Articles for December 17th, 2012
Around 5 p.m. yesterday, I got a text from Mooney. Edited for content: “Josh Brent is on the [humping] sideline right now.” We were both confused, I think, and I responded with: “Saw that. So strange.”
Turns out Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett were
in the same boat. From the Morning News:
Several of the Cowboys players called Brent and implored him to come to the game. They wanted him there. Since Brent is on the non-football illness list, he can show up at any time before the game like a player on injured reserve and gain access.
Owner Jerry Jones, executive vice president Stephen Jones and head coach Jason Garrett weren’t aware that Brent was going to be at the game until they saw him on the sidelines. Brent eventually left the game once he realized he was being a distraction.
Understatement.
26 PM” src=”http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Screen-shot-2012-12-17-at-2.59.26-PM.png” alt=”" width=”635″ height=”491″ /> Source: The Texas Tribune
The Texas state budget tripled from 1992 to 2010, and now lawmakers want to amend the state Constitution to limit further expansion, the Texas Tribune reported today. The biannual budget grew to $187.5 billion from $62.8 billion, roughly 3.9 percent every two years, once inflation and population gains are considered. The 2012-13 budget fell to $173.5 billion, but the Legislature is likely to approve more spending when it convenes next year.
To fix this (they use the word “problem” but I’ll use:) situation, Governor Perry and Lite Guv Dewhurst are considering an amendment to the Constitution that would cap spending at the combined rate of inflation and population growth. Problem is, they don’t have as much backing as they may want/need:
The debate among Republicans over the state’s fiscal record exposed deep fissures in the party during this year’s primary. In his losing bid for U.S. Senate, Dewhurst vowed to bring the “Texas model” of fiscal restraint to Washington, a promise that was mocked by the winner, Ted Cruz, who had the support of Tea Party groups.
“In his entire tenure in elected office, he has never once cut one penny from the state budget,”Cruz said during a televised debate earlier this year.
At the time, Dewhurst accused Cruz of lying. Last month, Dewhurst said critics were still misinforming Texans about the state’s budget history.
“We have kept our spending as low as possible while, in my judgment, still funding our priorities,” he said, “and not enough credit is given to the members of the Legislature for that.”
The Constitution currently restricts budgetary growth to the rate of growth for state personal income, which is typically higher than the Perry/Dewhurst plan.
.23 PM” src=”http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Screen-shot-2012-12-17-at-12.40.23-PM.png” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”398″ /> Source: DallasParks.org
Dallas’ Parks and Recreation board will vote on nearly $3.5 million worth of trail construction and procurement projects Thursday, projects that will grow the city’s trail system in South Dallas, West Oak Cliff, and Lake Highlands.
First up is the Chalk Hill Trail, which you see on your right. The Board will vote on procuring the land needed for the trail from BNSF Railway Company, which owns the right-of-way. The cost is $757,000, which, when you break it down, is about $22,000 an acre; the money comes from 2006 bond funds. The goal is to eventually connect the trail to the Coombs Creek Trail in North Oak Cliff, and the goal for that trail is to stretch it to the proposed Trinity Trail, which will attach to the Katy Trail and Santa Fe Trail. So: Cockrell Hill to White Rock Lake, all on trails. Not bad.
Next up is Lake Highlands Trail work. $1.1 million of work, specifically. Board approval would allow for construction procurement of 1.5 miles of multi-use trail, from the White Rock Trail to Ferndale Road. Funding for this trail also comes from ’06 bond cash.
The final item may be the most complicated (the first two are on the consent agenda, which usually means little-to-no discussion): Five Mile Creek Trail upgrades were moved from the Dec. 6 agenda, which usually means more discussion/vetting is in order. This chunk of the trail is short – less than a mile – and stretches between two parks in South Dallas. Funding would be split between ’06 bond money and an $858,000 Texas Parks and Wildlife grant. The land has already been purchased for the project.
Park board decisions are then forwarded on to the City Council; expect a vote early next year.
The M4 assault rifle has been used by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a semi-automatic version available for civilian purchase can fire 45 rounds a minute. And it should be behind the desk of elementary-school principals, generic cialis online
/thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/273113-gop-rep-gohmert-wishes-conn-school-principal-was-armed” target=”_blank”>according to Tyler Rep. Louie Gohmert:
“I wish to God she had an M-4 in her office locked up so when she heard gunfire she pulls it out and she didn’t have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands but she takes him out, takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids,” Gohmert said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
This, of course, is not the first time Gohmert’s said something ridiculous about guns, because he also said the victims in the Aurora, Colo. shooting should’ve been better armed.
gazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Liz-Mikel-1024×736-300×215.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”215″ /> Liz Mikel, who will perform tonight in the Blue Room at South Side on Lamar.
This Barack Obama Park thing is super enjoyable. Probably the best 11-follower Twitter page I’ve seen since my own humble feed–before I became unbelievably popular thanks to this job, of course. I especially like the December 4 tweets, which are basically just straight up lies.
One week until break. We can make it. And speaking of BOP–er, Klyde Warren Park–this weekend I (and my two friends, and everyone else) was treated to a very painful rendition of “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” I don’t want to be a total jerk, so let’s just say that I prefer the version from that ten year old in Love Actually. I’d also probably like singer-actress Liz Mikel‘s take on it even better, but would we call that song a “holiday classic?” That remains to be seen, I guess, at Mikel’s free concert this evening over at South Side On Lamar. I’ve talked about her Blue Monday series before, but she’s switching things up a bit to make it seasonal. Singing along is encouraged, so come warmed up. I’d hop down the street to Cedars Social for their mac and cheese (comforting and delicious) and a drink.
Also in a musical vein, Christian contemporary artist Michael W. Smith returns to the Meyerson Symphony Center for a concert with the full Dallas Symphony Orchestra and choir. It should make for an inspirational evening. And finally, something that has nothing at all to do with Christmas: The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture finishes off their “Speaking of Movies” series with special guest Stephen Becker of KERA’s Art & Seek. You get dinner and a movie, which happens to be Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train.
For more to do this evening, go here.
ds/2012/12/large.jpeg” alt=”" width=”600″ height=”338″ /> Photoshop, at its finest. Source: Barack Obama Park’s Facebook page
Carol just directed my attention to possibly the loneliest Facebook page in the history of Facebook pages, the one dedicated to renaming Klyde Warren Park ‘Barack Obama Park.” As of this morning, it had one “like.”
The main thrust behind the page: “Who @KlydeWarrenPark was responsible for the decision to name ‘a central gathering space for Dallas and its visitors’ after a 10-yr-old boy?” Answer: the dude who donated more money than all of us, combined. A series of tweets – from an account with 11 followers – continues to tell the story.
So where are we now, third-class? Gasp, fourth-class?
From The Classical:
No one has ever been surer of Jerry Stackhouse’s abilities than Jerry Stackhouse. He’s had to be; great as he
has been at scoring points, he has never been anyone’s favorite player, with the obvious and unsurprising exception of himself. He’s never had the game or the personality for that sort of stardom; for all his point-scoring, Stackhouse has mostly been overshadowed, and generally rightly.
Stackhouse has now played for more than a quarter (8) of all NBA teams, in case, yes, you were wondering what he was up to.
Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions said Congressional Republicans are willing to increase tax rates for top earners if their democratic colleagues make significant reductions to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, he told Bloomberg TV Friday night.
“If it’s a good deal, yes,” Sessions said, when asked whether he’d accept a trade-off involving tax rates. “If it does something long term that betters the circumstances.” He went on to say that there wouldn’t be enough time to enact legislation by the end of the year, but both sides could agree to a specific outline and enact it next year:
“We’re not going to do something in the dark, late at night where no one knows what the practical effect and outcome is,” Sessions said. “If we do that, we do get primaried. We can come to a specific agreement.”
Sessions said that there wouldn’t be enough time to also include a spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year and an increase in the debt ceiling in the current talks. He said Republicans were willing to discuss those issues later.
“The president needs to know that we’re willing to negotiate,” he said.
Here is what President Obama said at the memorial service in Newtown:
In the coming weeks, I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this, because what choice do we have? We can’t accept events like this as routine.
Here is how 660 AM’s Mark Davis changed that:
“In the coming weeks,” he vowed, “I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens… in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this.”
So he could get to this:
Again, the delusion that barring access to certain weapons somehow magically heals a fallen world.
Honestly, I don’t mind Mark Davis’ editing. I hope President Obama does engage his fellow citizens in an effort at preventing more tragedies like this, and I assume part of that will have something to do with the access we have to guns or high-capacity magazines or whatever else, things whose sole function is killing a lot of things as efficiently as possible. But his speech was not just about gun control. He gave a much broader answer, even in the part Davis cherry-picked, and Davis knew it. It’s not like Davis had to cut for space. It’s the internet. He could have run the entire thing.
But, anyway, he didn’t say what Mark Davis wanted him to say, which is this:
We do not need fewer guns, we need more prayer.
Dallas Morning News: ‘Affirm The Right of Gay Couples to Marry:’ As the Dallas Voice points out, as recently as last year, the Dallas Morning News refused to publish paid same-sex wedding announcements in their Weddings section. On Sunday, the newspaper came out in support of same-sex marriage in this editorial.
Is It Time For Sobriety Checkpoints? Every legislative session since 1994 has dealt with the controversial proposal to introduce police checkpoints as a way to address drunk driving. Looks like it will do so again.
Can We At Least Agree That Guns Are Scary? Of course we can’t. This is Texas. But listen. They’re scary when someone threatens to shoot-up a local high school. They are scary when a burglary turns into a Wild West shoot out and no one knows what the hell happened. They are scary because when a mentally disturbed man can only get his hand on a knife, no one dies, but when he can grab a gun, local TV news channels scramble to find the local connection. There’s always a local connection.
Should Josh Brent be on Cowboys’ Sideline? I know, I know. Phil Simms says the ‘boys are “special.” Tony Romo has now thrown for 25,000 career yards. The team is somehow tied for first place. And Jerry Jones is even trying to look good by donating $5 million to the Perot Museum of Nature and Fracking. But here’s the real Monday morning question coming out of the Cowboy’s weekend: should Josh Brent have been on the sideline during the Cowboys’ win over the Steelers Sunday? Former quarterback and CBS analyst Boomer Esiason doesn’t think so. He tweeted:
“Am I the only one that is wondering what in the world the Cowboys are thinking with Josh Brent on the sideline?”
My guess as to the Cowboys’ thinking: suicide, and ways to avoid it.
posted by
Peter Simek |
December 17th, 2012 6:30am | filed under
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