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From the website Deadline: “William Hutchinson, who appeared on the Lifetime series Marrying Millions as the suitor of a woman 40 years younger than him, pleaded guilty today to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at his Laguna Beach vacation home and was sentenced to 90 days of home confinement in Texas. The Highland Park, Texas, resident, 65, pleaded guilty to a count of misdemeanor sexual battery and was placed on three years of formal probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.”

I checked in with the public information officer at the DA’s office in Orange County. She explained that California has a scale for sex offenders, and that scale will require Hutchinson to register for 10 years. The PIO also told me that the district attorney didn’t prosecute Hutchinson on the felony rape charge because the office lacked sufficient evidence to do so.

For more context, you should read this story we published in 2021 about Hutchinson titled “The End of a Playboy.”

Update (4/30/24): Michelle Simpson Tuegel is a lawyer who represents three women who have civil cases pending against Hutchinson in Dallas County. Those cases are set for trial in November. She issued the following statement, referring to the woman whose complaint in Orange County led to the plea deal yesterday: “I applaud the courage of this survivor, whose bravery in coming forward not only led to a measure of justice for what she went through, but also helped shine a light on the actions of a man who is now a registered sex offender. It is not easy to come forward against a public person and stand in your truth waiting years for a court date, but this survivor’s courage shows the potential impact of every voice.”

The mysterious “Project X,” which involves city council members figuring out how to retrain or recruit an unnamed pro sports team, is still floating around Dallas City Hall.

We thought this was a settled matter after sports mayor’s big win last week. The City Council unanimously approved a $19 million deal to rehab the old Memorial Auditorium to lure the Dallas Wings from Arlington. But this, apparently, was not Project X. Or there’s a new Project X. Hard to say. Attorneys are involved, and the official discussions are happening in private. (“Executive session” is a real buzzkill.)

The Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Sports Recruitment and Retention will be back in session on Wednesday, and, once again, the only item on the agenda involves discussing “commercial or financial information that the city has received from a business prospect (“Project X”) that the city seeks to have locate, stay or expand in or near the City of Dallas and with which the City is conducting economic development negotiations; and deliberate the offer of a financial or other incentive in connection with Project X.”

Councilmember Paula Blackmon, one of the seven committee members, tells me it is “another project” separate from the Wings. She wouldn’t comment further. Councilmember Jaynie Schultz, another committee member, says, “I honestly don’t know.”

Let’s get to speculating.

Mavs’ Comeback Falls Short, Clippers Even Series. Dallas was on the verge of making one of the biggest comebacks in playoff history, erasing a 31-point deficit late in the fourth quarter. But a Paul George corner three (after really great defense by Derrick Jones Jr.) put the Clippers back on top and that was pretty much that. (No more Sunday 2:30 tipoffs!) Game 5 happens Wednesday in Los Angeles. And yes, that was our own Matt Goodman you briefly saw on the ABC broadcast. More on StrongSide momentarily.

Wyatt Johnston’s OT Goal Gets Stars Back in Business. The 20-year-old became the youngest player in Stars history to score an overtime goal on Saturday night, and it couldn’t have come at a more important time, with Dallas on the verge of falling into a 3-0 hole to Vegas two seasons in a row. More on the game here. The Stars have a chance to tie up the first-round series tonight.

Drier Start to the Week. After a rainy weekend, with flooding all over, we are looking at mid-80s, no precipitation until Wednesday, when an “unsettled pattern” returns. “Unsettled pattern”—so dramatic!

Less than two years removed from its 2022 launch, 97.1 The Freak is apparently no more. According to at least two reports on Friday, the station’s owner, iHeartMedia, announced a format change and several firings on Friday.

Athlon Sports’ Richie Whitt reported that employees were summoned to an emergency meeting to discuss The Freak’s unremarkable ratings over the last 18 months, since the frequency abandoned its former identity as The Eagle and longtime status as a home to heavier rock music. Whitt, citing unnamed sources, was the first to relay the news that staff will be let go and that a “change in direction” is coming. 

Listeners began speculating on social media. A video was posted on a fan-run Facebook page that appears to show the station’s flagship voice, Mike Rhyner, pulling up a yard sign promoting the station and then saying, “Thanks, y’all.”

Rhyner, a Texas Radio Hall of Famer and one of the founders of The Ticket, came out of retirement to join the new station and its “free-flowing” talk format. (He talked about that decision in this episode of EarBurner.) He confirmed to the Dallas Observer that he and the rest of the on-air crew for his afternoon show, The Speakeasy, were fired Friday, including Jeff Cavanaugh and Julie Dobbs. Rhyner also said that staff was told that the station would revert back to its original rock programming and Eagle branding on Monday.

“I know that everyone on our show is gone,” he told the Observer. “I’m not sure about the others, but I would imagine the same thing holds true for them,” referring to the rest of The Freak’s lineup, which included The Downbeat with Mike Sirois, Danny Balis, and Kevin Turner and The Ben and Skin Show with Ben Rogers and Jeff “Skin” Wade. “Like I said, this was a thing where that radio company, especially the branch of it here in Dallas-Fort Worth, is not well equipped to handle us and what we did, and they really weren’t into it at all.”

The station is also the Dallas Mavericks’ radio broadcast partner, with Chuck Cooperstein providing play-by-play. Judging from his tweet this afternoon, tonight’s playoff broadcast will air.

Last July, Ashley Brundage led the first of many rallies in which she called on the city to fund affordable housing in this year’s bond. Her group, the Dallas Housing Coalition, pushed for a $200 million spend. The bond wound up allocating about $70 million for help with financing and infrastructure improvements near affordable housing. Even though it fell short of the more ambitious ask, this is still a significant achievement for housing advocates, if only because the city of Dallas has never viewed a bond program as a way to directly invest in creating more places for people to live.

This month, Brundage was announced as the new leader of the Dallas chapter of Habitat for Humanity, one of the region’s largest homebuilders. She’s spent the last 19 years with United Way, and, for the last 17, was the organization’s executive director of housing stability. That meant, during the pandemic, Brundage helped raise and disburse $40 million of rental assistance that helped people stay in their homes.

Habitat has had a rough go of it in recent months. The former CEO, William Eubanks III, parted ways with the organization after a Dallas Morning News investigation found that his wife earned a $24,000 commission on land purchased by the nonprofit. (Eubanks denied wrongdoing.) Too, the City Plan Commission denied Habitat’s plan to build 30 homes on an old ballfield following pushback from the community.

Brundage sees her role as rebuilding trust with the communities Habitat serves—it owns land in Joppa and Pleasant Grove, and is working in Irving and Kaufman County—and using her knowledge and background to position Habitat as a thought-leader and policy advocate. Too, the organization’s finances are in a much different place than they were in 2018, when the News floated that the organization “might be failing” following years of losses.

Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of billionaire Jeff Bezos, gave the organization $9 million in 2022. “That allows me to be able to come in and not feel like we’re in any kind of crisis,” Brundage says, which will allow her to hire her team and create a new strategic plan.

With early voting on the bond ongoing through next Tuesday, April 30, Brundage talked about the need for housing, her vision for Habitat’s Dallas chapter, and how important community involvement is for the organization’s projects. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity. (Afterward, head here to read our guide to the bond package. It includes details about the housing allotments.)

Roosevelt High Students Shot Off-Campus, School Closed. Dallas ISD says it discovered a “credible threat” directed at Roosevelt High School in Cedar Crest and closed the school for the day. Two high school football players were shot and hospitalized following a drive-by shooting near the Cedar Crest Golf Course yesterday evening. They were riding home with the team’s coach when a car pulled up next to them and started shooting. One player was shot in the arm and the other was hit in the neck, but both are stable and expected to recover.

Tarrant County Commissioner Calls for Federal Investigation Into Jail Deaths. Two people have died following medical emergencies over the last four days while in custody at the Tarrant County Jail, in Fort Worth. Sheriff Bill Waybourn calls the incidents “horrific” while Commissioner Alisa Simmons has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to launch an investigation into conditions at the jail. A 31-year-old man died in a medical facility after being sprayed with pepper spray during a fight with a detention officer. A 42-year-old was found unresponsive in his cell on April 18.

Rain Is Coming This Weekend. Meteorologists expect as much as three inches of rain this weekend, beginning this afternoon. Hail, damaging winds, and possible tornadoes are all in the cards, so keep your eyes on the forecast.

Yesterday, the Dallas City Council sent off outgoing City Manager T.C. Broadnax during what is likely his final council meeting in Dallas. He’ll start in Austin as its city manager on May 6. His resignation is frequently tied to his relationship with Mayor Eric Johnson, which has been marked by attempted firings, arguments, and poor communication. 

But to hear the mayor tell it, the media is the real reason everyone thinks that Broadnax and Johnson can’t get along. The council recognized Broadnax yesterday morning, and Johnson’s remarks were, well, interesting.

The mayor said that he and Broadnax actually agreed about “90 percent” of the time. “That’s not a secret,” he said and then claimed that the media didn’t write about the “wins” that happened while he and Broadnax were at the helm. He pointed to several policies and moves the city has adopted over the past five years, including its racial equity plan, its approach to environmental issues, economic development opportunities, the importance placed on parks, and improvements in crime rates. Those things, he argued—incorrectly—didn’t get attention from journalists. 

“The media is going to feast on those times when we’ve not agreed,” he said. “But I am going to acknowledge that there have been times that we haven’t, that 10 percent is real. I believe that the times we’ve disagreed have been very much overblown and very much exaggerated and played up for various reasons.”

He continued: “I get what people have to write to get people to click on stories in a dying industry. You got to write what you got to write to try and keep food on your family’s table. But I deal in the reality of public policy making. I’ve been doing it for 14 straight years.”

Let’s dissect that. For one, the current narrative that the mayor and the city manager’s relationship had grown so dysfunctional that they could no longer effectively conduct city business came from six of his colleagues. They took the extraordinary step of drafting the announcement (which you can read in its entirety here) that Broadnax would step down at the council’s request.

Dallas’ IT Chief Calling It Quits. Bill Zielinski, who has worked for the city for almost four years, says he’s leaving for a private sector job. Zielinski oversaw the city’s response to a massive ransomware attack and the fallout from an employee deleting millions of electronic police records. The city’s chief information security officer, Brian Gardner, will serve as interim director. 

Judge Forced to Call Mistrial in Murder Case. Judge Nancy Mulder, who oversees Dallas County Criminal District Court 6, granted Jorge Esparza a mistrial after she made comments about him on a courtroom livestream. Mulder said she has apologized to Esparza and recused herself from two cases involving him. Esparza has pleaded not guilty in connection to a 2020 shooting that killed an alleged romantic rival.

Student Killed in Shooting at Arlington’s Bowie High. Police said that an 18-year-old student was fatally shot by a 17-year-old student Wednesday outside the campus’ portable buildings. Police believe the two knew each other but have not released further details. The school was placed under lockdown for about three hours and will remain closed today.

Not Great, Bob. How did the Stars do last night? The Knights extended their Western Conference first-round lead by another game, and the Stars fell 3-1. We’ll have more on StrongSide in a bit.

The Weekend Will Be Soggy. The National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office says it’ll be pretty muggy today before storms roll in this evening. There is a chance of rain through Tuesday.

Early voting for municipal elections began Monday, and a $1.25 bond package will be on your ballot in the form of 10 propositions. 

Voters are asked to give the city permission to borrow that money with interest, which will address everything from the city’s aging streets to improving drainage, adding new parks, and funding a new police training center. Those projects—all 800 or so—are scheduled to begin at some point over the next five years.

It’s important stuff that you’ll see in your neighborhood. It might be a new library, new spraygrounds, or a better road. We dug into the projects and the bond language to create this guide to help voters better understand what they’re voting for—or against.

With that in mind, we’re asking our readers to weigh in by taking the poll below. Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for the results. Early voting continues through April 30. Election Day is May 4.

Mavs Beat Clippers. It was a nail-biter, but the Mavs pulled it out 96-93. (Paul George hit a meaningless buzzer beater, so really it was 96-90.) Here’s the poorly written lede from the game recap story in the Los Angeles Times: “They finally are whole, the return of Kawhi Leonard from right knee inflammation that kept the Clippers’ best player out for 23 days making them complete. But for the Clippers to defeat the Dallas Mavericks again in a Western Conference playoff series, Leonard was going to need his teammates to carry most of the weight until he gets his game and physical condition back to the high level he’s accustomed to. They could not.” Here are the dangly earrings that Kyrie wore to the press conference after the game. And here’s what Iztok and The Looch had to say about the game, over on StrongSide.

War Protest at UTD. About 100 students staged a sit-in outside the university president’s office. They want the school to divest itself of investments in the companies making the materiel being used against Palestinians.

Foxtrot Markets Close Suddenly. The nationwide company closed all four of its Dallas locations without warning. Not sure where we’ll get coffee now.

Voters are being asked to give Dallas permission to borrow $1.25 billion to address everything from the city’s aging streets to improving drainage, adding new parks, and funding a new police training center. Should the bond’s 10 propositions pass, roughly 800 items will be started in tranches over the next five years. City staff triages projects based on various factors, including urgency and equity. 

While the total amount of money for each proposition is set, the project list could change. The city’s Bond and Construction Management Department said last month that the Council could also modify the scope of specific projects or adjust the money allocated for those projects. 

That’s what happened in some cases with the 2017 bond. Voters approved borrowing $1.05 billion across 10 propositions that included many of the same buckets as this year’s bond election. City staff says that about 96 percent of the 1,400 projects on the 2017 list are either complete or have been put out to bid. Some of the remaining projects were slated to begin bidding and construction in 2023, the final tranche of the last bond. 

Some projects were canceled (such as plans for 35 rental units in the Bonton neighborhood), and the city will reallocate that money for similar projects that fall under the same scope. Other projects were slower to complete because of pandemic-era supply chain disruptions and labor shortages. With the May departure of City Manager T.C. Broadnax, a new chief executive at City Hall will be charged with overseeing the program’s implementation.

If any proposition fails to pass, the city won’t be able to legally issue a certificate of obligation to fund projects in its category for the next three years. That could create choppy waters if, for instance, a storm destroyed a library after voters shot down Proposition D, which will pay for two new libraries and improvements on nine others. The city would likely have to pay for such an emergency through the general fund. 

Early voting began April 22 and runs through April 30. Election Day is May 4. Head here to find your polling place. Below, we walk through each proposition to explain what you’re actually voting for.