Articles for October 14th, 2009
More Media Love For Craig Watkins
The Dallas County district attorney is named one of 27 “Brave Thinkers” in the November issue of The Atlantic. The whole list is here.
Signs of the Times On Health Care Reform
Demonstrators for and against health care reform are continuing to snarl traffic around Sen. John Cornyn’s office at Spring Valley and the tollway, DallasDirt’s Candy Evans reports. Three cop cars were parked there keeping watch around noon today, Candy says, when the “aginners” outnumbered the “fers” by about 150 to 12. It’s been closer to 50/50 since the demonstrations began several months ago, she adds, but rainy weather has tended to keep the reform proponents away.
Tibetan Monks Play in the Sand at Crow Collection
Because the Arts District is our new neighborhood, I strolled on over to the Crow Collection of Asian Art to take in a little lunchtime culture. The museum has a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery constructing a mandala throughout this week. Those are millions of grains of sand that the monks are using to construct “the green Tara,” which, one of the monks explained to the 40 or so people gathered for a free noontime talk, is a “deity for accomplishment.”
Through meditation the monks cultivate an energy that they manifest into physical form through the sand, and “that energy has the potential to uproot all sufferings.” He left us with the impression that just viewing the mandala can make a person feel better.
Bomb Suspect’s Brother Ordered Into Federal Custody
Hussein Smadi, 18, is now in federal custody as a material witness in the case against his brother, Hosam. His deportation to Jordan has also, obviously, been stayed. He might have had a chance had he not been so insistent on rocking that bandanna/white sunglasses combo.
Potential New Morning Show Crush: Good Day’s Fiona Gorostiza
I don’t often get to watch local morning shows for a variety of reasons, mostly revolving around sleep and my son’s dictatorial control of the remote. But I have tried to change my routine slightly. For one thing, my pal Rob McCollum is now a co-host for Channel 8’s Good Morning Texas. For another, I’ve discovered the secret weapon of Fox 4’s Good Day program: Fiona Gorostiza. Nominally, she is a fill-in meteorologist, taking over when Evan Andrews is off doing whatever. But she also has her own segment, “Fun with Fiona,” which is what I caught today at the gym. Good times. A quick scouting report:
• Grew up in the Philipines.
• Served as a producer for Robin Leach of Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous.
• Has a third-degree black belt in taekwondo, and holds three world titles.
Robert Murdock, Former Dallas Museum of Art Curator, R.I.P.
Not sure why this is just getting reported now, but Robert Murdock, curator of contemporary and 20th-century art at the Dallas Museum of Art in the 1970s, died October 1 in New York, of complications from cancer. With all the justified hullabaloo surrounding this week’s opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, it’s worth taking a moment to remember one of the people who helped solidify the Arts District’s place here.
Leading Off, No. 3, Ctd.
Tim, you’re right to be skeptical about DART’s sudden about-face on the bus deal. To me it’s all about a win-win for Mayor Tom Terrific: If and when he does run for higher office, his green bona fides (as per this arrangement) will be beyond reproach; plus, it won’t hurt for Leppert to have ‘ol deep-pockets Boone in his corner. While I guess it makes sense to support compressed natural gas when the Barnett Shale’s in your backyard, should that be the deciding factor? Besides diesel’s advantage on bus cost, the executive director of the Maryland-based Diesel Technology Forum points out that there’s an “infinitesimal” difference between clean diesel and natural gas in terms of air pollution. Allen Schaeffer also notes the big-time “retrofitting” costs for natural-gas bus systems, and says that 80 percent of new-bus orders nationally are going the clean-diesel route. Then he adds this kicker: Transit decisions in favor of natural gas are inevitably “influenced by ‘deals’ arranged with the gas suppliers … when in many cases the economics are not favorable” for the natural-gas option. Could that have anything to do with DART’s new fuzzy math?
Open Caption Contest: What Is Tim Rogers Doing?
A month or so ago, Tim participated in Vision North Texas, “a dialogue for regional leaders, decision-makers, and stakeholders.” Since Tim is not any of those things, he was on hand to act as a facilitator, which meant he — look, I sort of drifted halfway through his explanation of what he was doing there. Anyway. Robert Rummel-Hudson — who wrote the book Schuyler’s Monster, about his daughter’s battle against apraxia, a disorder that leaves her unable to speak — was on hand, and sent me this photo of Tim doing…something. Caption away in the comments.
"What -- they told me Dirty Charades was appropriate here. No? Is that frowned upon?"
Scenes From the New Office (One in a Series)
Here’s Wick, looking natty in his new office (and impatient with my photo shoot). You’ll notice that he still has some decorating to do. The large mounted fish has yet to find its spot on a wall. You’ll also notice that Wick no longer has a door (that glass panel on the right is all that separates him from the hall). This raises the question of what he’ll slam now when he’s angry.
A Grainy Photo of Tiger Woods at the U2 Concert
A lot of chatter this morning about Tiger Woods being in town for the U2 concert. Apparently he ran some pass patterns for Tony Romo out at Valley Ranch, too. Well, one alert FBvian sat right above Tiger and Romo and Jason Witten at the concert. He snapped this photo. And now you’ve seen it.
Leading Off (10/14/09)
1. Kay Baily Hutchison is keeping them guessing. Yesterday on Mark Davis’ radio show, she was vague about when (or if?) she’ll vacate her Senate seat to run against Rick Perry. Our mayor has no interest in these developments. Okay, maybe just a little interest. Oh, all right, he’s got about 15 RSS feeds set up to track Hutchison’s every move.
2. The squirreliness with county constables continues. County Commissioner Jim Foster ordered a pre-dawn raid on a constable’s computer to copy the entire hard drive. Said Foster: “If there is not something on that computer that they don’t want anyone to know about, then what is the problem? There is nothing on my computer that I would be embarrassed to share with any investigator.” There is at least one difference between me and Foster.
3. See if you can follow me on this one. DART is going to buy 600 buses. The question is whether they should run on diesel or compressed natural gas. Last year, DART was saying it would go diesel. The new diesel engines burn just as cleanly as natural gas, and they’re much cheaper. But then Mayor Tom Leppert stepped in and said, “Look at my enormous hands! T. Boone Pickens owns a company that sells compressed natural gas. Natural gas buses will make Dallas cool. Diesel is boring. Have another look at my hands — and this purchasing decision!” So yesterday DART reversed its thinking. Sure, the natural gas buses will cost $142 million more than the diesel buses, but over 20 years, DART projects, they’ll more than make up for that higher initial cost. Why? Because in the last nine months, the cost of deisel has gone up, while the cost of natural gas has dropped. Do I understand this correctly? Is DART about to make a $142 million bet on the price of natural gas 20 years from now? How many times has T. Boone Pickens gone broke making bets like that? (And, sure, gotten rich making bets like that. But, still, you get my point.)
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