D

Eric Celeste Plays Poker

Remember back in the good old days of FrontBurner when we’d post goofy photos of staffers just for the fun of it? I do.

Where You Should Be Tonight: D Reading Room at Legacy Books

We’re having a cocktail-y thing at Legacy Books tonight from 6 to 8. It’s part of our Reading Room series. Tonight, you get free cheese, wine, and Laura Kostelny, who will be on hand to discuss the last D Reading Room selection, Wonderful World, and unveil the next selection, Evidence-Based Practice of Cognitive-Behavorial Therapy, by Deborah Dobson. I hear the first 400 pages are hard to get through, but after that it’s a real page-turner!

Insider: Why AT&T’s Clammed Up on DCPA Deal

Thanks to Unfair Park for pointing us to NYTimes writer Judith Dobrzynski, who’s blogged critically about the AT&T/Dallas Center for the Performing Arts naming-rights deal. How come neither AT&T nor the center will disclose how much the transaction is worth? Dobrzynski asks, adding that it “looks suspicious.” She’s right. However, one insider tells us the reticence is not surprising, given the current business and fundraising climate. Even when they’re “doing good,” companies fear being viewed as extravagant in any way these days. So in this case, AT&T probably figures the less said, the better.

Five Local Schools Get National Blue Ribbon Awards

Four of those — George Peabody Elementary, George Bannerman Dealey International Academy, School of Health Professions at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center, and Victor H. Hexter Elementary School — are in Dallas ISD. The other (The Classical Center at Brandenburg Middle School) is part of the Garland school district. Nationally, 314 schools made the list, 26 in Texas. It’s a big deal:

The award, given by the U.S. Department of Education, recognizes schools that excel or make dramatic improvements in the face of high poverty and other challenges.

You may recall that Tim’s kid attends Hexter. This year, I enrolled mine as well. This underscores my satisfaction in the decision to do so. Congratulations to all schools on being recognized.

Brazilians Swallowing Bo Pilgrim’s Pride

Another big American company’s being snapped up by foreigners. The Morning News reports that JBS SA, a huge Brazilian beef outfit, will buy most of Pittsburg, Texas-based chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride. Bo Pilgrim’s company run by South Americans? Next thing you know, Dallas-based 7-Eleven will be owned by the Japanese …

Fry Street Still Draws Denton’s Finest

Via Pegasus, we have this video produced by the University of North Texas student newspaper that brings us another dose of Denton nostalgia. The lot where the Tomato once stood sits empty. I’m not sure whether its vacancy makes my heart ache more or less than if it had become the CVS that was originally planned for the corner.

But, seriously, NT Daily, did you put out another casting call for Denton stereotypes? “General studies major?” “A CVS is a drug store, isn’t it?”  A neo-hippie girl with dirty hair?  I smell a mockumentary in the offing.

Rod Dreher on “Zombie Conservatives,” Ctd.

Wick: Per Jimmy Carter, the left’s latest tack is to conflate growing opposition to Obama’s policies with white racism–which is hogwash, pure and simple. (Not that there aren’t racists around–of every stripe, in every party.) So I’d say it’s not surprising to see you–who voted for Obama, if I recall correctly–piling on with the rest of the gang.

Big Red “D” to Grace Downtown Today — Briefly

As you, of course, know, we’re moving downtown October 12 into the St. Paul Place building on Ross Avenue. I’m looking forward to the new view we’ll have, seen here (image taken by Gustav Schmiege). I say this with all due respect to the SampleHouse & CandleShop, which occupies most of the view we have now.

In any case, our moving plans call for the erection of a big “D” sign high atop the St. Paul Place building. We’ve done some computer modeling to determine the ideal size of the sign, and today we’re taking the next step: throwing up a plywood model so we can see what it’ll look like in the real world. If you work downtown, keep your eyes peeled from about 11:30 to 1. That’s when we plan to have the thing up. Also, just to be safe, you might want to keep your distance. Rumor has it that Spider Monkey is trying to get involved with the project.

Update: I was just informed that our signage party has been canceled. It’s too windy. Apparently the building engineers are worried about a 20-by-20-foot plywood scythe harvesting pedestrians in downtown Dallas. To which I say: with that overly cautious attitude, we’d have never made it to the moon. Chickens.

Walls Are Crumbling at Neiman Marcus

Not literally, as far as I know. Things are bad for the luxury retailer. But not quite that bad.

The wall that has crumbled, according to the New York Post, is the wall between Neiman’s corporate and its Bergdorf Goodman division. Apparently Bergdorf has always had its own fashion office. In what would appear to be a sensible move when you’re trying to hold on to your effin’ ocelot-fur hat, they consolidated some of the roles. Those in the Bergdorf fashion office balked. The men’s fashion director quit.

Neiman President and CEO Karen Katz — who engineered the recent consolidation of Fazio and Patel’s roles — “maybe doesn’t totally get the fashion office,” according to one person close to the company.

The dust-up is another headache for Neiman Chairman Burt Tansky, who is beset by rumors that he will retire — even as the retailer scrambles to cut costs as sales continue to plunge.

One journalism-related complaint, which may seem strange to bother with since we’re talking about the New York Post here: “one person close to the company?”  That’s as specific as you can get?  Sounds like that quote could have come from a homeless guy standing outside the Neiman’s offices downtown.

Hicks Got Reprieve on Liverpool Debt

Bloomberg is reporting just how little interest European banks have in owning the Liverpool Football Club, striking a deal with Tom Hicks:

The U.S. private equity executive, who bought the northern English soccer team in 2007 with fellow citizen George Gillett Jr., agreed in July to repay a fifth of its 290 million-pound ($478 million) debt in return for Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Wachovia Corp. refinancing the rest of the loan.

They note that U.S. lenders to the Texas Rangers haven’t been quite so kind to Hicks, having declared him in default because of missed interest payments.  And I found this astounding:

Companies have more debt, and are paying less in interest, than they did in the recession of the early 1990s, according to Jon Moulton, the founder of private equity firm Alchemy Partners LLP. A firm that had debt of more than four times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 1992 would now have debt of 10 times Ebitda, Moulton said. It would have paid 12 percent interest on that debt in 1992, compared with 3.8 percent to 5.3 percent today, he added.

Money really did get too cheap?

KERA’s New Music Station Has Name — KXT

In June, North Texas Public Broadcasting (which runs KERA on the radio and TV) bought the frequency 91.7 FM for about $18 million. Today they’ve announced that the frequency, which has been operating as Christian talk station KVTT (91.7 The Truth), will have the call letters KKXT, and will be called simply KXT.

No, it’s not terribly poetic. But if the music is a mix anything like KERA used to play every night up until the mid-90s, it’ll be worth a listen. They plan to launch at 7 a.m. Nov. 9, with the suitably titled Morning Show. More of the release after the jump:

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Rod Dreher on “Zombie Conservatives”

I love that term “zombie conservatives.” And I love even more the op-ed last Friday in which Dreher coined it. The News’ editorialist is a lone voice of sanity in conservative writing today. Yesterday he took on Rush Limbaugh’s racist outburst. Rush and I once were friends. Where he has gone deeply disappoints me. Where Dreher is going deeply impresses me.

Is Dallas’s Dean Foods a Monopoly?

Because of complaints from farmers, a Senate committee will look into the question today. Greg Engles built Dean after buying a small dairy in Puerto Rico and seeing for himself how aggregation could help cost control in the dairy business. The company is now stout, there’s no doubt about it, with over $12 billion in sales. But a monopoly? When a company controls only 15 percent of the processing can it set monopolistic pricing ? Or is this an exercise in farm-state senators going through the motions for the folks back home?

Is Tom Leppert a Fiscal Conservative?

Angela Hunt and I surprise each other sometimes by actually agreeing on an issue. Regardless of whether we agree or disagree, I respect her civility, her dedication to Dallas, and most of all, her diligence. As the vote on the city budget nears, she has been poring over the details. She helpfully prepared a slideshow on the budget here (just click on the image to move on to the next slide). If you want more detail, you can also click on her Excel spreadsheets. Her major question, as you will see, is whether it is prudent in this economic climate for the city to assume more debt. The mayor says we need to keep investing in Dallas. Hunt asks how we are going to pay for it.

I agree with the mayor. But I also agree with Hunt. And that means, paradoxically, that I disagree with both of them. To invest in Dallas we need to raise taxes to pay for it. Otherwise we will be running Dallas like a junior version of the Bush Administration. 

The rebuttal, of course, is that a recession is a stupid time to raise taxes.  Almost all economists would agree — for the national economy. But Dallas is only 3/10th of 1 percent of the national economy. Its effect on the economy is like a pebble thrown into Lake Texoma.  There is never a stupid time to be fiscally responsible.  Tom Leppert the businessman knew that; Tom Leppert the politician-with-stars-in-his-eyes seems to have forgotten it. If we want the debt, the city should raise property taxes to pay the interest and principal. Otherwise, the citizens are handing the potential Senate candidate a IDCIWBH* card.

*I Don’t Care, I Won’t Be Here

Leading Off (09/16/09)

1. The Texas Board of Education has decided that health, computer skills, and one of the three semesters of physical education are no longer necessary for the edification of high school students. Unfortunately, the Board hasn’t been as decisive about some other key issues, and that has the good people of Richardson concerned. Not only are they worried about having time to meet new requirements for the 2010-2011 school year, they also argue that health class offers something kids don’t get anywhere else. And while I’m certainly not a hysteric about child obesity, I think the same could be argued about physical education. Back in the olden days, didn’t we have to take four semesters?

2. The former police chief of Little River-Academy, Texas,  is now spending a little time on the other side of the bars in our fair county. Apparently, police were investigating harassing calls he was allegedly making. Somehow that led to child pornography charges as well as six other felony counts.

3. Those darn budget constraints are being blamed for the major cuts that are about to happen in the mental health sector. ValueOptions of Texas, Inc., the company responsible for local mental health services, says that it will be forced to cut around $10 million from its $146 million budget. And that’s dramatic, according to Liam Mulvaney who is chief executive officer of LifeNet, an organization that receives funding from ValueOptions. LifeNet currently spends $300 per patient. That will be slashed to $140 per patient. Mulvaney said that he would be forced to tell patients, “No more room at the inn.”