Articles for August, 2009
ZOMG! Joe Jonas Was At the W Hotel Today!!!
Why? For American Idol auditions. And the numbing refreshment of vodka, because you try dealing with screaming fans all day SMILES.
Speaking of the Jonas Brothers…
Most Powerful Men in Dallas Health Care
Let the great debate begin. Modern Healthcare has released its annual 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare, and I count four locals on their list.
The highest ranking is Joel Allison, president and CEO of Baylor Health Care System, at No. 29. Right behind him are Doug Hawthorne, CEO of Texas Health Resources (No. 31), and Dean Wilkerson, executive director of the American College of Emergency Physicians (No. 37).
But poor Trevor Fetter. The president and CEO of Tenet Healthcare was the 14th most powerful person in health care just last year. Now he’s fallen all the way to No. 53. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family today.
Weed Killer Poisoning Texas Water
Altrazine is the key chemical in weed killers. As this NYTimes chart shows, 31% of the population or around 8,000,000 people in Texas are exposed to the chemical, the highest numbers of any state. New research by the Times shows that EPA standards set years ago to set the safe percentage of altrazine a human can drink may be dangerously low.
Jane McGarry, take it from here.
New York Times Insults J.C. Penney, Its Customers, Its Own Readers, And a Wide Swath of America
Cintra Wilson, a “Critical Shopper” columnist for the Times, had this and much more to say about Penney’s opening a new store in Manhattan:
Why would this dowdy Middle American entity waddle into Midtown in its big old shorts and flip-flops without even bothering to update its ancient Helvetica Light logo, which for anyone who grew up with the company is encrusted with decades of boring, even traumatically parental, associations?
A better question might have been, “Why would a struggling newspaper already regarded as an elitist relic allow a smug, shallow fashionista to display her disdain at the first department store to open in Manhattan in 50 years?”
Perhaps I’m being sensitive because J. C. Penney is a hometown store. But perhaps not, since executive editor Bill Keller apologized profusely yesterday, but only after public editor Clark Hoyt ran a devastating column on the paper’s own op-ed Sunday blasting Wilson’s piece. Worst of all was Wilson’s mea culpa, as quoted by Hoyt, where she said she thinks of her audience as
1,300 women in Connecticut and urban gay guys in Manhattan
which, she admitted, is “kind of provincial of me.”
Stream Energy Files Response to Lawsuit
Awhile back, a lawyer named Scott Clearman filed suit against Stream Energy, calling it a pyramid scheme. That prompted Stream’s founder, Rob Snyder, to call Clearman a clown in a bow tie. That didn’t make Scott Clearman very happy. Well, now Stream has filed an official response to the suit. You can read the entire thing here, or you can read the company’s press release after the jump. The high point: where Stream asks the court to throw out Clearman’s suit, essentially, because it is so “inarticulately drafted” (though I’m sure Stream’s attorneys would quibble with my condensation of their fine work).
Houston Disses Downtown Dallas
Ouch, Jeff Moseley, CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership. Sure, you can brag about your fancy medical center, but did you have to pick on the size of downtown Dallas while you did it? You better watch yourself or we’ll ask Jerry to launch his giant space turtle to swallow downtown Houston whole.
Leading Off (08/24/09)
1. A gentleman in Keller gave new meaning to the term “barking mad” yesterday morning. He and a neighbor got into an altercation over a garrulous dog that led him to shoot the neighbor. Even worse: after exiting his neighbor’s tummy, the bullet entered the leg of his own wife. Darn dog!
2. Texas schools are cracking down on “sexting.” Mesquite ISD has even added a new provision to their student handbook prohibiting “sending, sharing, or viewing pictures, texts, or e-mails of a sexual nature…” Remember back in the olden days when we dealt with self-esteem issues through eating disorders and three-way calling? Darn Internet!
3. Due to some “aggressive” towing practices and problems like, oh, say, lost cars, Dallas County is trying to centralize its towing process by hiring a company or two to do all of its towing. Currently, each county commissioner hires the company of his/her choice, and there are no written contracts or uniform procedures for towing and storing cars. In case you ever wondered why retrieving your car costs about $1 million (cash), don’t fret that it’s all going to feed the ferocious junkyard dog that’s always there–no matter which lot you visit. It turns out the county can get up to $100 per car from the towing companies. Darn that I don’t own a tow truck! (Weak. I know. But it’s early, and jokes come in threes.)
Martellus Bennett Begins His Assault on FrontBurner
Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett (aka Marty B) has said that he is “fifty percent black, fifty percent awesomeness.” We concur. Which is why we invited him to be a guest blogger on FrontBurner. There’s no telling how frequently he’ll post or what he’ll post about. So just stay tuned. Here’s his first contribution.
Marty B Says: Tickets Are Expensive!
P.S. If you don’t like my grammar, I don’t care, because I am not writing an English paper for a grade, plus English is my second language. I speak Alien. Let’s see you write in Alien. You can’t, because your modern-day technology lacks the advance stages of technology that we have on Jupiter. Damn Earthlings!
P.S.S. Follow me on twitter @Jupiters_Crunch.
Andrew Beal’s $1.1 Billion Tax Deduction
Make that former tax deduction. Dallas Federal Judge Ed Kincaide has ruled that the poker-playing banker can’t deduct his huge claim on losses on Chinese debt. As a consolation prize, he will not be penalized for trying (because he did so on tax advice) and he can deduct $10 million in actual out-of-pocket costs. Me, I didn’t know the Chinese had any debt. Do they borrow to buy our debt?
Cubs Sale Good News for Hicks Sports Group?
We’ve relayed reports of MLB’s taking control of the Rangers. Hicks Sports Group dumped so much debt on the team that it had come perilously close to not making payroll. So tonight’s news that the Ricketts family is buying the Chicago Cubs from Tribune for $845 million is good news. But for whom? Certainly for MLB. And certainly for the Rangers, who so far, insiders tell us, have not received one bid or even a serious expression of interest. But if a potential buyer now studies the Cubs deal (which includes Wrigley Field and some television proceeds), decides the Rangers are a steal (so to speak), and writes a large check to buy them, who gets the money? The creditors, of course, are first in line. And after that? MLB or Hicks? Or a combination of both?
Jerks Who Swipe Eco Parking Spots at Whole Foods
As a Prius driver, I love the “eco-friendly only” spots at the Lakewood Whole Foods. But I’ve noticed that many of my fellow citizens can’t read the signs (the one in this pic is tough to make out, but trust me). Here’s a picture of the SUV that right now make me angry.
Cool DART Time-Lapse Video of Green Line Art
In the current issue of the “print product,” the lovely Laura Kostelny brought us a ditty about Brad Oldham and Brandon Oldenburg, who’ve built an enormous sculpture for DART’s Green Line Deep Ellum stop called Traveling Man. You loved Laura’s piece, didn’t you? (Name of my next band: Lovely Laura’s Piece.) Well, then you’ll love this cool video produced by DART, showing the skin going up on the sculpture (which was shown naked in our magazine).
What Luxury Recession? Kitchen Starts at $214,900
The top dogs at Poggenpohl, a fast-growing German maker of luxury kitchen cabinets, really want to meet the Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki. The execs were in town yesterday to open the new Poggenpohl Kitchen Design Studio, the second–and largest–new kitchen studio the company has opened in Texas this year. (This one’s 5,000 square feet, compared to Houston’s puny 3,800 feet.) And, managing director Elmar Duffner and U.S. president Ted Chappell (in photo, from left) were especially eager to show off their Poggenpohl Porsche Design P’7340, a sleek “kitchen for men” developed in cooperation with the German automaker. The 7340’s price starts at a whopping 150,000 euros–or roughly $214,900. The luxury-segment recession notwithstanding, Duffner and Chappell said they’ve sold five Porsche kitchens in the U.S. so far. And they think German-born Dirk would make an ideal buyer for the sixth.
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