And how it appears it will cost them more than $9 million.
Intrepid Preston Hollow People reporter Claire St. Amant wrote our October cover story about the just concluded trial. No one else covered the controversy as closely as did Claire.
Settle in. You’ll want to read the whole thing.
U.S. home sales spiked 7.7 percent, surprising analysts who expected a very modest 1.5 percent increase. Dallas-Fort Worth was fifth in the nation among top metros, with a 29.1 percent increase in sales. The local .3 percent increase in prices outdid the other top ten cities, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Comes news that Mike Modano is hanging up his skates. This means he’ll be golfing more. Keep your head on a swivel, guys. Mo’s dangerous.
UPDATE, 3:24 p.m.: The total damages awarded by the jury are more than $9 million.
I know you’ve just been waiting and waiting for this day. VideoFest! It’s a big fun deal that’ll run through Sunday, mostly taking place at the Angelika Film Center with the notable exception of this evening.
The opening day festivities are happening at the Texas Theatre, where the first film up is Jean-Luc “Cinema” Godard’s newest, Film Socialisme, which was actually screened at Cannes last year. Here’s a trailer, but just a warning– it’s a total tease on warp speed. And also, for those whose French is rudimentary at best (as mine is), even viewing this movie with subtitles is going to be tough. Godard, ever the slippery sort, wrote them in the “Navajo English” of old Hollywood westerns. So instead of, “I’d like that ear of corn,” you’re going to get something like “You. Me. Corn.” The official synopsis is deliberately confusing; apparently this movie concerns vacationing Europeans, a whole bunch of pretty locations, and a lot of other stuff. None of this will stop me. I’ll be watching my favorite clip from Band of Outsiders all day for prep, but you should also check out Peter Simek’s detailed preview on FrontRow.
And though I can’t think of much that’s more serious than Godard, the TedxSMU talk at the Nasher is obviously up there. Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society Museum, and Jeremy Strick, the Nasher’s director, will discuss the state of arts in China and the effect the current political climate has on what artists are allowed to create.
For more to do tonight, including a free concert at the Granada featuring Fort Worth favorite Burning Hotels, go here.
As you may have noticed, we’re experiencing some glitches this morning with the blog. Our apologies for the slow load times and the error messages. A verdict is due any minute on the ESD teacher-student sex trial, and quite a few people are hitting the site of our sister paper Preston Hollow People, looking for the news. Their site and our site live pretty close to each other on the internet, so the traffic is affecting us, too.
Thank you for your patience.
If you haven’t yet read the Sports Illustrated story about the Ryan brothers, you need to track it down. (I talked to the internet and couldn’t find it, but here’s the “sweet live ass” cover.) The other thing you ought to do if you care about the Cowboys or awesome things is follow Rob Ryan on Twitter. He only took to Twitter a few days ago, but he’s already proving himself to be a master of the medium. Last night, for example, he tweeted the following to Bob Sturm of The Ticket:
Note to @SportsSturm: Don’t waste your time trying to explain my defense to your listeners. You’ll be wrong. #MasterofConfusion
Then there was this, about his brother Rex, who coaches the Eagles:
I’ve only been Tweeting for a few hours & I’m killing. Rex couldn’t produce this much quality content with a 53-man roster of writers.
Highly recommended.
Dallas Farmers Market Struggles. Not sure what is new in this story, but it is a good reminder of the struggles the vendors at the Dallas Farmers Market are having. A study three years old lists improvements that still need to be addressed: the market has visibility issues; the homeless shelter is not desirable; signage is bad; and Shed No. 3 just needs to be replaced entirely. The $6 million for improvements of the Farmers Market that was voted on in 2006 has not been used effectively. This is all such a shame. As Nancy has pointed out, Pecan Lodge is one of the best restaurants in town. Let’s all do our part and go get a sweet potato from there this afternoon.
Hummer, Porsche To Be Used for Recruiting, Undercover Operations. As Tim mentioned yesterday, the sheriff and district attorney are wanting to keep a couple vehicles that were seized. One is a Hummer. As Elba Garcia points out, Hummers are no longer produced, thus making its upkeep expensive. As Sheriff Lupe Valdez pointed out, it’s a free vehicle that can be used for recruiting. In the end, everyone was able to keep his/her car. Watch the video of this heated discussion. Notice how JWP keeps very silent.
Golf Tournament Canceled Because of Buzzing Hazard. Approximately 70,000 bees made their presence known at UTA’s Waterchase Invitational after a branch fell. The casualty count was about 16. They’ll be fine after the buzz wears off.