Articles for July, 2009
Why Can’t the City of Dallas Use Gmail?
Last month, we got into a discussion here about whether the city of Dallas could essentially use Gmail. The question came up because the city decided it would start deleting e-mails that were older than 90 days, and that raised concerns about maintaining open records. Well, an FBvian who remembers that discussion points us to this LA Times story about the city possibly going with Google. It would be a 5-year deal worth $7.25 million. Google would store all their e-mail. Washington, D.C., already does. So I ask again: is it time for Dallas to get onboard with “cloud computing”?
Emily Ramshaw Decamps DMN for Texas Tribune
I cited an anonymous source on Friday (shame on me!) when I told you that Emily Ramshaw was taking a gig with Evan Smith at the Texas Tribune. Now comes her e-mail to colleagues and friends:
Friends, colleagues, delightful sources:
Just wanted to let you know I’m taking the plunge. I’m leaving The Dallas Morning News, my first job and home for 6 years, to be an investigative reporter for the Austin-based Texas Tribune, a Politico/Pro Publica hybrid for Texas government and politics.
Here’s the NYTimes article on the venture:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/texas-monthlys-longtime-editor-leaves-the-magazine-for-a-local-web-start-up/My last day at the DMN is Aug. 14. I’ll send out another message when I’ve got my new e-mail address, but you can always reach me at [redacted].
–Emily
John Bloom on George Toomer
Remembrances of George Toomer continue to accumulate in our earlier post about his passing. I asked John Bloom (aka Joe Bob Briggs) to offer a few words. John knew George well and has this to say:
Buffalo George Toomer, the Dallas R. Crumb in both style and talent, designed the official logo of Joe Bob Briggs some 25 years ago and it’s still in use today. It was not hip in 1984 and it’s still not hip, and George would be proud of that. Although he labored for corporate America, he was an early mover in merging the hippie avant-garde with the mainstream. He had a great laugh that came from deep in the diaphragm, the sound of a man who laughs easily and often, and he didn’t like to wear a tie, go to an office, or own things. He was a mess. He was full of love. He would have been an artist if he’d never gotten a dime for anything he ever drew.
A.H. Belo Unloads Rhode Island Monthly
Congratulations to my pal John Palumbo, publisher of the Providence Journal-owned title for the last 12 years and now its proud owner. Is this a one-off deal? Or is Robert Decherd beginning to toss stuff overboard in an effort to keep the ship alfoat?
Dallas’ Most Interesting Sports Figures This Week
Lists, yay, lists! Everybody loves lists.
Here’s one on the most interesting sports figures of the week, just in case you haven’t already visited Inside Corner this morning.
ESPN.com To Launch Local Dallas Site
Los Angeles and New York will follow next year, according to Brooks Barnes in this morning’s New York Times. The expansion is based on the success of its Chicago site, which attracted about 590,000 unique visitors in June. Evan Grant of our own Inside Corner is not amused. Neither is the Morning News, WFAA, NBC5, or CBS11.
Leading Off (07/20/09)
1. Anyone harboring fantasies of becoming a librarian ala Parker Posey in the film Party Girl should officially let them go. Dallas libraries will take a major hit come September thanks to the $190-million cut to the city’s $1.9 billion operating budget. Most library branches are going to slash their operating hours by more than half. But here’s something even more heartbreaking: all branches will “share in about 5,000 new books… a stark drop-off from the 52,000 that the current budget year allowed.”
2. Bad news for anyone thinking about pursuing dreams of becoming a teacher like Olivia Williams’ character in Rushmore. The recession has apparently given North Texas school districts a beating, and they aren’t hiring as many new teachers this summer.
3. But for those looking to become just like Kurt Russell in Backdraft, I say go for it. I have no idea if local fire departments are hiring–unlikely, I suppose–but my goodness, there are a lot of local fires these days. There are house fires and apartment fires, not to mention the blazes in West Texas. Anyway, even if physically fighting fires isn’t your bag, you could just do it Tim’s way: start your own version of Shame, Shame, Shame, and prepare to make lots of new friends.
Ray Shaw, R.I.P.
My former boss Ray Shaw–chairman of North Carolina-based American City Business Journals, which owns the Dallas Business Journal–has died at the age of 75. A former president of Dow Jones & Co, Shaw was a tough newsman of the old school, and will be sorely missed.
R.I.P., George Toomer, Ctd.
Joe Simnacher did a masterful job in his obituary of the Great George yesterday in the News. And, as with ours on Wednesday, the comments are well worth reading (and how often do I say that).
TABC Fort Worth Supervisor “Retires” Over Gay Bar Raid, Two Agents On Desk Duty
For once, the TABC seems to be taking a complaint about its overbearing misuse of police powers seriously. Administrator Alan Steen actually placed a call to the Dallas Voice this week to apologize for the Rainbow Lounge raid. He used that opportunity to announce the supervisor’s well-deserved retirement and the reassignment of the two agents, whose actions are still being investigated. Steen had previously acknowledged that bar patron Chad Gibson had been injured while in TABC custody
Perhaps now the TABC’s disasasterous Sales to Intoxicated Persons program (you just knew they’d have to call it SIP), which was the impetus for the raid, will finally be put out of its misery. The policy has been roundly criticized for enforcement that is intrusive, subjective, and often violent, and it has not held up well in the courts. When a joint legislative committee began looking into it three years ago, Steen said he would “delay” any more enforcement. Apparently the delay ended soon after. Maybe now he’ll decide to ax the program for good. (Note that the linked-to article begins “It has been a tough couple of weeks for the folks at the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission…” and it is dated April 28, 2006.)
New Video Surfaces of Pacman Jones In Vegas Club
A FrontBurnervian alerts us to new amateur footage of Pacman “making it rain” by throwing bills from the stage at a strip club, precipitating a fight that got Jones and his bodyguard thrown out of the club and allegedly resulted in a shooting that wounded three people,all of whom have filed civil suits against Jones (under the “go where the money is” theory of torts).
R.I.P., Jean Carpenter
Jean Carpenter, a well-respected Dallas public relations person, died Friday after a lengthy illness. Carpenter, who was 80, had her own PR firm whose clients included the State Fair of Texas. Our condolences to her family and friends.
Evan Smith Steps Down From Texas Monthly, Ctd.
A source (yes, I just cited a quote “source”) tells me that Emily Ramshaw, of the Dallas Morning News, and Matt Stiles, of the Houston Chronicle (and formerly of the DMN), will join Evan Smith at the new Texas Tribune (which I’m not sure gets italics).
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