RE: WHAT THE 1998 TRINITY PROPOSITION ACTUALLY SAYS

Hippie fight!

RE: ZAC CRAIN OUT

He came.

He saw.

He miscounted.

ZAC CRAIN: OFFICIALLY OUT

The Bearded One is on the phone right now with Eric. He tells us the city has determined he’s 19 signatures short of getting on the ballot. New Steve Blow, you got anything to say about that?

TEXAS RANGERS PREVIEW (FINALLY)

At long last, FrontBurner has a Texas Rangers season preview for you. What took so long? Ask Deadspin.com. We were waiting for them to get around to the Rangers in their MLB-wide preview. Today, it’s Texas’ turn. Props to Adam J. Morris for a) having an awesome first name, and b) writing an entertaining albeit lengthy description of what it’s like to be a Rangers fan. Check it out.

PEOPLE, IT’S A FREAKIN’ CUP CAKE

Sprinkles, the trendy Beverly Hills cup cake spot, opened today. Our fashion editor, Stephanie Quadri, just returned from the Preston Center location where she was told the wait for a cup cake would be forty five minutes. Forgive me, I’ve tasted their wares and they are damn-melt-in-your-mouth good, but who would wait in the rain for almost an hour for a cup cake. Guess I’m gonna have to drive over there and see. The older I get, the less I see.

RE: THE RADIO TRAFFIC HOTTIE

Okay, fine. I’ll do the big reveal. The radio traffic hottie Sarah Hepola’s friend was talking about was [drumroll] Bonita Tribble. She did traffic for KERA during “Morning Edition.” (Hi, “Bonita.”) Picture not available. But then, if you read and agreed with Sarah’s essay, you wouldn’t want one. Memo to KERA: I happen to know Bonita wouldn’t mind getting back in the booth, as it were. Let me know if there’s interest. I can make things happen.

RE: WHAT THE 1998 TRINITY PROPOSITION ACTUALLY SAYS

Hard to see how else a guy who should know better can continue to look at facts and spin crap. The language of the bond proposition isn’t even a close call, Jim. Maintaining otherwise is disingenuous, or maybe just stubborn way past a fault. As for whatever argument I detect in your post, I’d be delighted to see the bond language and history play out in court, if that’s where it’s headed, although I’m sure your lawyerly riffs will settle the whole matter in the pages of the DO. Or not. Still, can’t quite figure why you want to personalize and insult, but, dude, if that’s how you roll, bring it on. Steve Blow? Please. At least give me Bob Mong.

RE: THE RADIO TRAFFIC HOTTIE

Another radio-listening FrontBurnervian has another guess:

Ok.. I’m guessing Nikki Granville.  Used to do traffic on the ticket, now on Fan 990 (or whatever they call it - I call it a “failed bit”). She has an EXTREMELY sultry voice.

That may be the case, but she’s not the one in question.

RE: THE RADIO TRAFFIC HOTTIE

A radio-listening FrontBurnervian suggests the radio traffic hottie in question is WBAP’s Laura Houston, pictured here. Another pseudo-memory-having FrontBurnervian writes:

Heard her only one on JACK-FM a couple of years ago. Her name was Johnson and her voice went straight…Or maybe I dreamed the whole thing.

I’ve heard back from Sarah, so I know the right answer. (I also know the “male friend” in question, but that’s not what we’re interested in here.) Any more guesses? I’ll give you a hint. The traffic hottie in question no longer does traffic.

RE: KEEPING REPORTERS REINED IN

Another media-savvy FBvian chimes in:

That’s right, lying your way into a hospital is precisely the same thing as violating airport security with a gun or a grenade.

WHAT THE 1998 TRINITY PROPOSITION ACTUALLY SAYS

Far be it from me, and I mean way far, to get into a torrid intellectual exchange ‘twixt Mssrs. Schutze and Blow about the Trinity road project or anything else. And I totally think Angela Hunt is cool. But in the interest of informed civic discussion, I’m just going to post in the jump the exact wording of the May 2, 1998 bond election’s Proposition 11, followed by the exact wording of the City’s “summary-in-brief” of the meaning of the proposition insofar as the parkway, or tollway, is concerned.

It is very difficult for me to see how it can be maintained that the proposed parkway, which is also described in the 1998 literature as a “lane reliever route” and clearly identified as a candidate for a tollway, can be separated from the other elements of the project, from park to flood control. In fact, it is obvious from reading these documents, and knowing of the previous interest in a reliever route, including a tollway, by TxDOT and COG, that the Trinity project was always fundamentally a traffic project. The evidence is a part of the public record. Whatever there is to argue about, it’s not this:
(more…)

WHO’S THE RADIO TRAFFIC HOTTIE?

A blog-scoring FrontBurnervian saw a link to Sarah Hepola’s (really good) essay on Nerve, confessing her sexual fantasies involving This American Life’s Ira Glass. Now in NY, Sarah makes a couple of references to her time in Dallas, including this one about a male friend of hers who, ahem, really enjoyed:

listening to the afternoon traffic reporter in Dallas, a sultry alto offering hourly interstate-congestion updates: “I see her taking off her helicopter helmet, blond hair cascading around her face in the wind,” he said.

I’ll send Sarah a note to try to find the answer, but I’d love to hear guesses in the meantime. My guess: Barb Smith on The Ticket.

JENKENS & GILCHRIST SAYS, “HERE’S YOUR $76 MIL. WE’RE OUT.”

After much speculation, Jenkens & Gilchrist is shutting its doors, but not before paying the IRS a fine of $76 million for allegedly fraudulent tax shelters. Hunh.

RE: KEEPING REPORTERS REINED IN

An airline media-working FBvian begs to differ on my assertion that the Lubbock TV reporter is wrongly charged with a crime:

I have to disagree with you on this one. There’s a difference between investigating and reporting news and deliberately trying to create news – especially if a reporter breaks the law to do it. Granted, this case is borderline at best – it doesn’t appear that the reporter actually attempted to break the law. However, if the reporter had tried to violate TSA security at an airport with a grenade or gun, wouldn’t it be appropriate for her to be arrested? If a journalist is going to try to prove a theory – in this case that security is lax – shouldn’t they live up to the bargain if his or her theory is disproved? Should she have gotten a warning, unlike a “real” criminal? What if the next criminal steals a journalists’ ID to perpetrate a crime by claiming to be an investigative reporter? The gate swings both ways.

Finally, it doesn’t appear that there is any suppression going on. The reporter and station are free to report on everything that happened – no tape or notes were confiscated, right? The story is just that security worked … and here’s how a trial on attempted kidnapping goes down.

RE: TEXAS JOB MARKET

…as far as looking at job creation, a stochastic frontier analysis would possibly shed new light on extent and regional differences of job-search frictions, as well as potential determinants of frictional inefficiencies in that data set. As well, there is novel evidence on the complex interactions between spatial contingencies among regional labor markets that this report does not explore.

What?

EDITORIAL QUESTION TO FB NATION

Does anyone read my column anymore? Or is everyone tired of hearing what I have to say about video games? Discuss.

TEXAS JOB MARKET STRONG

While Tim blogs about things no one cares about, we should note that Texas added nearly 15,000 jobs last month. I think it’s important to note that, as far as looking at job creation, a stochastic frontier analysis would possibly shed new light on extent and regional differences of job-search frictions, as well as potential determinants of frictional inefficiencies in that data set. As well, there is novel evidence on the complex interactions between spatial contingencies among regional labor markets that this report does not explore. This is important to note, I think.

But, hey, by all means, Tim, tell us about what you’ve got in your desk. We’re riveted.

MARLON BRANDO MAKES AN OFFER HERITAGE AUCTION GALLERY REFUSES

Heritage planned to sell locks of Brando’s hair in an online auction today, but the gallery called it off. The hair might not be Brando’s. The seller says he/she got the hair from Brando’s personal assistant, but the personal assistant says she never pulled any strands from Brando’s comb. She’s above that sort of desperate profiteering. (The hair might have sold for $250.) HAG says it did “the only ethical thing” it could by pulling it from bidding. BTW, who would buy this? The same people who’d pay $100 million for a gas grill, that’s who.

We live in a strange world.

MY DESK IS CRAMMED WITH STUFF

I can’t believe some of the valuable electronic items I have in my unlocked desk. Playing with them sure is making this office reorganization take a long time.

Sub-point: Aren’t I left-handed? Because that means I need to completely change my computer station. Oh, well, here goes.

FUN WITH BROWSING HISTORY

Here are some sites I visited more than six days ago:

1. Just fine-tuning my enemies list.
2. Just needed a little midday guidance.
3. Hey, look, I work. I work hard.

WHERE I AM

I just left the building, smack dab in the middle of deadline, to attend a lunch. Which leads to three questions:

1. Am I really committed to this magazine?
2. Who is typing this?
3. What sort of things will “I” post during the next hour or so?

KEEPING REPORTERS REINED IN, IN LUBBOCK

So, what exactly was this reporter’s crime? Asking too many questions? Not saying she was a reporter? Wasn’t that the whole point of her investigation into security breaches?

No, according to the overzealous local prosecutors, what she did was “attempted aggravated kidnapping.”

Let’s hope the TV station fights this for what it is: deliberate suppression of news.

Just ask these guys.

WHO LET NELLY CARRENO LEAVE TOWN WITHOUT CHECKING WITH US FIRST?

An alert FrontBurnervian draws our attention to a travesty. Having spotted Carreno on Pegasus News’ AccuWeather feed, he determined to learn more about the talented meteorological prognosticator. And learn more he did. One fact in particular about Carreno he found most disturbing. I share his disturbishment. Carreno, it turns out, used to work in Dallas. She left us only a few months ago for her new AccuWeather gig. Who let this happen? Why weren’t we given the opportunity to make a counter offer? “Unsettled Saturday” indeed.

TOTALLY TUBULAR

I wish I had some of that insider knowledge stuff that would have told me to buy a bunch of Lone Star Tech stock yesterday. The Dallas-based maker of welded pipes is being bought by U.S. Steel for $2.1 billion, sending Lone Star’s stock price up more than $17 this morning. Instead, I just get a bunch of emails telling me about some stock that’s trading at $.002 per share on some exchange I’ve never heard of operating out of some dude’s garage.

ANOTHER ESSAY ON THE STATE OF NEWSPAPERS

But this one is a good’un. David Warsh, editor of EconomicPrinciples.com, published this essay a year and a half ago or so, but I just now stumbled across it. In it, he writes about the power of print. Newspapers will never go away, he argues, because of their corporeality. Paper trumps pixels. He uses the Financial Times as a prime example of a newspaper that accomplishes a lot with a relatively small staff, likening it to Southwest Airlines as the no-frills approach. Check out the whole thing.