from the immigration beat, not all of which are closely related to North Texas but I found interesting anyway:
- Costs for work visas and green cards in U.S. are going up — a lot. Fees last went up in 2016.
- Migrants with disabilities struggle to access the U.S. asylum system, advocates say. Not the first time I’ve heard bad things about the CBP One app.
- House Speaker Dade Phelan’s immigration record central in bid to oust him. He passed HB4 but he still doesn’t hate brown people enough, I guess.
- Immigrants may become eligible to serve on more Dallas boards and commissions. This is about the city charter changes, and by “immigrants”, the article means green card holders and work visa holders, so not undocumented folks.
- A recent study by the city and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that there are heat islands in Dallas that are ten degrees hotter on an August day than cooler parts of town. Heat islands include industrial areas and concrete jungles, as well as poor neighborhoods with insufficient shade. More from KERA and the DMN.
- Meanwhile the DMN has an editorial calling for flexibility around that McDonald’s drive thru in downtown. I recognize their concern for people who just want a Big Mac after an overnight shift, but I’m kind of surprised they care.
- You may remember some speculation about “Project X”, which the City Council talked about in closed session recently. We have a new theory: they may be trying to lure the Kansas City Chiefs, formerly the Dallas Texans, back to town. I’ll believe that’s going to happen when I see it.
- Speaking of the Chiefs, wide receiver Rashee Rice is from these parts. I guess he was visiting the old homestead over the weekend when he ended up sure sounds like a drag race between a rented Lamborghini SUV and a Corvette he owns that caused a multi-car pileup on Central Expressway near SMU on Saturday evening. Nobody was killed but several cars were totalled and several people were seriously injured, plus the four people in the Lamborghini and the Corvette fled from the scene. This might not be worth noting here except that State Senator Royce West is Rice’s lawyer.
- Fair Park’s finances are about to be audited. The D Magazine explainer is good; I got here a little late to see City Council choose the current operating scheme, but it looks like they took a lowball bid and probably got bit by the pandemic so someone may have been skimming funds to keep the park going instead of asking for more money. At the same time, the Cotton Bowl is just starting a $140 million, two-year restoration that should be completed just in time for the State Fair in the fall of 2025. And, as this piece about planning for the 2026 World Cup preliminaries here in North Texas mentions, it will also be a training site for the 2026 World Cup teams playing in Arlington.
- Another South Dallas institution that’s about to undergo restoration is the Forest Theater, which saw a lot of great shows before it closed in 2008. Here’s a piece about the campaign to buy the theater and nearby land from a local South Dallas news publisher.
- Baseball friends, take a look at this World Series ring. That’s some bling!
- I’m sure you’re all excited to hear that Dr Phil’s new cable channel is now airing or at least cabling.
- Two food news items, one good and one not so good. The good one is Royal China celebrating its 50th anniversary. I’ve been eating there for not quite 30 years–it’s the local Americanized Chinese restaurant for the neighborhood my in-laws lived in when I started dating my husband–and while it has good food and has definitely gotten fancier with the noodle bar since I started eating there, it surprised me when it first showed up on Eater’s hot list. The not-so-good is this Texas Monthly story on old-school barbecue joints around the state closing, including a couple in North Texas.
- This week I learned about a record-breaking 1929 flight out of Fort Worth that stayed aloft for more than 172 hours.
- This one’s for my comics nerds: A comics auction here in Dallas this week is selling a copy of Action Comics #1, which is the first appearance of Superman. Next week I’ll tell you what it went for.
- And last but absolutely not least, baby Jameela, the gorilla born by C-section, has started bonding with her new foster mom in Cleveland, so all’s well that ends well.