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 election news of all sorts leading into the primary. Early voting starts next week! We also have a grab bag of items from the last six weeks from the hotel explosion in Fort Worth last month to the unveiling of a new mural honoring Juanita Craft in South Dallas last week. We also have another zoo baby for you to enjoy!
This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Ludovico Einaudi.
Let’s start with election news. As you know, we’re about to start voting in the primaries in this part of Texas, and a lot of people have opinions.
The Fort Worth Report ran stories about the Republican debates they sponsored for Tarrant County candidates last week. This week they have the Democratic candidate debates for CD 12, HD 97, and Tarrant County precinct 1. Here’s a second story about the Precinct One Democratic race. In Precinct 8, we have a residential eligibility case that will be heard on March 1. The Star-Telegram has a voter guide out for Fort Worth and Tarrant County including an overview, the Star-Telegram’s recommendations, and sample ballots for both primaries.
Meanwhile, in Dallas, we have the DMN’s recommendations, which are mostly pro-incumbent and anti-Paxton on the Republican side, including Craig Goldman in CD 12 and Frederick Frazier as the best of a bad lot in HD61. (He’s the sign stealer.) Which is not to say they won’t choose none of the above or even withdraw a recommendation the way they did in the Republican primary in SD 30 when their man turned out to be open to secession. Their ballot guide will generate the set of candidates on each side of the aisle for your address.
There’s also a grab bag of local stories that might interest folks:
- The Texas Tribune on Jasmine Crockett from last month and this Dallas Observer piece about Jrmar Jefferson, her primary opponent, who seems to be one of those perpetual loser candidates with a side of how it’s fraud when he loses.
- KERA on Ken Paxton’s beef with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It says something about how low Paxton can go that I’m almost feeling sorry for Sharon Keller.
- The Star-Telegram has noticed that Greg Abbott’s endorsements rest solely on how candidates feel about vouchers.
- The Texas Tribune has an explainer about the Republican primary for CD 26, Michael Burgess’ seat, where the frontrunners are the mayor of Southlake and Dinesh D’Souza’s son-in-law.
- One of the candidates in CD32, Colin Allred’s seat, is a trans lawyer who is president of the Dallas LGBT Bar Association. I wish her good luck, but there are some bigger names in that field and even if there’s a runoff, I don’t think Ms Butcher will be in it.
- The Observer has a piece on how the border issues are affecting the race for our Senate seat this year.
- If you want to visit the elections office in Dallas, you need to take a car, because you can’t get there on public transit.
And last but not least, because everybody should know about this one: Laura Pressley, a voter fraud activist from Austin, held a poll watcher training session at a church in Arlington on Tuesday. When a Star-Telegram reporter turned up to check it out, they refused the reporter entry. I don’t usually do archive links but I really want you to read this story, so please take a look.
In other news:
- You may remember the explosion last month in downtown Fort Worth at the Sandman Hotel. Here’s a summary of the lawsuits filed as of the end of last month, including Atmos’ suit to be removed as a defendant in the suits against the hotel. At the beginning of this month, the fire department turned control of the property over to the owners a few days later.
- At the same time people are complaining about their current Atmos bills (I certainly got sticker shock with mine last month) and Atmos is asking for a 15% rate increase.
- The DMN’s Watchdog is also down on the electric utilities for their Soviet-style corruption and wow, ain’t those fightin’ words! It won’t fix all the problems, but Rep. Greg Casar of Austin is trying to get the Texas grid connected to the national grid. We know it won’t happen in this dysfunctional Congress, but I’d like to thank him for trying.
- From last month: one of the Star-Telegram’s regular opinion columnists takes on Confederate Heroes Day. Good for him and good for Nathan Hale, who has been trying to get the “holiday” off the calendar.
- Here are some recent posts about Dallas’ city pension plan shortfalls: the DMN on how the council wants to top up the DPD and DFD pension funds before they top up city employee pensions; an explainer from D Magazine after last month’s big council meeting to discuss the matter; and a Dallas Observer explainer. As Houston voters know, there is no easy solution for pension shortfalls and it’s going to come out of our pockets one way or another. I feel your pain.
- Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn, who is Jewish, had her home vandalized with antisemitic graffiti last week. The DMN’s editorial board rightly condemns the antisemitic attacks against her.
- Now that the dust is starting to clear from the Adelson/Sands purchase of the Mavericks, people are asking whether the team is staying in Dallas or just in the Metroplex. This is a question with broader implications; it’s not just the Sands folks who are ready to bring gambling to DFW. Unsurprisingly the Dallas City Council is ready to get their cut and might even want to push for legal gambling in the Lege in 2025.
- In case you were wondering, here’s how much tax revenue DFW Airport generates for the two big cities it serves: “In 2022, Fort Worth received $10.1 million and Dallas received $13.1 million from the sharing agreement.”
- There’s a new children’s hospital coming to Dallas and here’s what you should know about it.
- After public outcry, Fort Worth PD has released part of its chase policy with the rest still redacted. Other area municipalities have released their policies. Also there are more police chases in North Texas than you might think. One statistic from that last link: one in every four Irving police chases has reached or exceeded 100 mph. Yikes!
- The police chief in Denton resigned this week. It’s “personnel-related”, so keep your ears peeled for why.
- The DMN’s City Columnist has a scathing commentary on the housing debates in Dallas. Gentrification and affordable housing are issues everywhere but rising house prices and the fact that a lot of construction in the city is upgrading existing stock makes them worse here.
- From last month: did you see that Collin County’s favorite Ken Paxton finally said something about his out-of-state properties? He did not break any laws and did nothing wrong, of course.
- Radley Balko eulogizes the late Dallas DA Craig Watkins.
- Things I never thought I’d see: the DMN is crowdfunding for reporters! The DMN’s explanation and commentary from CultureMap. In related news, I was notified this month that my subscription to the DMN is increasing from about $24 to $33 a month.
- At least 10 DFW area school districts have had to close schools since the beginning of January. And 200 DFW area schools are at higher risk of a measles outbreak. Get vaccinated, folks.
- Fort Worth ISD would like to do more to teach civics, but state law makes it hard by banning a lot of activities as “woke”.
- The thief who stole all the animals from the Dallas Zoo early last year is incompetent to stand trial. Animal cruelty charges against him have been dropped but he’s still on the hook for two counts of felony burglary.
- US Rep. Roger Williams, whose district extends into the southwest part of Fort Worth, says 90% of small business hit by ‘illegal immigrant’ crime. You will not be surprised to learn the data disagrees with him.
- In related news, Joe Biden cannot shut the border down on his own, he’s already doing many things that he does have authority to do, and some other things that Republicans want him to do are illegal and violations of international law, especially around asylum.
- The president of UNT in Denton is resigning effective August 1. The Texas Tribune has a good overview of his term.
- UT Arlington has upgraded its planetarium ahead of April’s solar eclipse.
- I missed the Fort Worth Stock Show while I was recovering from surgery, but I’m pleased to report that the grand champion steer sold for $340,000.
- Dallas’ Landmark Commission has voted to designate White Rock Cemetery in north Dallas, a historic Black cemetery, a historic landmark. This is the first step in getting it protected from development. I thought this cemetery must be in my neighborhood when I first read about it, but it’s several miles north of where I live, which is about a mile north of the top of White Rock Lake.
- Dr. Phil McGraw, the daytime TV star, is launching a TV network in north Texas. I’m just the messenger. You don’t have to watch it.
- The DMA’s current building is now 40 years old.
- Here’s the latest on the planned Juneteenth museum in Fort Worth.
- The Longhorn Ballroom has been officially added to the National Register of Historic Places. Now I really need to go see a show there.
- Irving is throwing money at Toyota Music Factory like it’s a sports stadium instead of a music venue. It’s been open since 2017 and the city council just voted $30 million in incentives to them. I have seen shows at Toyota Music Factory; it’s on the same plan as the venue in the Woodlands or the one at the F1 racetrack in Austin.
- At the corner of Malcolm X and MLK in South Dallas, there’s now a mural of Juanita Craft, the Dallas civil rights activist on her birthday, February 9.
- Stewart Copeland of the Police will be doing an artist residency at SMU this spring and will be leading a symphony concert in April. I didn’t know, but am not surprised to learn, that Copeland is also a Grammy-winning composer. Now to get tickets to that concert where he’ll be leading the college orchestra in rearranged Police hits.
- SMU also has a fantastic-looking punk and post-punk exhibit centering on the work of Buzzcocks designer Malcolm Garrett this spring. That’s also going on my to-do list.
- In zoo news, the Fort Worth zoo has announced the birth of baby Jameela, a Western lowland gorilla. Her mother, Sekani, showed symptoms of pre-eclampsia, so the zoo intervened to give Sekani a Cesarean section. Mother and baby are both well, but Sekani sadly hasn’t bonded with Jameela. The zookeepers are trying to bond her with a surrogate mother instead. Enjoy some photos of Jameela from the zoo’s Instagram.