Perhaps you’ve heard of the White Rock Home Tour. Perhaps you know it’s the area’s only home tour featuring midcentury modern architecture. Perhaps you know proceeds go to Blue Ribbon-nominated Hexter Elementary. (Go, Hawks!) Perhaps you’re hot to meet Alan Hoffman, who has built the only homes in Dallas that are LEED Platinum certified, and, further, you know that one of those homes is on the tour this year. Perhaps you’d like tickets but don’t think you’re good enough at writing haiku to get the free ones. Well then, buy a ticket. Or seven. Because the tour, now in its fourth year, was my wife’s brainchild, and she wants you to attend. I’ve found it’s best to do what my wife wants. Things just go smoother that way.
Shareholder equity grew 51% year over year, March 09 to March 08. Tangible common equity to total tangible assets stands at 7.8%. For the quarterly results, go here and scroll down. For yesterday’s webcast, go here and sign in. And, yes, it did take TARP money:
On a fully diluted basis, earnings per common share from continuing operations were $.17 for the three months ended March 31, 2009, compared to $.30 for the same quarter last year. The effect of the TARP preferred stock dividends net of income earned on the TARP proceeds reduced earnings per share by $.03 for the three months ended March 31, 2009. Shares for the first quarter of 2009 were affected by the issuance of 4 million shares in September 2008.
Wick, indeed the DMN’s online readership is way up. But a more important number is online revenue. It is not growing for the company, unfortunately. The official press release on the fourth quarter 2008 results does not separate out the DMN’s financial numbers, but it does say the following:
AHC’s Internet revenues accounted for 6.9 percent of total revenues in the quarter. Internet revenues were $11.1 million, 16 percent below the same period last year.
There aren’t many things in this life that not only live up to the hype, but exceed it. Even if you carefully manage your expectations, you are bound to be disappointed on some level. (Unless you’re a permanent cynic, in which case you don’t truly enjoy anything, except the occasional schadenfreude.) So I was prepared to leave the Palladium last night happy enough to finally check the box next to “My Bloody Valentine” but not much more than that — “Ah, that was great,” and then forget about it by the time my head cleared.
I was mistaken. If you think people make too much about the MBV live experience you 1) weren’t there and 2) probably don’t care much for them anyway. Because that, last night, was transcendent, a fusion of a melody and malady that was about the closest thing to climbing inside a song I’ve ever felt. And you definitely felt it: my clothes were shaking, my hair was vibrating, and, by the end, my legs felt like I’d been standing on this for about an hour. As for the set-closing noise symphony I mentioned previously, after the jump a few descriptions of same from FB Nation.
And he was good enough to share them with us right here.
An energetic FrontBurnervian points us to this Wall Street Journal story about Stanley Korshak’s electronic outpost on eBay. Korshak’s owner, Crawford Brock, says, “[W]e’re not so sure we want people to know necessarily that this is Stanley Korshak.” That’ll be tough to hide now that the WSJ has outed them. Here are the items up for sale on eBay now.
That’s the startling conclusion of a new paper by economist James Hamilton of the Brookings Institution. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic reviews it here (and in this case, the comments are worth reading). To Texas, oil increases are a double-edged sword. We benefit hugely from increases in oil prices, because our investor class is historically tied to oil and because higher prices spur new activity that increases employment. The other side, of course, is that we are consumers like other Americans, and higher prices at the pump mean less money for consumption on other goods and services. Hamilton’s thesis has its problems, but it also raises a lot of pertinent questions. Perhaps the federal government should turn its attention to why oil soared to $180 a barrel when oil investors were saying the “natural” price of oil should be $50 a barrel.
Aman Batheja over at the Star-Telegram presents the two opposing viewpoints. My take is that he was obviously making a play to the worst elements of the base, who are the most motivated primary voters. So to his campaign team it seemed like a smart play. But a year is forever in politics, and those comments on videotape – coupled with his rejection of federal unemployment funds for the increasing number of Texans who are finding themselves out of work — will not play well by the time the actual primary rolls around. This recession is far from over, and if gas and oil prices remain down, its worst effects might be felt in Texas while the rest of the nation begins a recovery.
What great timing! Just in time for the convention-center hotel vote, developers announce plans for a $500 million entertainment complex near downtown Dallas anchored by a minor-league baseball park. While there’s no financing in place yet for most of the project, it’s sure to give all those conventioneers staying at the new convention hotel more to do. Fact is the baseball plan’s been kicking around at least since early 2006, when former Dallas Congressman John Bryant and partners told the Dallas Business Journal all about it.
1. State Rep. Yvonne Davis has authored a bill to split DISD into at least two districts. In other DISD news: 580 teachers were informed their contracts would not be extended, and that they have one more year to get better or get to stepping. So it looks like district spokesman Jon Dahlander will be eating lunch at his desk again.
2. In other education news: one student at Haltom High School in Haltom City was attacked and stabbed by three others before school yesterday morning; a Cleburne High School athletic trainer was arrested on child porn charges; and a bobcat was spotted near Stewart’s Creek Elementary in Lewisville this morning. So it’s crazy all over.
3. And finally, if you were at the My Bloody Valentine show last night, please send me your description of the 20-minute noise symphony that ended the show (it was so loud I could feel the hair on my arms move). Descriptions I got at the Palladium last night post-show: the sound and feeling of jumping out of an airplane; an internal massage; like drugs without the drugs.
Yeah, so, just wanted to point you to Gordon Keith’s take on our no-comments policy (for now). And notice what happened in HIS comments section. Some good stuff, absolutely. And some trash. His signal-to-noise ratio is actually pretty good. But all it takes — when your comments aren’t moderated — is a handful of bad actors to ruin the fun.
Does that include Arlington? Looks like it.
On his DMN blog, Martellus Bennett decided to tackle the topic of why black people like fried chicken. I’ll tell you this: yesterday, before we turned off comments, I wouldn’t have linked to that Bennett post for fear of the comments that would be generated hereon. (Also, after several internal discussions today, I have high hopes about how soon we’ll have a workable comments-moderation system up and working here.)
Zac wrote last year about Go Green Couriers, an environmentally friendly outfit that uses only hybrid Toyota Prius sedans. To celebrate Earth Day today, Go Green founder Tony Hormillosa offered free, end-of-day delivery service in Dallas County, so long as the order was placed by 2 p.m. Tony says a total of eight customers took him up on the special offer. Which wasn’t exactly overwhelming, but better than zero.
A FB-reading Republican insider gives us the scoop:
The primary reason he should be concerned right now is the low fundraising numbers from the three primary candidates. Williams, Williams, and Shapiro did not have high numbers in the last reporting. Elizabeth Ames Jones hasn’t really tried to raise money yet. The state candidates, who are used raising money in large chunks, are going to find it is hard to raise federal dollars. When Dewhurst enters the race, as everyone expects, he will be able to self-fund with his millions of personal dough.
Bill White is also trying to get creative w/ fundraising. He is seeking a FEC advisory opinion asking if he can aggregate the $2,400/person limit for the five potential races the next senate candidate will run. (Primary, run-off, special election, special run-off, general). This would allow him to go to fewer donors who have large pockets (see, trial lawyers).