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 lot of followup on big stories as the end of the year approaches. In particular, we have more fallout from the filing period for the March primaries; the sale of the controlling interest in the Mavericks to the Adelson family; and the case of local woman Kate Cox, who was denied an abortion by the Texas Supreme Court. Also, the Washington Post investigates the Dallas Morning News; cybersecurity updates; a cattle scam; battles over housing density in Dallas; how the money and benefits started flowing Clarence Thomas’ way; autonomous vehicles here in North Texas; Botham Jean’s brother on forgiveness; a gelato lab; a Concerned Parent in North Texas; and more.
This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Beirut, who released a new album last month.
We’re still getting news and analysis of the filings in North Texas and what the upcoming primaries in this part of the state will look like. The Star-Telegram has notes on local races for the Lege, Congress, and Tarrant County. The DMN has an analysis of the Congressional primaries and the upcoming general election for Congressional seats.
The DMN also has some explainers. One is about CD 26, centered on Denton County, which has a field of eleven Republicans hoping to replace retiring Congressman Michael Burgess. The two leading contenders in the primary are expected to be Scott Armey, son of Dick, who held the seat before Burgess, and who lost to Burgess in the primary when his dad retired, and Bruce Gill, who happens to be Dinesh D’Souza’s son-in-law and has the Trump endorsement. Another is the upcoming special election in HD 2, the north Texas formerly held by Bryan Slaton, who was expelled from the House earlier this year. Brent Money is the Defend Texas Liberty guy and Jill Dutton is the more traditional conservative Republican candidate. Speaking of that breakdown in the GOP, here’s a recent Texas Tribune piece on the Abbott and Paxton revenge tours for the crimes of voting against vouchers or for impeachment.
In other election-related news, Votebeat has a piece on hand-counting ballots as desired by some local Republican parties here in Texas. Glad to see that Dallas County sensibly decided it was too much trouble. In other (good) news, Heider Garcia was sworn in as our new elections administrator here in Dallas County earlier this month. Last but not least: next year we face life without ERIC, the voter crosscheck system, because our elected officials don’t believe in nice things.
Another big recent story that’s progressed further here in north Texas is the sale of the Dallas Mavericks to the Adelson family, which the NBA approved formally this week. Pick your coverage: DMN or KERA. The DMN has an interview with Cuban about how the new partnership will work, which seems to be very informal in a way that’s going to be detrimental to Cuban if there’s a falling-out. The Dallas Observer also has an analysis of Cuban’s bet on casino gambling in north Texas, which will still need a quick approval from the Lege to happen on a schedule that will have a casino resort with basketball ready when the Mavs’ current contract with the AT&T Center runs out in 2030.
A third big 2023 news story with ongoing local fallout is the Kate Cox case. You all know this story so I’ll just send you to the analyses by local media: KERA, the DMN, an editorial in which the DMN says ‘we told you so’ about Texas’ abortion law and an editorial by the Star-Telegram board that doesn’t like the outcome of the case either. You and I already know the only way to solve Texas’ terrible abortion laws and jurisprudence is to vote the bastards who wrote and rule so badly on them out of office.
In other news:
- Here’s a Washington Post piece on how the big DMN investigation into police brutality was spiked. DA Creuzot comes off as a jerk looking for an excuse to get a reporter who was doing his job fired, and the DMN unsurprisingly looks like it’s pandering to local politicians. Even the reporter doesn’t sound great in his quoted exchanges with Creuzot. What a bunch of self-inflicted wounds.
- And here’s a DMN explainer on a way that Texas state funds already support private schools, specifically universities. The Texas Tuition Equalization Grant has been around since the 1970s, and in fact your humble correspondent received one for the final year of her undergrad studies at Rice.
- Following up on the Mr. Cooper security breach: it’s worse than we thought and they got a lot of personal information down to bank account numbers. We got the email and snail mail letters from Mr. Cooper this week and are locking down our credit.
- Another breach update: The Tarrant County Appraisal District says there’s no evidence anybody stole any data. Let’s hope this is the correct answer and not just the optimism that comes from a new chief being chosen after a year of scandal.
- And in other tech news, the Dallas County Information Technology Executive Government Committee was due to meet earlier this month to release results from a half-million dollar study of county IT systems. Somebody forgot to put the details on the agenda so the meeting was cancelled to avoid violating the Open Meetings Act. They’ll try again in January. Commissioners were told about the results this week and they’re not good. Look for more on this matter in the new year.
- Here’s a Fort Worth story that’s very Texas: Someone offered up to 31% returns on cattle contracts, but unsurprisingly it was a Ponzi scheme. The DMN and the Star-Telegram have the details on this almost $200 million scam.
- In a story familiar to many readers, the City of Dallas is facing pension shortfalls for its police officers and firefighters. One of the current suggestions for how to improve the numbers is to monetize city assets to build up the money in the accounts. Nobody is saying what that means (increased fees? selling city assets?) but I’m pretty sure nobody is going to go with the suicidal politics of raising taxes, certainly not with a Republican mayor in office.
- Here’s an an update on Dallas’ rape kit backlog. The numbers are lower but even one rape kit on the shelf is still too many.
- This D Magazine piece on multifamily housing and the political arguments over it is one of the better explainers I’ve seen on this issue. We’re not talking about apartment complexes, but about duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes, which exist in older areas but can no longer be built thanks to zoning. Unsurprisingly, residents in single-family zoned areas are generally very NIMBY about this. The Dallas Observer piece about the council meeting where the topic was discussed is also good at showing the kind of discussion you get in Dallas on these issues. Compare that to the article on the same issue in the DMN and think about the investigative reporter who got suspended for pissing off the DA and how that figures into the tone of the coverage.
- The SBOE has signed off on new school library rules based on the law sponsored by Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco. Expect to see lawsuits around these rules because they’re written by the sort of book banner who thinks any mention of sex, (trans)gender, or homosexuality is pornographic, and any mention of race is “critical race theory” or “DEI”.
- You’ve probably already seen the latest update on Six Degrees of Clarence Thomas but it turns out that he’s been whining for money and being wined, dined, flown, and holidayed since 2000. Chris Geidner has additional analysis and correctly ties Thomas’ threats to quit the court to Bush v Gore and everything that’s happened since.
- This week I learned autonomous trucks are on the road in Fort Worth, not just on I-45 between Dallas and Houston. The article points out that North Texas has become a hub for autonomous vehicles because of limited regulation, and specifically because Texas doesn’t require safety drivers, though fortunately nobody is taking advantage of that (lack of) rule yet.
- A few items on the weather and climate beat for you: OSHA fined the USPS $15,625 for failing to protect carriers on the day a Dallas mail carrier died earlier this year. The heat index was 113F. And on the matter of housing affordability, the DMN has an editorial about how insurance costs are making homes harder to buy and how legislators need to adjust a variety of policies and laws to accommodate that truth.
- Speaking of the DMN’s editorial section, have the smelling salts ready if you click through to this opinion piece: Waiting for politics to return to normal? What if it already has? I don’t disagree with the idea that strong partisan disagreement is the norm, but did I really read with my own two eyes that William F. Buckley was part of an optimistic, inclusive Republican era? I’m sorry to say I did, and that tells you how seriously you should take this op-ed.
- If you live in North Texas, you’re almost certainly aware of Prestonwood Baptist, a huge megachurch on the west side of Plano that has been, among other things, Matt Shaheen’s and Ken Paxton’s church home. The DMN has five things you should know about their lavish Christmas pageant, featuring a cast of almost a thousand humans plus some actual camels. Unsurprisingly, it has critics, and equally unsurprisingly, the church doesn’t care.
- This piece in the Deseret News about Botham Jean’s brother and his forgiveness of Amber Guyger, the police officer who killed Jean here in Dallas in 2018, really touched me. I’ve read a number of pieces about how the death of Botham Jean shattered his family and every one of them has made my heart hurt. What a tragedy.
- Here’s a piece about five women pitmasters in the Fort Worth area, including one at Texas Monthly’s top BBQ place in the state, Goldee’s. Yum.
- Mark Lamster, the DMN’s architecture critic, gave out his architecture awards for the year, including awards for works at the Nasher Sculpture Center, St. Sarkis Armenian Orthodox Church in Carrolton, and a not-so-good award for the closure of the The Rice Design Alliance.
- I haven’t seen the “Concerned Parent in North Texas” social media account but after reading this interview with the dad that runs it, I need to check it out.
- There is a new gelato laboratory in Fair Park and I’m sad it’s closed to the public. I’m going to have to check out its successes at local gelateria Botolino Gelato Artigianale.
- Here are some historic photos of Fort Worth’s Stock Show All-Western parade dating back to the 1930s.
- Last, but not least, enjoy some north Texas museum news: the DMA is having ‘Free First Sundays’, including free entry to its expensive ticketed travelling exhibits, every first Sunday of the month through the end of 2026; a new James Turrell skyspace is complete in Fort Worth, though it’s not open to the public yet; and the Kimbell has a major new acquisition in the form of a one-legged Olmec statue.