Let’s jump in with some news from Dallas …
- We have a number of pieces on the new convention center, starting with KERA: Dallas considers $1 billion loan for convention center renovations; Candy’s Dirt: City Hall Roundup: Downtown Crime, KBHCC, DallasNow Scam, where we get the quote, “So, we never use the word cost or budget”; the Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster: First look: Newly revealed convention center is a gamble for downtown Dallas; and the Dallas Observer: Dallas Officials Give In-Depth Look at Convention Center Plans, Questions Remain. There’s a lot of skepticism about the money and the future of the center, which needs to be whipped into shape for the World Cup next year, since it’s going to serve as the broadcast center.
- DMN: Greyhound plans September opening for new Dallas station. It’ll be opposite one of the DART stations, on Harry Hines.
- The DMN’s Robert Wilonsky: Wilonsky: This is what happens when the NIMBYs are in your own backyard. Someone wants to use a vacant lot at the intersection of Royal Lane and Webb Chapel Road to put in a coffee shop, a retail space, or a small office building. The neighbors aren’t having it.
- DMN: Effort to move Dallas elections to November stalls in Texas Legislature. We’ll continue to vote in May for at least another biennium.
- DMN: Dallas police want 130 officers downtown in the next few months. How will the city do it? The plan is apparently to put new officers from the recent academy class downtown first and to possibly bring back some retired officers.
- D Magazine: A Gun, a Horse, and One Woman’s Dream. It’s hard to be a Black woman cop in Dallas, and even harder to get on DPD’s Mounted Unit. But Tracy Morgan managed it.
- DMN: Bush Center taps energetic West Texas native as its next CEO. They recruited him from Princeton. I’ve never been to the center, though my late mother-in-law was a docent there before the pandemic hit. We kept intending to take a day off and let her show us around, and now it’s too late.
- The DMN’s Wilonsky, again: Wilonsky: Looks like we failed Fair Park. Again. He’s absolutely right that the Oak View Group has screwed up and management needs to go back to the Parks Department.
- Candy’s Dirt: Dallas Officials Poised To Approve Atmos Gas Rate Hike. Because if they won’t, the Texas Railroad Commission, which ultimately controls rates, will.
… and then on to Fort Worth …
- Fort Worth Report: One Fort Worth City Council seat remains up for grabs in June runoff. Meet the candidates. As noted elsewhere, early voting for the June runoff has begun.
- Star-Telegram: Here’s the next leader of the Fort Worth Police Department … for now. It’s current executive deputy chief Robert Alldredge.
- Candy’s Dirt: New Digs: Fort Worth Moves Into New City Hall, Site of Former Pier1 HQ Built After 2000 Tornado.
- Star-Telegram: $1B expansion of Fort Worth Stockyards put on ‘indefinite hold’ in legal dispute. Sounds like a real mess; the lawsuit is being heard in Los Angeles.
- Star-Telegram op-ed by Mayor Mattie Parker and others: Will deadly 1949 flood be repeated in Fort Worth? This project aims to prevent it | Opinion. It’s the Central City Flood Control project and the big question is whether they’ll get federal funding.Star-Telegram op-ed by Mayor Mattie Parker and others: Will deadly 1949 flood be repeated in Fort Worth? This project aims to prevent it | Opinion. It’s the Central City Flood Control project and the big question is whether they’ll get federal funding.
… and then to Dallas and Tarrant Counties …
- DMN: Texas executes Matthew Johnson for setting Garland clerk on fire during 2012 robbery. This was a Dallas County case.
- News on the Tarrant County redistricting, and there’s a lot of it, almost all from the Fort Worth Report:
- Fort Worth Report: At Arlington town hall, Democrats call redistricting racist while Republicans defend maps as fair and also from the Star-Telegram: Arlington residents criticize Tarrant County redistricting as racial gerrymander.
- Fort Worth Report: 10 Tarrant County mayors send letter opposing redistricting attempt. The group includes the Mayors of Fort Worth, Arlington, and Grand Prairie; they want to wait until the next census to redistrict again.
- Fort Worth Report: Tarrant Commissioner Matt Krause says he wants redistricting to grow Republican majority on court. Like his colleague Manny Ramirez, he’s saying the quiet part out loud.
- More on the Tarrant County Jail and the death of Kimberly Phillips in February of this year: Family of woman who died in Tarrant County jail sues for medical records; and from KERA: Daughter of woman who died of dehydration, malnutrition in Tarrant County custody sues for records.
- As I mentioned above, it’s early voting for the June runoff. In the Fort Worth Report: Early voting for runoffs begins. Here’s which Tarrant County seats are on the ballot.
… and the suburbs and suburban counties
- Dallas Observer: For 4 Years, Arlington Has Provided a Peek Into a Driverless Future. May Mobility runs the Rapid shuttle service around UT Arlington.
- DMN: Fairview residents challenge council’s approval of LDS temple permit. This is a “how we read the law” procedural dispute, which means it’s going to land in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s hands at some point.
- DMN: New automated drone system in Prosper will enhance public safety, town officials say. My takeaway is that the drones are from Flock Safety, whom regular readers will know are a sketchy bunch.
- Denton has repealed its decriminalization of marijuana. From KERA: Denton City Council repeals marijuana ordinance in split vote; and from the Dallas Observer: Denton City Council Repeals Marijuana Decriminalization Mandate. The Observer put the lede in the subhead: “After $200,000 spent fighting a lawsuit from Paxton, the Denton leaders voted to repeal a decriminalization mandate.”
- KERA: Rockwall County to install Ten Commandments monument at historic courthouse. It’s similar to the one at the Capitol in Austin and the one being placed in Tarrant County.
- KERA: Proposed Muslim development in Texas brings inquiries by DOJ and state officials. This is the latest update on EPIC City in Collin County.
… and the region at large …
- North Texas’ park systems got kudos in a national survey recently. In Candy’s Dirt: Dallas Parks Inch Up in National Ranking; in D Magazine: Dallas’ ‘Intentional’ Approach to Increasing Parks Is Paying Off; in the Dallas Observer: North Texas Cities See Boost in Annual Park Score Ratings; in the Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth’s parks system jumps in national rankings. Here’s what changed.
- DMN: How many tornadoes officially touched down during severe weather weekend in North Texas? This isn’t from Memorial Day weekend, but the weekend before. The answer is we had seven tornadoes, all west of Fort Worth, including four EF-0s and two EF-1s.
- DMN: Measles outbreak raises concern for Texans with immune issues. As one of those Texans, I have to admit my response was “no kidding!”
- KERA: DART paratransit workers vote to authorize strike against contractor. This is about the contractor who runs the door-to-door service for folks with disabilities in the Dallas area.
- Gateway Church has a new pastor. From the Star-Telegram: Southlake’s embattled Gateway Church appoints new senior pastor; DMN: Gateway announces Virginia megachurch founder as new senior pastor.
… and other interesting things I read about the area or the state.
- DMN: Here are 5 key points from Beto O’Rourke’s town hall in Garland. One of them is that he’s not running for governor, certainly not yet, but he’s definitely testing the water for something.
- Wall Street Journal: Austin’s Reign as a Tech Hub Might Be Coming to an End. They cite Oracle moving its HQ from Austin to Nashville.
- DMN: UTD scientists solve 100-year-old mystery behind diabetic nerve damage. I’m used to local medical research coming out of UT Southwestern, so extra kudos to UT Dallas.
- DMN editorial: A ban on red flag laws in Texas is senseless, but it’s coming. This is the stuff that gets the DMN called pinko commies by the MAGA folks.
- WFAA: Texas agriculture commissioner says farmers would be okay with using treated fracking water on farmland. I’m certain this is not true, and particularly not true in North Texas after the trouble we’ve had in Johnson County with treated biosolids used as fertilizer.
- DMN: Tom Cruise spotted at ‘Mission: Impossible’ screenings in Dallas. Here’s where. The Cinemark on Webb Chapel, the AMC at Northpark, and Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum for barbecue.
- DMN: $60, 4 animals and a dream: Curious Texas investigates the history of the Dallas Zoo. That was $60 in 1888, or a bit over $2000 in today’s money. Among the things I learned from this article was that Frank Buck, whose fictionalized exploits were shown on TV when I was a kid, was born in Dallas. When he said “Bring ’em back alive” he meant to the zoo.
- D Magazine: Chili’s Is So Back. Their social media manager is a Gen Z nepo baby and doing a great job of bring his generation’s attention to Chili’s.
- KERA: Step inside the Garland studio where Willie Nelson recorded Red Headed Stranger. Apparently it still smells like all the smoke from the 70s in there. (Unspecified: what kind of smoke.)
- Fort Worth Report: Van Cliburn International Competition. Coverage of the piano competition in Fort Worth. It runs through the 7th, and if I were actually in Fort Worth, I’d have tickets for the finals.
- Fort Worth Report: Kimbell Art Museum acquires rare Chardin painting previously caught in legal dispute. The Kimbell’s remit is to get the best available painting they can get from each artist. This is their second by this artist, which is interesting to me based on that remit.
- Last, but not least, I didn’t know that bats were a thing in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, but apparently they are! In the DMN: Texas is a batty state, but in North Texas, Fort Worth takes the cake; and the Fort Worth Report: Bats are flocking to this part of Fort Worth. Here’s how researchers are documenting it. Sadly, there are no immediate plans for bat cruises like they have in Austin.