Articles for June, 2011
Maurine Dickey Just Needs to Hush
Listen, I may have poked fun at the Great Bobo Outburst of Twenty Aught Eleven, but I have a bone to pick (actually, two) with Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey.
For one, I take issue with the idea that a FBI raid on John Wiley Price’s offices and home is a “happy day for Dallas County.” No. No it is not. Anytime a public servant is investigated by the federal government, it is not a good or happy thing for his or her constituents. At best, it means a distraction from doing the business of the county. At worst, it means that he or she screwed over his or her constituents. I would posit that is the exact opposite of happy, because either way there is a long-reaching, long-living mess left to clean up.
And secondly, throwing Mike Cantrell under the bus when you’re a) not an FBI spokeswoman or b) a county spokesperson is just not classy. In fact, it can’t even aspire to be klassy. As it turns out, he was not raided. He’s not part of the investigation.
You can disagree with people and their politics. You can differ ideologically. But to display on a personal level the vitriol this commissioner’s court does to each other is a primary example of why the same commissioners are elected every election season – nobody else wants to sign up for this. You want a better class of coworkers? Try being a better class of commissioner.
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: June 27
True Blood, that holy grail of mindless summer entertainment, has returned. The plot might be totally off the rails, and don’t we all wish Tara would just bite the dust (har, har) already? But there’s this. Which is one big reason why Monday mornings will continue to pale in comparison to Sunday evenings.
But. Tonight shouldn’t disappoint. Liz Mikel, fresh off awesome reviews in New York, is back for her regular Blue Monday concert. She’s co-opted her Dividing the Estate co-star, Akin Babatundé, to duet their favorite songs. It’s free over at South Side on Lamar. And as we discussed at the theater roundtable last week, one of the best things we can do to make Dallas even more theater-friendly is to support our local talent. Start with Mikel, who’s about a hop, skip, and a jump away from Broadway, and Babatundé, a regular Renaissance man who acts, writes, directs, and obviously, sings. That being said, if punk music is more your thing, Bryan Street Tavern also has a free show for you. The Blind Shake, a garage punk trio out of Minnesota, will play around 7 pm.
And finally, for those of us mucking around downtown this afternoon, pop over to the Texas Visual Arts Association at lunch to check out their summer exhibit of graphic novels, cartoons, and anime and comic books. I like the sound of this already, especially since it features a mix of amateur artists and professionals. It’s only around until Thursday.
For more things to do with your evening, go here.
Breaking: FBI Raids John Wiley Price, Ctd.
Reports say that the offices of Price’s political consultant, Kathy Nealy, and those of Commissioner Mike Cantrell’s office are also being searched. Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey tells the Observer: “Should I dance, or should I sing?” Meanwhile here’s a photo of the feeding frenzy outside the Commissioners Court. Update (11:55): Dickey was the source of the Cantrell info. Unfair Park reports that FBI says that Cantrell’s office is not the focus of their search.
Breaking: FBI Raids John Wiley Price
This ain’t gonna be pretty.
Dallas Ranks Terribly on College Degrees
A research report by G. Scott Thomas for the Business Journals Digital, an arm of the DBJ’s parent company, places Dallas-Fort Worth as 115th amid metropolitan areas with the percentage of 18-34 year-olds with a college degree or higher. We have 1,620,281 in that age cohort, and only 336,310 hold degrees.
For the fourth largest metro area in the country, this is not good news. Houston ranks even worse, and Texas as a whole looks abysmal. My first response was to assign the results to our influx of younger, uneducated immigrants. But Austin ranks 20th in the nation. (College Station, by comparison, ranks 165th, making it one of the worst among college towns in the country.)
The oil and gas industry has made Texas look very good economically in the current recession, but the future is in the numbers, and the numbers don’t look so good.
Leading Off (6/27/11)
Ciao Mayor Dwaine, Welcome Mr. Rawlings: The new mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, will be sworn in today. Dwaine Caraway will return to just being a regular council representative. But in an exit interview with WFAA, our most entertaining mayor of recent years says he is likely going to run for the city’s top office at some point. He also, characteristically, says some other funny things. For example, one of Caraway’s accomplishments, he says, was keeping the “D” from falling off of “Dallas.” And then I love the logic of this comment on the Arthur and Archie incident:
“Some of things that were in the news shouldn’t have been in the news, and had it not been for me being a newsmaker, it wouldn’t have been reported… probably.”
Exactly. You got it.
Second Death Linked To Dallas “Rave:” Thanks to the Electric Daisy Carnival, that four letter R-word that so scared mothers and politicians in the 1990s is back. Now a second death is “linked” to the dance party that took over Fair Park a week ago. A 22-year-old man took drugs and ran into freeway traffic on his way home. Beware the dance music kids. It makes you crazy.
Ogando Not Rangers’ Ace In the Hole?: After a 7-0 start to the season, which had Rangers fans believing that the young pitching prospect, Alexi Ogando, would step up and be the ace Cliff Lee was for the team last season, Ogando has gone 0-3 with a 9.31 ERA in his last three starts. Is he wearing out already?
Friday Night Fun with Google Maps
1. Go to Google Maps.
2. Go to directions.
3. In Point A, type, “China.”
4. In Point B, type, “Dallas, Texas.”
5. Scroll down to No. 81.
6. Get mental image. Laugh.
7. Scroll down to No. 92.
8. Get mental image. Laugh.
You’re welcome.
Rawlings Thinks Big–Really Big–On the Trinity Project
Like former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert, Dallas Mayor-elect Mike Rawlings worked as a top business guy,
stresses fixing DISD, has even hired Leppert’s deputy chief of staff to be his right hand. But at a Meet the New Mayor deal last night at the Trinity Center–just before delivering a rah-rah stemwinder on the Trinity River Corridor Project–Rawlings replied to a questioner by saying that while Leppert is “a good person to emulate,” there are differences between them.
“I came from a background of civic service. … I’ve been here for 34 years of my life,” said Rawlings (pictured in photo by Jeanne Prejean). “The understanding I have of the city … I have a different management style. I’m a person who believes in understanding the trees to understand the forest. … I’m also a big believer in creativity, in trying new solutions.”
Then, darned if Rawlings didn’t go out front and do a bang-up impression of the former mayor selling the Trinity (without once mentioning that pesky toll road). Letting the people know “the Trinity will be done” is one of his main goals, Rawlings said. The undertaking will have more impact on commercial real estate than any project in Dallas history, he added. The “doubters” need to be convinced that it’s “real and do-able,” the mayor-elect went on, partly by breaking it up into manageable pieces with a sense of urgency. When all that’s done, he concluded, someday people will proclaim: “Dallas is the center of the Western hemisphere!” Tom Leppert–or Zig Ziglar–couldn’t have said it any better.
Things To Do in Dallas This Weekend: June 24-26
This is a PSA for the tall dark-haired guy wearing a purple Polo at BuzzBrews very, very early this morning. Dump your girlfriend. Now. When you went to the bathroom, this is how the conversation went down:
Girl: “I’m so much smarter than him. I’m an intellectual. Which means I’m highly evolved.”
Straight-talking best guy friend: “I’m not sure that’s the best tactic to take with this. But I’m going to let you think what you think. And I’m still gonna go to Target tomorrow and get toothpaste.”
Girl: “But can I be in love with someone I think is sooo stupid?”
Straight-talking best guy friend: “I think you have high standards.”
The moral of this story is that I’m a big eavesdropper. All the better to entertain you.
Friday
It is already really, really hot. I know it. But it’s just going to get worse and I never let a little sweat get in the way of one of my favorite summer things: packing a picnic, a couple bottles of wine, and trekking out to the Samuell-Grand for Shakespeare Dallas. As we’ve heard, the organization is shaking things up this year with a play not written by the Bard. Don’t worry, it’s still a classic and according to our own Lance Lusk, excellent.
But tonight’s performance of As You Like It is perfect for purists. It’s a fun show, but in my opinion one of the weaker of Shakespeare’s more popular plays. The last production I saw of it was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which happened to star the Ice Truck Killer. It was, coincidentally, a killer show. But SD rarely disappoints, and I just love…okay, fine, I love doing my drinking outdoors. Happy? Show up early to avoid a turf war over the prime blanket areas.
Cadillac Presents Heroes for Children
With an estimated 12,400 children currently suffering from cancer in the United States, Cadillac Cares Challenge recognized the immense need for an organization such as Heroes for Children to receive a media campaign to spread awareness of its efforts. Heroes for Children provides financial and social assistance to families within the state of Texas with children battling cancer by providing monetary support for everyday expenses, such as mortgage payments or medical bills, and offers social assistance programs designed to meet social and emotional needs of the family. Using these components, the nonprofit allows the family to focus on the most important part of cancer treatment—the child. For more information or to make a donation, visit heroesforchildren.org.
Sponsored post. Please support our advertisers.
Weird: Amazon’s Latest Tax Collection Avoidance Plan For Texas.
Texas Tribune via The New York Times outlined the latest in the Amazon sales tax collection plan for the Lone Star State. As you will recall, Amazon was charged $269 million for sales taxes it was supposed to have collected from Texas buyers, the result of its having a major distribution plant in Irving. But shelve that one for a moment. Amazon has a new proposal, ostensibly to make that tax bill go away. It’s promised to create 6,000 new jobs and spend some $300 million on five or six shiny new warehouses and distribution plants in Texas if the state will give it a pass on collecting sales taxes for 4 ½ years. Exceptin’ the taxes would still have to be paid. By us. Texans who buy Amazon products would have to remit the sales tax owed on these purchases directly to the state. Not exactly one-click shopping. Plus, how on earth would this be enforced? And, rather than write a check for 8.25% of your purchase directly to the state, wouldn’t that make you want to shop online at Barnes & Noble or, even better, patronize one of the few remaining independents in Texas? In which case I am all for it.
Leading Off (6/24/11)
Arts of Collin County Changes Name. Now that one town pulled out of the four-municipality consortium that planned to build an arts center, the new name is The Everybody But Frisco Because Frisco is Full of Chumps Arts Center. I kid, I kid. I mean, that’s obviously too long.
Mavs’ Chocolate To Get in Rangers’ Peanut Butter. Tonight our favorite Big German will hopefully hurl the first pitch over the plate at the Rangers-Mets series opener. If he does indeed make it over the plate with any kind of heat attached, I vote we immediately lobby to have Dirk Nowitzki sent to the bullpen.
It’s Dwaine Caraway’s Last Weekend as Mayor, Y’all. And since it is, he sat down and reflected over his tenure as mayor. “You had a lot of naysayers that probably thought the ‘D’ was gonna fall off of Dallas,” said Caraway in a quote I really didn’t make up.
One of You Will Fail. Provided, of course, that at least three people comment on this post. Because one in three drivers in Texas would fail the driving test. Raise your hand if you were surprised there was one.
It’s Friday, but … you find a magic fairy underneath the Houston Street viaduct, who offers you lifelong riches and eternal beauty, but your week will consist solely of Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Forever. What do you do?
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