Articles for April, 2009
Attention Doctors: Time to Vote
Yes, it’s that time again. Time to vote for the “Best Doctors in Dallas” for 2009. Go the main page and click the button on the right with the stethoscope. Voting ends in a week.
Who Would You Rather Hear on the Airwaves? Southside Steve Rickman or FM Tim?
The greatness that is Robert Philpot is reporting that The Bone 93.3 (formerly the home of Merge Radio, with Tim and Yvonne; that’s Tim at left, being wacky) is getting a new morning show. It will be piped in from Atlanta. Which is ridiculous, of course. If you’re going to engage in typical morning deejay hijinks, like wearing a big hat while broadcasting over the airwaves, you need to be based here. It’s just not as funny if you’re doing the same thing in A-town.
Dallas’ AT&T Beats Analysts Expectations
The company earned $3.1 billion in the first quarter, a little down from last year, but “a little down” is the new up. There was heavy contribution from IPhone sales, which the company basically subsidizes. Why does it do that? Emory Kale at TG Daily has the answer:
About three quarters of AT&T’s new customers chose the iPhone, for which AT&T is the exclusive U.S. carrier. While the iPhone is an expensive bauble in the corporate pie for AT&T…it gets the benefit of the significant increase in subscriber fees that iPhone users bring, 60% more than other customers.
Dissent Of The Day: Licensing
An engineering FrontBurnervian tells us why licensing is required in his field:
Licensure is not necessarily anti-competitive, especially when legal and public safety issues are involved. Land surveyors, whom you’ve listed in your post, are licensed by states because their work often involves the creation of legal documents like plats and such. Licensed engineers are required for projects where public health and safety is paramount. This includes almost all infrastructure, public buildings, etc. And, of course, the need for licensing of medical doctors and lawyers is obvious.
CamargoCopeland Architectural Firms Says It Wasn’t Paid for Glorypark Park
I could be missing it, but I don’t see this story in the DMN yet. Andrea Ahles at the Star-Telegram is reporting that CamargoCopeland claims Hicks owes the firm $347,215 for design work it did on the mothballed Glorypark project. And the clouds continue to gather.
The Persistent Urban Myth: Madonna Is Moving To Dallas
Every, oh, six months or so for the last upteen years, we receive an urgent confidential message from someone who has heard from a reliable source that the entertainer has just looked at/bought/redecorated a house and is moving here.
UPDATE: Where did this particular Urban Myth originate? Why, from D Magazine, of course! The legendary Alan Pepperd tells the story below:
Fifth Circuit Rules Interior Designers Can Call Themselves Interior Designers
Texas lost another round in its contining attempts to maintain protectionist monopolies in certain trades. The Fifth Circuit ruled that unlicensed interior designers are indeed interior designers.
Texas maintains protectionist, anti-competition statutes for, among other things, hairdressers, polygraph examiners, funeral directors, land surveyors, private security companies, social workers, pest controllers, irrigators, family therapists, dieticians, barbers, audiologists, acupuncturists, hearing-aid dispensers, and court reporters. This is not the first time the Fifth Circuit has intervened. In 2003, it ruled that Texas had to allow its residents to buy wine over the Internet, after liquor wholesalers had gotten the Legislature to make importation a felony. As I wrote here in 2005,
Texas state government is designed to prevent competition, not to encourage it. One way is by restricting information. In 2001, for example, the Sunset Commission chastised the Funeral Services Commission for not posting sample prices for funerals on its web site. Four years later, the information is still not there.
I just checked. It still isn’t.
Leading Off (4/24/09)
1. DISD trustees put off a vote until May 14 to decide whether they should cut funding for learning centers in Dallas, due to public outcry over the issue. The trustees hoped they could make the next meeting less contentious, perhaps by holding it in a secret underground lair.
2. Rep. Charlie Geren says he wants to kill the bill designed to help establish a downtown Dallas law school for the University of North Texas, saying “I’m going to kill it any way I can.” He’s also against the Easter Bunny, children, and the forces of good.
3. A convicted criminal says District 8 City Council challenger LeVar L.D. Thomas hired him to take down campaign signs for incumbent Tennell Atkins. Police are investigating, instead of, say, solving a real crime.
Why Traffic Jams Happen Even When There’s No Accident
Commuting FrontBurnervians will want to know about a phenonmenon known as “critical density,” which was only confirmed by physicists last year. To understand it, you need to read this.
Maybe They Were Winking When They Said It
Really, Texas Republicans couldn’t be this far removed from reality. Daily Kos — okay, not the most reliable source — released a Research 2000 poll today on Texas. Despite its leanings, Research 2000 is a respectable outfit. For how Texas Republicans answered on whether Texas would do better as an independent nation and whether Rick Perry was right to suggest secession, take the jump:
EDS Execs Say “Adios” To Hewlett-Packard
The NYTimes’ Ashlee Vance is reporting that four top executives of the old EDS are leaving the new Hewlett-Packard. She includes a boilerplate PR reaction to her scoop from HP, then adds:
There is, however, a school of thought that says H.P. is underestimating some of the nuances behind the services business. The services types spend years building relationships with customers. It’s part of a world with far more layers of back-scratching and schmoozing than moving PCs and servers. Perhaps making wholesale changes on this scale is short-term thinking?
D Magazine Hit With Power Outage
The power blows out about once a year, and then Oncor swears on a stack of Bibles that it has fixed the transformer out back in the alley. It has become a ritual of spring, which probably has something to do with the hour that everyone all at once turns on their airconditioning. This time, for some strange reason, the reception phone is working. At the moment, that is all that is working. (Meanwhile, I will continue posting from an undisclosed location.)
Fancy Begging on the Radio
If you turn on your radio right now, KERA is being overrun by Jeff Whittington and Rawlins Gilliland. I’m expecting a pants-off dance off tonight from 4 to 7. (Says Rawlins of the three-hour stint: It’s so long, at the end of it you can collect workers’ comp.) Listen live here.
Why Is Jeb Hensarling In My Pants?
I mean, he’s not technically in my britches. But the supposed Republican fiscal pit bull is trying to make sure I pay even more in credit card interest rates, and that takes money out of my debt-ridden pockets. Within a few hours today, I received two press releases on U.S. Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-These Parts). One pointed out what a fiscal butt-kicker he is:
Congressman Jeb Hensarling, the second highest ranking member of the House Budget Committee and author of the Family Budget Protection Act, was selected today as one of five top negotiators from the House of Representatives to work out final details on the federal budget.
That’s sweet, no? So, maybe I like the guy.
The next e-mail, though, pointed out that J-Hen is carrying water for the credit card industry:
Congressman Hensarling tried to gut the Credit Card Holders’ Bill of Rights yesterday by fighting for changes that would allow credit card companies to retroactively increase the interest rate on existing balances. As a result, Americans who are struggling to pay off their credit card bill could suddenly be charged more for purchases they already made. Congressman Hensarling said, “maybe, unfortunately, the local plant shut down and you’ve been laid off. Well that’s a job for the federal government to provide an adequate safety net. It’s not necessarily a job for the credit card company.”
I thought maybe I was missing something. Because that’s bad, right? So I sent the full details to Wick, one of J-Hen’s biggest supporters. Before I knew it, Wick was standing behind me (I may or may not have been checking my Twitter profile via Twanalyst.com), shaking his head. The only thing he said: “Effing Jeb Hensarling.”
GM’s Arlington Plant To Close In May
As Wick suspected yesterday, the Arlington GM plant will be going on hiatus starting next month.
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