Articles for February, 2009

Trade Your Gun For $50 in Groceries — Or $65 of Trey Garrison’s Cold, Hard Cash

On Saturday at Reunion Arena, from 9 a.m. until noon, you can swap your (working, unloaded, registered) firearm for a $50 Kroger gift card. I was going to make a Trey Garrison-related joke here — obviously — but it turns out Trey has already beaten me to it. Sort of. (Seems his arsenal, located in parts unknown, isn’t as fully stocked as he would like.) But, of course, the story doesn’t end there. And I’m sure it doesn’t end here either.

Six Flags Close to Securing Its Liquor License

And, so, apparently, I’m close to going back for the first time in well over a decade.

Why I Love Southwest Airlines

San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Michael Stetz has a fun piece about Southwest Airlines’ new flight of fancy. His main contention about the plane (shown left, courtesy of Southwest Airlines): if the airline won’t allow scantily clad women aboard their planes, then what are they doing splashing a bikini-clad model on the side of a 737?

Bailey’s 1st & 10 to Reopen as Lakewood’s 1st & 10

Down, set, hut. Sarah’s got the scoopage.

Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba. (Or Not.)

The DMN ran an interesting correction this morning, conceding it had misidentified Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia in a photo cutline as council member Angela Hunt. (Hey, all those good-looking brunettes on the Dallas council look alike.) We’re not ones to talk, though. In the current issue of D CEO magazine, we referred to WFAA-TV on the cover as WFFA-TV. Chastised the station’s Dave Muscari: “Perhaps after another 60 years in the market, our call letters will become more memorable?” Ouch.

On Friday, Everything Changes

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GameStop Bucking Economic Trends

Last Thursday, we told you how GameStop grew a whopping 32 percent last year. Now, this week’s issue of Advertising Age has named the Grapevine-based company one of just four “best-positioned” retail marketers in America.

Hard-Core Honesty So Early In The Morning…

Prying myself out of bed to attend early-morning meetings has become increasingly hard since the advent of a new baby (mine, I think), but I managed to do so today to attend a discussion about strategies to attract and keep talented workers in today’s economy. When someone raised the question of what employers are doing to save on health care costs, one woman giggled, which caught everyone’s attention. She then had no choice but to speak:

“Hiring young people,” she said.

“Finally, an honest person,” said the man who sat beside me, who works for a company that helps laid-off workers find new jobs.

The truth seeped out at a discussion held by Birkman International Inc. and Stanton Chase International at Northwood Country Club.

Nate Fowler Needs Your Help

I’ve known Nate Fowler for more than a decade, personally and professionally. You may remember him from one of his previous bands — the American Fuse, most likely — or from his most recent project, Nate Fowler’s Elixir. Really good punk-tinged, loud rock and roll, in the vein of the Replacements or the New York Dolls. For several years, we were neighbors at the Turtle Dove apartments on Matilda and McCommas, and I still see him semi-regularly, since his friend and band mate Kinley Wolfe lives just down the street. He’s probably one of the nicest, sweetest people I’ve ever met.

Anyway, last year, Nate and his mom were in a serious car wreck. Nate’s arm was crushed, shattering it near his wrist. Even the photos I saw of it after he’d been patched up were chilling. Like a lot of musicians — and many Americans, for that matter — Nate doesn’t have health insurance. He has worked his way back to play guitar a little bit, but he needs a ton of physical therapy, and a pile of cash to pay for it all. A benefit is currently being set up and is scheduled to happen March 28-29. Location and other pertinent information TK. If you want to get involved, and you should, send an e-mail to ilonalucardie AT gmail DOT com by March 5.

How Tom Leppert Fixed DISD

We’ve said it before. We’ll say it again. There ain’t nothin’ the mighty, mighty hands of Mayor Tom Leppert can’t fix. All he had to do was threaten to take over DISD. Next thing you know — pow! — the district is making national news for the improvements it has made in education. As in:

A study of 37 of the nation’s largest urban school systems by The Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., found that city schools are improving more than other school districts in their respective states. … Dallas showed the biggest improvement among the large Texas cities, and was 2nd overall nationally.

A.H. Belo’s Providence Journal to Lose 100 Jobs

We knew that the DMN parent was trimming 500 jobs company-wide. But because the ProJo has a guild, they get to know early just how many cuts will hit their paper: 100 total, 18 of those in the newsroom, by March 6. That leaves 400 more coming from A.H. Belo’s paper in California, the Denton Record-Chronicle, the DMN, and corporate. (Please cue your generic, sarcastic “I thought Obama was going to fix everything” comments.)

Perry Snafus To Be Hutchison Theme

Mark Davis is a little off the mark in today’s DMN column about the Rick Perry-Kay Bailey Hutchison gubernatorial race. Davis says casino gambling, the Trans-Texas Corridor and the Gardasil initiative are the key ways Hutchison could make hay hitting the incumbent. According to top Hutchison insiders, however, the campaign has much bigger guns in its arsenal, and they can all be boiled down to one big theme: government mismanagement. We’re talking about Perry’s (alleged) appointment of bumbling cronies to key posts, leading to incompetence and worse in the state-run schools for the disabled and foster-care programs, as well as at the state highway department, Texas Youth Commission, DPS, and prison system. (Can you say, “cellphones on Death Row”?) Throw in relatively high electricity and insurance rates and, even a Perry supporter has got to admit, it could add up to a formidable case for change.

Billy Bob’s and Purgatory Make Top 100 Clubs In US

A couple of surprising things: One, that there’s a publication called Nightclub & Bar Magazine. Two, that it has yet to reproduce its Top 100 Nightclubs in the U.S. issue online. (Thankfully, someone did.) Three, that Dallas’ Purgatory made it in the top 25 (it’s no. 23). Four, that Billy Bob’s didn’t crack the top 10 (it’s no. 14). (h/t Preston Jones)

Leading Off (2/25/09)

1. The Ontario-based company that operates Lone Star Park is not holding onto its effing hat tightly enough, casting a pall over opening day, April 9. If the ponies are gonna run, Lone Star might need another operator. I nominate Adam McGill.

2. Pete Sessions has received about $40,000 since 2000 from suspected fraudster Allen Stanford’s outfit. Sessions has so far returned 5 percent of that amount. Said Sessions: “I believe that the $2,000 I returned was the right thing to do, and I feel good about that.” In related news, I killed a drifter yesterday, but I snuck up on him from behind, and he never saw it coming. I feel good about that.

3. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has rated the Trinity levees unacceptable. But listen, that’s just a preliminary finding, okay? The final assessment won’t happen until March 31. And Mayor Leppert says the Trinity Project is moving forward. So no worries, right? RIGHT?

How to Pour the Perfect Beer: The Video

Listen up, beer nerds.