Articles for April 18th, 2011
Law Man Walking: Nature Treks With Bill Holston
The weather was amazing last weekend. You think Bill Holston stayed indoors? Heck no. Obligations kept him from trekking farther afield, so he did Bachman Lake and Lake Cliff Park. Enjoy
Frisco to Host ‘Hippiefest’ on September 3
So Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco is going to host a “concert for peace & love” in the fall.
Where better to salute 1960s counterculture than next-door to the ultimate Temple of Consumption?
Craig Watkins Has No Explanation for This
Or, well, so it seems. Twenty-seven years after Farmers Branch officer Lowell Tribble was killed, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins held a big press conference to announce his office had the killer – a man named Gary Wayne Pettigrew. Eight months after that, the DA’s office quietly dropped the charges against Pettigrew, telling WFAA that it didn’t have the evidence to convict.
Pettigrew’s friends and family say Watkins never did have the evidence. Watkins won’t go on camera, saying the matter is an ongoing investigation, which is really so unusual of him.
Herbert Hunt’s Day at the Races
Buoyed by post-race concerts by the Randy Rogers Band and Ted “The Whackmaster” Nugent, Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie attracted its biggest opening-weekend crowd since 2004. In the big throng yesterday were H.L. Hunt scions Caroline Rose Hunt and Herbert Hunt, both there to support an annual fundraiser for the Retina Foundation of the Southwest.
While Herbert’s brother Bunker Hunt is famous for his involvement in the Thoroughbred racing game, Herbert said he’s never been that interested in the sport, even though the seventh race Sunday was dubbed the Nancy and Herbert Hunt Maiden Turf Mile in the couple’s honor. Bunker “offered to let me in on it at the beginning,” said Herbert (pictured), surveying the track with his wife from a clubhouse box. “But I said I didn’t want to invest in anything that ate while I slept.”
Randy Rostetter, R.I.P.
The cover story of our April issue is “52 Things Every Dallasite Must Do.” One of those things is have a drink at Fort Worth’s White Elephant Saloon. Accompanying the item in the magazine (though not online) was the photo you see here taken by Wade Griffith. The man with the mustache is Randy Rostetter, a longtime fixture in the Stockywards. Rostetter was killed earlier this month by a suspected drunken driver. From yesterday’s Star-Telegram:
Mr. Rostetter, 57, was walking home from the Stockyards early April 10 when a driver heading north on North Main Street jumped a curb and struck him. The vehicle then hit a light pole, which fell and killed Mr. Rostetter … .
DART Board Discussing Big Rate Hike For Nonresidents
Today’s RealPoints includes a report on a panel discussion led by urban evangelist Michael Buckley of UT-Arlington. During the talk, DART executive David Leininger discussed the $50 million annual drain caused by riders who live outside of the transportation authority’s service area, and whose cities don’t contribute to DART. To deal with the situation, DART’s board is discussing “non-resident and resident price differentiation,” Leininger said. “And it would be a big differentiation. It wouldn’t be 25 cents, I can tell you that.”
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: April 18
Oh hey, Monday morning. Nice to see that we all didn’t blow away after this ridiculously windy weekend. Anyone else lose power for over 24 hours?
I’m not sure why I’m even bothering with this, since obviously you’re attending the FrontRow film screening tonight at the Texas Theatre. It’s free, so no excuses (play like a champion). We’re seeing German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, the movie that really put Fassbinder on the map. It’s an unusual love story, a homage to last week’s film, Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows. Peter Simek explains why you shouldn’t miss it much better than I could, but here’s what he has to say about the basic plot: “Focusing on a relationship between an Arab immigrant and an elderly German widow, Fassbinder wraps a compelling study of social values in a remarkable and moving love story. Never have you been so convinced in the love of two disparate people.” What with the pitiable state of romantic comedies these days, I’m not even convinced in the love of two ridiculously similar people. I’m sold. Just don’t forget to register before you show up.
And now that you’ve been properly motivated to get off your couch, you might feel like continuing your evening beyond what’s sure to be a lively post-film discussion. Luckily, the Cool Out Monday DJ series is back after a long hiatus, comfily installed at Bar Céline (previously not open on Monday nights) right behind Park restaurant. The regular DJs, Tony Schwa and Adam Pickrell, will be joined by Dallas native Luke Sardello. Unfortunately, the restaurant kitchen is still closed on Mondays, but the bar serves the same appetizers if all the dancing (and drinking) makes you hungry.
For more things to do in Dallas tonight, click here.
Kyle Bass Has University of Texas Endowment Buying Gold
According to Bloomberg, the University of Texas Investment Management Co. is storing about $1 billion of bullion in a New York City vault. The move to gold comes at the behest of a Dallas hedge fund manager:
The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, (endowment CEO Bruce) Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.
“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”
Here’s our magazine’s 2008 profile of Bass.
Leading Off (4/18/11)
John Wiley Price Is Dallas’ Most Interesting Politician: No argument here, though if I wrote this Dallas Morning News headline, I might have put “interesting” in quotes.
Texas Burning! Wildfires ravage the state, turning it into the hell New Yorkers have always claimed it to be. The good news: the flames have slowed their spread near Possum Kingdom Lake. The bad news: The inferno is now in East Texas, where more than 3,000 acres are burning in Tyler and Hardin counties. In fact, all but two of the state’s 254 counties have been struck or threatened by the wildfires, prompting Gov. Perry to request President Barack Obama declare the state a major disaster area (I thought the budget shortfall already classified the state as such). But don’t worry: the wildfires are not linked to climate change (as far as we can tell). And in related news, all local bands are hereby required to add this to their live set lists, only replace “London” with “Texas.”
Welcome to Average-Ville, USA: Hurst, TX: While Dallas wrestles with anxiety about being “world-class,” the good people living in Hurst are perfectly happy with their completely average American city. According to the latest census data, the Northeast Tarrant County town’s demographics match many of the country’s averages. Hurst’s household size is 2.6 people, and the ratio of women to men is the same as the nation. Its per capita income is only $21 off the national average ($27,020), and, like the rest of the U.S.A., 27.4 percent of residents hold college degrees. When all is said and done, Ron Bachman is the most average guy in the most average city: “I’m a middle-of-the-road kind of guy, and it’s always fit me,” he tells the Star-Telegram. A true American hero.
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