Articles for April, 2010
Craig Watkins Says, “Be Patient”
Yesterday, I had a chance to read Emily Ramshaw’s piece in the Texas Tribune on Craig Watkins and the whole issue with constables Derick Evans and Jaime Cortes, and why he won’t take Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott up on his twice-repeated offer to assist on the investigation. Good piece.
Watkins’ cousin, Kurt, happened to e-mail it to me, too. So I took the opportunity to ask him a question that I didn’t see answered in Ramshaw’s excellent story: how is this constable issue different from the Mike Dupree situation, where Watkins DID take the AG’s help? Jump, and we’ll find out.
Leading Off (4/7/10): The Inexcusably Late Edition
1. Blockbuster is not dead yet. Late yesterday, the struggling company, whose current business model relies on strapping Betamax tapes to carrier pigeons, announced that it had struck a deal with two more movie studios (Twentieth Century Fox and Sony) to give Blockbuster “enhanced payment terms.” You’ll recall that Blockbuster also recently struck a deal with Warner Bros that allowed the company to rent The Blind Side and Sherlock Holmes a month earlier than Netflix or Redbox got the flicks.
2. DA Craig Watkins’ public integrity unit served Precinct 3 Constable Ben Adamcik and three of his deputies with grand jury subpoenas. Adamcik says he doesn’t know why he’s being ordered to appear before the grand jury on Friday. But here’s an interesting tidbit: one of the deputies served is a woman named Bertha Roop. Last year, Adamcik fired her after a federal drug investigation turned up $70,000 in Roop’s bedroom. But the county’s civil service commission said earlier this year that there was no evidence tying her to the money and gave Roop her job back. Yeah, nothing suspicious there. I mean, there’s lots of stuff in my bedroom that doesn’t belong to me.
3. Two Dallas guys pleaded guilty to federal drug charges and admitted that they were part of La Familia, the Mexican drug cartel. Both have cool nicknames. Ricardo Hernandez-Cruz, 37, is known as “Rica.” Edgar Gomez-Huerta, 31, is known as “Chato.” Per a conversation we had in an edit meeting yesterday about how we all wish there were more TV shows these days named after their main characters (think Hardcastle and McCormick, Starsky and Hutch, Cagney and Lacey), I hereby task Zac with coming up with the plot for the first episode of the anti-hero series called Rica and Chato, about two lovable drug lords that are part of the La Familia cartel. Yes, they sell drugs. But they are good fathers and husbands, just trying to put food on the table the only way they know how.
Brian Ferguson Really Wants To Buy a Newspaper
He went after the Rocky Mountain News. He tried the Austin American-Statesman. He became the largest single shareholder of A.H. Belo (and still owns 6 percent). Now he’s targeting the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The Star-Bulletin is a lousy newspaper, and my guess is that its financials are even lousier. But then again it is in Honolulu.
Brian, we need to talk. Privately. Soon.
Morning News Lands Hotshot Reporter Miles Moffeit
I’m a bit late coming to this, but you’ll forgive me because we’re old friends. (Right?) An alert FrontBurnervian points us to this story about a dust-up in Denver. Until recently, Miles Moffeit was a stud reporter at the Denver Post, but he quit to come work for the investigative team at the Morning News. The dust-up centered on some comments Moffeit made to the Westword about why he was jumping ship for the News. He said one of the reasons he wanted to come to Dallas was because the paper here was in good shape financially — and the one he was working for wasn’t. Bear in mind that Moffeit had been a business reporter for the Post. After his bosses read what he’d said, they told him to pack up his stuff and leave.
I like the cut of this guy’s jib. Moffeit used to work at the Times Herald and the Star-Telegram, so Dallas will be familiar to him. Welcome back, sir. We look forward to reading your strong words.
Father-Son Team Goes for Seven Summits
Scott Grischow used to live in Dallas. Now he lives in Houston, where he’s a managing director at an outfit called FTI. Scott’s dad, Don, who is 62 lives in town and has worked for the North American Coal Corporation for more than 30 years. Why am I telling you about these guys? Because they’re working their way up and down the seven tallest summits on the seven continents. They started in 2003 and have knocked out five of them. And right about now, the guys are leaving Kathmandu, headed toward Everest. You can follow their progress here, on a site set up by the expedition organizer. Scott has his own site, but there’s nothing on the blog — which to anyone in Dallas who knows the Grischows should be taken as a sign of laziness, not of a tragedy having befallen Scott and Don. (Come on, Scott! It’s 2010! Would it kill you to tweet some pics?!)
Group Threatens 30 Governors, Perry One Of Them, Ctd.
As you may recall, last week a group calling themselves the Guardians of the Free Republics sent letters to 30 governors demanding their resignations, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry was one of them. They had three days to resign, or else. In the meantime, there’s even a bit of conflict as to who the Guardians are, exactly. Mother Jones says they’re pretty sure it’s just this one guy, Clive Boustred. The Christian Science Monitor says there are Guardians all over.
But Saturday, because I said I would, I shot an e-mail to the media contact listed on the group’s Web site. I have yet to get any response.
What did I ask? Let’s jump to see.
Win a Free iPad
You know it’s going to change human history, right? And that it flies? So no doubt you want one. Well, we’re giving one away. You can go here and register once per day, through April 30, to win an iPad (thanks to the Travis on Katy Trail). Good luck, technology consumer.
Missing the Bubble Hurt Dallas Real Estate? Nah.
Joe Guinto makes the argument that it did in the cover story in the print edition of FrontBurner this month. His thesis is that missing the boom hurt Dallas real estate prices. He begins his argument by looking at Miami:
During the boom, Miami, overall, saw prices for pre-owned homes appreciate more than 180 percent over where they were in 2000. Dallas, during the peak of the national housing boom—in June 2007—posted about a 26 percent price gain for pre-owned homes over its year 2000 prices. Miami has since sunk. Dallas, too. But Miami’s prices are still 49 percent higher than they were in 2000, whereas Dallas has seen only a 19 percent price appreciation in the same time.
Now, if I were to consider Joe’s argument as a homeowner who wants to sell his house, the facts are incontrovertable. But there’s a whole other side to the story.
I don’t want to sell. I want people to move here and buy. In fact, I want entire companies to move here. Let’s say a company is now headquartered in Miami. According to this calculator, the company’s employees would save 49 percent on housing costs alone if it moved to Dallas. Overall, the cost of living in Dallas is 20 percent less than Miami. That’s a fairly huge jump in net compensation — without having to pay a dime more in salary.
I would argue that our low cost of living, along with our lack of an income tax,is our strongest selling point. We’re 37% lower than Boston, 21% lower than Chicago, and 45% lower than San Francisco. In the case of San Francisco, also add in the 10% California income tax, and you can double your effective personal income just by moving here. (On top of that, San Francisco is cold, and it snows a lot in Boston and Chicago. But that’s not figured in.)
How Would You Spend Eight Hours in Dallas?
Meet Stephen Dodson. I don’t know him personally, but I happened upon his blog, and this post in particular, where he spent eight hours in Dallas on a layover. He visited the Arboretum and Bishop Arts specifically, and then commented on the architecture and urban sprawl. He also loves our Mexican food, but didn’t divulge where he ate (if it’s El Chico, mockery all around Stephen. Mockery. All. Around).
So if you weren’t from Dallas, and had eight hours to kill, where would you go? Or, conversely, what would you recommend to someone who has eight hours to spend in Dallas?
Jameson Mean Green Wins D Magazine NCAA Bracket Pool
Great game last night. And we now know who won the D Magazine bracket pool and the $150 gift certificate to Ocean Prime. It wasn’t me; I finished 105th out of 209 entries. It wasn’t Zac; he finished 50th. And it wasn’t Krista, though she did finish an impressive 9th. Our winner is Jameson Mean Green. Congrats to you, sir or ma’am. Here are the top 10 finishers, each of whom picked Duke.
1 Jameson Mean Green 117
2 BracketBustinBallinMFxInfinity 115
3 Not A Clue 114
4 bracket by Word-Nerd.com 113
5 chuck taylor’s team 110
6 It’s Still Early 110
7 Hefty Bag Full of Rottweilers 108
8 Inglourious Ballz 107
9 Fighting Mennonites 105
10 I only did it the one time 105
Leading Off (4/6/10)
1. Outgoing police chief David Kunkle says crime could drop 10 percent this year. He gives credit to the city council adding 700 officers over the past five years. And also, the emergence of a shadowy vigilante those in the department are referring to as “The Batman.”
2. Out-of-state tourism officials are scared of Cowboys Stadium. They’re also scared of rabbits, which I think is actually a more interesting story.
3. Carroll ISD may become to first school district in the state to have its own vanity license plates, featuring its Dragon mascot. Other firsts for Carroll: having a D staff writer — coughPaulKixcough — destroy their football dynasty with one story and, also, electricity.
Phoenix Outfit Eyeing Super Bowl Bucks
You may have seen the come-on around town: “Rent Your Home for the Super Bowl. Up to $10,000 per day. Call 1-877-ONE-LODGE.” When I did that, a very nice man named Frank White, regional director of Major Event Rentals in Phoenix, said MER is a 3-year-old outfit that will help “maximize your revenues” next February. The company put out 100 signs and 1,000 fliers in DFW starting last week, he said, and “a couple of people are in the process of signing up.”
Major Event rents out homes for lots of big affairs like the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR races, White said. But you wonder if the company isn’t just a little optimistic, maybe, on its pricing. After taking a virtual tour of this 4-bedroom place called a “perfect Indy getaway,” I’d be surprised if they could get $1,750 a week for it, much less $17,500. (Then again, it does include maid service and a personal chef.) Candy, what say you?
Texas Insists Oak Cliff Wild Hogs Need to D-I-E
Over D Magazine’s sister pub, Oak Cliff People, Josh Hixson knows I love a good hog story. There’s a bit of a back story to this – last fall, we had a little bit of a bet going on about whether or not my Arkansas Razorbacks could indeed beat Texas A&M. I believe the answer was yes, they could (47-19, but really, who’s keeping score? Me. I’m keeping score).
Today though, Josh alerted me to a story in the print product of Oak Cliff People. Now, it’s not online, so if you want to see the whole thing, you’re just gonna have to go eat a slice at Eno’s or something and pick up copy while you’re in the neighborhood. Unless you already live there. Then you should probably subscribe or something.
It seems Kiest Park has a bit of a feral hog problem. I don’t think they’ve eaten anyone (the mascots at Arkansas have historically been known to get loose and kill coyotes and things), but the Keist varietal are considered by experts to be a threat. The city apparently wanted to just trap them all and dump them in the Trinity Audubon Center, but the state said, NUH-UH, and that it was also a misdemeanor to do so. Also, apparently the hogs could weaken the levees on the Trinity River. They are also germy and stuff.
SPOILER ALERT: So the new plan is to trap them, then kill them.
A trapper estimates there’s four or five of these feral hogs roaming the Kiest Park area. They can have tusks as long as four inches (that’s what she said) coming out the sides of their mouths.
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