Articles for October 6th, 2010

Exxon Mobil: HQ Staying in Irving

Don’t believe the rumors about Exxon Mobil Corp. relocating its headquarters from Irving to The Woodlands area outside of Houston. The story began spreading after a report in today’s Houston Chronicle cited architectural documents for a 20-building, 3 million-square-foot campus on land Exxon owns near Interstate 45 and Hardy Toll Road.

Alan Jeffers, spokesman for Exxon Mobil, said the company is conducting a study of its long-term real estate needs in the United States: “We do it from time to time, as the population shifts and work requirements change.” He said Exxon has about 15,000 employees in Houston who work in a number of different buildings, and a couple thousand employees in Fairfax, Va. It also has about 400 at its corporate headquarters in Irving and others in Pegasus Place along Interstate 35W in Dallas.

So, the company is looking at real estate consolidations and creating space efficiencies for the long-term, but a corporate HQ relocation is not under consideration, Jeffers said: “It’s not even part of the study.”

Economic development officials in Irving, you may begin breathing easier again.

posted by Christine Perez | October 6th, 2010 5:05pm | filed under Business, Environment | 8 Comments »

Republicans Fire Away at Watkins — And Eric Celeste Is Nowhere To Be Seen

The county Republicans sent this wanted poster out to the precinct chairs a bit ago. It’s in response to the recent dustup DA Craig Watkins caused when he got up in County Commissioner Maurine Dickey’s grill because he doesn’t like her vegetable and butterfly garden. I am not making this up. In an e-mail to his fellow Republicans, Dallas Country GOP chair Jonathan Neerman wrote:

Earlier this week, current Democrat DA Craig Watkins unveiled his latest initiative to fight crime in Dallas County. No, he isn’t tackling the meteoric rise in rapes. No, it has nothing to do with the high juvenile crime rate. Nor does it have anything to do with fighting public corruption. Hold on to your gardening hats.

Mr. Watkins is hot on the trail of some of the most wanted vegetables in County Commissioner Maurine Dickey’s teaching garden. Click here to read the full story. Doesn’t Mr. Watkins have something better to do than investigate the level of irrigation in Commissioner Dickey’s garden? Is this really the type of fruitless shenanigans we want our District Attorney engaged in?

Here’s what makes me sad: not that our political discussion has sunk to this level. No, I actually like this level. What makes me sad is that, with Eric Celeste no longer part of the Watkins campaign, there’s no one from his side who is qualified to fire back. The wanted poster isn’t that funny. They get points for effort, no question. But I just know that Eric would have had a great return zinger.

Hey, Eric, maybe a freebie for old time’s sake in the comments?

veggies

posted by Tim Rogers | October 6th, 2010 4:48pm | filed under Politics | 8 Comments »

Study Finds Midlothian Air is … Actually OK

For years, media reports in concert with environmental activist groups like “Downwinders at Risk” have done a great job convincing people that the air in Midlothian–where there’s lots of heavy industry–causes little kids there to get asthma and just basically chokes everybody else in North Texas to boot. (Theory: Drivers on S.H. 67 see puffy emissions from smokestacks, assume worst.)

So the silence today is deafening, and interesting, after a year-long, $350,000 study found that the air in Midlothian poses, er, no risk to public health at all. While the report for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality called Midlothian one of the most-monitored sites in the state now, critics like Downwinders’ Jim Schermbeck are having none of it. “If there’s a way to exonerate industry,” Schermbeck said, “the TCEQ will find it.”

posted by Glenn Hunter | October 6th, 2010 1:17pm | filed under Business, Environment, Local News | 12 Comments »

Eric Celeste Quits Watkins Campaign

Well, we won’t have Eric Celeste to kick around anymore. Gromer Jeffers tells us that Eric has added another to his long string of quittings. The funny thing is, I’m having lunch with Eric right now. I asked him for a quote.

“If there’s one thing I know how to do,” Eric said, “it’s quit something. The only thing I love more than quitting is force-quitting.”

I’m working hard right now to get a quote from Clancy’s camp, but I can guess what they’ll say. Now that their “insurance policy,” as they call Eric, is out of the equation, they’ll need to raise $200,000 more.

posted by Tim Rogers | October 6th, 2010 1:10pm | filed under Politics | 17 Comments »

Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: Oct. 6

Before we get into what to do after you’ve stopped typing for the day, I want to give you a heads-up about next Friday morning’s bike ride to City Hall. All riders are welcome—even those of us with big-ass Pee-wee Herman-style cruisers—and several meet-up groups have formed for cyclists who want to ride in a pack to the starting point (Union Station).

Moving on. Vampire Weekend is in town tonight. If you want my opinion—and if you’re still reading at this point it’s possible you do—these kids produce some seriously fun, feel-good music that should help get you through the rest of the week. Witness “Oxford Comma” and “A Punk.”

However, let’s just say you’re feeling blue. You’ve accepted it, and you don’t expect anything—not even puppies or a free bag of Skittles—to pull you up from the pit of despair. Then you, friend, should check out two Edward Albee plays, The American Dream and The Sandbox, which open tonight at Bath House Cultural Center. Albee also brought us the incredible but soul-crushing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? so be prepared for lingering melancholy. That said, I think it will be worth it to see these short works brought to life.

Check out these other things to do in Dallas, and have a great night.

posted by Samantha Shaddock | October 6th, 2010 12:01pm | filed under Civics, Music, Theater, Things to Do in Dallas | (0) Comments »

Robbers Abandon Car and ATM on I-30

Some guys stole an ATM, and then loaded it into a car. A sedan. I’m sitting here, thinking of the average size of a sedan’s back seat and/or trunk and the average size of an ATM, and I have to say –  I am impressed with Chevrolet.

Buy American, y’all.

posted by Bethany Anderson | October 6th, 2010 10:40am | filed under Crime | 2 Comments »

Woot Rick Rolls Amazon

An alert FBvian points us to the Amazon homepage. Scroll down all the way to the bottom. Glad to see those guys haven’t lost their sense of humor.

posted by Tim Rogers | October 6th, 2010 9:54am | filed under Local News | (0) Comments »

Liverpool Fans Beg Tom Hicks to Get Out

Watch this video. The sincerity with which these Liverpool fans ask Tom Hicks to get out of their club almost — almost — makes me think the video might actually get Hicks to respect their wishes.

Hang on.

Never mind. That feeling just passed. This video is wasted breathe.

Update: Yeah, I guess the video isn’t working. Two groups have offered to buy the team. The board has agreed to sell to one. Hicks is trying to block the sale.

posted by Tim Rogers | October 6th, 2010 9:45am | filed under Sports | 2 Comments »

ACE Fees Stir Up Highland Park Residents

Our sister blog, parkcitiespeople.com, is on fire with this thread about ACE (Athletic Commitment to Excellence) fees. Merritt Patterson started doing some searching after she couldn’t find a line-by-line description of what the fees are used for. She finally found this. She also discovered that neither Southlake nor Plano have ACE fees. A FrontBurnervian just e-mailed me asking the following question.

I wonder what non-Parkies think of the $250 ACE fee for public schools. Plano and Southlake don’t have them. HPISD says we must charge the fee to make up for budget deficits caused by Robin Hood. Anyone ever heard of cutting the budget?

So what do those outside of the bubble think?

UPDATE: Helen Williams, director of communications at HPISD, called to offer some clarification. She wanted to reiterate that there is a 348-page ledger that breaks out all the costs for the athletic department. This ledger shows that the ACE fee covers 21-22 percent of that budget. Anyone is welcome to come look at the ledger to see where the fees go. Also, Williams wanted to ensure people understood where the audited financial figures for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 athletic budgets (found in this post and in the comments here) came from. You’ll find those documents here, here, and here.

posted by Krista Nightengale | October 6th, 2010 9:37am | filed under Business, Education, Gripes, Sports | 20 Comments »

Leading Off (10/6/10)

1. Today is the day that we bandwaggoners have been waiting for all our lives. The Rangers begin postseason play against the Rays at 12:30, with Cliff Lee taking the mound for the good guys. A certain managing editor of a certain group of community newspapers has asked that we not turn the office TVs to the game or even discuss the game, because he’s on deadline and is DVRing the game so he can watch it fresh when he gets home. Good luck with that, Dan.

2. Downtown’s First Baptist has announced that it will implode four buildings on October 30. One presumes they’ll be able to save money on explosives by having the Almighty destroy the buildings with his energy beam eyesight.

3. Tip for would-be burglars: if you’re going to break into the home of an off-duty police officer, make sure the off-duty officer isn’t home at the time. Know why? Cops carry guns, even when they’re not on duty.

posted by Tim Rogers | October 6th, 2010 8:27am | filed under Local News | 4 Comments »