Articles for June, 2011
A Visit With Al Lipscomb
Nine years ago, I spent a few hours with Al Lipscomb at his house. It was the first interview he’d given since being put under house arrest two years earlier. With the news of his passing, I thought I’d dig up the short piece I wrote for our July 2002 issue.
NYTimes on Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow
When NYTimes reporter Mike McIntire emailed me a couple of weeks ago saying that he wanted to get my thoughts on the friendship between Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas, I told him I didn’t know anything about it — and I don’t, except for what McIntire wrote yesterday. McIntire contacted me because of a post I put up during the convention hotel fight entitled “Who is Harlan Crow and Why Are People Saying All Those Mean Things About Him?”
McIntire did a good job, I think, and it was worth reporting on, because the friendship is unusual. He may have stretched his case a little in trying to find an ethical lapse by noting that Crow entities have had four cases before an appellate court and that AEI, of which Crow is a board member, gave Thomas an award worth $15,000. I call those a stretch because there’s not a business in America, including this one, that hasn’t been before one of the lower appellate courts, and because board members have as little to do with making awards at think tanks like AEI as summer interns. Still, it was a piece that needed to be written, and McIntire seems to have covered all the bases.
It’s the reaction that interests me.
Leading Off (6/20/11)
Rawlings Is Your New Mayor: Former Pizza Hut CEO and City of Dallas “homeless czar,” Mike Rawlings, defeated former police chief David Kunkle in a runoff election Saturday, winning 56 percent of the vote. If you want to see how the city voted by area, check out this nifty graphic (sub. req.). Also behind the paywall, a Q&A with Rawlings and an editorial that lists some priorities for the new mayor, including untangling the Trinity River Project. On KERA, B.J. Austin reminds us that Rawlings’ win was achieved with a campaign chest of more than two million dollars. His opponent spent a modest 250 thousand.
Teen Dies, Dozens Injured at Fair Park Rave: The Electric Daisy Carnival turned to chaos after fire alarm was pulled in a sweltering, overcrowded Centennial Building causing panic, mayhem, and multiple injuries. It’s unrelated, but somehow the idea of partying late into the night during 100 degree heat makes the thought of a summer amusement park at the State Fair grounds unappealing.
UPDATE: Here’s video of the EDC shut down.
F.B.I. Agent Who Investigated Lee Harvey Oswald Dies: James P. Hosty was assigned to keeping tabs on a young communist agitator and suspected spy, Lee Harvey Oswald, a job that landed the agent at the center of the assassination investigation.
Former Council Member, Local Civil Rights Leader Al Lipscomb Passes: Al Lipscomb was undoubtedly a character, and his impact on the history and politics of this city cannot be denied. An obituary.
Jim Schutze Just Can’t Help Himself
Why does Schutze take his own sometimes-perfectly-reasonable arguments and twist them into a pretzel? Because, like the Sean Hannitys and Rachel Maddows of Fox News and MSNBC, Schutze is an ideologue, and if something doesn’t fit into his narrow worldview, he has to contort it until it does. From his latest column:
In the August 2009 edition, publisher Wick Allison urged readers to ignore growing concerns of government engineers that the inside-the-levees route might be hugely expensive and also dangerous because of its effect on flood safety.
Oh, really? Here’s the column in question. You will note it doesn’t even mention the toll road. It is about the Trinity project as a whole. The column’s point is summed up in the last paragraph:
Mayor Tom Leppert and the current City Council need to take a leaf from Laura Miller’s notebook. Don’t believe a word the engineers tell you. Don’t accept any of their assumptions. They paved over this city once, and given the opportunity, they will do it again.
Alas, we now know that Leppert and the City Council did accept the engineers’ assumptions. On the toll road specifically, the road engineers, the flood-control engineers, and the city engineers all said the Corps would eventually come around.
Schutze, of course, deliberately misreads the column because it doesn’t fit his thesis. He then misinterprets it — filling in his own words — to make it fit. He has used the same trick over and over again his entire career as a columnist. Which leads me to wonder why anyone ever returns his phone calls — when he bothers to make them.
Keeping it Green in University Park
University Park’s annual watering restrictions only apply to commoners and other rule followers-SMU (and a few others) can do whatev. This photo was snapped yesterday during a several hour drenching but they’re flashin’ the same giant middle finger again today.
Because in the Park Cities, when we say green, we mean the color, not the thing about saving the planet.
Dallas Mayor’s Race is Ringing Near an End
Tomorrow’s election of Dallas’ next mayor will be a blessing. It will stop all the phone calls from the candidates, David Kunkle and Mike Rawlings. I’m keeping count and just may vote for the one who has rung my bell the least amount of times.
Memo To DART, From Me: I Will Be Breaking the Law
Yesterday, an entire train full of passengers – mostly people coming back from the Mavs parade – were stranded in the train after it stopped in the tunnel connecting Cityplace and Mockingbird Station. Several told the various media outlets who covered the incident that they attempted to talk to the conductor and got no response. They tried to use an emergency phone in the tunnel, and it was dead. It was also very, very hot, and with no idea how long it would take to get them moving again, many opted to open the doors and walk out of the tunnel. (more…)
Things To Do In Dallas This Weekend: June 17-19
I just went down a ’90s nostalgia wormhole (Morally questionable boy bands! Jnco jeans!) and have emerged unscathed with a vital addendum to my birthday wish list. I want one of these T-shirts. And since it’s the end of the week and I was in a terrible mood this morning after discovering that the weird natural toothpaste I bought tastes like fennel, I’d like to solicit your opinion on the debate that started this trip down memory lane in the first place. Top Katy Perry* songs of all time. Go. Mine are “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “Hot N Cold,” and “Waking Up In Vegas.” People Newspapers’ Bradford Pearson disagrees on the last two, so now we’re in a fight.
Friday
Tonight’s main event is the Arts District block party. To borrow from the way I described this to Tim a couple days ago, the DMA, the Nasher, and the Crow Collection have combined their usual late night activities to birth one big super late night baby. So not only are they shutting down Flora Street and filling it with food trucks, but all three museums will have various indoor and outdoor activities going on all evening long. Peter has the full line-up over on FrontRow.
However. Just in case you’re still holed up at home, bathing in a tub of ice or something decadent like that, let me take this opportunity to inform you that it is already painfully hot. So while this is certainly worth your time, I suggest you bring sunscreen. And one of those spray bottle fans. And make a beeline for air conditioning as soon as you partake in your desired al fresco food experience, though you’ll want to emerge in time for The Polyphonic Spree concert. They’re on at 9 pm at the DMA’s Ross Avenue Plaza, and it’s free. People get serious about staking out prime spots over there, so arrive early.
Woman Beaten, Sexually Assaulted Near Henderson
Over the past couple of days, I’ve received several emails from people urging me to post an item about an attack that happened off of Henderson Avenue. Without enough time to track down a police report, I had been sitting on those emails — till just now, when an alert FBvian pointed me to this mention of the attack on the East Dallas Blog of the Morning News. The most recent email:
I was hopeful one of you might be able to help shine some light on this heinous crime that occurred on Henderson Avenue late Sunday/early Monday after the Mavs Finals win. The victim is a friend of a friend and is a young professional woman who was savagely attacked, raped, and left for dead only to be found naked and laying on a sidewalk early Monday a.m. She had been hanging out with friends Sunday evening watching the Mavs and celebrating after the game at J. Black’s on Henderson.
I find no police statement on the crime, and no media coverage online. As you know, Henderson is one of Dallas’ most popular night spots, and it seems, for whatever reason, that the police and major media outlets don’t want this story told.
On behalf of the victim, I want this guy or guys (rumored to be three) captured, and I want all women living in Dallas and frequenting Henderson, downtown, or Uptown to be made aware of the potential dangers of being alone in these areas. I hope to also encourage some men to make sure their female friends never leave a bar late at night unescorted.
I’d love to see a police report and a statement from the Dallas PD as well as the owner of J. Black’s [ed note: I don't see why J. Black's, in particular, should be drawn into this]. A reward is likely going to be established by her friends and friends of friends so these barbaric men may be captured and brought to justice.
The horror of this crime sickens me beyond words, and I know the victim is suffering terribly. As such, I appreciate any help you can provide in bringing attention to this story.
Thanks.
(As there are rumors this is a gang-related attack, please quote me as an anonymous FB source.)
Julia Sweeney, R.I.P
The noted publicist and former Times Herald columnist died Tuesday. An obit written by Alan Peppard runs in today’s Morning News. Those who knew her (and even those who didn’t) will want to read this 1981 D Magazine cover story on Sweeney, penned by Mike Shropshire.
Joe Bob Briggs on Anthony Weiner
An alert FrontBurnervian points us this essay by former D Magazine staffer John Bloom (aka Joe Bob Briggs), who defends the kooky actions of Anthony Weiner. Sample:
The Democratic Party is supposed to promote the rights of gays, lesbians, transvestites, transsexuals, hermaphrodites, midgets, circus performers, and biker gangs. It’s supposedly an article of faith among Democrats, especially when it comes to gay marriage, that there’s no such thing as normal. As long as no laws are violated, every American determines his own definition of a normal life, including a normal life in the bedroom, the swingers’ club, the bathhouse, or anywhere else he, she, or it decides to aardvark around. If suddenly the Democrats have decided that Anthony Weiner talking dirty on Facebook and emailing his Love Log to Vegas blackjack dealers constitutes “unacceptable” and “bizarre” sociopathy — if the standard is that low — then God help them the first time a lesbian Congresswoman from Vermont gets “outed” by her college roommate at Swarthmore who has decided to reminisce about the mostly forgotten Group Grope in Parrish Hall back in ’97 by establishing a Facebook page dedicated to recalling every detail of every girl who may or may not have kissed said Congresswoman or otherwise touched her in a compromising manner.
Read the whole thing. It’s funny. And Joe Bob makes a good point.
Another Reason To Love Dirk Nowitzki
I love a good malapropism. And I love people who issue them in humorous ways. My wife, for instance, once declaimed: “You are skating on a thin thread, mister!” That’s good stuff.
Which brings me to this gem from Dirk at the rally inside in the AAC after the parade: “It’s been an amazing ride, an amazing journey. There’s been a lot of ups, a lot of downs. This is the top of the iceberg, and it feels absolutely amazing.”
Bear in mind that he did this in his second language, which makes it all the more impressive. It’s like his off-balance, one-legged fadeaway, a thing of beauty that you want to rewind and watch in slow-mo so you can see just how he did it. “It’s been an amazing ride. There’s been a lot of ups, a lot of downs.” Okay, so those words, for most people, would call to mind a roller coaster. That’s where you expect Dirk to go. But no. He fakes you out and instead goes for — a mountaintop? No! Your second guess is wrong! Dirk is three moves ahead of you. He goes for the top of the iceberg — which, of course, is only a few feet above sea level.
But wait. Also notice that he goes to the “top of the iceberg,” rather than the “tip of iceberg,” the latter (and much more common) expression referring to a large problem, only part of which is evident.
Swish. The ball splashes through the nylon, and Dirk goes running back down to the other end of the court, wagging his tongue and popping his jersey, as you’re left to stand there and scratch your head, wondering how the hell he just did that.
Leading Off (6/17/01)
Tornados? There’s an App For That. White Settlement resident Justin Graham is a software designer by trade, but on the side has developed two iPhone apps - TornadoSpy and StormSpy – that allow users to track storms that fellow users have reported. Graham’s apps become really popular during spates of high storm activity, such as the recent wave – where 1,600 copies were downloaded.
Bills, Bills, Bills … and more bills are awaiting Rick Perry as soon as he comes back from a week of national appearances. About 1,170 pieces of legislation are sitting on his desk, waiting for his signature, and he has three days to do all that signing. My hand cramps just thinking of it.
No More Neighborhood Parade in Richland Hills. This is what happens when something nice, small towny and neighborly gets overrun by adults.
Teachers Can Get Paid Less. Rainy Day Funds are for chumps. Instead, let’s write a bill that allows districts to pay teachers less money, makes bigger class sizes possible, and allows for furloughing teachers without pay.
The Weekend Starts in 10 Hours. Give or take. I figure the rest of today will be spent basking in residual this. Saturday is all yours, but by Sunday morning, you probably should’ve bought your dad a card, and perhaps a nice gift.
Some Pics From the Mavs Party Inside the AAC
Our web team posted a gallery earlier, and here are some images taken today by our staff snapper, Elizabeth Lavin.
Cuban walks into the AAC with Larry O'Brien.
Chuck Cooperstein interviews Coach Carlisle.
Lavin titled this image simply "Jesus Dirk."
Lavin reports that in this pic, Cuban was having a well-deserved sports cry.
North Texans Don’t Read Local News Online
Check out this new study of online consumption of local news by a fellow named Matthew Hindman. He studied 100 metro areas and found that people in Dallas/Fort Worth don’t consume much local news online. For instance, in the top city, Salt Lake City, a typical web user generates 89 pageviews per month of local news. In Oklahoma City (roughly the median), the typical web user generates 12 pageviews per month. In Dallas/Fort Worth? Just 5.5, tied for seventh-least pageviews.
Then there’s the matter of how many local news sites he found in each market, defined as a site that captures at least 1 percent of the market’s web users in a month’s time). He found we only have nine, about the median. By comparison, Indianapolis has 17, and Boston, the top city, has 28.
It would be nice to know which are the nine North Texas sites he measured. All we know is that four are TV sites, four are print, and one is web-only.
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