Some area news that happened over the last week or so:
- KERA: Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare highlights economy, tax cuts in State of the County address. He wants to get the Stars and any businesses he can to move to Tarrant County from Dallas County. He didn’t talk about his reactionary activism, though.
- Star-Telegram: Legal fee bill for jail death lawsuit grows. Tarrant County approves up to $30k more
- Star-Telegram: Tarrant County takes step to redraw commissioners’ precincts. This is going to be the subject of a longer piece at some point, but the gist is: the county doesn’t need to redraw the precincts, but County Judge Tim O’Hare and his two Republican cronies have hired a known “election integrity” firm with a record of defending racist redistricting here in Texas, and two commissioners and O’Hare are up for re-election in 2026. You do the math.
- KERA: Tarrant County judge, commissioner vote against honoring Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Committee. This was Tim O’Hare and Matt Krause, who wouldn’t vote for anything that said socialism. It passed anyway because the other Republican Commissioner is Manny Ramirez.
- Fort Worth Report: Tarrant County Democratic Party lays off all paid staff, declines to share details. I recently learned that the Texas Democratic Party doesn’t run things top-down from the state level; all the local parties are independent. So this is bad, but it doesn’t reflect on the state party or any other area parties.
- Star-Telegram editorial: From FIFA soccer to streets, Plano transit pullout could drive gridlock in Fort Worth | Opinion. Fort Worth is noticing that the problems with DART might affect the Dallas-Fort Worth railroad (the Trinity Express) and the FIFA World Cup that’s coming in 2026. I personally think the World Cup is going to be a bust; big events like that never make as much money as proponents claim they will. Even beyond that, though, we have to deal with the international travel climate fomented by the current federal administration. We’ll be lucky if FIFA doesn’t cancel the whole thing. If the games occur, they’ll be playing in nearly-empty stadiums because no foreign tourists are going to come to the US for a long time.
- Dallas Morning News: Here’s who was behind the mass texts about the Las Vegas Sands casino plans in Irving. Big surprise: it was a PAC funded by the Sands people. The DMN did the work and came up with the PACs funding media and advertising on both sides of the issue. Irving City Council wouldn’t approve the casino part of the Sands resort plan last month; the plan submitted and approved doesn’t include a casino.
- DMN: How a temple spire put a small Texas town and the LDS church’s religious rights at odds. An explainer about the Fairfield vs Mormon temple case, which has been ongoing for about a year. The Mormons want to build a temple, which has specific ritual meanings for them, to accommodate their congregants in the area; the town thinks the steeple they want to build is too high compared to the rest of the town.
- DMN: Tesla owner sues for $1 million after car keyed at DFW Airport. The alleged culprit was arrested for criminal mischief and is in the Tarrant County Jail already. The civil suit is for property damage, emotional distress, mental anguish, fees, and costs. I don’t endorse property damage but I cannot imagine being a million dollars worth of distressed over my car getting keyed. On the other hand, my identity is not tied up with my motor vehicle.
- DMN editorial: How much parking does Dallas need? Dallas has been considering revising its parking ordinance for a while. The particular version that the DMN likes is going to kill minimums downtown and in certain business and industrial areas, and reduce it elsewhere. The Powers That Be have spoken, so now we see what Dallas HERO has to say.
- D Magazine: Dallas County Will Consider Independent Review of Roberson Case. Also in the DMN: Dallas County commissioners approve review of medical records in Robert Roberson’s capital murder case. We’re about to pay $20,000 to have those autopsy reports reviewed because Roberson’s daughter was airlifted to Dallas and died here, so our medical examiner did the autopsy. That was back in 2002, when shaken-baby syndrome was considered real and not junk science, as it is now. Roberson, you may recall, came very close to execution last fall and only survived because two of the members of the Texas House caused a constitutional crisis by trying to get him to appear before their committee.
- DMN Watchdog: Are you overpaying on your Atmos gas bill? A customer tries to find out. The answer is: the watchdog and the customers can’t get a straight answer because Atmos gives non-answers to questions. As a customer myself, I assume I’m getting screwed.
- Companies affiliated with Republican Mayors Association execs have scored business. The Republican Mayors Association was founded by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson in 2023 after he won his second term and switched parties. Financial reports suggest senior officials in the association who are also political consultants are self-dealing.
- Texas Observer: Congressman Denounces ICE Response About Prosecutor Operating Racist X Account. Steve Monacelli of the Observer and several other sites found out an ICE prosecutor here in Dallas was behind a gross, racist Xitter account. Congressman Marc Veasey of Fort Worth demanded information from ICE. This is the part where they say they’re doing an internal investigation and talk to them in six months. The DC Bar, where the prosecutor was admitted, is also fobbing Veasey off. It’s going to take lighting a bigger fire under ICE than Veasey seems to have firepower for to get some action here.
- DMN: Rocket acquires Coppell-based mortgage company Mr. Cooper in deal valued at $9.4B. In addition to the local angle, this is also my mortgage company. Rocket, the buyer, also just bought Redfin, so this is some vertical consolidation in the real estate market.
- D Magazine: The New Billionaires: Meet the DFW Leaders Among the World’s Richest People. Also the Dallas Observer: 34 North Texas Billionaires Makes 2025 World’s Richest List. This is the Forbes list. Related in the Star-Telegram: Is Alice Walton still the richest person in Dallas-Fort Worth? Here’s Forbes 2025 list. Yes. She’s also the richest person in the world, and Fort Worth is proud she calls it home.
- DMN: Congressional task force explores question of who killed JFK. Dallas will never get over 1963.
- Fort Worth Report: Texas State Veterans Home named for Tuskegee Airmen opens in Fort Worth. Glad they’re honoring the Tuskegee Airmen.
- KERA: ‘The healing process can actually begin’: At last, marker for 1930 Sherman race riot to go up. Sherman is up near the Oklahoma border; the article is worth reading if only for the interview with a descendant of a survivor of the 1930 lynching and riot, which destroyed the Black business district.