In December I noted that the bankers of North Central Texas surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in its quarterly agricultural credit report were pleading for rain (!)
This quarter’s report presents a very different picture in the comments:
We have gone from one extreme to the other. Wet conditions are hindering the completion of the harvest as well as cattle feeding.
Perhaps they’re more sedate because rural land values didn’t drop nearly as much (scroll down)this time around. Though they’re still down.
Scooped them right out of bankruptcy, has already sold the penthouse. I’ve dubbed him Saint Stoneleigh on DallasDirt.
In the latest issue of Mother Jones, Adam Weinstein writes about the TABC raid on the now-famous gay club in Fort Worth called the Rainbow Lounge. Says Weinstein:
They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and that includes absurdity in law enforcement. Most states and towns have public intoxication laws that allow peace officers to pick up the drunk and disorderly. But in the Lone Star State, the nation’s broadest PI law lets cops go virtually anywhere and arrest anyone for drunkenness — even if they’re quietly nursing a beer in a bar.
Aside from the “everything’s bigger in Texas” trope, it’s a piece worth reading. Careful readers will also recognize one of Weinstein’s sources: DPD Officer Nick Novello, who was a source for Trey Garrison when he wrote about a story for us in 2007 about a ring of cops who broke the rules to inflate their arrest totals. (Novello was also a defendant when those cops sued D Magazine for libel.)
Update: From a MoJo blog post from Weinstein, I got the impression that he didn’t enjoy his time in Dallas (he worked at DS News, which, oddly enough took over our old space on Oak Lawn when we moved downtown in October). I asked Weinstein if my impression was accurate that he didn’t cotton to Dallas. “You can say that’s true,” Weinstein said. “Dallas didn’t meet my expectations. Which were low to begin with, since the last city I’d lived in before that was Baghdad. (Long story. Check out www.adamweinsteinwriter.com for that.)”
1. There will be a community meeting tonight to discuss turning the old Ramada Plaza Hotel on Akard Street and Interstate 30 into a homeless shelter. If the plan comes together, there will be 200 rooms made available to the homeless. All the developer has to do is get the community on board. Piece of cake.
2. This is an unfortunate case of she said, they said. Habitat for Humanity built Mattie a home. One stipulation for the home was that Mattie not move in as a single person. She said that’s fine, because her grandkids lived with her. But she said they only lived with her for a year, and she says they come back often. Even if that can be proven, it looks like it might not be enough.
How did this issue come to light? It appears that when the title was drawn up for the lot Mattie lives on, someone accidentally also included the neighboring lot (which it looks like Mattie’s not paying for). So Habitat needs that title to build another home. They’re offering to buy it for $10.
Here’s the way I look at it: if you didn’t really own the lot and you never spent money on the lot, but now you’re being offered $10 for it, take the deal! That’s a win. Of course, the whole being pushed out of your home because you didn’t meet the requirements thing is a loss. So best case scenario? Mattie breaks even. Kind of.
3. Awhile ago, Tim said he was disappointed that the Cowboys weren’t breaking the law the way they used to. Then Jason told you about Michael Irvin getting accused of allegedly raping a woman in Hollywood, which was the second Tim-worthy, law-breaking incident by a Cowboy (ex-Cowboy, whatever). So Jason deemed that a trend and said that Tim Rogers cursed America’s Team. Well, it looks like the curse is off as no charges are going to be filed against Irvin. Apparently, the lady made the whole thing up. Find someone else to blame if next year’s season doesn’t go well. Here’s one suggestion.