Articles for July, 2009
Leading Off (7/29/09)
1. The Dallas City Council is really feeling the pain of the $190 million budget deficit. The mayor asked Councilman Jerry Allen to figure out how to cut $500,000 from Council costs. Allen’s plan: lay off staff secretaries and have two council members share one secretary. But Councilwoman Angela Hunt thinks that’s a bad idea. On her blog early this morning, she laid out a plan to hit the $500,000 goal by essentially just cutting back on photocopies and free meals for council members. Message to Hunt: stop trying so hard. You’re making the rest of them look bad.
2. Samuel Dewayne Delmast taught us all an important lesson. If, when you are arrested, you have meth on you and you happen to drop it on the jailhouse floor, don’t drop to your knees and lick it up.
3. While Dallas got some good news on the homefront (prices actually went up 1.9 percent from April to May), Collin County is learning that the days of double-digit growth are over. After a decade of steady growth, property values have gone flat. Plano, in fact, saw its tax roll dip for the first time since 1991. As officials there look to balance their budgets, may I suggest that they have a hard look at their photocopying expenses?
TV With Laura: The Bachelorette Finale Recap
Friends, I have no words. Except I do. Too many, probably. I don’t want to get too mean, lest my friend Tanner P. de-friend me on Facebook. But I have some anger about the last episode. There was hula dancing, near-drowning, and bad shoes. Oh. And let’s not forget: there was a bad ring. Let’s jump for the analysis.
Kay Bailey Hutchison Will Vote Against Sotomayor
Question answered. Now for a few more questions: When it comes to the general election, will Hispanics care? Better question: Will Hispanics really even matter in 2010 (we all know they will eventually)? And a last philosophical question: Does anyone else remember the days when senators of both parties routinely approved Supreme Court nominees of the president, in deference to the fact that he had been elected in part to appoint Supreme Court justices?
Dallas Home Prices Up For Third Month In A Row
The most positive spin the NYTimes could put on the latest Case-Shiller report is, “Slide in Home Prices Is Slowing Down, Index Shows.” Dallas, however, showed modest growth for the third consecutive month, rising in May 1.7 percent over April.
Skinny Robber On The Prowl In Uptown
Here is the guy who broke into my condominium project the other night. At least he seems to have had the courtesy to bring his own…beer?
But the interesting thing to me is how he got in the garage:
Believe me, that is some tight squeeze. No, I mean, you have no idea. This guy is anorexic.
Federal Stimulus To Provide $9 Million To Fund 50 Dallas Police Officers
The grant is to pay for three years’ worth of salaries, benefits, and expenses with the requirement that the city pay for a fourth year. It’s a lifeline for Dallas, which is struggling to pay for 200 officers while suffering a $190 million budget deficit. But not only Dallas. Arlington will get $6 million for 31 officers. Addison gets $713,000 for 3 officers. Lancaster gets $639,000 for 3 officers. Hutchins gets $131, 000 for 1 officer.
All in all, Texas receives $37 million for 196 police officers. Unless, of course, Rick Perry decides to grandstand against the federal government, like he did with unemployment benefits. Anyone want to place the odds of Rick Perry announcing he’s against more police?(H/t BOR.)
“Teach Naked,” Says SMU Dean
SMU Meadows School of the Arts Dean Jose Bowen knows how to get attention. And he got his professors’ attention by telling them to “teach naked” — no, not that (are you crazy? you think he meant without clothes?) — that is, without any tech aids. He especially despises Power Point, which is too often a crutch, but he doesn’t much like any modern educational technology that reduces the personal engagement of teacher and students. And he’s got the studies to back him up.
Join Our Book Club: The D Reading Room
It might be hard to believe, but I have interests other than reality television. (Lest you worry, The Bachelorette writeup is in process.) Even more surprising: I once belonged to a very nice, civilized book club but I was given the boot. (Okay, it’s less dramatic than all that. I was simply dropped from the evite. But still…) Anyway, I’m now involved in a discussion about Javier Calvo’s Wonderful World with my smart friends Christine Allison and Peggy Levinson. It’s a quirky book. You should buy it and read along with us. Find out more about our club and follow along with the discussion here.
Girl Survives Shark Attack
Yes, I know this has nothing to do with Dallas. But those of us who head to the Texas coast and jump into the water for a swim may now have reason to think twice before jumping in. Fourteen-year-old Deidre Casas required 15 stitches after being bitten on her left leg by a shark on Friday, in the waters off South Padre Island.
Well you really should not worry at all. There have only been three confirmed unprovoked fatal shark attacks in Texas since 1962. So sit back and enjoy one of my favorite times of the year, Shark Week starting August 2 on Discovery Channel. And remember to live every week as though it was Shark Week.
Celebrity Sighting: Ken Burns
A lunch-eating FrontBurnervian sends word that filmmaker Ken Burns is right now lunching at Stephan Pyles. He is seated with a “distinguished-looking man in a suit with a natty tie.”
The Guy Gary Cogill Hates With a Passion, Ctd.
Here is “Date,” a video directed and edited by new Good Morning Texas co-host Robert McCollum for entry into the 24 Hour Video Race a couple of years ago. It won. Full disclosure: I’m friends with Robert, and he helped a little with my ill-fated mayoral campaign. Don’t hold either of those things against him.
Leading Off (7/28/09)
1. Texas spends less money per pupil than all but six other states, according to 2007 census data — about $7,800 a year versus a national average of more than $9,600 a year. (Although those figures are disputed.) But, at least we have the largest outstanding debt for education purposes at about $50 billion. (Does my student loan still count toward that?)
2. Speaking of kids, Texas is doing the best job in the nation of reducing the rate of fatal teen car crashes. As the father of a 15-year-old who tells me every day she wants a shiny new pink convertible Volkswagen Beetle, this is good news.
3. If, like me, you’re excited about the new Fairview Macy’s store opening north of Dallas, you’ll be happy to know the company is now being careful to tailor each store’s merchandise to better match the surrounding area’s tastes. Because, as one retailer notes, “the Dallas customer and the Portland customer are very different.” I would suspect, for example, you won’t find T-shirts in Portland with the Fairview city slogan “Keeping It Country.”
Glenn Hunter, Neo-Socialist, Likes Farm Subsidies?
I am shocked, shocked, to find Glenn Hunter defending farm subsidies, which hurt not only Africa but America.
(I’m sure that’s what the poor guy at the Mayborn Conference meant to say. Or maybe not.)
Blaming America, And Americans, For All The World’s Ills At A DFW Literary Conference
How come it’s so fashionable among the media elite–and the wannabe elites–to blame every bad thing in the world on ordinary Americans and the good ol’ U.S.A.? You could see plenty of this thinking at this weekend’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference, UNT’s annual gathering of scribes in Grapevine. As usual the confab was wonderful, enabling fledgling writers to learn from and to rub shoulders with some true heavyweights. But its sessions also underscored the tiresome, blame-Americans-first mentality that’s almost instinctive with so many in the intellectual/literary set.
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