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 Texans who are probably not going to be the VP candidate; the Dallas County Juvenile Justice Department blows up; the Star-Telegram has some questions for Tim O’Hare; the fire at politically-significant First Baptist Church; last fall’s Dallas County data breach; shenanigans at Fair Park claim its leader finally; what’s going on at Fort Worth ISD; NBC tells all about the would-be book-banners in Granbury; the vile folks at VDARE are about to go out of business thanks to the New York State Attorney General; another historical souvenir in an odd place thanks to Harlan Crow; the previous works by the architects designing the expansion of the Dallas Museum of Art; and zoo babies, even if they are scaly rather than fuzzy. And more.
This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Glass Animals, who are coming to town in September. I don’t have tickets yet but we’re considering it, hence the listening spree.
Let’s get right into it:
- The biggest national news this week was, of course, the change at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket. The Fort Worth Report had a typical headline for the Metroplex coverage: Tarrant congressional candidates predict Harris bid will have little effect on their races. There’s also been a lot of speculation about whom Harris will select for her vice-presidential slot. On Monday, the hometown cheerleaders at the DMN were trying to sell Mark Cuban as a possible VP, but his ties to Miriam Adelson, the Mavericks’ majority owner and a big Trump donor, rule him out. A better analysis on Wednesday explains that since the GOP has run Texas for a generation, we don’t have the Democratic talent with executive or legislative experience. Plus it’s not like a Texas VP pick would swing the state to the Democrats. So there’s no percentage in it until we throw the rascals currently in office out.
- The DMN has an editorial about ways to improve our abysmal maternal mortality rate in Texas. The programs mentioned in the editorial need more funding. Also we need the state to pick up the baton and work on improving maternal mortality, but the current state government is more interested in making the lives of parents and pregnant folks harder than easier.
- The Dallas County Juvenile Justice Department has descended from ‘in trouble’ to ‘complete disarray’: after a state inspection last week, the Executive Director resigned effective immediately. There was a board meeting on Monday but no interim director was appointed. The Black pastors who have been pressuring the Department to improve, well, everything, for months now have asked for input into the new director; no word yet on that process.
- Meanwhile in Tarrant County, the county executive has cut ties with Youth Advocate Programs Inc., which provides alternates to incarceration for juvenile offenders including “substance abuse interventions, family counseling and trauma informed care to youth/families under the jurisdiction of juvenile court.” County Judge Tim O’Hare doesn’t like that the group’s web site mentions hot topics like systemic racism. The county has been working with YAP since 1992 and the current contract ends in August; there is no plan for replacing it with another vendor.
- Also in Tarrant County, Anthony Johnson’s family is suing the county and the jailers involved in his death back in April. The family held a news conference in Dallas to talk about the goals of the suit, primarily changes in the way Tarrant County handles mentally ill inmates. Tarrant County jail inmates have been dying at a rate of about one per month in 2024 so far.
- The Star-Telegram would like County Judge Tim O’Hare to explain why progressive speakers at Commissioners’ Court are getting no-trespass notices for speaking for a few seconds longer than the allotted three minutes. The paper seems skeptical that the notices will be applied even-handedly. Can’t imagine why.
- On Friday evening the historic 1858 sanctuary of First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas went up in flames; there’s a good photo of the aftermath at this KERA story about plans to rebuild. Fortunately nobody was killed or even significantly injured despite the destruction of the building. First Baptist is best known outside of Dallas as the church where Robert Jeffress, a Trump ally, is senior pastor.
- The investigation into a Dallas County data breach last October is now over and investigators have made a report, but it didn’t mention that Social Security numbers of county employees and their dependents may have been stolen. Meanwhile letters are going out to employees and members of the public affected, which includes members of the public receiving county services and people who gave information to other entities that shared it with the county. Per the DMN, the breach affected more that 200,000 people, and county officials are being very tight-lipped about whether they paid a ransom and whether sensitive information was posted on the dark web.
- The Fair Park First CEO has resigned effective August 15 after reinstatement following a near-miss firing in May. The DMN story has the history of financial audits and infighting that led to the resignation. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ve seen the end of trouble at Fair Park, especially after the city committed almost $600,000 earlier this year toward a women’s soccer team that would play at the Cotton Bowl.
- You may remember the True Texas Project conference that was held at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden recently. Now, in a completely unrelated move, Tarrant County has new rules for facilities rentals. The timing, according to the Tarrant County administrator’s office, is a “weird coincidence”.
- Jim Schutze, veteran Dallas journalist and perpetual gadfly, has an op-ed in the DMN about the ForwardDallas initiative. He’s right that it’s a zoning document, or at least a zoning guideline, but I have to side-eye his insistence that there’s nothing racist in opposing the parts of the plant that involve zoning some residential areas for duplexes and triplexes. If increasing property values consistently price out homebuyers of color and duplexes would reduce the price of homeownership, refusing to allow duplexes is structurally racist.
- The DMN has checked in with residents of Valley View and southern Cooke County after the Memorial Day weekend tornadoes that killed seven people.
- We have several stories from Fort Worth ISD this week. First, the board shot down, at least for now, the district’s five-year plan and nobody knows what’s happening next. Meanwhile, the superintendent was awarded a performance bonus of $15,000 to her retirement account based on key indicators even though the district’s STAAR results didn’t improve. Meanwhile, despite the fact that Tarrant County cut off funds to Girls, Inc. last fall, FWISD approved more than $350,000 in contracts with the nonprofit.
- NBC News dropped a big story by Mike Hixenbaugh and other journalists covering the two-year fight by a Hood County Deputy Constable to indict three Granbury ISD librarians for giving pornography (books he didn’t like) to minors. Hixenbaugh, as you may recall, is the podcaster who covered Southlake’s board takeover. There’s a lot to take in here, and regular readers will recognize the names of Monica Brown and Karen Lowery. NBC helpfully also links to a DMN story from last August about Lowery, the Granbury ISD trustee, getting censured for sneaking into the high school library and then lying about it. That story takes on a very different look with this additional reporting about her possible motives. The whole story is definitely worth your time, and my heart goes out to the poor librarians, including the one who left the district.
- It’s infrastructure quarter at Love Field: one of the runways is being closed for three months starting August 5 for safety improvements. Next week’s houseguest is leaving out of Love Field on August 6. Sigh.
- USA Today reports that three earthquakes in West Texas on Monday night were caused by fracking. The first one was the largest fracking-related quake in Texas history. They came to my notice because some folks in Dallas felt them.
- West Nile is here: Denton County has its first human case of the season. So does Dallas County. Stay safe out there and wear your mosquito repellent, friends.
- UT Dallas student journalists have been trying to get some questions about pro-Palestinian protests answered by the university since the beginning of May. The university is hamstringing them by charging $8,000 for the documents in their public information request and refusing to waive the fee. The editor managed to negotiate it down to $3,000 if he did the research himself, and the staff raised the money with a GoFundMe. The kids are alright.
- What drew my attention in this story about how the community came together to repair a mural marred by hate speech at TWU in Denton was the list of previous bigoted defacements in the area. Disappointing.
- Department of it’s about time: Ground Game Texas collected enough signatures to get marijuana decriminalization on the November ballot here in Dallas.
- If you live in the Metroplex and think prices are too damn high, you’re right: we have the highest inflation in the nation right now. But in a way that really reminds you who the audience of news is expected to be, the Fort Worth Report piece emphasizes that even though higher inflation sucks for consumers, it’s good for business.
- Unless you’re a long-timer with interest in immigration issues, you might not even know who VDARE is. They’re named after the legendary first white baby born in North America, and the SPLC calls them a white nationalist outlet. It’s also calling them finished thanks to NY Attorney General Letitia James, who issued a subpoena back in 2022 that the group has refused to comply with. A judge found them in contempt back in March and the fines keep piling up. Read the whole thing: these folks have been scammers all along in addition to their awful views. Good riddance to them.
- Be careful when you travel I-45 between Houston and Dallas later this year, because really driverless trucks from Kodiak Robotics are launching starting in August.
- This week I learned that dictator-statue-loving, Clarence-Thomas-enabling local billionaire Harlan Crow put the propeller from the Lusitania by the pool at the Anatole Hilton here in Dallas. Just what I want to think about when I’m having a swim: a shipwreck.
- I don’t think of Forbes as an arbiter of great musical taste, but I’m glad for Dallas native Erykah Badu that they named her the number one R&B artist of all time.
- Goldee’s, which is currently Texas Monthly’s number one for BBQ, has been on my list for a while, but this article about how one of the co-owners has incorporated his Lao heritage into the cue and sides has moved Goldee’s up to the top for my next visit across the Metroplex.
- The Dallas Observer wants us to know how Goths survive the climate in Texas, both the physical heat and the political heat.
- Mark Lamster, the DMA’s architecture critic, has a great piece on the work of the Spanish architects whose proposal was chosen for the expansion of the Dallas Museum of Art.
- Last but not least, we have some zoo babies. Two gharial crocodiles were born at the zoo this year, which is the second year in a row the zoo has managed to repeat the breeding process for the critically endangered species. Congratulations to the zoo and their ectotherms team!