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 a grab bag: a big DMN expose on toll roads; education stories, including a chance to see an author whose book about Southlake schools has just been published; judicial appeals news; runoff news ahead of next week’s voting; Six Degrees of Clarence Thomas; how the DMN thinks Dallas should pay to fix its pension funds; Dallas PD news, including how we’re keeping our chief; the DMN looks for the culprits behind the pro-Palestinian protests; what Ms. Opal Lee has been up to; nude beaches in Texas; and baby birds! And more.
This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Orbital whose tour this year is sadly coming nowhere near me.
Let’s dive into the news:
- The Dallas Morning News has a big series exposing the problems with the NTTA and toll roads in Texas in general. Specifically, there are too many of them, particularly in strategic locations with only long drives as alternates, that Texas is harsh on people who don’t pay even when the tolls are assigned in error, and what to do if (when) you get a Zipcash bill in error. The individual stories are pretty horrible but they’re worth a read anyway.
- The Texas Tribune’s story about Crystal Gore, the Granbury ISD board member who got elected on an anti-woke agenda and then read the curriculum, was surprising to me only in that Gore actually believed what she was reading. Or maybe that she bothered to read in the first place. The fallout from her decision not to keep attacking all the DEI, sexualization, critical race theory, etc., that she didn’t find was 100% predictable.
- Two judicial stories from Fort Worth: There was a a rally supporting Crystal Mason Saturday after the Tarrant County DA appealed the ruling overturning her illegal voting conviction. And the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to review Aaron Dean’s conviction for manslaughter in the killing of Atatiana Jefferson in 2019.
- In not-quite-related news, Governor Abbott has just pardoned Daniel Perry, who killed Garrett Foster during a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin in 2020. I have some thoughts about this but the news literally came in as I was writing and my immediate reaction is not fit for print.
- Interested in the latest and greatest about the Collin County runoff races? KERA has you covered. Most of these are Republican runoffs but the Dems have one for SD 30, Drew Springer’s now-open seat.
- Related: The Fort Worth Report has a look at the Republican runoff for HD 91, which is all about Collin County’s own Ken Paxton.
- DMN’s Watchdog has a post-election writeup of the Dallas County Appraisal District elections from earlier this month.
- Chief Garcia has committed to stay in Dallas through May 2027, hopefully putting an end to talk that Austin or Houston might try to lure him away.
- Speaking of people who did get lured away, Mayor Johnson is looking for a legal way to avoid paying off former City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Honestly I think it should come out of the Mayor’s monies, like his campaign fund, since the Mayor is the one who ran Broadnax off, contrary to the Mayor’s assertion that they got along great and stories about the problems between them were made up by the local media.
- State and local incentives for the NRA’s annual meeting here in Dallas this weekend total about $1 million, of which $138k is Dallas’ contribution. Our tax dollars at work!
- Six Degrees of Clarence Thomas is back. The New Republic would like to know whether Justice Thomas paid off the principal on the loan for that quarter-million-dollar RV but the Justice won’t tell. If the principal on the loan was forgiven, it could be taxable income, which might make Thomas a tax cheat on top of everything else.
- The Guardian has a review of Mike Hixenbaugh’s new book about the trouble in Southlake. If you don’t know his name, you may be familiar with Hixenbaugh’s podcasts for NBC about Grapevine and Southlake. I’m going to be picking up the book and if I have time, I’m going to attend the local event for his book tour, dates for which are listed on Hixenbaugh’s website. For the Texans, he’s at Bookpeople in Austin on Saturday, at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston on Monday night, and in Grapevine at the Convention Center on Tuesday night.
- Related: I have only had time to skim this piece in the Texas Observer about the “Remnant Alliance”, a bunch of pastors coming for your schools, but I’ve gotten enough from it already to commend it to your attention.
- Also related: Southlake families want the district to negotiate with the feds in good faith over civil rights violations. Good luck with that.
- Also related to schools in Texas: a story on how North Texas schools are dealing with conflicting Title IX mandates from the feds and the state.
- As Houstonians know, the battle to fix underfunded city pensions is eternal. This week our friends at the DMN have two editorials out on how Dallas should and should not do it. They should sell off land from the city’s real estate portfolio that’s not being used. They should not take money from DART.
- Bigotry in the news locally:
- The suburb of Rowlett has killed its DEI commission.
- It’s still against an unenforceable law bury Black people in a city-owned cemetery in Denton and one of the members of city council voted against changing that law. What made this story noteworthy to me was what the council member said about his vote.
- The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth admitted a trans woman and then a number of its members resigned, and so did the trans woman. The Star-Telegram and the DMN have the ugly details.
- You may recall there have been two recent deaths in the Tarrant County jail. Relatives in one of the cases have been fighting to get video. In the other case, an autopsy determined the inmate died of fentanyl and trazodone poisoning.
- Are you confused by all the news about Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice over the last few weeks? The Dallas Observer has a timeline of the allegations, including some new-to-me items about trouble from Rice’s SMU days. As I’ve mentioned, what makes Rice’s story worth reporting on is that State Senator Royce West is Rice’s attorney.
- On the immigration beat, the DMN’s finance commentator has a piece on why the American workforce needs immigrants, which I present with no comment.
- Dallas PD is joining a number of Texas jurisdictions in using controversial facial recognition software Clearview AI. Axios has a simple breakdown for you. If you’re not familiar with Clearview, the company scrapes social media for images, like your family photos or your Instagram account, which it uses to identify individuals for its clients.
- The DMN digs into the question of who’s behind the pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses in Dallas and statewide. The answer seems to be mostly students, professors, recent grads, but not the vaunted outside agitators claimed by politicians and pundits. As someone who marched against apartheid and for women’s rights in college, I firmly believe the kids are plenty capable of deciding to march, camp, and otherwise protest on their own.
- Today I learned that five of the top fifteen growing cities in the US are in north Texas and that the top growing city was Celina, one of the northernmost ring suburbs of Dallas.
- In good environmental news in Dallas, Love Field is now carbon-neutral.
- In not-so-good environmental news in Dallas, the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle, has been found in our Great Trinity Forest. I have a not-yet-year-old ash tree in my front yard, so this is particularly unhappy-making news for me.
- Another thing I learned this week is that Medieval Times breeds Andalusian horses here in Texas. Now I want to go with my horsey friend to dinner at the restaurant in Dallas to watch the jousting.
- I’m always pleased to report good news about Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth. This week, SMU awarded her an honorary doctorate and is about to make a ten-day trip to Japan to tell her story and the story of the holiday. I hope I’m doing half as much if I make it to 97!
- If you’re a nude beach person, here’s a story for you: 2 Texas nude beaches make top 12 U.S. list. Is strutting around in the buff even legal?. The answer is yes, it is, and the two beaches in Texas are Hippie Hollow near Austin and UFO Beach on South Padre Island. No nude beaches in North Texas as far as I know!
- The Amon Carter Museum has an exhibit opening this weekend: Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood. I’m not going for opening weekend but it’s definitely on my list.
- Last but not least, I have baby bird news: the bald eagles at White Rock Lake have two eaglets! CultureMap and D Magazine have the details.
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