D

DFW Companies Get Gold Stars on Green Issues

Newsweek’s out with its inaugural “Green Rankings” of companies that are good on sustainability issues. Among the local outfits that made the cut: Texas Instruments, J.C. Penney and Kimberly-Clark.

UP Mom Denies Prostitution Charges

Read Cynthia Martinez’s side of the story here. Spoiler Alert: she moved to the Park Cities for the schools.

Newt Gingrich Doesn’t Want to Party With Topless Bar Owner After All

You can read the full release after the jump. In September, Newt Gingrich’s outfit Americans Solutions for Winning the Future gave Dawn Rizos, owner of the Lodge, an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for all of Texas and invited her to a private dinner in Washington — which was apparently a mistake. Rizos even called to confirm the award, and she paid a requested $5,000 to join Americans Solutions for Winning the Future. Then someone in Gingrich’s camp realized what they’d done. Oops.

Here’s the letter telling her about the award, and here’s another confirming that she ponied up the cash. I know Dawn Rizos. I bet she’s having a good laugh over this.

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Downtown Dallas To Be Attacked by Sinister Helicopter-Flying Bad Guys Tonight

The Dallas Police Department (twitter/DallasPD) just tweeted: “There will be low flying helicopters in downtown Dallas from 4pm to 10pm. The company has obtained appropriate clearances.” I could either call the po-po and ask what’s up or just invite the sinister bad guys to tell us their intentions in the comments.

Carty Optimistic on Virgin America Capital Plan

Don Carty, the ex-AMR CEO who’s now chairman of Virgin America, which was founded by Sir Richard Branson, says he’s “confident” the feds will OK a new investment group for the discount airline. Approval is important for Virgin, which targets business travelers, because it’s been dogged by controversy since two big U.S. hedge funds sold their 76 percent stake in the airline earlier this year. Virgin rivals say that means the California-based carrier is really controlled by Branson’s Virgin Group Ltd., which would be a violation of rules against foreign ownership of domestic airlines. So, is there a timetable for the U.S. Transportation Department to OK Virgin’s new shareholders? “God only knows,” Carty (pictured) joked last night, hosting a party for a local nonprofit at his home in Dallas. DOT’s plate is “pretty full” right now, he added, including with a pending decision on the American Airlines/British Airways alliance.

D Magazine Logo Bedazzles Downtown Dallas, Ctd.

Here’s a better picture of the logo test we ran yesterday on the new building. Thanks to Gustav Schmiege for the snap. One problem with the test logo: when you put a “D” in a square, it makes the square look like a vertical rectangle. That’s why our logo is wider than it is tall, to make it look like a square. Anyway, as I understand it, the test logo was 24 feet tall. After yesterday’s experiment, they’ve determined that it can only be 20 feet tall. We’ll miss those 4 feet.

How to Get Rich Off the North Texas Super Bowl

Estimates I’ve heard about the direct economic impact of Super Bowl XLV on North Texas range from $300 million to $500 million. How to get yourself a piece of that pie?

The Super Bowl XLV Host Committee will host the first of three scheduled workshops for its Emerging Business Program on Oct. 27 at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth. This program is just for minority- and women-owned businesses that want to find out about the many procurement opportunities leading up to the big game at Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 6, 2011.

But be warned: “The Super Bowl is not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” host committee executive director Tara Green told me she’s been telling organizations all over the region. Don’t count on the Super Bowl funding your retirement plan. So if you’re not already in the porta-pottie business (for example), now is not the time to start investing heavily in hopes of a mighty windfall.

If you own a business and don’t qualify as a minority or a woman, you can still contact the Host Committee about being included on a giant list of vendors that they’ve been adding to since almost the very moment that North Texas was awarded the game in May of 2007.

If you are qualified for the Emerging Business Program, you can register here. Details after the jump: (more…)

The Numbers Behind the ACS-Xerox Deal

Several people have complained in the comments about FrontBurner’s sauciness this morning. So here’s a very detailed examination of the arcane financial details behind the sale of ACS to Xerox. That balance things out? Happy?

Only Watch This Video of the Dallas Stars Ice Girls If You’re a Sexist Pig

I find this video of the Dallas Stars Ice Girls offensive. (h/t Unfair Park)

Leading Off (9/30/09)

1. Michael Irvin was caught on cellphone video having sex in a bathroom at Cowboys Stadium. Or it was a guy wearing an Irvin jersey. Hard to tell. And if you’re offended by such material, you simply need not follow that link. But you’re going to follow that link, aren’t you?

2. Listen, you guys can rename me César Chåvez (hard to get those accents right). But can we just get over this already? I’m sick of hearing every month of another plan to name another road after the guy.

3. Remember yesterday when we told you that there’d been a rash of cheese overdoses at Parkland? We perhaps now know why. A grandmother in Rowlett has pled guilty to selling the stuff out of her home. According to the News, cops found eight guns, at least 9 ounces of heroin, and more than 3,000 capsules containing cheese. And the feds are want to seize her four cars: a 1978 Rolls-Royce, a Mercedes-Benz, a Jaguar, and a Cadillac Escalade.

Cowboys Fans Celebrate Win With a Bang (NSFW)

… in the “Hall of Fame Level” bathrooms at the brand new broken in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. No joke. Two fans clad in Michael Irvin throwback jerseys decided that all the excitement of a thoroughly lackluster win by Romo and the Boys could only be sated by a quickie in one of Jerry’s marble-tiled handicap bathroom stalls.

This definitely NSFW link will take you to the Deadspin post that includes video of the pair drunkenly going at it. The video is very short, but in IMHO the dude was over served and lacking in the imagination department. Is it wrong that I hear Brad Sham’s voice saying, “Irvin loves Irving Irvin,” every time I watch it?

Also, check out photographer Eliot Boney’s website. He’s the guy with the apropos name taking credit for the masterful camera work. No word yet on who the two Irvin wannabees are. My question: Where was security while this was going on?

Comments are on like Donkey Kong. Who’s got the best Chris Berman play-by-play?

A Tardy Recap of the Bridging the Trinity Party

I know, I know. I’m way late with this. But on Friday there was this party on the Continental Bridge. If you want a real, honest to goodness recap of the night’s proceedings, I suggest you read John P. Meyer’s well-written account. Thing is, I took photos. They’re only iPhone shots. Nothing special. But I feel compelled to share them, if for no other reason than sharing them allows me to delete them from my phone. So a few observations and pics after the jump.

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Park Cities Prostitute Busted

Park Cities People has details of the arrest in University Park.

Back to You, Paul Kix

From the Great Headlines Department

An alert FBvian draws our attention to this story on NBC Channel 5’s website. It ain’t so much the story, which isn’t local, but the headline. The one on the website right now reads: “Self-Loving Trucker Flips Rig, Loses Load.” But check the URL. You can tell someone made the headline writer tone it down a bit. The original was: “Masturbating Trucker Flips Rig, Loses Load.” [standing, clapping] There are a couple gems in the story itself, too.

A.H. Belo Pension Fund Under-Funded by $575 Million, Ctd.

An alert FBvian saw that $575 million figure and thought it was high. He did some research — and sure enough, it is. He contacted Editor & Publisher, which has run a correction: “In fact, as of December 31, 2008, A.H. Belo said it had accrued $17.096 million for future contributions to future pension payments, which it estimated could range from between $17.1 million and $91 million.”

Herb Kelleher Made JetBlue’s Founder Cry

David Neeleman is the founder of jetBlue Airways and previously worked with Southwest Airlines, after he’d sold his earlier company, Morris Air, to Southwest in 1993.

This blog post relates the story about being dumped by Southwest founder Herb Kelleher that Neeleman told at a conference in Washington, D.C.:

Neeleman idolized Kelleher and told the audience that he would have sold Morris to Southwest for a lot less than he did to get the chance to work with Kelleher.  Neeleman hit the ground running at Southwest and started pushing big changes on a number of fronts.  Five months after getting there, Kelleher took Neeleman to lunch at a Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Dallas and told him he was fired because he was just too impetuous. Neeleman told us he cried after that conversation.

A Rash of Cheese Overdoses at Parkland

Awhile back, Angela Gardner tweeted: “Apparently there is a new batch of ‘cheese’ on the street.” Gardner is the president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and she works at Parkland. I got her on the phone to explain what’s happening down there.

Gardner has worked at Parkland for about five months. In the first four, she says, she saw only a few cheese overdoses come through the ER. But in the last couple of weeks, she has seen about half a dozen. She stresses that her count is anecdotal. The patients have all been males in their early 20s. They all say they did the drug at a party. “I’m struck that these kids think that because they’re snorting the cheese, it’s not as bad for them as injecting heroin,” Gardner says. “They don’t know that it can stop your breathing and kill you.” Her patients have all survived.

Side note: I asked her how the flu is looking at Parkland. Gardner’s response: “The flu is looking terrible! It’s terrible!” She thinks Dallas will get the H1N1 vaccine the first part of November, and she encourages everyone to get a shot.

D Magazine Logo Bedazzles Downtown Dallas

The “print product” and deadlines associated therewith kept me from attending a test this morning downtown of our logo hanging on our new building, St. Paul Place. But an alert FBvian sends in this picture, taken moments ago. I think the test logo is made of canvas. The real thing will be Naugahyde.

Dallas Fed President: Baby Boomers Are Selfish

And Generation Y will save us.

Holding his own generation at fault, Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher told a gathering of Texas Christian University alumni this morning at Northwood Country Club in Dallas that the Baby Boomers are “one of the most selfish generations. We wasted our children’s future.” He said it is disgraceful that the Boomers allowed Medicare and Social Security’s unfunded future obligations to reach their present level — about $104 trillion.

But he has confidence that his children’s generation has learned that it will have to save more, that it will have to find a better balance between consumption and savings, than did the Boomers. The Facebook-addicted, self-absorbed, ’shower-me-with-praise,’ texting-obsessed Millennials? Really? (He may be right.)

As for our current economic state, Fisher reiterated that he is cautiously optimistic, with “stress on the word ‘caution,’” especially considering that “consumption and credit [are] on a slow crawl out of Purgatory.”

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Here’s Hoping Your Woman Doesn’t Work for the Performing Arts Center

What? I haven’t yet mentioned that My Fair Lady works for the AT&T Performing Arts Center? On a contract basis? Well, yes, it’s true. She does. And last night I saw something related to said gig in our closet that made me shudder. She’d been talking for weeks about having to attend all the opening-week festivities and how this attendance would require many new dresses and perhaps even handbags and so forth. My advice to her: spend your money on one kickass dress, and then wear that sucker every night. Own the look. You know?

She wasn’t having any of it. And, thus, apparently, she went out and had it. Because our closet is now populated by no fewer than — what? — five new dresses. It’s hard to say. They are hanging. I did not wish to disturb them. Perhaps their price tags would become visible, and I would vomit. I store my shoes in our closet, and I didn’t want to vomit in my shoes.

Point is, if your lady is similarly engaged, I want to say that I feel for you, brother. It’s like that at my house, too. Only one way to handle it: either it’s time to buy a retaliatory tux (name of my new band), or you lose some weight to where you can fit into one of those dresses. Good luck.

Leading Off (9/29/09)

1. Cowboys win! Cowboys win! But let’s be honest: should anyone be all that excited when the quarterback of the team the Cowboys just beat — and not exactly decisively — is this guy?

2. I’m not positive who to be angry at when an unlicensed SUV driver plows into a daycare van packed to the gills with 20 kids, driven by another unlicensed driver. As I tend to do, I’m going to play it safe and be angry at everyone. Except the kids.

3. If you live in a house that is a constant source of police attention, often because neighbors hear gunfire, it is a bad idea to angrily point anything at officers who are drawing down on you, even if it is only a cellphone. You will die.

A.H. Belo Pension Fund Under-Funded by $575 Million

A special report by Editor & Publisher finds that the nation’s newspaper chains are in deep when it comes to their pension funds. A.H. Belo is short by $575 million.

Just remember, Evan: when you’re ready to come back, we’ll still be here.

UPDATE: That number is too high. E&P has issued a correction.

DMN Wakes Up, Hires Evan Grant Back

Awhile back, the Morning News made a big mistake. It entered into a content-sharing agreement with the Star-Telegram wherein it ceded baseball coverage to its crosstown rival. Then it took the best baseball writer in town and put him on the Cowboys beat. I’m talking about Evan Grant. So we hired him and launched InsideCorner, which was an immediate success. It drew a sizable audience, and the Observer just named it the best blog in town.

Then ESPN announced it was launching a Dallas site, and the Morning News soiled its drawers. After the newspaper took a shower and got itself cleaned up, it called Evan and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse (and that we, sadly, couldn’t match). So much for its arrangement with the Star-Telegram. Sharing is all well and fine when you can control the market. But when the Worldwide Leader comes to town, all bets are off.

In any case, Evan has written a few words of farewell over on InsideCorner. We’re going to miss the guy. Personally, I’ve never followed baseball that closely. I began reading Evan’s coverage out of a professional obligation. Checking in on the blog wound up being a pleasure rather than a chore, and I learned a lot about baseball this year. So cheers, friend. Thanks for the great season.

And don’t let the door hit you in the ass, traitor.

Brad Sham Does Yom Kippur — And Cowboys

The Jewish holiday ends tonight. So how will Brad Sham handle his duties at Temple Emanu-El and then make it to the Death Star in time for the 7:30 kick? Jeff Caplan at the Star-T explains. (And how did Robert Wilonsky not have this scoop?)