Leading Off (1/13/11)

Tim and Zac Vow Revenge After The Old Monk Is Robbed. Early Wednesday morning, three robbers stormed into The Old Monk, demanded money, phones, etc. from the seven employees present, and forced them into the walk-in freezer. Rica y Chato, er, I mean Tim and Zac plan revenge via Twitter.

Nation’s Report Card Comes to Dallas. Some Dallas students will now begin taking the Nation’s Report Card. Administrators are excited about this because this report makes comparisons to other cities that TAKS tests cannot. So now we can see how great our students are compared to New York, Houston, Austin, etc. And now we get yet another thing to make lists and comparisons with. I can’t wait.

Irving Council Members Happy Audit Found Only $133,000 in Disallowable Expenses. I completely understand how the Irving council members are feeling right now. It’s like when you know you’ve done something wrong on a project and then some people come along and say they’re going to look into the project. You cross your fingers and pray that the people—let’s call them auditors–don’t find anything. Then these auditors come back and say, “Hey, you spent $133,000 on a project that you shouldn’t have spent. You owe the city!” Then you breathe a sigh of relief because, well, it possibly could have been worse.

In 23-degree Temps, City Waters Streets. It’s so frustrating to drive by sprinklers running full force at the beginning of one of the coldest days this winter. But, luckily, the city of Dallas says it’s not its fault that streets were icy downtown. Except, it is the city’s fault.

Dwaine Caraway Changes Story About Incident

Poor Archie and Arthur, the erstwhile Cowboys and Eagles fans that were blamed for the presence of the police at Councilman Dwaine Caraway’s house last week.

As it turns out, Archie and Arthur were not the reason Caraway called Dallas Police Chief David Brown to send officers to his house, after all. It turns out that the police report was correct all along – it was a spat between Caraway and his wife, State Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway.

In a statement today, Caraway admits the two had a fight, and says he overreacted. He then pleaded for privacy from the council and the public so the two can get to their 50th wedding anniversary (they’re currently in year 16).

Maybe it’s just me, but after you put a call in to the police chief himself to break up your marital spat, and then contradict a police report with a story about your friends Archie and Arthur, isn’t it a little hard to put that particular cat back in its bag?

Angela Hunt for Mayor? Maybe., Ctd.

A same-building-working, fedora-wearing Frontburnervian thought I should point out this analysis of Angela Hunt’s chances, from our January ish. So here you go:

Which brings us to Councilwoman Angela Hunt, the poor man’s Laura Miller. She’s a firebrand populist all right. She’ll analyze a Trinity toll road spread sheet with the intensity of a thousand suns. But then, in what seemed like a transparent effort to build a bridge to South Dallas, she supported that tax rate increase, saying it wasn’t actually an increase because appraisals were being lowered. That did not play well in North Dallas. Not one bit. As far as the moneyed crowd is concerned, Hunt is dead to them.