The January issue of the “print product” will contain a fascinating story (if I do say so myself) written by Thomas Korosec about how two women came up with an ingenious tactic for shutting down the city’s brothels. We’ve put it online early because WE’VE GOT BREAKING NEWS. The brothels — er, massage parlors — are fighting back.
The phone giant has been whipped mercilessly online and in the media over its IPhone coverage. But it seems not to be a problem with AT&T but with the IPhone itself. Why hasn’t AT&T defended itself by revealing the truth? If your data revenues per subscriber were up 57%, you wouldn’t want to irritate Apple either.
This announcement is for those of you who knew he was in it.
For the first time in the history of Western Civilization, a crowd gathered this morning at the American Airlines Center was told, the five North Texas Junior League chapters (Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Richardson) have come together to work on a project.
That project is Slant 45, a “service-learning” initiative for children led by Big Thought that’s tied to the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee’s efforts to create a lasting legacy for the Feb. 6, 2011, game. The Junior Leagues, along with local chapters of The Links Incorporated, will help register and coordinate the service projects of the 20,000 kids that the Slant 45 effort hopes to involve.
In one of many, many football analogies made during the presentation, Slant 45 “Action Team” chairman and former Dallas Cowboys fullback Daryl Johnston said that the Junior League and the Links will provide the special teams and defense to complement Big Thought’s offense.
It was also announced that the American Airlines Center will host a celebration party featuring “well-known artists” in January 2011, at the end of the Slant 45 effort, for the thousands of children who participate. Today’s affair lacked the star power of September’s Slant 45 launch — Johnston began the presentation with a shout-out to Richardson Mayor Gary Slagel – and the hundreds of young students in attendance then were supplanted by a gaggle of Junior League ladies today.
Watch the video below and see if you disagree. This is how he spent his Thursday before the Mavs played the Miami Heat on Friday. Related: Carlisle is setting up a celebrity table tennis event for charity in March called Purple Ping Pong. Go here for more details as the time nears. (H/T: Shoals)
About 20,000 people donned their shoes and headed out to the fog Sunday morning. I’ve only participated in one half marathon before, and it was in Oklahoma City. So I was excited for yesterday’s run, because it was in my backyard. Check the jump to read about the things I learned in my very, very slow 13.1 miles.
And Rex Tillerson gets what he wants. His Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp. announced today that it will buy Fort Worth-based XTO Energy: The all-stock deal is estimated to be worth $31 billion. More details about the deal are available here.
Dimples did a nice job yesterday of reporting an excerpt from Tom Alexander’s soon-to-be released Stanley Marcus: The Relentless Reign of the Merchant Prince on legendary comedian Jack Benny’s last performance. But it didn’t cover the behind-the-scenes activities that took place the night that Jack didn’t go on with the show.
SweetCharity has the full story.
1. A man in an unmarked Crown Victoria pulled someone over the other day. The removable red light, the police-ish uniform, and maybe even the way he went about “searching” her gave the poor woman the creeps, and she ran away. Luckily, he did not give chase. Beware men in unmarked cars–a police spokesperson says that cops in unmarked cars rarely make routine traffic stops.
2. Craig Morris went to the Dallas County Jail last summer with a nasty case of pneumonia, and he left with…Well, he didn’t actually leave at all. The guy died. Despite pleas from other inmates to take him to the hospital, officers apparently didn’t think the guy was all that sick. In fact, a few minutes before he died, one officer said, “We decided not to wake him, as lying on the floor must have felt good to him, as the concrete was cool.” Beware the Dallas County Jail if you have any maladies. (Or maybe just avoid it altogether.)
3. The Dallas Cowboys lost. Again. Beware all those who cheer for them, refer to them as “America’s Team,” don jerseys, paint faces, attend games, and/or watch football on television. Basically, you should stay home today because everyone you encounter will be grouchy.
OK, I’m officially confused. In the past, the DMN’s Problem Solver column hasn’t hesitated to finger outfits like Microsoft, AT&T and D/FW International Airport that were giving folks a hard time. So why was it, I wondered, that in today’s Problem Solver column (which carries the tag ”New” on it), a hospital that mistakenly classified a patient as “dead”–setting off a whole chain of unfortunate events–was identified only as “a Dallas hospital”?
Come on, guys, which hospital was it? Isn’t that a key part of the story? Then I Googled today’s story and, in the process, found a suspiciously similar Problem Solver column from last month. It not only told the very same tale but, lo and behold, this time named the hospital: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. So what’s going on here, Newsies?
Amid news that Henry S. Miller Commercial LLC will file for bankruptcy — whatever that means for an entity with “no employees and no operations” — it’s worth reviewing Kurt Eichenwald’s story for D about the mysterious trucker who scammed the Miller company.
UPDATE: Henry S. Miller Commercial issued the following press release late on Friday.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas yesterday issued its quarterly survey of agricultural credit conditions. Still doesn’t look that good for farmers and ranchers. Drought conditions persist, even with some recent relief. Bankers reported that loan repayment rates have fallen, and a greater percentage of them expect farmland values to drop over the next three months.
But what I found most interesting is that the bankers in North Central Texas (where we’re situated) used the most expressive language, and the most expressive punctuation (!), among any of the 13 regions of the Eleventh Federal Reserve District. Their quoted comments:
Producers are realizing that this drought, which started in May 2008 and has continued through September 2009, may rival the legendary drought of the 1950s. Cattle herd liquidation is in high gear. Crop yields are less than 50 percent of original projections, and farmers are still waiting for 2008 USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) government disaster payments.
I’m not the first one to mention this, but much buzzed about singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe has signed to Kirtland Records. Look for her first full-length, Suburban Nature, sometime mid-next year. Here’s her playing live on KXT with Robert Gomez. Enjoy. I’m going to go take another handful of Sudafed.
Quick. Name Dallas’ billionaires. You’ll probably easily come up with Mark Cuban, Todd Wagner, Jerry Jones, Tom Hicks, both Perots, Ray Hunt, and Harold Simmons. If you’re following along closely, you could probably name Trevor Rees-Jones and Andy Beal. But how about Tim Headington? He made his money in oil and gas, and he owns the Joule. He’s also now getting into the movie business. He has produced a film called The Young Victoria, along with Martin Scorsese and Sarah, Duchess of York. It gets its U.S. premiere on December 18. At the Angelika, there will be a guest book so that you can drop Headington a personal note, now that you know who he is.
Texas is apparently suffering from a doctor shortage. But really it’s not so much a doctor shortage as a primary-care/family practice physician shortage. The University of North Texas says it wants to help this problem by opening a second medical school in Fort Worth.
Apparently they want an M.D. program, in addition to the existing osteopathic medicine college that they have over there. But here’s my question: D.O.’s have historically been more committed (a greater percentage of them make the choice) to going into primary care than have those with M.D.’s. From an old New York Times article:
One of osteopathic medicine’s most marketable features these days is its longstanding commitment to general medical practice, or primary care. Osteopathic education has historically prepared students exclusively to take care of patients rather than become specialists, academics or researchers. Osteopathic medical students generally spend considerably more time working as apprentices in clinics and private offices than their conventionally trained counterparts. ”We live with patients in the wild,” said Dr. Tyler Cymet, an osteopathic internist in Baltimore. ”We get
to see what they’re like.”Although the number of osteopathic doctors in primary care has fallen in the last 20 years, about half of all practicing osteopathic doctors are still primary-care doctors, Dr. Wood said, in contrast to only about a third of M.D.’s.
Sorry that article is about a decade old, but I think that’s still generally true. So if what you need is more primary care doctors, and osteopaths are more likely to make that career choice, why not push to expand the school you have, rather than create a whole new one?
The answer is that a D.O. still doesn’t command the same respect as an M.D.?