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Demi Lovato Buys a Car at Park Place

Zac tells me Demi Lovato is a big deal. So when the folks at Park Place sent along the below photo and the release that follows after the jump, I decided to post them. That’s how it happened.

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Darkhorse Candidate For Worst Person in the World This Week: Michelle Lynn Smith

I’m glad I’m going out of town to do something completely frivolous this weekend, because otherwise I very likely would just stay up late reading about the Fort Hood and Orlando shootings. Or the case of Michelle Lynn Smith, the Anna woman who knowingly married a two-time sex offender (Glen Bracy), and then stood by and did nothing while Bracy then — big surprise — sexually abused her 4-year-old daughter “up to 50 times” by his own estimate. She will have to serve 90 years of her 210-year sentence before she is eligible for parole.

Jaap van Zweden Saves the Lives of Two Men Having Lunch

Today, I was fortunate enough to have lunch with the good professor Willard Spiegelman and maestro Jaap van Zweden at Dali, in One Arts. About that I will say this: Jaap is probably my coolest new friend. All my other friends will surely understand that I won’t have much time for them in the coming months, as Jaap and I grow even closer. He told me he’s been going to Cowboys and Mavericks games. I will, no doubt, soon be invited to join him courtside. My family will dine with his at the Ritz, where he keeps a condo. We might going skiiing together this winter.

The highlight of the lunch, though, was when a brisk breeze swirled through the courtyard at One Arts, toppling two large shade umbrellas. One fell on empty tables. The other, which was shading our table, fell onto a two-top across the aisle from us, smashing a glass full of red wine, and threatening the lives of the two gentlemen there seated. They surely would have been decapitated if not for the quick thinking of my good friend Jaap, who lunged backward in his chair and, with his baton hand, managed to steady the sickle-like umbrella before it could do further damage. Bravo!

(Did I mention that I was over-served?)

Dallas County Expected to Run Out of H1N1 Vaccine Today (Probably)

So, go ahead and panic, if that’s your thing. My thing? An unnatural, inexplicable cockiness, and constant thumb drumming on my legs (not a euphemism).

Reviving Biofueler Plans Dallas Locations

Never underestimate the ability of businesspeople to reinvent themselves. Case in point: the folks behind Dallas’ Evolution Fuels Inc. (formerly Earth Biofuels), best-known for co-owning Willie’s Place at Carl’s Corner Truckstop near Hillsboro. After nearly going bankrupt two years ago as the biofuels market was skidding downhill, the company says it has paid off tens of millions of dollars in debt and will focus now on selling “mid-range ethanol blends” at retail fueling stations/convenience stores.

Kit Chambers, Evolution’s executive VP, says the outfit has signed letters of intent to open two Dallas stores–at Travis/Knox and Lemmon/Oak Lawn–and is aiming to acquire other fueling stations in Alabama and Mississippi. In addition, says Kit (pictured), a new entity called Evolution Resources will launch soon with an ambitious plan to “repurpose existing assets to produce cellulosic ethanol.”

Guess it all makes sense. While the biofuels biz in general has had its problems, ethanol is one biofuel segment that the government seems intent on propping up.

Express-News Undercut by Front-Page Ad

I have no particular objection to running unobtrusive front-page ads on newspapers. I’d prefer that they remain confined to a small strip across the bottom, but I know that with some papers trying anything and everything to remain afloat, there’s going to be experimentation. The local Star Community Newspapers group has even been floating ads in the center of the front page, above the fold and surrounded by content.

But can we all agree that today’s San Antonio Express-News front is just awful? Maybe papers should set some sort of guideline. Something that says ads will be omitted from the front when they’re running a two-line, six-column head?  Or when the lead story has a major body count?

American Airlines Flight Attendants to Stage Mock Strikes This Month

This, apparently, is in advance of getting permission to have real strikes.

Quick two-part question: How is a mock strike different than a real strike? Follow-up: Can you explain that again?

Good News for Humans Who Breathe Air

Comes news that Dr. Al Armendariz, an SMU prof in the the Lyle School of Engineering has been named the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regional administrator. Armendariz has been an outspoken critic of federal and state regulators for not doing enough to clean up North Texas’ air. Jim Schermbeck sends along the official statement from Downwinders at Risk, the group that has long battled the Midlothian cement plants:

Dr. Armendariz is exactly the kind of person you’d want to have this job, but seemingly never gets it. Because of what’s at stake and the fact that Texas is the belly of the polluter beast, this may be one of the most important, far-reaching appointments the Obama Administration makes. Downwinders at Risk is proud to have been the group that first utilized Dr. Armendariz’s expertise in 2005 for our cause of cleaning up the Midlothian cement kilns. That work led directly to his becoming the premier “citizen’s scientist” in Texas on air pollution, and paved the way for his much larger influence on the state scene. Congratulations to both Dr. Armendariz and the EPA.

Congrats, too, to SMU. Armendariz will keep his faculty appointment while serving at the EPA.

Leading Off (11/06/09)

1.  “After nightfall at Fort Hood, the religious gathered to pray, the patriotic gave blood, and doctors and nurses worked to save the lives of the wounded. Sirens continued to sound, but traffic once again rumbled along Battalion Avenue and speakers blared, ‘The emergency no longer exists.’” D Magazine contributing editor Gretel Kovach is headed to the scene Friday for the New York Times.

2. Yes, these Frisco students probably weren’t going to act on their threats to kill a teacher, posted on Facebook. But senseless violence like what happened at Fort Hood yesterday reminds us why it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution. And maybe teach kids other ways to “vent their anger.”

3. Planting a yard of artificial turf makes just as much sense as pouring time, energy, gallons upon gallons of water, and chemicals into maintaining a sparkling green lawn in the wilting sun of Texas. And if you want to paint a baseball diamond on there, fine by me. If the spirit of Shoeless Joe Jackson shows up, well then, all the better.