Dispatches from Dallas, June 14 edition

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

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. Catch up on: storm aftermath; primary aftermath; bigots and other troublemakers; school district news; the NRA’s sweetheart deal for its convention in Dallas; Mayor Johnson’s recent doings; Six Degrees of Clarence Thomas; Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson; deaths at the Tarrant County Jail; Pride and DEI news; the latest on the nuns in Arlington; the Alamo Drafthouse; the great grocery battles; a Guinness World Record here in Dallas; and a giraffe story with a happy ending. And more!

This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Blonde Redhead, whose most recent record came out last year, who are not touring, and do not have tickets on sale. I was just in the mood to listen to them.

In news this week:

  • Here are some leftover items from the big storms over Memorial Day weekend and the next week: two parks in Flower Mound are still closed due to flooding, with no re-opening date; a dam in Rockwall County shifted by six inches; a pet hospital in Sanger is treating severely injured dogs displaced in the tornadoes; east Texas was still picking up the pieces from the storms a week ago. In Dallas we’ve still got a lot of broken tree limbs bundled up on the sides of both residential streets and main thoroughfares. Plus we have tons of standing water, which means tons of mosquitoes.
  • The DMN wrote an editorial complaining that Dallas’ traffic lights go out but the ones in Garland and Carrolton don’t. And it’s because we don’t do maintenance in Dallas.
  • So far this year the US has had eleven weather disasters with price tags of over $25 billion each. Most of them were just severe thunderstorms.
  • If you don’t like the weather, wait a few weeks and it’ll get worse: ERCOT is predicting a 16% chance of brownouts in August. And the Guardian would like us to know that air conditioning is not enough in the world’s hottest cities. Apparently your AC works 30% harder to keep your home at 75F when the outside temperature goes from 95F to 98F. That’s going to do terrible things to your bill as well as making the brownouts worse.
  • Turning to politics, we have the aftermath of the Republican primaries. The Texas House GOP Caucus censured four Republican representatives, three of whom are from North Texas, for campaigning against Republican incumbents in the primary. The Texas Tribune has more.
  • The DMN’s Watchdog has a nasty mailer threatening to tell “President Trump” the recipient hadn’t voted in the runoff. This may technically not be a campaign law violation because it wasn’t from a campaign, but a PAC nobody could find anything out about and may not exist. Democratic primaries are not immune to this kind of thing; I got some texts about the Sheriff primary with no indication of the sender. The texts I got were misleading, but they weren’t threatening.
  • Tarrant County’s prosecution and persecution of Crystal Mason gets coverage from the Guardian.
  • The Star-Telegram has an editorial about the Texas GOP’s new plank: they want constitutional amendments to require not just statewide majorities but majorities in two-thirds of the counties. The paper’s take on the GOP’s moves to suppress votes, close primaries, and require county majorities: “But at some point, anti-majoritarian becomes anti-democratic. The Texas GOP approaches that threshold.” And this is the most conservative of the big city newspapers in Texas.
  • Rolling Stone has an intro to Tim Dunn for folks outside of Texas who haven’t had the misfortune yet. They’re about to.
  • The Fort Worth Botanic Gardens will not host the True Texas Project’s 15th anniversary event after they found out the event included sessions on the so-called war on white America and the Great Replacement Theory. The Texas Tribune story that got the Botanic Gardens to kick them out. Note the mention of Wilks and Dunn money, Don Huffines, and Louie Gohmert in this one.
  • The Republican and Democratic party chairs in Tarrant County spoke at an NAACP meeting in Arlington earlier this week.
  • Last weekend, some bigots dumped antisemitic flyers in plastic bags in Flower Mound. This is an unfortunately regular part of life in North Texas suburbs now as far as I can tell.
  • You may remember I wrote a few weeks ago about Mike Hixenbaugh’s book about Southlake and the school district based on his podcasts for NBC. John Huffman, former mayor of Southlake and more recently a loser to Dinesh D’Souza’s son-in-law in the Republican primary for CD 26, is mad about it and reached out to the Star-Telegram to tell his side of the story.
  • Speaking of people telling stories on school districts in the Star-Telegram, here’s a Crowley ISD trustee’s op-ed on Governor Abbott’s voucher plans. I wish Trustee Davis well in his next election, because telling it like it is is a death penalty offense in Texas politics these days.
  • The Dallas Observer has a rundown on the campus closings and job losses around the Metroplex.
  • Fort Worth ISD had to dip into its reserves to cover $17.7 million in raises for its teachers. They ended up choosing not to consolidate campuses as mentioned in the Dallas Observer article above, to the dismay of the Star-Telegram’s editorial board. The paper also has an analysis of what will happen next, which may include some closures anyway as enrollments continue to decline with changing demographics.
  • If you want to know who the best-paid school superintendents in Tarrant County are, the Fort Worth Report has you covered. The winner is Northwest ISD Superintendent Mark Foust with an annual salary of $372,659.
  • I’m not a parent and I don’t understand the ins-and-outs of PTAs vs PTOs, but no matter which is better, the last-minute decision disband the PTAs in Mesquite ISD a week before the end of the school year smells fishy. I haven’t seen anything more about the PTAs but I’ll be keeping an eye out.
  • UNT’s teacher education program is going to be on TEA probation for the second year in a row.
  • KERA has an item on the bad investment strategies that are still hurting the pension funds for Dallas’ police and firefighters.
  • Dallas County is facing a $40 million budget shortfall this year. There may be some deep cuts, including job cuts, and freezes coming.
  • You may remember that the NRA had its annual meeting in Dallas last month. They got a sweetheart deal on the facility rental: $5000, against a normal price of $931,990, between discounts and the portion paid by Dallas’ nonprofit tourism bureau. If that sounds shady, you’re not alone in thinking so. The Dallas Morning News has an editorial on how deals like this should be transparent because the public has a right to know whether this contract was particularly cheap or just doing business.
  • Here’s an update on where the Dallas City Council is with the proposed charter amendements.
  • Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has a big interview in Texas Monthly about his party switch. If you don’t want to read that, the Dallas Observer has its own pithy take on why Johnson is talking to Texas Monthly when he won’t talk to local media.
  • In actual things Mayor Johnson is doing, he would like to avoid paying off City Manager T.C. Broadnax if he can. Here’s a refresher on how Broadnax’s departure went down. And this is a different refresher on all the staff changes at City Hall that have followed Broadnax leaving.
  • One person who isn’t leaving Dallas is Police Chief Eddie Garcia. We can’t legally give him a contract right now, but his offer letter has been amended to keep him the highest paid police chief in a major Texas City.
  • If you’d like a list of the highest-paid city employees here in Dallas, the Dallas Observer has the names and numbers. Garcia is number five; if Broadnax were still with us, he’d be in first place.
  • And in one more piece of Dallas city council news, the council has reappointed Councilmember Tennell Atkins as Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember Adam Bazaldua was appointed as Deputy Mayor Pro Tem.
  • In addition to its profile of Mayor Johnson, Texas Monthly also has a good piece on Mark Melton of the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center. He was also the subject of a recent D Magazine profile to which I will direct your attention again.
  • It’s the beat that keeps on giving: Six Degrees of Clarence Thomas is back! Thomas finally admitted he should have disclosed some trips and amended some filings. But that wasn’t enough! We know now that Harlan Crow took Thomas on more trips than either had previously admitted, as covered by Talking Points Memo and the DMN. Thanks to the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for beating this horse hard enough to prove it’s not quite dead. I know Sam Alito is running hard for the coveted title of “Justice who shows the most contempt for the little people” but don’t count Clarence Thomas out yet!
  • More seriously, let’s talk about the Tarrant County Jail, where a sixth inmate died during the last week in May. No cause of death has been reported yet. Meanwhile in the case of Anthony Johnson Jr., the medical examiner has ruled his death was homicide by asphyxiation, which could open jailers to criminal charges. Congressman Marc Veasey has asked the US Department of Justice to investigate the six deaths so far this year at the jail. You may recall that the jail supervisor involved in Johnson’s death was initially fired, but the firing was reversed and he’s now on administrative leave. Now he’s saying he did all the right things and that the unreleased part of the video leading up to Johnson’s death will exonerate him. And on May 30, the chief deputy in charge of jail operations retired after 32 years. He told the DMN the deaths played no role in his decision.
  • The Department of Public Safety is investigating a photo of a state trooper with a Three Percenter decal that was taken here in Dallas.
  • Who watches the watchers? The Dallas Observer tells us that police oversight in most north Texas cities is handled in-house.
  • Leadership in Tarrant County Appraisal District has had a lot of churn in the last couple of years between the disastrous rollout of their new website and its consequences and the first-time elections for appraisal board members. Now the chair of the citizens review board, which mediates valuation disputes, has also resigned, days before the review board was to begin hearing cases.
  • Unrelated, but also relevant: 26% of Fort Worth’s single-family homes are commercially owned.
  • The Tarrant County DA has dropped prosecution of a vacated murder conviction over improved interpretation of DNA evidence. Compare this to the Crystal Mason case.
  • Also on a matter of improved scientific evidence: a retired Palestine police detective wrote a moving DMN op-ed about a shaken baby case where science that is no longer viewed as sound was used to convict a defendant of capital murder for killing his own child. Apparently the defendant in this case is the last person on death row in the US based on a conviction on this discredited theory. I hope this piece inspires the courts involved to take a second look at the case and the defendant’s innocence claim is upheld.
  • Dallas now has a pro-choice pregnancy center operated by the First Unitarian Church of Dallas.
  • File under “I’ll believe it when I see it”: there are plans for a new national stock exchange here in Dallas. Also in the Texas Tribune.
  • It’s the middle of June, but disagreements over the wording and organizations included mean Fort Worth City Council won’t issue a proclamation to designate Pride Month in the city.
  • Does Frisco have an inclusion committee? Maybe. Is it official? Probably not.
  • I found out a couple of things about Butler Place in Fort Worth in the last few weeks. First, it’s Fort Worth’s oldest public housing complex and is currently being redeveloped. Second, it’s a brownfield, requiring environmental remediation before redevelopment. Fortunately there is EPA money coming for Butler Place and other Fort Worth brownfields.
  • Here are a few items about new Dallas Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson, who’s a big old Trump supporter: Mark Cuban backs Biden. Why was he so keen to sell the Mavs to Trump megadonors? (Guardian); Meet the Out-of-State Political Donors Messing With Texas (Texas Monthly; Adelson is the largest donor on the list); GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson to fund colossal super PAC for Trump (Politico). Meanwhile, the DMN has a story on how casino legalization looks like a loser in the 2025 session.
  • Our host has been fascinated by the Arlington nun saga, so I’m bringing y’all the latest updates: the nuns requested the the dismissal of their TRO and their suit in May, but they still wouldn’t let the nun from the Carmelite Association of Christ the King enter. Also, the Vatican has reinstated Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach as a nun, but not as the leader of the monastery. All of this dates from late May, but there’s no later news.
  • Wondering how many billionaires there are in the Metroplex? 15.
  • I complain a lot about the DMN, but I do like that they have an architecture critic. Mark Lamster doesn’t like the bleacher stair, noting correctly that its accessibility for disabled folks is poor. I do like the alternative he shows, which looks easier to use for gathering and, for folks who can use stairs, easier to walk up.
  • This is cool: there’s a 3D printed home being constructed in Fort Worth. The model will cost $150K and the “ink” is specially formulated concrete.
  • It’s been a weird week for Dallas-area moviegoers. First we lost the Angelika in Plano (there’s still one in Dallas) and all of our Alamo Drafthouses and then Sony swept in and bought the Alamo Drafthouse chain lock, stock, and barrel. The Star-Telegram asks the big question, which is what does the purchase mean for moviegoers and staffers in the Metroplex? The answer is that we don’t know for certain, but Sony is working to get the local theaters up and running. And if you’re looking for analysis of the purchase, I like Lainey Gossip’s take.
  • Here’s a piece on how the DFW grocery market is dealing with the entry of HEB. We currently do curbside from HEB in Plano every week or two, sometimes supplementing with trips to Trader Joe’s, Target, and Whole Foods. We used to be Kroger customers, but they were so unreliable during the pandemic that we switched to Target curbside for groceries. Now Target is only sort of reliable and we have to switch between our nearby Target and the close suburban Target to get everything we want. We’re not close to the Joe V’s so they’re not an option for us; we just haven’t gotten to the Central Market because our Whole Foods is closer and more convenient. The rock-solid reliability of HEB’s curbside has made it worth our while to drive out to Plano to get groceries. If Kroger and Tom Thumb (Randall’s) want our business, they’ll need to catch up with HEB.
  • You may have heard there’s a documentary out this month about the Texas Renaissance Festival in Magnolia. Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie, our local faire, would like you to know it is in NO WAY connected to the documentary. There’s a different and equally juicy story about Scarborough, though. Buy me a mocktail sometime and I’ll tell you!
  • Wally Funk, an astronaut from Grapevine, was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame. Most of her career was spent in aviation, but in 2021 she went to space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin New Shephard at the ripe old age of 82. Congratulations to Ms. Funk and her fellow inductees!
  • Dallas grocery El Rio Grande on Buckner Boulevard now holds the Guinness Book of World Records record for the world’s largest fruit display with its 260,292 avocados. After the display was dismantled, the avocados were sold at El Rio Grande stores across North Texas at 5 for $1.
  • Last, but not least: a giraffe story with a happy ending. A curious giraffe at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose snatched a toddler’s shirt. The giraffe quickly released the child, who was uninjured. Following the incident, Fossil Rim no longer allows guests to ride in the back of pickup trucks.

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