This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week in DFW, our most interesting story is a brouhaha in Frisco ISD, but we also have an interview with Sarah Weddington’s co-counsel in Roe v. Wade, trouble with the Dallas SPCA, local elections news, including speculation about who’ll go for Colin Allred’s seat if he takes on Ted Cruz, and more. Be sure to scroll down for a link to a picture of bald eaglets!
Marvin Lowe, a Frisco ISD trustee elected in the May 2022 cycle, had some kind of interaction with a trans student from Brownsville at a statewide educational conference in September of last year. The student reports that Lowe said a number of inappropriate things, he’s backed up by his mother and at least two other adults, and he and his family seem to have gone through official channels until last week, when they spoke to the Dallas Morning News [Archive link] because they weren’t getting any satisfaction. Lowe apparently talked about his “junk” and naked people in locker rooms and people getting aroused to the student; also, according to everybody but Lowe, an activist had to intervene to get Lowe to leave the then sixteen-year-old student alone.
Lowe didn’t want to talk to the DMN, but the subject came up at a Frisco ISD board meeting on February 26 (Frisco Star), exciting significant controversy from speakers. Lowe denied everything at the meeting but has since gone on a conservative talk radio show to defend himself (DMN archive link) but his story has already started to shift: now he says he talked to the student’s mother about locker rooms.
Lowe won his seat from incumbent Kathy Hebert by 51 votes after a recount. His candidate website is bare-bones but mentions his opposition to CRT in the schools. Here’s some coverage of the race and Lowe’s supporters in Texas Monthly from last May, which demonstrates how Lowe’s candidacy is part of the ongoing reactionary attack on public schools, teachers, and curriculums in north Texas.
I don’t expect Lowe will resign, or be forced to, but I don’t expect we’ve heard the last of this case, or Lowe.
In other news:
- Roe v. Wade Started in Dallas. Now the Archive Is Up for Auction. An interview with Linda Coffee and Rebecca Hartt, whose archive of Roe v. Wade documents is up for auction. Coffee was Sarah Weddington’s co-counsel on the case. Also if you have a spare $50K lying around, you too can bid on the auction.
- SPCA of Texas Names Interim President/CEO After Current Leader Resigns. The former president was forced out after closing the south (Black) Dallas low-cost vet clinic and dropping its work with the city on animal cruelty. As noted in the DMN last week, [Archive link], this was not a good look as far as the donors were concerned and Karen Froehlich, the former CEO, resigned. Another local animal charity, Operation Kindness, has stepped up to help while the SPCA gets its ducks and other critters back in a row.
- Justice Department Files Fair Housing Complaint Against DFW Landlord. The gist of it is that federal checks come on the first and rent is due on the first. If you let people pay without a late fee until the fifth, they can use those federal checks to pay rent without penalty. So changing the penalty date is a method of getting rid of folks depending on those federal payments, in this case SSI. And complaining about the change gets you labeled a troublemaker.
- Texas Medical Association Files Fourth Lawsuit in Battle Against Surprise Billing Implementation. This is getting into the weeds of the No Surprises Act, which was all about stopping surprise out-of-network medical bills. Now the doctors and insurance companies are fighting about the regulations around arbitration. Why is this a North Texas issue? Tarrant and Dallas counties are first and second, respectively, for per capita medical debt, in part because we have so many uninsured people in Texas: twice the national average percentage-wise.
- Who Writes Stories For and About Texans? Andrea Grimes’ annual survey of magazine writers and bylines in Texas. The link tells you a bit about her methods and outcomes and, in one case, some shortcomings; the actual numbers are crunched in a linked report. Teal deer: white people write most of the magazine articles; women write more than men but men get better articles and more cover bylines; trans and nonbinary folks are overrepresented compared to their numbers in the population; the Valley and the Panhandle are underrepresented, DFW and Austin are overrepresented, and so are California and New York.
- Tarrant County plans to cut funding for affordable housing project in Las Vegas Trail. Instead of the previously planned affordable housing in an underserved (poor) community, the county is going to put part of its federal COVID money into a new peace officer academy. The previous commissioner (a Republican first elected in 1987) in the precinct where Las Vegas Trail is located retired in 2022 and the new incumbent is the president of the Fort Worth Police Officer’s Association.
- In municipal elections news: Two Dallas City Council Seats Destined for New Blood. Close-up on the candidates in D3 and D10, the two open seats. I live in D10 and have been getting texts from Hassenbauer, who is apparently the only Democrat in the officially nonpartisan (no primaries) race. The Observer also focuses on D1: Equal Representation at Center of Dallas’ District 1 City Council Race. It’s a majority-Hispanic district represented by a white member.
- 2024 election speculation: Political dominoes could fall if Democrat Colin Allred takes on GOP’s Ted Cruz for Senate [Archive link]. Aka who’s going after Allred’s seat if he goes after Cruz.
- Also in suburban school district trustees this week: James Whitfield, former Grapevine-Colleyville principal, sues district. [Archive link.] Another battle in the ongoing suburban school district wars. This was the case where the district ran out a Black principal for teaching “critical race theory” after the George Floyd protests. A settlement was reached and then one of the trustees, elected after Whitfield’s departure, repeatedly said defamatory things about the former principal. (Example from last year in the Star-Telegram: Archive link). A quick google of Tammy Nakamura, the trustee in question, turned up a Colleyville activist FB page featuring a photo of Nakamura with a Confederate flag and her page on Trumpettes USA. I wish Dr. Whitfield good luck in his suit and with his future employment.
- In cultural news: Author Nikole Hannah-Jones Visits Bishop Arts to See the Plays She Inspired. I didn’t know until it was almost over that there was a 1619 Project one-act play festival in Dallas.
- Magic: the Gathering fans ‘heartbroken’ as $100,000 worth of cards found in Texas landfill. Sadly the Reddit posts where the photos were originally posted don’t say where. What they do show is that the cards are unusable.
- Why the climate crisis may be coming for your margarita next. There may not be enough water to grow agave if things keep going on the way they are, and that would be a Texas-sized tragedy.
- John Baker Sands Wetland Center welcomes two bald eaglets (Instagram.)