D

BTW’s Talking Points and Recommendations

My daughter just dropped off a document that she was given at Booker T. Washington today that explains the funding issue and discusses the school’s official stance/recommendations, which I’ve posted after the jump. She also wrote a three-page story to go with it, and she will be upset that I didn’t run it here. Her conclusion should be enough:

We are connected in a very special way with each other [at Booker T.]. Not just the students, but the faculty as well. They are some of the most supportive people that we know. We are all one here. One big happy freaky weird family that I couldn’t imagine a life without.

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Mexican Consul General Calls Lawsuit ‘Absurd’

Enrique Hubbard Urrea, consul general at the Mexican Consulate in Dallas, says he’s perplexed by a class-action lawsuit calling the local consulate “a lawless world” marked by corruption, bribery and kickbacks. Contending that “that doesn’t happen” here, Hubbard says the suit filed yesterday–which Unfair Park does a good job of explaining–contains allegations that are suspiciously similar to those leveled against the consulate three years ago, before Hubbard arrived. At its root the dispute is really about lawyers battling over lucrative personal-injury business, he says, and the suit itself is “capricious” and “absurd.” Meantime, he’s forwarded a thick file on the matter to the authorities in Mexico City and requested a meeting with the Dallas Observer to clear things up.

See Cristal Taylor, Dirk’s Girlfriend, Dance

A terpsichorean FrontBurnervian sent me a link to a YouTube video of Dirk’s girlfriend, Cristal Taylor, dancing. I just don’t see it, man. I know love is blind and all that. But in this case, I think love also has a torn ACL and a serious addiction to painkillers.

Wick Allison Pulls Himself Out of the River, Ctd.

A Dallas Market Center-loving FBvian objects to Mayor Leppert’s contention in today’s DMN about Harlan Crow’s motivation in the hotel fight:

The Mayor, at least according to his column, thinks that the market center is a direct competitor with the City of Dallas and the DCVB for conventions and tradeshows. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Mayor clearly needs a quick lesson in the business of tradeshows and conventions. Let me oblige: we are complementary not competitive. The Mayor’s enthusiasm has again outreached his logic.

The market center, now 20% owned by the Crow family by the way, works hard together with the DCVB to attract and maintain tradeshows and conventions. We conduct nine major wholesale markets per year that attract more than 200,000 visitors. These markets take place, by design, across all of the market center buildings because the permanent showrooms are here. This type of trade event could not take place at the convention center.

Our venue for small format trade events and consumer shows is Market Hall, which at 210,000 square feet and 49 years old is not exactly comparable to the 1 million square foot convention center. Market Hall hosts local events such as the Dallas Boat Show or Safari Club—each one important and together drawing several hundred thousand people but hardly an international convention or trade event that could (and should) be hosted by the convention center.

We are proud that we create and manage events that contribute mightily to the local economy (to the tune of about $1 billion). However, the Mayor’s claim that the Dallas Convention Center is somehow in direct competition with the market center is both ill informed and shooting inside the fort. We always appreciate the chance to work with and to educate our local leaders—but he didn’t ask.

Jack Ingram to Perform at Byron Nelson

This is a swell idea, having performers in the Pavilion every night after the golf is over. Did they do this last year? I can’t recall. If so, correct me in the comments section. Anyway, Ingram plays on Friday, May 22. Full release after the jump.

P.S. Zac and I will participate tomorrow in the Byron Nelson media day tournament. Zac hasn’t played in about 15 years. Should be interesting. I’ll try to get a couple posts up from the course. But you might also want to follow along here: twitter.com/ZacCrain and twitter.com/timmytyper.

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Meanwhile, Over On Twitter…

@SpideyMonkey (Spider Monkey) just asked @THE_REAL_SHAQ (Shaquille O’Neal) if he wanted to go with her to Mexico this weekend.

See, this is when I miss comments.

What James Moroney Thinks About the Future of Journalism, Ctd.

The Business Insider has asked if Jim Moroney is really that stupid about Google News. The answer isn’t entirely clear.

Leading Off (Dirk item), Ctd.

So the woman arrested at Dirk’s Preston Hollow home this morning? Cristal Taylor? Apparently — and so far, allegedly — she’s engaged to Nowitzki. And pregnant.

Yeah, so he probably won’t be too distracted on Saturday at the AAC.

Wick Allison Pulls Himself Out of the River, Ctd.

As Tim noted, Wick weighed in on the convention hotel argument in the DMN this morning. So did Mayor Tom Leppert. Two things about the mayor’s take are interesting. As suspected here awhile ago, he’s using the minor-league baseball park plan–which literally has been kicking around for years–to bolster the pro-hotel side. And he rips hotel foe Harlan Crow for residing not in Dallas, but in Highland Park. However, that’s sort of a dangerous slippery slope for the mayor. As we discovered reporting an April story on DCVB honcho Phillip J. Jones, Leppert’s top Dallas convention and tourism guy lives in … drumroll, please … the city of Southlake.

Booker T., Ctd.

The Dallas ISD will have to cut teachers from Booker T. Washington in order to get $105 million in federal money. The feds say every school should spend roughly the same on each student. I said yesterday that Booker T. ought to spend more on each pupil than other non-magnet schools. After the jump, a mother of a student at one of those non-magnets explains why my argument rubbed her the wrong way:

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A World Inside the World: Get Ready For the Second Diorama-O-Rama

Remember last year when I served as one of the judges for a diorama contest? Well, I’m doing it again. The second Diorama-O-Rama looks to be bigger and better than the first. And since that one was fairly big and definitely awesome, I suggest you add it to your sked. All the relevant details are post-jump. If nothing else, go just to see if I can keep from blushing around Chandra North, who is apparently also a judge. (Deep breath.) Also, it benefits Resolana, a very worthy cause.

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What James Moroney Thinks About the Future of Journalism

If you missed what he said yesterday to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, here’s a PDF of his speech. Sounds to me like testing the waters for a newspaper bailout.

Update: I was half-kidding about the newspaper bailout idea. It’s funny because it’s true.

Leppert’s “Vote No” Radio Ad Wants You to “Fight the Powers That Be”

We’ve all seen Mayor Tom Leppert’s “Vote No” commercial—stark white backdrop, piano softly playing in the background (you know, this video), but I hadn’t paid much attention to the Leppert ads airing on local radio stations. This morning on my way to work, I was listening to KRNB, and immediately following Brian McKnight’s “Anytime” (you know you like it—and he’s playing at the Meyerson July 8) came an ad from Leppert. A kind of ’70s funk/groove played in the background as he urged folks to vote no and, at the end of the ad, the lyrics to the background music were: “Fight the powers that be.”  Really, Tom Leppert? Really? Since when is the mayor of Dallas not synonymous with “the powers that be”?

“Dewhurst Bill” Will Allow You to BYOB to Any Restaurant: And Dallas Restaurateurs Are Mad

The Dallas Restaurant community is fightin’ mad. We’re having a great discussion on a new liquor law that could ruin their businesses. It is dangerously close to becoming a reality. Somebody call the New York Times.

What George W. Bush Thought of His D Magazine Cover

I had heard through back channels that George W. didn’t much care for our photoshopped April cover. Someone I know had talked to someone in Bush’s office. I was saddened by this news. Because no matter what you think of the former president, I’d always heard he had a good sense of humor. This morning, though, brings relief. I talked to someone who recently shared a meal with Bush. And this someone reports that the president did, indeed, find the cover funny. He said so himself. (And we can all be thankful, at least in the case of this post, that comments have been turned off.)

Wick Allison Pulls Himself Out of the River Long Enough to Write Something — For the DMN

Every year around this time, Wick disappears for about a month to go fly-fishing at some super-secret, ultra-exclusive camp somewhere in upstate New York. Think Augusta National, only with fishing poles instead of golf clubs. If Martha Burk knew what Wick did every spring, and where he did it, she’d show up with a bullhorn and let him know just how distasteful she thinks it is.

All of which I provide as background so you’ll understand why I was so shocked to see this morning that Wick took time away from the trout to type this op-ed for the Morning News about why you should vote “yes” this Saturday on Prop 1 (which, again, to be clear, means to cast a vote against the convention hotel). I will say this about Wick’s piece: if he casts his line as well as he casts his argument against the hotel, then surely the rivers of the Empire State will soon need restocking.

(Hey. You gonna begrudge a man a little brown nosing during these tough economic times?)

Duke Nukem Forever Maker Gets Nuked Forever

A trickily named FBvian alerted us to the fact that local gaming concern 3D Realms has shut down. Notable because 3D Realms is…

…the guys who have been “making” the game Duke Nukem Forever for over TWELVE YEARS. It was originally supposed to arrive ten years ago, when PCs were as big as suburban houses and the Pentium III was imaginary.

Go here for more.

Leading Off (5/7/09)

1. Police arrested Cristal Taylor on fraud charges Wednesday morning — at Dirk Nowitzki’s Preston Hollow home. Good timing. He doesn’t really have anything else on his mind right now. Christ. When reached for comment, Chris Webber said “a true warrior, a dog” would never let a criminal like Taylor in his home.

2. Judge Carlos Cortez says Judge Eric Moye assaulted him at the courthouse yesterday afternoon. Moye says “nuh-uh,” and the Texas Rangers are investigating. TNT’s Kenny Smith said he didn’t want to overreact, but added, “It feeds the stereotype that this guy is playing a little soft.”

3. In Krum, in a weird turn of events I still don’t fully understand, city hall employees discovered decades-old nude photos of former police and fire chief Conrad Shiftlet. Charles Barkley, on hearing the news, smirked and said, “One of the keys to being a great player is having so much confidence in yourself.”