This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth: another very bad bid for the Dallas Morning News; Dallas is under the Death Star’s eye; more about the finalists for Fort Worth PD Chief; Keller wants to make nicer with ICE; local protests; McKinney breaks ground on its airport; Southwest puts a date on assigned seats; and local cultural news, including a dictionary of Big D Speak.
This week’s post was brought to you by the music of local folk singer Katherine Paterson.
- Just when you thought the Hearst folks had safely bought the Dallas Morning News, another offer has come in, from an affiliate of Alden Global Capital. It’s an additional $2.50 a share and D Magazine has a good explainer on why it would be terrible if the Alden deal goes through: specifically the example of the Chicago Tribune, which Alden has gutted. The major shareholder of DallasNews is committed to the Hearst deal, which may mean lawsuits from minor shareholders if Hearst doesn’t sweeten the deal.
- The Texas Public Policy Foundation has announced that the city of Dallas has 133 ordinances that violate the Death Star law and they have three Dallas citizens ready to file suit against the city over them. The city has 90 days to repeal or amend the ordinances or the city will sue. You may remember that Dallas voted in Prop S, which will significantly disadvantage the city in this kind of lawsuit, last November. That was a dumb decision on the part of the voters, and they’re about to find out why the hard way.
- Dallas ISD trustee for District 6 Joyce Freeman has one donor: Ruel Hamilton. D Magazine explains why this raises eyebrows, which is mostly that Hamilton has never had a conviction for bribery hold up.
- Unsurprisingly, Dallas has lost its appeal against the injunction keeping them from enforcing its short-term rental ban while the actual lawsuit is in process.
- A Dallas cop who was doing off-hours overnight security at local Apple stores has been busted for stealing almost $38,000 in Apple products, which his wife was selling on Facebook. Apparently the Apple store security folks tracked him down, which doesn’t surprise me.
- We’re never going to get rid of them, exhibit A: Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare is running for reelection in 2026.
- Fort Worth City Council member Chris Nettles has some questions about how former Dallas PD chief Eddie Garcia was allowed to apply late for the Fort Worth job. Nettles also had a lot of questions about the hiring of City Manager Jay Chapa last year. In other Fort Worth PD news, one of the other finalists for the chief’s job pulled her application after her current employer, LAPD, promoted her. That leaves Fort Worth deciding between Garcia, Fort Worth interim Chief Robert Alldredge, and former Dallas police Assistant Chief Vernon Hale. The fact that two of the applicants are former senior Dallas cops suggests nobody wants to work here in Dallas, which would not surprise me.
- An east Fort Worth water treatment plant that was contaminated by an oil spill in May will cost $5 million or more to fix. The spill came from a pipeline owned by Energy Transfer Partners, founded by Kelcy Warren (father of Klyde, as in the park). No word yet on who’s going to get stuck with the bill.
- The City of Keller wants to get cozy with ICE and get some sweet federal money under the 287(g) program. Apparently the city is already handing folks in the jail over to ICE, they’re just not getting the money. Keller Mayor Armin Mizani, who’s also a declared candidate for one of the state Senate seats open in the local musical chairs after Kelly Hancock took a job under Greg Abbott, says Keller’s efforts only affect criminals, but of course a lot of people can end up in jail without being what you or I think of as criminals. Getting deported over an unpaid traffic ticket is a very harsh penalty, especially when US citizenship may not be enough to keep you from getting deported!
- Speaking of ICE, the Dallas Observer tells you what you need to know about the four detention centers that serve the Dallas ICE Field Office, including the one in Alvarado where the shooting took place over the Fourth of July weekend.
- In other related news, the Dallas Fed says the decline in immigration is likely to affect the US economy negatively. Also, water is wet and the sun rises in the east.
- Another thing that’s likely to have a negative effect on the economy in North Texas: extreme heat. We’ve had a mild summer this year, due in part to the storms in Central Texas, but I still don’t want to think about the poor folks who have to work outside.
- McKinney finally broke ground on its airport, the one the local taxpayers don’t want to pay for. They embargoed the news until after the groundbreaking to keep protesters from showing up.
- We had Good Trouble rallies in Dallas and Fort Worth last week as part of the mass protest plans against the Trump administration. We also had a separate protest in Richardson against defense contractor Raytheon, which is supplying weapons to Israel that are used against Palestinians in Gaza.
- This is a really fascinating piece about a Dallas woman who named the man who sexually assaulted her on social media. Apparently that’s what women do now when they can’t get justice through the courts, and from the sound of her story, Dallas PD dropped the ball in her case in a bad way. I wish her peace and healing.
- The DMN has opinions about the special session that’s just started: In Abbott’s special session, here’s the good and the really bad. The board goes down the list from flood control to redistricting. And Gromer Jeffers, Jr., their political writer, speculates on whether this year’s redistricting will be as big of a change as the 2003 redistricting (spoiler: probably not).
- Over at the Star-Telegram, editorial columnist Bud Kennedy explains the 86 million reasons no Democrat wants to run for Governor of Texas: that’s the size of Greg Abbott’s election war chest.
- KERA, our local NPR outlet, is going to lose $2.7 million in federal funding. (No) Thanks, Trump.
- Southwest will start assigning seats for flights on January 27. Extra legroom will cost you extra. We’ll miss those boarding groups.
- You may remember that Dr. Phil is starting a new media company out of the ashes of his old one. But wait: Professional Bull Riders, who broke with Dr. Phil’s Merit Street Media last November, are objecting to his bankruptcy filing over claims amounting to $181 million.
- Time just put out a list of the top 100 influencers and three of them are from North Texas. I am old and only know about one of them, who’s a food guy.
- Speaking of local food, my neighborhood favorite Resident Taqueria has expanded. No word on a DJ set from St Vincent to celebrate yet, alas.
- And in more food-adjacent news, Chili’s has collaborated with Tecovas to make “booth boots” from the red vinyl seating in their restaurants. They go on sale online next week if $345 vinyl boots decorated with a Chili’s pepper, or the belts that go with them, are your thing.
- Last but not least, if you want to know how to speak Dallas, the Dallas Observer has a dictionary of local slang for you. Some of them I knew, like the difference between southern Dallas and South Dallas, but I had no idea that “the Metroplex” was coined by marketers.