RE: ‘JESSICA’S LAWS’

Wow, that didn’t take long to hear from the damned. After the jump, the most cogent response. (more…)

ONE THING THAT’S WRONG WITH ‘JESSICA’S LAWS’

It would increase already stringent penalties for some first-time child sex offenders. I’m not an advocate for sex offenders by any means, but I do know that in Texas a 17-year-old high schooler who has sex with his 14-year-old girlfriend is a sex offender for life the second she tells the cops. And there’s no defense available to him in court.

MARK CUBAN WILL NOT OWN THE CHICAGO CUBS

I know what you’re thinking: who said he would? Well, this afternoon, Radar Online, a magazine that’s folded twice already, though not yet for reasons of credibility. Anyway, the Chicago Tribune says there’s no truth to the report. Too bad. As a lifelong Cubs fan–man that would have been sweet to see someone who actually cares about the franchise owning it.

When I told Rod a couple hours ago about the Radar piece, he had a different reaction. “The only thing separating Cubs from Cubes is one letter. And that letter stands for ‘ego’.”

CHANGES AT THE MANSION?

A tip-passing-along FrontBurnervian passes along a tip: Shane Krige, managing director at the Mansion, is leaving to take over similar duties at the Plaza in NY.

Nice.

LINEUP FOR AFI DALLAS

Perhaps you saw in the print version of FrontBurner that the AFI film festival is coming to Dallas. Or maybe you’ve heard it elsewhere. If not, you should know. It’s a big deal. We’ve been remiss in announcing that the lineup is out and easy to navigate thanks to their handy Quickguide. Check it out. (That is, check out both the Quickguide and the festival itself.)

DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART CFO RESIGNS

Remember when we broke the news about the financial kerfuffle over at the DMA? Sure you do. Well, I checked in with them to see how things were coming. Here’s what the museum has to say:

The resulting detailed investigation is complete. It revealed some personal charges made on the DMA corporate credit card that were not repaid in a timely manner. The amount was considered immaterial and it is being reimbursed in full.

Chief Financial Officer Robert E. Robertson, who has been on paid administrative leave during this investigation, has resigned from the Museum effective February 12, 2007. Melissa Henderson, CPA, has joined the DMA management team as interim Chief Financial Officer.

We are gratified that our system of checks and balances was effective in disclosing this inappropriate business practice and we have put additional safeguards in place.

Hmm. “Charges not repaid in a timely manner”? Is that like what Gloria Orapello did?

VIKING TO PUBLISH, ROB ALLYN TO WRITE…

…the memoirs of Vincente Fox. Here’s the announcement: (more…)

BACK TO YOU, PAUL

RE: JENKENS & GILCHRIST

Somone who knows someone who’s an insider at Jenkens & Gilchrist passed the following email along to FrontBurner. As the someone pointed out to us, the email paints a different picture than the article in today’s DMN:

(more…)

POLICE, STING TO ROCK DALLAS

Nancy, since we’re sharing rock star photos, I thought I’d use the upcoming Police show as an excuse to drop this hot pic of Sting on you (members of the Police Fan Club can buy tickets tomorrow to the June 26 show at the AAC; the rest of the general public has to wait till Saturday). The pic was taken backstage at Smirnoff. Sting smelled really good. And, as you can see, we had a contest to see whose biceps were bigger. Sting won.

OH, THE INJUSTICE OF JUSTICE

I have my doubts about Dallas DA Craig Watkins on a lot of issues, but one thing I’m liking is his stand on DNA evidence review. I’m all about the DNA. (That could probably be phrased better.) Anyhow, Watkins may be more alone in his position than he thinks among prosectors. Texas district attorneys — including some former Dallas prosecutors — aren’t happy at all about what Watkins is doing, and they don’t like criticism of their DNA destruction practices. (Tough toenails.) Scott Henson over at Grits for Breakfast has the low down.

RE: JENKENS & GILCHRIST

More fallout from the possible/rumored dissolution of J&G. Or maybe it’s just coincidence. An insider FrontBurnervian sends this:

As a follow-up to your posts yesterday regarding the demise of Jenkens, it may also be interesting to some to note that the (non-Jenkens) lawyer largely responsible for Jenkens’ dissolution–David Deary–is also causing another firm to “dissolute” in the coming weeks as well: his own. And it’s curious that the April 1 dissolution of his own firm comes a mere 2 days prior to the payment date for the Jenkens settlement.

Deary was the plaintiffs’ lawyer in the class-action suit against J&G, the suit that netted them $81.55 million. The insider says Deary is headed to another firm and taking a couple of associates with him.

D MAGAZINE MAKES PRETTY MAGAZINES, WINS AWARDS

You probably don’t read the magazine NewsStand Resource. But it’s a national trade publication that covers the newsstand industry. The magazine just handed out awards for best covers in several categories. Guess who won the Best in Show award, across all circulation groups. Go ahead. Guess. Oh, okay, I’ll tell you: we did, with our “Parched” cover, from September 2006. A sloppy kiss and a high-five for Todd Johnson, our design director, and Elizabeth Lavin, our staff photographer who shot the image. It’s a privilege to work with them.

VIRTUAL WORLD GROWS VIRTUAL TERRORISTS

Last month, Eric felt old after reading about Second Life, an online world akin to The Sims in which one can carry out a parallel life. Today comes word that should make Eric feel old and scared. People are creating terrorists to demonstrate their unhappiness with Second Life.

RE: JENKENS & GILCHRIST

Brenda Sapino Jeffreys at Texas Lawyer files this story about four litigators from J&G’s Houston office jumping ship this week, on top of the four transactional lawyers who left the Houston earlier this month. On top of that, an anonymous FrontBurnervian says:

It’s true…. employees have been calling our office worried about their profit sharing and retirement plans.

RE: JENKENS & GILCHRIST

More than one law-firm-tracking FrontBurnervian has pointed out similarities between the situation at Jenkens & Gilchrist and another Dallas firm by the shorthand name of Vial Hamilton:

I heard a few days ago that almost 20 partners resigned from Vial, Hamilton the week before last, about half leaving to start another firm, with the remainder going to a variety of different places. I just looked at their website, and that doesn’t leave very many lawyers left to lawyer. As I recall, Vial, Hamilton went through a similar turmoil a few years ago, as rumors of the firm’s imminent demise ran rampant. I thought they had weathered the storm but maybe not.

He offers at least some confirmation of the story here. (And special note to “R.B.”: I know the word is “dissolve.” I was being ironical.)

ALIEN NATION

Personal log: So even though Rod and I have squared off on occasion about illegal immigration, the truth is the whole issue is a lot bigger than either simplistic extremes of A) “Deport them all; they’re taking our jobs!” and B) “Amnistía ahora!” (Though I’d be delighted to trade a few million of our native-born welfare cases for a few million hardworking Mexicans and a Southern California township to be named later.) Anyhow, had a conversation with a neighbor who takes position A. And I mean aggressively. Which, you know, fine. But then I asked him if he’d checked the papers on the crew who were weeding his lawn and cleaning his flower beds this weekend. IJS.

BULLY FOR ANTIOCO

Blockbuster had a less-than-stellar quarter–a 28 percent drop in profit–but CEO John Antioco got a big-time bonus. Not big enough, he says. Plenty big, the board says. (I’m paraphrasing.) More info from the fine folks at the DBJ.

RE: JENKENS & GILCHRIST

An insider-knowing FrontBurnervian chimes in:

It’s true. My dad does work for them.. he told me the partner he works with is losing all his shares and is going to have to start re-planning his retirement at age 58! Something about the Chicago office getting in trouble with the IRS and is forcing them to dissolve. It is going to happen in May.

Right. About those IRS troubles…

JENKENS & GILCHRIST TO DISSOLUTE?

That’s the word from across the pond. A UK site called Legal Week notes the 19 lawyers in J&G’s LA office have joined a competitor. Talks are still under way about the future of the Texas office.

A spokesman for the firm said: “The end result of discussions could take any number of forms and we are not prepared to speculate as to what they might be.”

TXU OPTIONS SURGED BEFORE BUYOUT

Yet another helpful FB’er send this tidbit.

RE: PHD POLITICIAN

A helpful FrontBurnvian (and aren’t they all?) provides the link.

RE: LEADING OFF

1. Hard to write from home when I still can’t get on the new site from there. Trying to fix, but…

2. Too busy making up for the people who blog instead of write stories. Which is the sort of thing that we tell students will get you fired in the real world. Which reminds me…

3. Still don’t have your column, Tim. It needs to be 750 words. Or, 23 words shorter than this post.

4. No wonder Jennifer hated everyone.

THE PhD POLITICIAN

Yesterday’s Austin American Statesman carried an interesting article by Gardner Selby on Plano Republican Rep. Brian McCall, which I can’t link to, but here’s the lead, which tells you that McCall is a very unusual state representative:

Just before Rep. Brian McCall publicly stabbed at history last month by trying to unseat the speaker of the Texas House, the Plano Republican quietly plowed gubernatorial history to earn a doctorate in humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. His dissertation, capping 18 months of research, traces the styles and achievements of seven governors, from John Connally in the 1960s through George W. Bush. The endeavor drew on McCall’s conversations with more than 30 people…

LETTERS TO OTHER EDITORS

This edition of Letters to Other Editors is a doozie, not so much for the letter itself, but for the buzz it’s created on the Internet(s). The missive in question comes from Fort Worth’s Kristin Ritchie, aka MC ROUTER. She penned it to Wired and it reads:

I’m one of the “few ladies” you mentioned in your article about nerdcore (Play, “Me So Nerdy,” issue 14.09). You ignored all of the females in this scene so you could discuss people like HAM-STAR – a rapping hamster. You looked only at what these people had in the way of “nerd cred,” and I guess being women makes us not nerdy enough to warrant inclusion.

Except, Ritchie didn’t like the way Wired edited her letter, making her “sound like a feminist.” So she wrote a song about it and posted it on her MySpace page, not to mention the nerd core tattoo she got on her chest. Link props to BoingBoing, where an excerpt of her NSFW lyrics can be found. For more background on Ritchie, check out the recent Star-Telegram profile of the genre.