Dispatches from Dallas, May 2 edition

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: May election outcomes and the meanings thereof; who dumped money into PACs and what they got for it, including one PAC that can’t even spell right; the latest redistricting news from Tarrant County and other shenanigans; plans for the new DFW terminal get bigger and more expensive; the latest on investigations against EPIC City; the impending state takeover of Fort Worth ISD and other school news; local ties to a legendary Willie Nelson album celebrating an anniversary; and more!

This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Joan Jett and Billy Idol, whom I saw in a really good show last week. (The Dallas Observer reviewed it; I thought they were a little harsh on Joan. She’s a bar band player and there’s an upper limit on the size of the bar she can fill with music.)

Let’s jump into the news, starting with some business from the recent local election:

• Just before the election on May 3, local journalist Steven Monacelli documented who’s behind two new PACs in the Dallas area: the Dallas County GOP and AirBnB. The local GOP (remember, run by Allen West), couldn’t even spell “The Committee for a Strong Econcomy”, the name of their PAC, correctly. KERA included this news in their roundup of who dumped money into the election. And the DMN noted Dallas City Council candidates received about $1.6 million in contributions, with about a quarter coming in the last month.
• The DMN complains we didn’t turn out for the May election, with only 8.4% of 1.4 million registered voters showing up to do their civic duty. (I voted early.) Since, as they mention, there are bills to move Dallas elections to November, one hopes this will be less of a problem in the future.
• The Dallas Observer has takeaways from the election results for City Council. And KERA has their own take on the results of the City Council races. The DMN spotlights the two runoffs: D8, where Tennel Atkins was termed out, and D11, where Jaynie Schultz retired rather than face the fallout of the Pepper Square redevelopment mess. We’ll get to the Tarrant County results later; there are definitely also things worth talking about.
• Dallas’ budget is $6.5 million in the red so far rhis year. KERA also has the story. Apparently it’s all because property owners are greedily protesting our rising tax bills. The problem of Prop U, which directs our excess money, is looking smaller suddenly. (Both articles mention it.)
• New Dallas PD Chief Daniel Comeaux was talking about hiring more officers in accordance with Prop U when he was sworn in earlier this month. The more I read about what Comeaux is doing vs what Interim Chief Igo, who resigned when he didn’t get the top job, thought was realistic, the more I think Igo dodged a bullet.
• Dallas County DA John Creuzot will seek the death penalty for the retrial of “Texas Seven” defendant Randy Halprin, who was part of a group that escaped from prison in 2000 and killed a police officer in Irving. The retrial comes after Halprin’s original verdict was overturned over the the antisemitic views of his judge; Halprin is Jewish. This is the first time Creuzot has sought the death penalty since he became DA in 2019.
• Over in Fort Worth, we also have some police news: they’re looking for a new chief per the Star-Telegram and the Fort Worth Report. And Fort Worth PD has cleared their backlog of 900 rape kits, discovered last fall. How did they do it? They only had two of seven certified DNA scientist positions filled, so they offered signing bonuses of $5,000, an 8.5% raise for the position, and outsourcing while they onboarded the new hires and got them FBI certified. In other words, they spent a bunch of money.
• In Tarrant County, there’s always news about Tim O’Hare: he hosted a luncheon for the National Day of Prayer, featuring Kevin Sorbo as the keynote speaker and group prayers led by, among others, Leigh Wambsganss of Patriot Mobile. Three charities benefited from the luncheon, one of which is the Mercy Culture Church organization to help sex trafficking victims. You may recall that the city of Fort Worth lost a fight with Mercy Culture when the church wanted to build a shelter for sex trafficking victims. More on this topic at the Fort Worth Report.
• In Tarrant County Jail news, autopsy results for Kimberly Phillips, who died in the jail in February, were announced. Phillips died of dehydration. Per the article, she was a vegetarian and wasn’t offered vegetarian food. She died at JPS (the local hospital) but she is one of several inmates who’ve died of dehydration during Sherriff Bill Waybourn’s tenure.
• Meanwhile, you may recall that we also had an in-custody death here in Dallas County in March. the Texas Commission on Jail Standards picked the Tarrant County Sherriff’s Office to investigate this death. Click through and read this: the Dallas County Jail isn’t great but Tarrant County is worse, and why on earth the state would send this investigation to Tarrant County when they don’t follow the law with their own jail is beyond me.
• I said we were going to talk about the election results in Tarrant County. It was ugly out there for Republicans and their chosen candidates for city councils and school boards, per the Fort Worth Report. The Tarrant County GOP endorsed a slate of 26, of whom 14 lost; the True Texas Project endorsed a similar slate of 33, of whom 19 lost. This is another good read if you’re interested in the True Texas and Patriot Mobile folks and their effect on Tarrant County local politics. Along the same lines, WFAA talked to Republican consultant Brian Mayes about the election results, both the GOP wipeout and the successes of the local school bond elections. And as referenced by Mayes Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy points out the GOP went 0 for 11 in 12 key city, school and college board elections (the 12th has a runoff). Ouch. As Kennedy notes, Tarrant Dems didn’t do well either, but not as badly as the GOP. And the DMN’s Gromer Jeffers Jr. suggests that national partisan issues that sell well in Republican primaries don’t sell well with the nonpartisan suburban electorate. He also talks about the difference between November elections in even years (partisan) and November elections in odd years, which could still be nonpartisan, to the extent anything is allowed to be any more.
• Of course, that only matters when elections are competitive, and the Tarrant County GOP would like to ensure they’re not. Unsurprisingly, the proposed Tarrant County Commissioners’ redistricting map favors Republican candidates, over the complaints of some residents who think their voices are going unheard. The Mayor of Arlington has asked the city staff to look into the redistricting, with the idea that if they find something wrong, the city council can act. The new map splits Arlington between Districts 1 and 2, instead of leaving it in District 2 where it’s currently located.
• DFW airport is putting in a much bigger Terminal F with some help from American Airlines and it’s going to run about $4 billion dollars. Pick your poison: DMN; D Magazine; Fort Worth Report; and a DMN explainer in case you need to catch up on this project from zero. It also has the answer to the most important question: how will all this affect my flights?
• In an announcement of a type long familiar to my Houston-area readers, we have our first West Nile mosquito in Tarrant County.
• And in another health announcement we’re all getting too familiar with, Denton County has had its second case of measles.
• Arlington is expanding its DFR (Drone as a First Responder) program from fireworks calls to include calls about shootings, domestic violence, burglaries, missing persons and other crimes. The idea is that the drone gets there before the police officers, not instead of, which I was wondering about when I initial heard about the program. This is another one where you might want to check out the details, particularly if you’re into the intersection of technology and law enforcement.
• Speaking of the intersection of tech and law enforcement, the suburb of Carrollton has signed up with Flock Safety to integrate security camera data, like your doorbell’s camera, with Carrollton PD’s feed. You may remember Flock for the trouble it had in Fort Worth with unauthorized cameras last fall. You may also be interested in this 404 piece about how Flock is building a tool to integrate its license plate readers with other databases to give police insight into the movements of individuals without court orders or warrants.
• More election news, this time from Irving. In the Place 2 at-large city council runoff, losing candidate Vicky Oduk, who had about 5% of the vote, endorsed Families for Irving candidate Sergio Porres, who had about 45% of the vote. Families for Irving is pro-school choice, single-family housing, and “traditional family values” for keeping an eye on politics in the suburbs. David Pfaff, the other runoff candidate, had about 47% of the vote in the May election. Porres is anti-casino; I don’t know where Pfaff stands after a quick review of his website.
• Mercy Culture Church is in the news again: one of the apostolic elders of the church, a Messianic Jewish pastor, Michael Brown, has been accused of sexual misconduct in the 2000s after a third-party investigation. Mercy Culture, unsurprisingly, is standing by their man; this despite the fact that they’re about to break ground on their shelter for sex-trafficking victims. Also unsurprising to me, though I didn’t know: Mercy Culture was “planted” in 2019 by Gateway Church, which was formerly led by accused child molestor Robert Morris.
• As you probably know, John Cornyn, in his efforts to run right against Ken Paxton in the 2026 senate primary, asked the Department of Justice to investigate the EPIC City development. They’re going to do it, per the AP and KERA. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an editorial about what they call the “political bullying” of the business. If you’re just finding out about this case, the Dallas Observer has a timeline for you. Good luck to the East Plano Islamic Center; they continue to need it.
• Another story that’s unfortunately familiar to my Houston readers is the runup to the state seizure of an urban school district. We’re now seeing this in Fort Worth, where Mike Morath is winding up to take over Fort Worth ISD next school year, per the DMN, the Star-Telegram, and the Fort Worth Report. The FWISD sixth-grade school that failed five times was already closed, but other schools are also struggling. And local lawmakers, like State Rep. Phil King and State Sen. Kelly Hancock, both Republicans, support the takeover. The Star-Telegram editorial board, on the other hand, doesn’t support the takeover and points to the significant changes at FWISD, including the change of superintendent and the closure of the offending school, since the failures occurred. I wish FWISD good luck, because based on the example of Houston, they’re going to need it, and more of it if Mike Morath takes over the district.
• Having made his point, or at least threatened enough people, Attorney General Ken Paxton has dropped his lawsuit against Coppell ISD for teaching critical race theory. More from the DMN. The gist seems to be that Paxton thinks he won because the school won’t teach about racism as much; the school thinks they won because nobody (else) had to get the sack; and I think the voters and state taxpayers lost because this is one more nonsense lawsuit filed to show Paxton’s loyalty to MAGA before the 2026 senate primary.
• The Star-Telegram editorial board would like you to know that the movement to split Keller ISD shows why we need to enforce the Open Meetings Act. They’re not wrong, either.
• KERA has the latest on the online scandal surrounding the death of Austin Metcalf at the hands of Karmelo Anthony at the Frisco UIL meet last month. Not only are there a lot of people using the case for their own ends, there’s also a lot of general misinformation out there. For example, the DMN confirms that despite stories that say otherwise, Karmelo Anthony won’t walk in the Frisco ISD graduation. He will receive his diploma and graduate, but will not participate in any ceremony.
• The Texas Observer has a scorcher of a profile of State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian).
• UT Dallas is getting a new president per KERA and the Texas Tribune. Maybe Prabhas Moghe, currently Rutgers University’s chief academic officer, can figure out a better way to handle student protestors than the current leadership.
• In a worrying development, the green card-holding drummer of an Austin metal band was detained at DFW on their way to their now-cancelled European tour. I’m not surprised when immigration issues happen on the way into the US, but grabbing someone on the way out is another example of the disturbing immigration policy of the current administration. The Austin Chronicle has more details.
• You may remember the trouble that Johnson County folks are having with PFAS “forever chemicals”, purportedly from Fort Worth sewage biosolids being used as fertilizer. Texas Monthly has the story of how this session’s bill to limit PFAS came out of Johnson County. The Fort Worth Report has a similar story, so Rep. Helen Kerwin must be out pushing it in hopes of getting traction on the legislation. The Texas Tribune has the latest on the bill, which doesn’t look good: it missed a key deadline on Monday.
• D Magazine asks: How Much Is a Joint Replacement in North Texas? The answer is: pretty damn expensive. The only city more expensive for a knee replacement than DFW is New York. Click through to see the charts for motivation to keep your joints in good working order.
• If you’re feeling down about the mess at the Texas Renaissance Festival in Magnolia, you should know we have a renaissance festival in North Texas in the spring. KERA has a puff piece on Scarborough Faire’s raptor program for you to enjoy.
• Architecture news and commentary from the DMN: first, Robert Wilonsky on how the city is going to kick the can down the road yet again on fixing the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only theater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. And architecture critic Mark Lamster writes an open letter to Carlos Basualdo, the new director of the Nasher Sculpture Center, on his arrival in Dallas from Philadelphia.
• I know about the Sixth Floor Museum, which delves into the John F. Kennedy assassination, but I didn’t know that it leased the building from Dallas County. They may not be there much longer if they can’t satisfy Commissioners’ Court about building updates and funding. Good luck to them trying to raise money in this economy.
• Proof that Dallas is getting to be a Big Movie Town: Big Movie Star Tom Cruise is coming to town to surprise moviegoers at the new Mission Impossible movie.
• A Luka Doncic-signed Mavs jersey is up for auction with bids up to $1500. What’s so special about it? It also says FIRE NICO. It’s not clear whether it said so when Luka signed it. Some people in this town are never going to get over Nico Harrison trading him away.
• And finally, this year is the 50th anniversary of the classic Willie Nelson album Red Headed Stranger, which was recorded in the suburb of Garland, a few miles from where I live. Dallas musicians are reflecting on the legendary album and festivities in Garland will honor the anniversary this weekend.

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