Articles for July 30th, 2009
Tom Hicks Refinances Liverpool Loan, Ctd.
I got to wondering how Hicks — or Hicks Sports Group, whatever — who recently had to borrow money from MLB to make Rangers payroll, managed to retire his portion of the nearly $100 million in debt that made possible the refinancing of his $478 million Liverpool loan. I posed the question to a FrontBurnervian who isn’t afraid to theorize. He guesses:
I think that what happened with Hicks’ involvement with his Dallas teams was driven by the realities of his Liverpool co-ownership. Within the Premier League and Football Association, the members share mainly contract TV revenue from Sky B but are otherwise economic free agents in regard to the conduct of team finances. In short, there are no built-in safety nets — as available both through the MLB and/or NHL (although less so) — in terms of available emergency financing from the Premier League or league structural provisions that would pose a bar to foreclosure proceedings by lenders.
In his scramble to raise money for required debt retirement as a condition to rollover the Royal Bank of Scotland facility for Liverpool, Hicks knew that he could rely upon the collective support of the MLB and NHL. And as he had no structural supports available in Britain, it was more palatable for Hicks to default on his stateside obligations — which effectively, due to league and franchise rules, gave him a built-in stay of execution — than to face foreclosure as effected by Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain (where Hicks would have no ability to control his destiny in regard to the disposition of his Liverpool stake).
Not In My Neighbor’s Front Yard: Treehouse Controversy in University Park
The Johnson boys: breaking code and loving it.
Folks at our sister blog Overheard have been all over this treehouse story for more than a week, and now Good Morning America and the LA Times are getting into the mix. Intrepid community columnist Merritt Patterson reports that Brenk and Amanda Johnson, the parents who constructed a treehouse for their sons in the front yard of their University Park home, have been contacted by the national media outlets about the city’s threat to tear it down. The possibility of two cute kids (ages 8 and 6) losing their treehouse has caused quite a stir, but UP reps say city code restricts treehouses to the back yards of homes in University Park. It is unclear whether or not the city council will consider making an exception or change the code. Mr. Johnson, who says he spent 50+ hours building the treehouse and lost the tip of his thumb in the process, just wants his kids to have a treehouse—and doesn’t have a tree that can support a treehouse in the back yard. He was given 30 days to tear the treehouse down.
Report From Rick Perry’s Dallas Luncheon
Intern Bonathan has just returned from the Dallas County Republican Party luncheon for Rick Perry at Edison’s. Let’s jump.
Worst Human In Dallas, Ctd.
Well, it now looks like the worst human in Dallas is either me (for posting this) or the mom (for making the story up). Either way, I apologize for the rush to judgment.
No, wait, the worst humans in Dallas are still Alfred and Abneris Santiago. But I do apologize.
Komen Founder Nancy Brinker To Receive Presidential Medal Of Freedom
The White House says that Nancy Goodman Brinker, founder of Dallas’ Susan G. Komen for the Cure, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on Aug. 12. Kudos!
Rep. Pete Sessions Gives $1.6 Million Of Your Money To a Blimp Project
Great story on Politico about Rep. Pete Sessions. The guy earmarked $1.6 million for a company that wants to build a fancy dirigible. As if that weren’t goofy enough, the company is based in a Chicago suburb, it has no experience building dirigibles, and its lobbyist is a former Sessions aide with a criminal record.
Dallas Multicultural Expert, Ctd.
A free-thinking FBvian maintains that, contrary to Ed Rincon’s point, stereotypes are generally accurate and helpful, and points to this piece to prove it.
Dallas City Councilman Sues Former Employee For Embezzlement
It’s beginning to look like Dallas City Councilman Dave Neumann has a little trouble balancing his check books. First, the Morning News reports in February that Neumann overspent a $16,400 budget the city set aside for him to run his office by $8,000. Now, Oak Cliff People, following a dallas.org post, is reporting that one of Neumann’s former employees embezzled more than $1.9 million from a women’s apparel company he owns with his wife, Frances.
Judge John Ovard Appoints Incompetent To Bench
Speaking of bar ratings, Judge Charles Sandoval had the lowest rating the last time the Collin County Bar did its evaluation. (Here’s another lawyers’ survey where he was given a grade of D.) He was subsequently defeated in the GOP primary (thank you, fellow Republicans!). The ex-judge has spent the last two years trying to cajole colleagues in Collin County to give him a temporary or visiting judging job, with no success. The Collin County Observer reports this morning that Judge John Ovard in Dallas finally came to rescue, appointing the lowest-rated judge in Collin County– a distinction hard to achieve, btw — as a visiting judge in June to drug courts in Dallas County. Interestingly, Dallas County prohibits defeated judges in Dallas County from serving as visiting judges. Perhaps it should extend that prohibition to other nearby counties, or pretty soon we’ll end up with a rotation of incompetent judges from Dallas in Collin, bad judges from Denton in Tarrant, bad judges from Tarrant to Collin, etc.
THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED: Thanks to the legal-observing FrontBurnervian who offered corrections.
Local Band Debuts Pajama-Inspired Clothing Line
Back when I was writing about music for the Observer, one of my favorite underdog bands was the Foxymorons, the Mesquite-born duo of Jerry James and David Deweese. Hadn’t thought about them in a while, at least until this morning, when a studio-owning FrontBurnervian passed along this blurb from Valet. mag about James and Deweese’s new pajama-inspired clothing line, American Viceroy. The FBvian even helped pick out a quote from said blurb:
Casual, idiosyncratic and a tad preppy, the pieces are more Wes Anderson than Hugh Hefner. “Yeah, Hefner is the antithesis of what we’re doing,” says Jerry James, who co-designs the line with David Dewese—both native Texans who run the American-made label’s operation (including production) out of Fort Worth.
Dallas Multicultural Expert Recalls Another Stereotyping Incident By The Cambridge Police
Whatever you think about the Cambridge, Mass., flap that’s led to today’s beer-drinking session at the White House, Dallas’ Edward T. Rincon says it was “not an isolated incident” with the Cambridge Police Department. Rincon, president of multicultural research firm Rincon & Associates, recalls a 1999 Dallas Morning News story describing how Cambridge training officers once contended that pepper spray doesn’t work on Mexican-American suspects. Why not?, the cops were asked. Their answer: because “Mexicans grow up eating too much spicy food, and because they spend so much time picking peppers in the fields.” Rincon says the remark, which drew outrage from Latino groups and a quick apology from the cops, “illustrates the power of stereotypes and how easily they can be translated to public policy.”
Tom Hicks Refinances Liverpool Loan
A soccer-loving FrontBurnervian points us to news that Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. have gotten themselves out of trouble on their bank loan across the Pond. They will pay back about $100 million of the original $478 million they borrowed to buy the team and then refinance the rest.
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