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 short week for several reasons: first, we’re still recovering from the short week last week at New Year’s; second, we have a snowpocalypse going on in the Metroplex (no worries, sports fans, the Cotton Bowl is still on as of this writing); and third, I’m working on a project that I’ll talk more about later.
What we have for you right now is: the big stories of 2025; the fight for Speaker of the Texas House in North Texas; bills for the upcoming legislative session; one more departure from the Dallas city administration; Jay Hartzell is leaving UT-Austin for SMU; the Star-Telegram has an editorial about the Mercy Culture trafficking shelter fight; the first area jail death for the year; wild hogs in Irving; another local preacher who’s a sex offender, this time convicted for sexual assault of a teenaged girl; museum news in Dallas; and a sad story about a fire at a Dallas bazaar that resulted in the deaths of animals in a pet store.
This week’s post was brought to you by the final part of the NPR Music’s 124 Best Songs of 2024 playlist. That was an eight-hour playlist and I felt like I learned a lot about where music was last year.
Let’s get on with the news:
- Axios is watching a number of stories in 2025: vouchers at the Lege, the exodus and replacement of Dallas city officials, World Cup preparations, the power grid, airport expansions at DFW and McKinney, housing affordability, and population growth. I expect to see all of these topics come up here as well.
- It turns out that the gun Shamsud-Din Jabbar used in his New Year’s attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans was purchased in Arlington. Thanks, Texas gun control laws.
- The Dallas Observer has a list of North Texans who may be pardoned over their role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Let’s hope Trump’s short attention span focuses somewhere else and the justice system gives these folks their due.
- The fight on the Republican side for Speaker of the Texas House is getting hot and heavy. Earlier this week Collin County’s favorite boy, Attorney General Ken Paxton, rallied in North Texas with a rogue’s gallery of North Texas hard-right folks to support David Cook (R-Mansfield) for speaker. Also at the rally: Rep. Nate Schatzline (R-Fort Worth), Rep. Tony Tinderholt, (R-Arlington), Rep. David Lowe (R-Fort Worth), Rep. Mike Olcott (R-Graford), Rep. Mitch Little (R-Carrollton), and Rep. Andy Hopper (R-Denton), among others. The Texas Tribune has more, including planned future stops in Tyler, Leander, and Conroe.
- Fort Worth’s goals in the upcoming Lege session include amending SB 2038, which allows property owners to leave a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction if they vote to do so. Given how much the Lege hates cities, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
- My state senator, Nathan Johnson, is yet again trying to expand Medicaid here in Texas, larding the proposal with elements that have passed in other conservative states in hopes that Republicans will vote for it. KERA has more. I agree with Johnson that the outlook for Medicaid expansion is poor but I still wish him the best with this bill. In related news, a national survey has found Dallas County is the least-insured major metro area in Texas and among the least-insured areas nationally.
- Dallas officials are keeping an eye on Senator Borris Miles’ (D-Houston) proposal to mandate big cities implement civilian oversight boards for their police departments. That’s another one where I wish the author luck and don’t think it’s going to happen, for all that Dallas really needs more civilian oversight given how many more police we’re about to hire.
- The Dallas Morning News identifies the key players in the push to legalize casino gambling in Texas. The big pro-gambling player is Miriam Adelson, who donated 13.7 million to PACs last year; everybody else is Republican and their attitudes range from gambling being a low priority to hardline opposition.
- The City of Dallas is losing its Environmental Director, who is going to a job in private industry. D Magazine has a scathing description of his term in office, so maybe this isn’t an entirely bad thing. Either way, add one more to the list of folks getting out of Dodge.
- It’s been a year since the historic Sandman Hotel exploded in downtown Fort Worth and we still don’t know why it happened. The Star-Telegram reports irregular construction practices during the hotel’s renovation and the smell of a gas leak before the explosion. KERA’s story notes that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation was closed with no fines because the investigator had emergency surgery and the statute of limitations ran out. The real reason we don’t have an answer, as both stories suggest, is that it’ll all come out during the civil trials where injured workers are suing the hotel.
- The Star-Telegram has an editorial about the Mercy Culture shelter approval, which correctly points out that Mayor Mattie Parker gave Mercy Culture a blueprint for how to push the city (the Star-Telegram uses the word “bully”) into approving the shelter over neighborhood objections. Mercy Culture is well-connected (Rep. Nate Schatzline preaches there) and has religious liberty lawyers on speed-dial. They won’t be the last church to use such tactics to get something they want from Fort Worth. If you’re interested in church and state separation, you should read this editorial.
- After the problems with the pollbook in Dallas County elections in November, the state decertified the flawed ES&S software that caused the problems. Now Dallas County is worried the updated software won’t be ready by April 21, when early voting for the May election starts. I’m not pro-pencil and paper voting, but I have to admit this is not one of the many problems the old-school methods had.
- In unwelcome but unsurprising news, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare will run for reelection.
- Last Friday there was a protest about the deaths in the Tarrant County Jail under Sheriff Bill Waybourn. Waybourn was reelected in November. Since the beginning of his tenure as Sheriff in 2017, 70 inmates have died in the jail.
- We have our first jail death in the Metroplex of 2025 and this time it’s in North Richland Hills. The deceased was arrested on New Year’s Eve on a DWI charge and died the next day. The medical examiner has not yet released a cause of death. The Star-Telegram also has the story.
- Here’s one of my problems with vouchers: state money will end up sending kids to financially questionable schools like New Hope Christian Academy in Plano, which shut down with three days’ notice in early November, leaving students with nowhere to go, families with tuition payments lost, and teachers with no paycheck.
- Speaking of school closures, here’s a list of eleven public schools in the Metroplex that will close in 2025 due to declining enrollment and budget crunches.
- You probably have already heard the news, but Dallas’ gain is Austin’s loss for a change: Jay Hartzell is stepping down as President of UT Austin to lead SMU. The DMN has an exclusive interview with Hartzell about the decision and a look at how the two schools compare. The Texas Tribune also has the story.
- Rhome, a northeastern exurb of Fort Worth, is quitting Facebook in favor of an app called GoGov. This story came out before the news about Meta ditching its fact-checking and loosening its moderation standards.
- Wild hogs are rooting the suburban lawns in Irving. It looks like there are only ten instead of thirty to fifty.
- McKinney didn’t get a bond for airport expansion to pass in 2023, but they’re plowing ahead with an expansion anyhow. Apparently this is the second time the city has pushed ahead with the airport after a failed bond package.
- The Daystar Network is losing churches and pastors who broadcast with them over their child sex abuse scandal. Among those who have departed: local Dominionist preacher Lance Wallnau.
- A local minister who works with a church in Duncanville and local megachurch Watermark turns out to have a 30-year-old conviction for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl; he was her youth minister, had sex with her, and “ran away with her” to Las Vegas. Watermark has him in their prison ministry but he doesn’t work with minors; the DMN covered this scandal in 2012 with dueling opinion pieces and also have a current article on the matter.
- I post about this every year but here’s the story about the 2024 Prestonwood Baptist Christmas show, which is a celebration of Jesus’ birth by way of suburban excess. Prestonwood, in Plano, is a well-connected Baptist megachurch. It counts Attorney General Ken Paxton among its members.
- We’re about to see some high-speed rail lawsuits in Dallas. Hunt Realty Investments, which owns the property on the southwest side of downtown that includes the Hyatt and Reunion Tower, is lining up to sue the City and the The North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Transportation Council over plans for Dallas-Fort Worth high-speed rail that would impinge on that property. The transportation council is expected to ask for $1 million in legal fees to prepare for the impending lawsuit after receiving demand letters for information. The Fort Worth Report also has the story, including a map of the property involved and the likely ultimate route. Houston folks, this story is about the intracity rail between Dallas and Fort Worth only; it doesn’t include the proposed Dallas to Houston rail line.
- Unsurprisingly, in the split between MAGA Republicans and tech barons, the DMN falls on the side of the tech barons. Here’s the DMN’s editorial in favor of H-1B visas to demonstrate their stance.
- Dr. Harry Robinson, Jr., the founder of the African American Museum in Fair Park, has retired after a long career envisioning, building, and collecting for the museum. Here’s an interview with him with a local station and another with D Magazine. The African American Museum has been on my list for a while, but these stories have definitely increased my interest.
- In other museum news, the Dallas Historical Society has just clinched two major donations totalling $8 million that will transform the society and its Fair Park museum. Spouse and I were members briefly before the pandemic, but haven’t gotten back to it yet; this seems like a good moment to get reacquainted. The DMN article also serves as a puff piece on the Executive Director of the Society, who seems like a great leader for the group.
- Last, a sad story from northwest Dallas, where a fire at the Plaza Latina Bazaar killed almost 600 animals in a pet store on the premises. The animals were mostly birds who died of smoke inhalation. A dozen animals were saved and treated, including a turtle; the only two humans on the premises escaped unharmed. The cause of the fire is under investigation.