Articles for September 28th, 2010
Stefani Carter Learns New Lesson: Text Messages Are Not Necessarily Endorsements
To say that the race between incumbent State Rep. Carol Kent and her Republican challenger, Stefani Carter, has gotten heated would be like saying the State Fair serves many fried things. Obvious, and true. And we’ve discussed the back and forth and back and forth a few times.
But, with Election Day looming, we now see another kerfuffle – it seems Carter put out a press release saying Garland Mayor Ronald Jones endorsed her. Not long after, Jones made his own statement, saying:
“In my role as the Mayor of Garland, I strongly believe it is not appropriate to get involved in partisan campaigns. My job is to advocate for the people of Garland, and not distract our mission with partisan rhetoric. I am not endorsing Stefani Carter in this race as reported in several media outlets, and will not make any endorsement in this, or any other partisan races. I regret that my earlier communication with Ms. Carter has created this distraction.
I look forward to working with the winning candidate for House District 102 and all other partisan races to ensure that Garland remains a strong and prosperous community.”
When asked about the apparent denial, Carter’s campaign manager, Craig Murphy, told the Dallas Morning News that the two had been texting, and the mayor implied he’d endorse her. Murphy also said that the mayor never denied endorsing her. So, you know, nuh-uh, she didn’t lie.
Kent’s campaign, of course, is all over this. Is it November 3, 2010, yet?
Save Lone Star, Won’t You?
Perhaps you’ve read Jason’s recaps of Lone Star over on FrontRow. Maybe you’ve even watched the show yourself. If so, keep watching. If not, maybe you should start because it could get cancelled at any moment. And what else are you doing on Mondays? Watching Dancing with the Stars? Checking out the misfortune of others on Intervention? Read this interview with series creator Kyle Killen, and you might change your mind. When asked about the initial ratings, Killen answers: “Honestly, people thought there was a number missing. Maybe there was a Nielsen outage, or something heavy fell on a lot of people? It just really seemed like it had to be an error, but it wasn’t. That’s how it goes sometimes when you take a big swing: you miss.” So think about checking out the next one on Monday at 8 p.m. on Fox. (Obviously, many of you have DVRs, and you can watch all sorts of programs on any given night. To which I reply: Luckies.)
Dallas Gives Big to GOP (Surprise)
Here’s a new tool to track what your neighbors (and if you use Facebook, your “friends”) are donating in the current elelction cycle.
Chase Makes North Texas Look Like Vegas. (Kinda. Not Really.)
Jason Heid, a known masochist, has taken it upon himself to watch Chase and write about it on FrontRow. I, too, have taken to watching the show — only because I enjoy catching them when they use a setting in North Texas as a stand-in for, say, Las Vegas. Better than the other way around, I guess. At least this way we get the production dollars spent here.
Dez Bryant Gets Stuck With $55,000 Dinner Tab
Remember when Roy Williams said he’d get back at Dez Bryant for not carrying his pads? A football-minded FrontBurnervian points us to news that Williams and other stuck Dez Bryant with a $55,000 dinner tab last night. Ouch.
Timing’s Everything for Two Top Execs
At a noisy, crowded charity auction the other night at The Mansion, a couple of CEO types who know all about the importance of timing greeted each other like long-lost friends. “How can you afford to be here?” airline executive Don Carty said, grinning broadly, to Blockbuster chief executive Jim Keyes. “You’re bankrupt!”
Blockbuster had indeed filed for Chapter 11 protection the day before, a last gasp after the company failed to refinance $1 billion in debt. Keyes said he fought to keep the movie-rental giant out of bankruptcy court “for 18 months” but that, in the end, it was the logical move and had a silver lining. “The great news,” Keyes said, “is that [when it's over] we’ll be a debt-free company.”
Timing was on his pal Carty’s mind, too, though in a happier way. The former CEO of AMR Corp., Carty now is chairman of low-cost airline Virgin America, which will begin non-stop service from D/FW Airport to L.A. and San Francisco in December. According to insiders D/FW had courted Virgin for the last three years, and Virgin “accelerated” its startup schedule here by “a full year,” Carty disclosed. How come? “D/FW will be a friendly landlord,” he explained, and “Texas is not a bad place to be” given tougher economic conditions elsewhere.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: Sept. 28
Good morning, readers. I don’t know about you, but I could really go for something fried right about now. You’ve already asked your boss if you can work a half-day in light of today’s cake baptism, yes? Good. We can now move on to your evening entertainment.
Tonight, you’re going to the Granada to hear Jenny and Johnny, a duo consisting of former Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend, Johnathan Rice. A girlfriend-boyfriend musical partnership! Isn’t that cute?
Notable Rocker Romances
I won’t say Lewis has come a long way since the days of “Silver Lining.” (True fact: I once foisted that song on someone, and he switched it off 30 seconds later with a polite, “I’m sorry. I just can’t.”) However, with Jenny and Johnny’s music—check out “Switchblade” and “Slavedriver” on YourTube—you probably can leave your insulin kit at home.
Atheists, Agnostics, Muslims and Jews Know More About Religion
Interesting results from a quiz on religion from the Pew Institute this morning, which shows that atheists, Muslims and Jews knew more about the history of religions than Catholics and Protestants. In fact, Southern Christians scored the poorest on religious knowledge, the quiz revealed.
Which leads to the question: Why? Do these three groups find themselves defending their beliefs more often, and therefore arm themselves with more knowledge about other religions? Are they just more curious?
DA Candidate Danny Clancy Launches Campaign Ad
Have a look for yourself. He beats the same drum he hit at the debate last week: Craig Watkins jet-sets around the country, misspends his contributors’ money, and has never prosecuted a case. It’s pretty tame. I don’t know why Clancy’s camp didn’t just run video from a couple weeks back of Watkins shouting in the County Commissioners Court. That seemed a lot more damning.
Dallas Developer Tries to Ban Book on Eminent Domain Case, Appeals Hearing Today
H. Walker Royall, a Humble Oil heir and Highland Park resident, may or may not be the world’s greatest real estate developer (I’ve never heard of him), but he is one hell of a litigator. He made a failed effort to use eminent domain with the town of Freeport, Texas to build a marina on the site of a long-established shrimp business. The owners fought back, and the deal collapsed. Attorney Carla Main wrote a book that examined the controversy, Bulldozed: “Kelo,” Eminent Domain and the American Lust for Land. Royall promptly sued the author, the publisher, and even a professor who wrote a blurb praising the book. (He is also now in litigation with Freeport. The man likes to pay lawyers.) He wants the book quashed. Oddly, he has received more negative publicity from trying to ban the book than from the book itself.
A trial court in Dallas refused to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds, although Royall has been unable to say how the book defamed him. Today the petition for dismissal goes before a three-judge panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas at 11 a.m. The Washington-based Institute for Justice is defending the author. You can read more about it from the Institute here or in William McGurn’s excellent take on the pernicious effects of the Kelso ruling in today’s Wall St. Journal here.
As usual, FOF was first on the case, when the suit was first filed. You can read Wilonsky’s first take from 2008 here.
Leading Off (9/28/10)
1. The Texas Rangers are on a roll. After winning the AL West over the weekend, they are set to sign a new 20-year TV contract with FOX worth, depending on which report you believe, between $1.5 and $3 billion. That, as Martellus “Tellus” “Kung Fu Astronaut” “Jupiter’s Crunch” “Marty B” Bennett would say, is iPhone money.
2. UFOs in Arlington!!! Don’t believe the FAA.
3. Southwest is buying AirTran. What does that mean to you? Even more flight attendants now think they are hilarious.
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