I’m glad I’m going out of town to do something completely frivolous this weekend, because otherwise I very likely would just stay up late reading about the Fort Hood and Orlando shootings. Or the case of Michelle Lynn Smith, the Anna woman who knowingly married a two-time sex offender (Glen Bracy), and then stood by and did nothing while Bracy then — big surprise — sexually abused her 4-year-old daughter “up to 50 times” by his own estimate. She will have to serve 90 years of her 210-year sentence before she is eligible for parole.
I have no particular objection to running unobtrusive front-page ads on newspapers. I’d prefer that they remain confined to a small strip across the bottom, but I know that with some papers trying anything and everything to remain afloat, there’s going to be experimentation. The local Star Community Newspapers group has even been floating ads in the center of the front page, above the fold and surrounded by content.
But can we all agree that today’s San Antonio Express-News front is just awful? Maybe papers should set some sort of guideline. Something that says ads will be omitted from the front when they’re running a two-line, six-column head? Or when the lead story has a major body count?
1. “After nightfall at Fort Hood, the religious gathered to pray, the patriotic gave blood, and doctors and nurses worked to save the lives of the wounded. Sirens continued to sound, but traffic once again rumbled along Battalion Avenue and speakers blared, ‘The emergency no longer exists.’” D Magazine contributing editor Gretel Kovach is headed to the scene Friday for the New York Times.
2. Yes, these Frisco students probably weren’t going to act on their threats to kill a teacher, posted on Facebook. But senseless violence like what happened at Fort Hood yesterday reminds us why it’s a good idea to err on the side of caution. And maybe teach kids other ways to “vent their anger.”
3. Planting a yard of artificial turf makes just as much sense as pouring time, energy, gallons upon gallons of water, and chemicals into maintaining a sparkling green lawn in the wilting sun of Texas. And if you want to paint a baseball diamond on there, fine by me. If the spirit of Shoeless Joe Jackson shows up, well then, all the better.
A completely unfair headline on this post, I’ll grant you. But since both the 2010 NBA All-Star Game and Super Bowl XLV will be played inside the belly of Jerry’s giant robot space turtle in Arlington, and since as many as 100,000 prostitutes are expected to come to the area for the games, I’d argue that it’s not entirely inaccurate.
Anyway, the Morning News had a good blog post about this already. I’m really linking to it to point out how quickly the comments on the DMN Crime Blog item degenerated into racial epithets.
Or not. Because then I won’t be able to see stories that start like this:
Willis Willis has an idea how he can get his money back from the store clerk who authorities say stole his $1 million winning lottery ticket.
“Just get me in a room with him for two minutes,” says the 67-year-old Navy veteran.
Or end like this:
Willis told reporters that he is willing to be patient. If it takes a year, he won’t give up, he said.
He also won’t stop playing the lottery. In fact, he bought five Mega Millions tickets Tuesday, he said.
“See if I can pull one more rabbit out of a hat,” he said.
Errol Morris, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, made a little movie back in the 1980s called The Thin Blue Line. It’s an investigation of the murder of a Dallas police officer, and its findings led to the release of Randall Dale Adams, who had been wrongly convicted of the crime. Adams came within days of being put to death for something that he didn’t do.
I decided to ask Morris if he’s been following the case of Cameron Todd Willingham (he has) and what it says about our justice system. He said:
My view is that the death penalty encourages mistakes. It’s not just ‘mistakes can happen.’ It engenders them. And Texas, as we all know, has been enthusiastic about the death penalty. Not just in passing new legislation, but in the number of capital murder cases and convictions and death warrants and just in the number of executions.
And he raised an interesting line of argument. To crudely paraphrase it, these capital cases involve horrific tragedies for which the community demands some justice (e.g., a dead cop, or three dead little girls). And because of that, investigators go to extraordinary lengths to find someone that they can punish. Morris’ words again:
If there’s a choice between no case and a case, unfortunately it becomes very easy for the human mind to find justifications for making one decision, one preferred decision, rather than another.
Okay, the story isn’t that interesting. I just wanted to write that headline. Carry on.
1. The Highland Park Town Council doesn’t need any of your fancy studies, any of your new-fangled objective measures, or your pointy-headed cost-benefit analysis. They know the truth: Even looking at the possibility of maybe someday thinking about eventually enacting some sort of voluntary conservation ordinance to preserve houses in one of this area’s most historic neighborhoods, that alone will cause home values to plummet. Former Mayor Gifford Touchstone says so, and his word is good enough for them.
2. Dallas Police may need to review the finer points of the Lock, Take, Hide program after a SWAT supervisor’s vehicle was burgled. In related news, D CEO executive editor Glenn Hunter will no longer drive down North Fitzhugh Avenue.
3. Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver in the R. Allen Stanford case, is looking to recover $1.5 billion for defrauded investors. The lawyer for the investors says Janvey’s plan is “something of a fantasy.” Discussion topic: Is it more or less of a fantasy than seeing a fleet of electric cars on the roads of North Texas next year?
UPDATE: It’s an epidemic.
The charge: being a non-English speaking driver.
The lady: 48-year-old Ernestina Mondragon.
1. I’ve never heard him conduct a concert. I have heard many people sing his praises. So I can imagine that there’s general excitement among the city’s classical music lovers now that the Dallas Symphony Orchestra music director has committed to staying until 2016. Me? I don’t want to be a phony — like someone who calls himself a jazz aficionado just because he owns Kind of Blue – by claiming that I join them in their excitement. But I am glad he’ll be sticking around awhile. Because “Jaap van Zweden” is just plain fun to say.
2. I’m under age 55, so I was not watching the Jay Leno Show last night. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was on via satellite from inside the belly of his giant robot space turtle. Judging from this clip of the appearance, the segment featured Leno’s standard brand of excruciating comedy. Jay asked about Cowboys players dating celebrities, like Tony Romo’s relationship with Jessica Simpson. “Spice is nice,” Jerry said. Other gustatory terms come to mind, but I’ve never particularly thought of Jessica Simpson as spicy.
3. I don’t even want to imagine the horror that Raul Garza has had to live through since April, when his wife was murdered. The man who killed her was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday. What I can imagine, and what I hope brought him some small sense of satisfaction, was standing across from the killer in court and flinging these words at him: “You’re not a man, but a shell of human being not worthy of love because you are incapable of showing that to others. You let evil rip out your spine and your guts.”
In July, the good people at Overheard brought our attention to the story of the UP family with a treehouse in their front yard. Apparently, a neighbor complained about said structure because its placement is against UP ordinance.
Last night, the Johnson family got the verdict: the house must come down.
Krista, I hate piling on a person or an agency when they’re down, but I’ve got another big bone to pick with DART. Here it is: Like a good little fledgling urbanite, I vowed to make a habit of taking the light rail from home to our new downtown offices–and did so last week. The upshot? The very first day I parked the family vehicle at the White Rock transit station–less than a mile from our house in Merriman Park–criminals ripped away at the passenger-door lock, ransacked the car and made off with a bunch of stuff, including the entire center-console bin. This, after I’d parked outside our house in our driveway every night for the last 9-plus years–and never had the car touched once. Now, I’m aware this sign looms over the White Rock park and ride facility: “Not Responsible for Theft or Damage to Vehicles.” But I’m sorry; that ain’t good enough. Why shouldn’t DART have to secure its parking facilities for its paying customers? Until it does, I’m staying off their trains and out of their lots.
Fox4 deserves a Thumbs Up for taking 5:39 minutes on Tuesday — a huge amount of time in a nightly newscast — to examine the Willingham case. Although he provides no new information. Ray obviously tilts to the seemingly unanimous opinion in Corsicana that Willingham was guilty, and so I found his report informative. I remain sceptical of the jury verdict and deeply suspicious of the reasons Rick Perry panicked at the idea of an honest airing of the evidence pro and con. Be that as it may, in devoting so much valuable airtime to the story, Fox4 did a public service. Here’s the segment:
KRLD has the story here. It happened at Richardson’s Westwood Junior High at the end of last year; the teacher told the vice principal, who told the Dallas police officer who works the campus, who gave the kid a ticket. His mom says she’ll fight the $364 ticket, which I guess is why this is coming up now.
I’m of two minds on this: on the one hand, if you’re going to have your kid in a mainstream school, you have to expect there will be bumps along the way. On the other: I think if you’re going to allow autistic kids in your mainstream school, you have to expect there will be bumps along the way. I predict the media attention will get the ticket dismissed, and I don’t think that’s the worst thing in the world.
Hussein Smadi, 18, is now in federal custody as a material witness in the case against his brother, Hosam. His deportation to Jordan has also, obviously, been stayed. He might have had a chance had he not been so insistent on rocking that bandanna/white sunglasses combo.
This morning University Park Police took Cynthia Martinez into custody for a second time, for working as a masseuse without a license. That’s the type of business she claimed to have been operating when she was arrested last month for prostitution.
Does this mean the cops aren’t entirely confident in their prostitution charges against her?
UPDATE: University Park Police Chief Gary Adams answers my question: “Not at all.”
Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of deliberately burning down his house in order to murder his three children, and he was executed for the crime. We have asked why Gov. Rick Perry is so afraid of questions that have been raised about this case. As this Nightline report makes clear, the answer is that the fire was an accident, not arson at all, which means Texas executed a man for a crime that was not committed. Worse than that, the proof of this was presented to the governor before the execution took place, and he ignored it.
Police have still been unable to nab a guy who hops fences in Lake Highlands, and then either dances naked in the backyard or swims naked, depending, I suppose, on the availability of a pool and his mood. After the jump, what police believe is a photo of the assailant.
The news came down about an hour ago, but I’m just now learning that the jury convicted the City Hall corruption defendants on most counts. My favorite part of the story? The part where, before the verdict, Don Hill said he wasn’t worried, adding: “God’s gonna give us this one.” Pretty sure that sealed his fate.
1. Gov. Ricky and attorney general Greg Abbott want to assure the good people of Texas: They will fight to keep a Dallas gay couple legally wed, to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage.
2. Dallas ISD board president Adam Medrano is accusing fellow board members of pulling a play from Gov. Ricky’s book: Don’t like what’s on a public meeting’s agenda? Conspire to get the meeting canceled.
3. So you’re Gov. Ricky’s cousin. You served on his re-election campaign steering committee. You’re enjoying an evening out on your backyard deck, just you and your shotgun. Long story short, you end up dead. Rest in peace, knowing that Gov. Ricky ”couldn’t pick [you] out of a lineup.”
If the evidence shows that Cameron Todd Willingham was guilty of arson, then why replace Forensic Science Commission board members two days before they were scheduled to hear from an arson investigator about the case?
Read Cynthia Martinez’s side of the story here. Spoiler Alert: she moved to the Park Cities for the schools.
The Dallas Police Department (twitter/DallasPD) just tweeted: “There will be low flying helicopters in downtown Dallas from 4pm to 10pm. The company has obtained appropriate clearances.” I could either call the po-po and ask what’s up or just invite the sinister bad guys to tell us their intentions in the comments.
Park Cities People has details of the arrest in University Park.