This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week in DFW-area news, two big stories: the mass shooting in Allen and local election results. Plus, updates on the Dallas ransomware situation, Tarrant County jail troubles go to the feds, Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow, robotaxis, a great exhibit at an area museum, and mayo beer.
First, local elections: The city of Dallas had all fourteen seats and the mayor’s office on the ballot. All the incumbents (the mayor and 12 council members) won (Archive link), with only one of the open seats proceeding to a runoff. In Fort Worth, per Fort Worth Report, Mayor Parker and most of the council also cruised to re-election and there’s going to be a runoff in D11, the new Hispanic-opportunity district. Arlington kept its mayor and the majority of its council and approved bonds for streets and parks. Denton recalled one council member (archive link), presumably over ignoring the voters on marijuana decriminalization. Local blogger Mark Steger sums up the Richardson elections; Richardson also kept most incumbents and passed a bond issue for additional funds to replace their city hall, which was due for refurbishment before it burned down.
In school board elections, the DMN summarizes results in Collin and Dallas counties (Archive link), which mostly favored incumbents, which was good news after last year’s beatdown by reactionary Patriot Mobile candidates and the like. Frankin Strong has a good summary of statewide news including where anti-reactionary forces failed in North Texas: Keller ISD and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD.
I’m not a fan of Dallas mayor Eric Johnson, but he was the only choice on the ballot. My council member (D10) was term-limited out and I live in a part of Dallas that’s a stronghold of the business Republican, so it’s unsurprising that even the candidate I voted for was a little conservative for my taste. He lost, though, and the somewhat more conservative but at least not utterly reactionary Kathy Stewart will be my council member. Meanwhile in RISD elections, the incumbent in at-large place 6 survived a reactionary challenger, which I consider enough of a victory to make up for both D10 and the mayor.
But at least I voted! A lot of people don’t, and the complaints are legion (Dallas Observer; DMN; Fort Worth Report). Looks like the numbers in the cities are about 10% of registered voters, which as that Dallas Observer story demonstrates, means hundreds of votes are deciding council seat elections. We could solve part of this problem by moving municipal elections to November, when more people vote. But since the people who could move elections keep getting re-elected in May, that’s not likely to happen.
The second big story this week is the mass shooting at the outlet mall in Allen. I assume anyone interested enough to follow Charles’ blog is aware of the outlines of the story, but here’s the DMN update on the story from the 10th (Archive link). Unsurprisingly the killer had a history of “mental illness” and his guns were legally acquired. He was wearing a patch signifying right-wing extremist views and his social media was full of Hitler love and related opinions. And half the victims were of Asian descent (Archive link). Everybody and their dog is upset with Texas Republicans who won’t do anything about guns, but of course, as Charles noted yesterday, we can’t even get the Lege to pass a bill to keep from selling assault weapons to young folks who can’t drink legally in the wake of a mass murder.
Meanwhile, since the mass shooting in Allen, we also saw an apparent attack on folks outside a migrant shelter in Brownsville that killed eight people. And in North Texas we had a shooting on a DART train that killed one and injured two (Archive link). That was just Sunday. Plus, of course, the inevitable copycat threats.
Andrea Grimes has the best take on the whole thing: “If I die by gun violence, don’t pray for me. Politicize me.”
In other news:
- Charles has covered recent news on the ransomware attack on the City of Dallas. Today the city says it may take months to clean all city computers (Archive link). I’m glad our library is fine-free and I have a stack of books to work through before the IT folks get to it.
- Here’s a little DMN coverage of the upcoming Senate race between hometown boy Colin Allred and Ted Cruz (Archive link). Most of this is conventional wisdom about how much it sucks to be a Democrat in Texas but I think the DMN’s political reporter may be on to something about the difference between Allred and Beto. I appreciate Beto’s positive campaigning, but he didn’t hit Cruz hard enough. Allred has come out of the gate saying what we all know is true: Cruz is awful and he’s in it for himself. Allred has a fine line to walk being positive vs bringing Cruz’s many chickens home to roost; his opening video did a great job of emphasizing both points. While Allred isn’t my congressional rep (I wish) his local profile suggests he has a good chance of threading that needle.
- Again as Charles noted, notorious sex pest Bryan Slaton was expelled from the Lege Tuesday. I hope we’ve seen the last of him, but I doubt it. I’ll be keeping an eye out for a new election in Slaton’s district, not to mention seeing who scoops him up as a lobbyist. My condolences to his former constituents, except the ones who voted for him.
- Speaking of hater Republicans, the Tarrant County Judge is going after a bar that hosted an all-ages drag show. He’s asked the Comptroller to rule whether Tulips, a venue I haven’t been to yet but one that’s hosted a number of concerts I’m interested in, is operating as an unlicensed sexually-oriented business. This is the same county judge who ran off a nationally-acclaimed election administrator because he’s an election denier, so take his suggestions with a mountain of salt.
- In economic news, the Dallas Fed says Texas is losing its cheap housing advantage. Having bought two houses and sold one in the state in the last fifteen years, I’m not surprised. The price of our (free standing) new construction condo in Austin went up by half in the eight years we owned it and its current estimated value is about another half again of what we sold it for; and our house in Dallas has gone up about half in estimated value in the not-quite five years since we bought it. Near southeast Austin was hot because of the Oracle facility but I can’t tell you why northeast Dallas is this hot.
- I’ve been watching this story for a while but it’s now coming to a head: Fort Worth activists work with Texas A&M to seek federal investigation of Tarrant County Jail. In particular this request was driven by the county’s handling of the case of Robert Miller, where the county supposedly hired a third-party expert to review the autopsy after he died in jail and the Star-Telegram questioned the results. No autopsy report was sent to the expert and nothing happened. Unsurprisingly, the Sheriff’s office did not respond to information requests for the linked story. Read the whole thing; it’s pretty grim. I’ll continue to keep an eye on this case and hope for some forward motion from the feds.
- Robotaxis are coming: GM’s Cruise to Expand Robotaxi Service to Dallas and Houston (Archive link). “Cruise initially will offer rides to employees and have a safety driver, then open it to the public once the service is established. When the cars are truly driverless, Cruise will charge fares, a spokeswoman said.” More for somebody else.
- You knew there was going to be a Clarence Thomas & Harlan Crow update. So here’s the ProPublica story about Harlan Crow paying for Thomas’ great-nephew, whom Thomas raised, at expensive private schools and laying out about $100,000. Crow, meanwhile, has told the Senate panel looking into the apparent corruption involved in his gifts to Thomas to to kiss off (Archive link). For commentary on all this, I recommend Dahlia Lithwick and Chris Geidner. Also, in case you can’t get enough of Clarence and Ginni Thomas, PBS has a Frontline documentary out on them.
- In cultural news: Nearly 100 works make for a once-in-a-generation show of Mayan art at the Kimbell. The Kimbell is the best museum in the DFW metroplex and one of the best in the state despite its small size. This is going to be a fantastic show; I look forward to seeing it. If any of you reading this will be in the area this summer, check it out. The Kimbell is worth a visit even without a blockbuster exhibit and the general collection is free.
- We Try Martin House’s Mayonnaise Beer … ‘for Some Reason’. I like mayo on my sandwiches, but … no.
- Sad news from the zoo: Dallas Zoo elephant dies. Ajabu was seven and died of a viral infection that is often fatal. There’s no reason to suspect Ajabu’s illness was related to any of the zoo’s problems earlier this year.
- Last, but not least, for my fellow Gen Xers: Frankie Goes to Hollywood biopic Relax in the works. I’m here for it.