This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth: election follow-up; various infrastructure stories; immigration news; Mercy Culture Church and Gateway Church; museum news; the Michelin Guide opines on Dallas. And more!
This week’s post was brought to you by the music of the Fauré Quartett, a German piano quartet who played for the Dallas Chamber Music Society on Monday. I am particularly enjoying their 2009 album Popsongs, where they cover some tunes you might have heard of.
Let’s talk first about the HERO amendments to the Dallas city charter, specifically Prop U, which is the one where voters have screwed the city by not only demanding 900 more cops against the advice of the police union, they’ve committed half of every new dollar to Dallas PD until the city can undo this decision, and even then they won’t be able to claw back any money for other services due to state law around “defunding the police”.
First, Dallas has now repealed the recommendations that suggested the 3 officers for 1,000 residents rule that was part of the HERO debate. Monty Bennett’s HERO organizer was big mad about it. The DMN and KERA also have the story. The DMN is also reporting on the “monumental task” of hiring enough officers to meet the requirements of Prop U while under threat of lawsuits where, under Prop S, which also passed, they’ll have to waive their governmental immunity. Also, the money for that fast hiring has to come from somewhere, and unsurprisingly, council members expect parks and libraries and other city amenities to take the first and hardest hits.
The most interesting thing I read about the HERO propositions was this D Magazine piece about how it has upended Dallas politics. I agree with what the author has to say about the traditional Dallas accommodations breaking down in favor of the state- and national-style play of the HERO propositions. I also note that Pete Marocco, Monty Bennett’s hand-picked HERO stooge, is a J6er, which is unsurprising but unpleasant. Between the rise of Bennett and his MAGA style politics, the ineffective and late pushback from the old guard of Dallas, and the complete absence of our party-switching mayor from this election, we’re clearly looking at a realignment of Dallas city politics. The Trumpers are here. We need to be ready to fight them.
I’m not going to bother posting the crowing from the Star-Telegram’s right-wing regulars, but I think this op-ed from their newest columnist is right: Texas Democrats need to offer a viable alternative to Republican politics, not Republican-lite. Too much Republican-lite is as much a piece of Colin Allred’s loss as the factors cited by Texas Monthly, and it’s a problem specific to the Dallas area. We are, or after this election, were, the last holdout of the business Republicans. Strategies that work(ed) in Dallas County won’t suit statewide elections. See also: the foot-in-mouth moment about trans folks that put the final nail in the coffin for outgoing Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa, who is not from Dallas but certainly holds to those old ideals that were still assumed to be prevalent here until last week.
It ain’t over until it’s over, and while the ugly November 2024 elections are over, the next general elections in Texas are in May. Our mourning, as always in Texas, needs to be accompanied by community activity and organizing for it.
Let’s jump into the small details of election news and the rest of the fortnight’s business:
The DMN has faith-based analysis of how area Jewish and Muslim voters shifted away from Democrats over Gaza policy.
Tarrant County went for Trump, but they split the ticket at the Senate level and went for Allred over Cruz.
Dallas passed Prop R, which decriminalizes small amounts of pot. We also passed Prop S, which renders the city more vulnerable to lawsuits if we don’t follow the charter. So Ken Paxton is going to sue us if we don’t go after pot smokers and pot smokers are going to sue us if we do. See also our host’s recent post about this matter.
Richardson blogger Mark Steger has thoughts about how Morgan Meyer (my rep) and Angie Chen Button will align themselves with Richardson ISD’s legislative priorities. I’m in Dallas, but I am zoned to Richardson schools, so how Meyer in particular does is relevant to my personal interests.
Speaking of schools, here’s Franklin Strong on the election results. I specifically note his comments about Granbury ISD near Fort Worth.
This Star-Telegram editorial made me laugh, bitterly: Texas Republicans won it all. Now they must show leadership, not seek revenge. Good luck with that, editorial board.
Scroll down in this Guaranteed Republics post for analysis of the Court of Appeals elections as part of the national appeals court landscape.
Scroll down in this Radley Balko post to the sub-head about the “bro-ligarchy” for some information I didn’t know about who paid for those appeals court victories: Republican hedge fund guys. Elon Musk personally put in $2 million.
Related: The Star-Telegram explains why Musk’s venue of choice for court cases is Tarrant County.
This is gossip that I can’t verify because I don’t hang out on Xitter, but Reddit reports that Mark Cuban deleted all his pro-Harris tweets. I know why he felt like he ought to, but it’s still a bad sign.
Have some numbers on early voting in Tarrant County.
The DMN is selling the idea that community is more powerful than partisanship in their piece on the outcome of the city council election in the exurb of Princeton in Collin County. Meanwhile, the Texas Observer tells us the story of Princeton’s pride groups and their struggle with Princeton ISD, which unsurprisingly has a different view of Princeton and its culture wars. The difference between these two articles is what I was talking about with Colin Allred.
In this week’s edition of terrible people from North Texas who are going to get a Trump administration job, former Dallas Congressman John Ratcliffe is Trump’s pick for CIA director. I expect we’ll see a few more of these before the nominations are done.
Did you know that State Rep. Nate Schatzline (R-Fort Worth), who is affliated with Mercy Culture Church, about which more later, also leads a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit called For Liberty & Justice that supports not just Schatzline but also Tarrant GOP Chair Bo French and Ted Cruz? I’m sure you’re shocked. Also, while I’m on the subject of Bo French, you should read up on his quality Xitter posts, featuring a bunch of slurs that his mama should have washed his hands with soap until they bled for typing.
Bolts has a piece on the reelection of Bill Waybourn, Tarrant County’s sherriff who can’t keep inmates in the county jail alive. What is he up to after the election? He briefed the County Commissioners on the Department of Justice report on his jail, telling them investigators told him “Sheriff, you have a Cadillac model of jail”. Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons, whom you may remember from previous spats with County Judge O’Hare disagrees and wants a civil rights investigation. Meanwhile, it looks like one 2022 death in the jail wasn’t investigated by a third party as required by law, specifically the Sandra Bland Act.
The rent is too damn high: there’s not enough housing for minimum wage workers in Dallas or Houston or Austin, for that matter.
State Senator Phil King of Weatherford (Republican) is really tight with Oncor and while Texas Monthly won’t call it corruption, you and I might.
Also in the annals of “none dare call it corruption”, a developer pleaded guilty to bribing two former Dallas city council members in a case that’s been going on since 2020. Two other developers and one of the council members have also pleaded guilty; a third developer is awaiting a retrial. The other council member pleaded guilty but died in a car wreck before sentencing. The DMN also has the story.
I said we were going to come back to Mercy Culture Church and here we are. The church is trying to build a shelter for people who have been trafficked; the neighbors don’t like it; and the zoning commission just voted against it. Next it moves to City Council, where we’ll see whether Nate Schatzline’s friendship with Tarrant County leaders, and his 501 (c)(3), can get some action there. The Star-Telegram also has the story.
Speaking of churches, there are more updates on Gateway Church. Following the Haynes & Boone report, the church has removed elders and employees who knew about the allegations against founding pastor Robert Morris, specifically about his abuse of Cindy Clemishire. The Fort Worth Report article on the removing of the elders also reports on the tithing lawsuit we’ve discussed and demands for money by Robert Morris, which brings me to this report from a site I cannot vouch for, but which seems well-sourced: Robert Morris’ Multiple, Multi-Million-Dollar Properties Raises Questions about How He Obtained Wealth. The Roys Report, source of that last link, is all about exposing the “evangelical industrial complex” and that sure seems to be what’s in play with the Gateway empire.
The latest update on the Arlington nun case is that the priest involved in the original case has retired in good standing for medical reasons. If you’re familiar with the case, you will remember that the head nun of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity was also seriously ill at the time of the allegations. This retirement will have no effect on the Arlington case, which has taken on a life of its own, but I know our host is interested, so I’m marking it here.
I learned recently that we have a shortage of IV fluids here in North Texas and nationally.
A transportation planning survey by the North Central Texas Council of Governments shows that area residents want more transit even as local governments are pulling money from DART.
As noted by our host, Texas and Oklahoma have redrawn their border to keep the Lake Texoma Raw Water Pump Station in Texas, securing water for about 2 million of us here in north Texas. The Texas Tribune also has the story.
The City of Alvord, which is about an hour northwest of Fort Worth, has issued its fourth boil water notice this year. It bothers me a little that nobody seems to have covered the first three.
The city’s water utility is sending around letters about lead in your water pipes and the DMN has an explainer. The Dallas Observer also has the story. We received one of these letters and it’s kind of scary, but after research, we understood ours to say that the city pipeline is clear of lead. They don’t know what’s in the pipe we own between the city shutoff and our house, though.
To the surprise of absolutely nobody who was here in Dallas during October, last month was the warmest October since recordkeeping began in 1898. I’ve barely broken out my long sleeves, never mind my sweaters.
Our host reported a second suit by Ken Paxton against a doctor prescribing gender-affirming care to trans kids earlier this week. I regret to report we have a third case here in Dallas, again at UTSW. KERA also has the story. I wish all the doctors in these cases and their patients the best of luck; they’re going to need it. The law is an ass in this matter.
My takeaway from this story about Arlington city leaders maybe getting their first raises since 1980 is that they make even less than members of the Lege! Mayor and council pay in Arlington is in the city charter and Arlington’s charter is up for updates in May.
Immigration is on a lot of Texans’ minds following the election. First of all, the Star-Telegram explains why a lot of undocumented folks in Tarrant County haven’t gotten their documents. The answers generally fall under “there is no way for them to get legal status” or “their options for legal status would take decades”, which is not news to anyone who knows anything about immigration. (I used to work for a lawyer who did employment immigration petitions and applications for small companies.) Unsurprisingly, area immigration attorneys feel a “sense of urgency” and are wary about the new Trump administration. The immigrants themselves live in fear. If you’re not familiar with the history of mass deportation of Mexican Americans, the Texas Observer will catch you up. According to experts the Observer quoted, up to 60% of deportees in the 1930s were actually US citizens.
KERA has a puff piece on Dallas’ Chief Medical Examiner on the occasion of his retirement. He’s been with the office for 37 years.
You may remember that awful story about Denton Animal Services euthanizing a pet dog while his human was still looking for him. The city organized an external review and is now ready to implement the report’s recommendations for best practices. The head of Animal Services at the time of the euthanasia scandal was fired earlier this year for supposedly unrelated issues.
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Dallas Black Dance Theater. Expect to see them in court in mid-December; the deadline for negotiation is Friday, the day you’re probably reading this.
Dr. Phil doesn’t pay his bill. Or at least not the bills of his Merit Street Media group, according to the Professional Bull Riders organization, which has terminated their agreement with Merit Street due to non-payment of bills. Merit Street also laid off 58 workers in August. Y’all can see where this is going.
The red-cockaded woodpecker of East Texas is off the Endangered Species list but they’re still under some threat and will receive some protections.
There’s a mountain lion loose in the north Texas suburbs and it’s been spotted several times, most recently in Plano. Here in Dallas, I haven’t seen any mountain lions in person, but I have seen coyotes in two different locations near my house this week, and last spring we had fox kits drinking condensation runoff from our air conditioning in our back yard.
In museum news, the Director of the Dallas Museum of Art is stepping down after eight years. The deputy director will step up while the trustees search for a permanent replacement. And in White Settlement, near Fort Worth, the Texas Civil War Museum has closed. The private museum has long been accused of whitewashing Texas’ participation in the Civil War and had a close relationship with the United Daughters of the Confederacy, so, good riddance.
During the encore at the Morrissey concert at Fair Park earlier this month, a fan rushed the stage and the remainder of the show was cancelled. Apparently that’s the second time someone has invaded the stage at one of Morrissey’s Dallas shows; the first time was in 1992.
The Forest Theater in South Dallas received an $8 million grant from the city toward its renovation. This is another one of those projects we’ll have trouble affording in a post-Prop U future.
Fort Worth musician Leon Bridges has two interviews out this week ahead of his Friday night show in Fort Worth: Forbes and Rolling Stone. I’m really sad we couldn’t fit this show into our schedule, especially since Charley Crockett, whom we really want to see live, is one of the openers. Check them both out.
Today I learned that the neighborhood taqueria that everybody around here loves but I thought was kind of gringo is owned by St Vincent’s sister and brother-in-law. I’m trying to figure out whether my chance to fangirl her is worth giving the taqueria another shot.
Speaking of food, let’s talk about the Michelin situation, which has been the subject of a lot of ink. The Star-Telegram notes the Michelin folks like BBQ; multiple local outlets noted that Michelin screwed up by recommending the Charles, a restaurant in the Design District, but writing up Mister Charles, a different restaurant over on Knox Street, oops; and the best piece I’ve read about the whole Michelin business (and I’ve read a bunch): Michelin Sees Texas Through a Tourist’s Eyes, for Better and Worse. They don’t eat at restaurants like folks who live here eat at restaurants, and even apart from the stylistic differences, the produce differences, and plain old Euro snobbery, it shows.
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