I’ll give you the lead of the story from the Dallas Morning News:
One of the first crimes committed in Dallas in 2010 was a particularly gruesome act of family violence, according to police.
About midnight on New Year’s Eve, Kerri Lyn Smith, 41, was kissing her boyfriend of four years in Far North Dallas when Smith bit the man’s bottom lip and tore it off his face, according to police documents.
Want to know the most insane part? The victim said he didn’t want to press charges.
A lot has happened since the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau rolled out its “Dallas–Live Large. Think Big” tagline back in 2004, the result of a rebranding effort by The Richards Group. In the intervening years local boom turned to bust as the city laid off hundreds, Hummers were traded in for hybrids, multimillion-dollar mansions went into foreclosure and paychecks were slashed everywhere .
So, any second thoughts about the “live large” theme in a downsized, small-is-beautiful time when Dallasites are into shabby chic and raising chickens in their backyards?
Not at all, says John Beitter, who helped craft the city slogan at Richards’ Pyro Brand Development. “We see it as a metaphor,” one that makes sense “over a long period of time, rather than just this short economic crisis we’re facing,” he says. “We still like it and support it.”
So, that’s settled; Dallasites are still livin’ huge. And don’t let anybody tell you different.
There’s no consensus among studies that have sought to determine how effective the death penalty is as a deterrent. But the latest look at the numbers, focused on our own state of Texas, suggests that there’s a slight decline in the number of murders: a reduction of 0.5 to 2.5 homicides in a month following an execution.
Among the states, only Texas executes enough people in a year to be studied this way, according to the sociologists. I trust that they properly controlled for any number of other variables that may have affected the data, which came from the years 1994 to 2005. But I pay a reasonable amount of attention to the daily news, and I don’t think I’m aware of every time there’s an execution.
We put criminals to death so frequently in our state (looks like we average more than two a month) that it’s not really treated as big news, is it? Unless the person was convicted for some notorious local crime? I hate to sound crass about the government taking the life of a human being, but news of executions is lost like white noise in our media reports.
Do potential murderers pay much closer attention to the news than I do? If the study is to be believed, I guess they do.
Or, to be more accurate, the Business Travel Coalition says that travelers should prefer American Airlines, not Delta Airlines, invest in Japan Airlines. American reportedly just added several hundred millions to its bid, increasing the offer to about $1.4 billion.
The coalition says that fares would increase if Delta wins out because the number of major airline alliances would effectively be decreased from three to two. The lobbying group also thinks that regulators wouldn’t approve any Delta-JAL anyway.
The Wall Street Journal’s Scott McCartney put together a scorecard of airline performance for 2009 and Dallas’ own Southwest Airlines came out on top, while Fort Worth’s own American Airlines brought up the rear among nine major airlines. He factored in on-time punctuality, flight cancellations, baggage handling, complaints, and bumping.
He said the gap seems to have closed somewhat between the best and the worst on the list, but he still sang the praises of Southwest:
It’s worth noting what an accomplishment the on-time crown in particular is for Southwest. Other airlines used to dismiss Southwest’s on-time prowess as artificial because the airline didn’t have automatic reporting of arrival times and instead had pilots writing down times on paper napkins, allowing fudging. But Southwest added automatic reporting devices to its jets years ago. Southwest’s record was downplayed because the airline didn’t fly to the congested Northeast for many years or congested hub airports. And now it does. It does have the advantage of a diverse route network where problems in one city won’t bog down most of the airline. But Southwest’s system is a lot more complex in many ways than other airlines. It operates far more flights each day than any other U.S. airline, and keeps a frenetic schedule with quick turns at each stop, requiring timing and hustle. It’s dependable transportation. Not much muss. Not much fuss. Sit down and go.
Sometimes, that is what you look for in an airline.
If you were planning to bundle-up and head to the Dallas Contemporary’s opening celebration for their new space on Glass St. this Friday, start making other plans. The gallery hasn’t been able to secure its certificate of occupancy in time for the opening (the holidays delayed setting up the phone lines which means no fire monitoring yet, DC Director Joan Davidow reports. You know how that goes). If you’re curious about the changes at Dallas’ contemporary, wait for the March edition of the print product. For now, Davidow and company are trying to figure out how to open James Gilbert’s show, which is installed and ready to be seen in the design district warehouse, in the next few weeks.
It was bound to happen: the cheesy mayoral bet over a big sporting event. It used to be that these things happened when two cities’ teams made it to the championship. But considering recent Cowboys history, I suppose a first round playoff game against a wild card team is worth a bet. So Mayor Tom supports his Cowboys in this friendly wager with Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter. At stake: a catered lunch, Texas BBQ vs. Philly cheesesteaks. One question: did anyone call the mayor of Arlington? (Release after the jump.)