Articles for February, 2009
Nightmare On Marilla St.? Budget Cut Time At City Hall
The city of Dallas wants to slash its budget in the face of a projected $100 million deficit. Here’s a good place to start: Nix the $165,000 diverted from reserve funds to enforce that People’s Republic no-smoking ordinance they jammed down our gullets. But, hey, Marilla Streeet must be rife with economizing potential. Anybody else got any ideas?
Leading Off (2/17/09)
1. Advocates for a statewide smoking ban, like Lance Armstrong, are saying the proposal is a “win-win” for Texas. Others, like Zac Crain, differ: they curse a lot, tug at their beards like madmen, and shoot the finger in Austin’s general direction. Then they take a smoke break to calm the eff out. (Zac Crain jokes = gold.)
2. The George W. Bush library will be as big as a Wal-Mart Supercenter, but without the diversity or commitment to traditional conservative business principles one finds in, say, a Wal-Mart. (There’s a better joke there. I just can’t find it. Li’l help, please.)
3. The Dallas Convention Center hotel project is going along just as planned. You know, the plan being to build an unpopular hotel in a dead part of town during a global economic meltdown. (That joke, however, was spot-on. Nailed it!)
Stanford Group May Be Madoff II With 30,000 Investors
You may have seen stories in the WSJ, the NYTimes, and on Bloomberg about the SEC probe of Houston’s Stanford Group, which has just been joined by the FBI. On June 29, 2007, the DMN ran a press release about Stanford’s sponsorship with the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs of a program to offer awards for excellence in financial management to arts organizations. This quote is especially nice:
“As a wealth management firm, we understand the importance of fiscal management and being good stewards of one’s resources,” said Lori Bensing, Dallas managing director with Stanford.
I’m sure Lori is a fine person. And I appreciate her recognition of the need for excellence in financial management of arts organizations. And I also hope she has all her files in order.
Byron Nelson By Any Name
I just got my first communique from something called “the HP Byron Nelson Championship.” That’s gonna take some getting used to.
Happy Presidents Day! Now, Let’s Take The Day Off!
I don’t know about you, but trying to get work done without having government people or lawyers answering the phones is almost impossible. Isn’t it about time we retire this notion of taking Presidents Day off? What do the people who get the day off do, anyway? Sit around and think about who their favorite president is (shown left is my personal fave: Rutherford B. Hayes)?
The Other Side Of A ‘Rock-Steady’ Local Anchorman
Which local news anchor spent much of his youth in Franco’s Spain, was once an R-rated standup comic, and discreetly displays sexually graphic art in his home? The answer’s in the March issue of D CEO magazine–and it may surprise you.
La Boheme Review for Your Eyes
You know who went to the opera? Peter Simek, that’s who. You know who has a review for you? You guessed it.
Re: Shaq in Frisco
DallasDirt’s Candy Evans is looking into The Big Realtor’s possible ownership of a Frisco pad. Until then, keep your eyes open for the vehicle below, passed along to us by a all-access-having, photo-taking FBvian:
Best place to look: gas stations.
Odds On Slot Machines At Lone Star Park
I’m going to set them at 3-1, given the new speaker’s racetrack history and the sport’s dire need for the increased purses. Odds on a casino at Galveston, 12-1. Odds I’m chosen to sing the National Anthem, even if I were to try out next Tuesday, 99-1.
Mayborn Conference Snags Ira Glass
Expect more Converse-clad, glasses-having attendees (such as myself) than usual at this year’s Mayborn Conference. The literary nonfiction writers gathering put on by the University of North Texas has announced the 2009 lineup of speakers. Included is This American Life host Ira Glass, who knows how to tell a story. (He also knows how to tell someone how to tell a story, as evidenced in these YouTube clips.) Another notable speaker: travel writer Paul Theroux. The full Mayborn release is after the jump. The conference is July 24-26. Registration starts this Wednesday.
(Photo credit Nancy Updike)
Hispanics Now Majority In Texas’ First-Grade Classrooms
Bud Kennedy at the Star-Telegram reports that the expected demographic change has hit:
For the first time, Hispanic children dominate first-grade classes, adding about 4,000 children last year to become the outright majority with 50.2 percent of students. But Hispanic children would have become dominant without even one new student, because white first-grade enrollment dropped by about 2,000.
White children are now fewer than one-third of the first-graders in Texas. If this is a surprise to us, it’s not one to Karl Eschbach of the University of Texas-San Antonio, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry as the official state demographer. “What people don’t realize is the sheer inevitability of this change,” Eschbach said Friday. It isn’t about immigration, he said. It’s about native-born Texan and American children growing up.
Folks at the DMN Are Not Looking Forward to Tomorrow
Alternate title: This is the Sort of Stuff I Get In My Email InBox These Days:
Bracing for Tuesday’s [A.H. Belo] earnings report. Got a feeling it’s gonna be a doozy. You saw last week that we’re scaling back Al Dia, shutting down the Arlington printing press, and raising prices in the in-house cafeteria to cut costs. Pretty soon they’ll charge us to use the crapper. Don’t blog that and give them any ideas.
Where Does Shaquille O’Neal Live in Frisco?
Or does he? During one of the NBA Cares segments on last night’s All-Star Game, O’Neal (aka The Big Shaqtus, aka The Big Aristotle, aka about a million other things) told Dirk Nowitzki he lived in Frisco. “I bet you didn’t know that,” he said. I didn’t. So, does anyone have a 20 on Shaq’s Frisco digs?
UPDATE:
Sales Tax Receipts Down In North Texas
As expected, year-to-date numbers released on Friday are not good for Plano, Fort Worth, Dallas, Irving, and Mesquite. Arlington (thank you, Cowboys) and Frisco are hanging in there, i.e., their numbers are not as bad as everyone else’s. At least they haven’t hit the double digits. Harvey Kronberg over at the Quorum Report [sub. req.] notes that the Gulf cities are doing better due to Hurricane Ike reconstruction.
Interview: New DMN Dining Critic Leslie Brenner
Ms. Brenner starts her new job today. She talks about herself here.
Home |
Masthead |
News from D |
About Us |
Contact Us |
Subscribe |
Advertise |
Privacy Policy |
Customer Service |
Awards | Archives | Reprints | d custom | Jobs | Advertiser's Index
Awards | Archives | Reprints | d custom | Jobs | Advertiser's Index