Tim is the eco-friendly one on staff, what with the Prius and all, but a commenter asked me to draw the attention of FB Nation to the upcoming Project Green Summit, which happens September 15 in Fort Worth (11:30 a.m.) and Richardson (7:30 p.m.). It’s being put on by WFAA, is subtitled “Putting Green into Action,” and will be keynoted by actress Daryl Hannah, who apparently is, like Tim, an environmentalist of some repute. Everything else you need is in that second link.
A few days ago, I drew your attention to an op-ed written by D Magazine contributing editor Trey Garrison about President Barack Obama’s speech today to the kiddos. The upshot: Trey isn’t a fan of the notion. Over the weekend, Betty Culbreath, the former director of Dallas County Health and Human Services and a current DFW Airport board member, sent Trey a note and copied me on it. You can jump to read the entire note. It’s interesting for several reasons. But I’ll point you to one passage in particular, in which Culbreath writes:
You angry White men are so full of hate for this one Black man that all of you are losing your minds. I purchased a gun a few days ago because as much as you hate [Obama], with Perry putting fuel on the fire, you people will start killing Black folk like back in the Klan days and I want to be ready.
I don’t know what to say about that. It’s just so, er, bizarre. I should mention that I think Trey is insane — in a good way, mostly. But his op-ed was anti-government. It really had nothing to do with race. Nonetheless here’s what Culbreath wrote to Trey:
Remember back in April when Gov. Rick Perry made those veiled comments about seceding from the Union? I did. So, we put together a list of what the Top 10 teams in the country Republic would like if we were, you know, independent and all that. And besides, I’m looking for additional pollsters to keep this going all year. And cheap comments.
Okay, people. Here’s the deal. Comments are back — with one major change. All comments on FrontBurner (for the time being) will be moderated before they are published. An actual human editor with real eyeballs will review your prose before others can read it. Please be patient. We’ll review your submission in as timely a manner as possible. But if it takes a bit before your comment appears on the site, just know that we still have a magazine to put out. These things take time. What will get published and what won’t? We’ll have formal, detailed guidelines for you before long. For now, read our general policy after the jump.
A tree-loving FBvian who had five live oaks “butchered” here by Oncor last spring–and later moved to the Northeast–has a few observations about the company:
1.) Oncor would not have notified us in advance if I had not been home when they knocked on my door. I told them that my husband needed to be home to supervise the work and they left. They sent another crew several weeks later and had their “arborists” on site. The trees they “pruned” looked horrible and they damaged $2000 worth of other landscaping which they did reimburse us for.
2.) The crew that did the work was from IOWA!!! Do they know the growth patterns etc. of TEXAS live oaks????
3.) Since the last time we were butchered a few years ago the rules had changed from trimming to a 5 yr growth to a 10 year growth. When asked if that meant they would not be back for 10 years, I could not get an answer. Is trimming for 10 yrs of growth healthy to the tree or even safe in the case of lopsided trees???
4.) One of the first things that I noticed after our move was the beautiful trees alongside the roads–apparently coexisting with the power lines. While some are trimmed a short distance away from the power lines, I have yet to see one tree cut in the severe V pattern or the half-tree pattern that is common in Oncor’s wake. This is an area that gets actual snow and ice.
5.) I do not understand Oncor’s motives since by their own statistics most power outages are not caused by unruly limbs. My favorite was a couple of years ago when virtually all of N. Dallas was blacked out due to a squirrel. I never saw Oncor trying to rid my property of squirrels (I would have paid them extra for that).
There really has to some way to stop Oncor from ruining the trees of Dallas.
In this corner we have Preston Hollow People’s August 21 story about the fight over creating a conservation district in the Disney Streets:
There will be no happy ending for many residents of the Disney Streets.
And over here we have the Sept. 6 story in The Dallas Morning News on the same subject:
The Disney Streets are not, just now, the happiest place on earth.
Both writers employed similar ideas. I’m going to call it a draw.
You can go here for a full text of the President’s remarks to schoolchildren this morning. After the jump, I hit the (SOCIALIST!) highlights.