Articles about Parenting
Leading Off (1/28/13)
Texas Law Prevents Same-Sex Couples From Listing Both Parents’ Names on Children’s Birth Certificates: In 1997, Dallas representative Will Hartnett sponsored a bill in the Texas legislature that added gender specific language to the Texas Health and Safety Code. As a result, Texas birth certificates only have space for one male and one female name. State Representative Rafael Anchia wants to change that, saying the law only adversely affects the children of same-sex couples and makes it difficult when pursuing medical care, school enrollment, international travel, etc.
Accident on I-30 Leaves 12-Year-Old Dead: The car of a family headed westbound on I-30 stalled in the left lane Sunday afternoon. As they waited for roadside assistance, an F-150 truck slammed into the back of the car, killing a 12-year-old, and critically injuring the other siblings.
Arlington State Rep Still Worried President Obama Is a Foreigner: Speaking of birth certificates, Rep. Bill Zedler’s has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would require the Texas Secretary of State to certify birth certificates of candidates running for federal office before their names could be listed on a Texas ballot.
Leading Off (1/21/13)
Not So Sweet Sixteen: A 16-year-old’s birthday party in Grapevine didn’t quite go as planned Saturday night. Towards the end of the evening, the girl’s father got in an argument with her mother, shot the woman in the doorway to their house, and then killed himself on the front lawn.
Gun Buyback Event Turns Into Gun Auction: First Presbyterian Church of Dallas and The Stewpot want to do their part to help take guns off the street, so on Saturday they hosted a gun buyback event in downtown Dallas, just as they have for years. But this year, isn’t like other years. A protest group set up across the street from the church and began selling guns from the back of a truck.
With Second “Calatrava” Bridge, Dallas Reaffirms Superficiality: Writing about the revised design for the new I-30 bridge, critic Scott Cantrell argues we are not getting a second Santiago Calatrava, more  like a TxDOT bridge with Calatrava “decals.” That’s typical of a city that likes to drop big bucks on name brands not just because they offer quality, he says, but because they offer bragging rights:
Calatrava is a Rolex watch among Seikos. The Seikos keep time just as well, and can be quite handsome, but the Rolex has snob appeal. Dallas loves snob appeal, especially with a foreign accent.
Leading Off (1/7/13)
Southlake Carroll Students Dead After Night of Drugs, Alcohol: Two Southlake Carroll students may have survived Friday night had Cullen Marino, a 22-year-old who found them unconscious after drinking and taking drugs, sought immediate assistance. Instead he moved the boy’s bodies from the living room of his house to the bedroom, where they were found dead the following morning by Marino’s father.
Families Settle Suit Over Violent, Explicit Highland Park Fiction: Remember that seventh grade kid who wrote the book about all his classmates involved in all sorts of nefarious activities (drugs, rape, and the rest)? It’s all been put to rest with a quiet settlement. In short, you’re never going to see that book.
Cleburne Pastor Admits Prior Life as Porn Star: That was the startling revelation New Heart Family Worship Center’s Senior Pastor Claude Gilliland III told his congregation Sunday.
Leading Off (11/12/12)
New Children’s Medical Center Dallas Report: Health Care Picture Bleak for Suburban Children: Eight percent of children in the United States don’t have health insurance. In Texas, that number increases to 14 percent uninsured. But according to a report released today by Children’s Medical Center Dallas (sub. req.), in five suburban North Texas counties, including Collin, Denton, Cooke, Fannin, and Grayson, that number doubles to 23.9 percent of children who have no medical insurance. Compounding the problem for children seeking healthcare is the fact that now only 31 percent of Texas physicians accept Medicaid patients.
Squatter Could Get Life Imprisonment: David Cooper isn’t just the latest squatter trying to take control of a home by citing an obscure Texas law that protects people who move into abandoned properties but perform upkeep and pay taxes. No, Cooper moved into the home of a man who had vacated temporarily because he was receiving cancer treatment. That makes Cooper, who is being charged with theft of over $200 thousand, very uncool.
Four Years After Throwing Kids Off Overpass, Mother Walks Free: In 2008, Khandi Busby threw her 6- and 9-year-old boys off an overpass and then jumped herself (in her mind, she was being chased by Satan and the military). Remarkably everyone survived. Perhaps even more remarkably, Busby, who was diagnosed with a schizoaffective disorder, will walk free today, moving from a mental institution to a boarding house. She is forbidden to have contact with her children.
Cowboys Season “Saved:” Yes, now that the ‘Boys defense beat a pitiful Eagles offense, we actually have to keep paying attention to the Cowboys’ season.
Leading Off (9/17/12)
Boy Scouts Hid Hundreds of Accusations of Child Molestation: The Los Angeles Times found that the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America kept a confidential “perversion file” with information on accused sex offenders whom the organization often forced to quietly resign while keeping their crimes “under wraps.” Of the 500 instances in which the Scouts learned of alleged abuse before it was reported to the police, in about 400 cases there is no record of the Scouts reporting the abuses to authorities.
Man Arrested For Tattooing 14-Year-Old: The young teen in question had her mother’s permission as well as other tattoos, but that wasn’t enough to prevent a Flower Mound man from being arrested for inking the minor. The detail that should make you wonder, though, is that one of the teen’s tattoos consists of the letters “SS.”
Cowboys Routed In Seattle: Not much went right for the Cowboys, especially these four things. And if you happened to snatch up Kevin Ogletree for your fantasy league after last week’s performance, well, oops.
Leading Off (6/25/12)
Off-Duty Dallas Police Officer Shoots Man In Taco Bell: On Sunday morning, an off-duty Dallas police officer saw an 18-year-old at a Taco Bell with marijuana “in plain view.” When the officer approached the young man, the man reportedly reached for a weapon. That’s when the off-duty cop shot the suspect.
Plano Woman Disappears, Found In Bathroom at DFW Airport: Janice Klein, 47, disappeared from her house Friday without her wallet and cell phone, prompting a community-wide search for the woman who was eventually found 25 miles a way, dehydrated and delirious in a bathroom at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Police still don’t know what exactly happened.
Woman Tries to Sell Baby Online: A Florida woman drove to Dallas intending to purchase a four-month old baby boy from a mother who placed an online classified ad looking for potential buyers. But the woman got cold feet and called the police.
First 100 Degree Day For Dallas: Brace yourself.
Belated Congrats to Lisa Loeb
Friday former Dallas songbird Lisa Loeb presented her husband Roey Hershkovitz with the ultimate pre-Father’s Day gift – second child, Emet, who weighed in at 7 lbs., 7 oz. and 20 inches long.
There is no truth to the rumor that Emet was born strumming a guitar and wearing Lisa Loeb-designed glasses.
Leading Off (6/18/12)
State Medicaid Changes Killing Mom And Pop Pharmacies: According to this story in the New York Times, the changes Texas made to Medicaid this past March created a few winners, including the state, which will save millions, and CVS, which seems to be strategically poaching business from independent pharmacies. The losers are people like Ronald Barrett, who runs Oak Cliff Pharmacy. When Barrett tries to fill his patients’ prescriptions, the computer tells him they have already been mysteriously filled by a CVS down the road.
Lawsuit Claims School Forced 8-Year-Old To Bathe At School: The parents of a third-grader at an elementary school in Parker allege that a school nurse and counselor subjected their son to a “violent” bath that has traumatized the boy. School officials aren’t speaking, but parents of the student say that after the incident their son wanted to take baths all of the time and doused himself with cologne before heading to school.
Dozens of Assault Weapons Lifted in Murphy: More than 85 high-powered assault weapons were stolen from a Murphy storage unit, but I have a feeling the guns — or at least the culprit — will turn up soon enough. One of the criminals carelessly left a used cigarette butt in the storage unit, providing police with valuable DNA evidence.
Fort Worth Mayor Breaks Collarbone In Bike Accident: Mayor Betsy Price was riding her bike along the Trinity Trails when she hit a patch of gravel and was thrown from the bike. Yes, Fort Worth has bike trails along their branch of the Trinity.
Leading Off (4/23/12)
Dashboard Cameras Catch Police Officers Breaking Law, So Officers Want To Quit Reviews: Dallas police squad cars’ dashboard cameras have two roles 1) to protect citizens against excessive force, and 2) to protect officers against wrongful accusations. But the cameras also catch officers speeding, breaking traffic laws, not turning on their lights, and other infringements that, you know, sometimes end up killing people. But who likes the man breathing down his or her neck? That’s why officers and police associations have pushed to cease regular reviews of the dashboard videos (pay wall).
Union Round-up: Lockheed Machinists To Strike, American Airlines’ Flight Attendants Picket Bankruptcy Hearings: North Texas goes Rust Belt this morning with some rare union activity. Lockheed’s machinists have thrown a wrench in the ongoing F-35 fighter jet program (you know, the ga-billion dollar debacle), refusing a new contract, in part, because of the threat to eliminate pension benefits to new employees (pensions, what a quaint concept). Meanwhile, fight attendants are picketing as American Airlines goes to court today to try to get a U.S. judge to throw out union contracts so that it can trim $1.25 billion in employee costs, including freezing pension plans. Come on people, this is the new America. It’s every old person for himself / herself. Invest in bullets, not pensions. Yee-haw! U-S-A!
Remains May Be Related to Starved Boy Case: There’s an update to that stomach-turning story involving the missing boy who was allegedly starved to death by his parents in Ellis County. Remains were found in a creek bed Saturday, but police cannot confirm their identity until after DNA testing.
60 Minutes Features Dallas Mom Critical of ‘Redshirting’ for Kindergarten
Last night CBS’ 60 Minutes reported on an issue I first remember hearing about from Merritt Patterson in Park Cities People a few years ago: holding your 5-year-old back a year from starting kindergarten so that he or she will be among the oldest, rather than the youngest, in the class.
Holly Korbey of Dallas was interviewed for the 60 Minutes report. (You can first see her at about the 2:50 mark in the video embedded above).
Anyone who’s read Outliers by the great Malcolm Gladwell has learned how the month of a child’s birth can confer academic and athletic advantages because of the way we structure our calendars to determine who’s ready to start school, or slot children into age groups for sports leagues. When you’re 5 years old being 7-10 months older than some other kids in your class can mean a huge difference developmentally. Those older kids then tend to get treated like the top students and receive extra attention, and extra coaching, which further compounds the advantage over the years.
Leading Off (1/30/11)
DISD Teacher Calls for “Sick Out” Last week the Dallas ISD school board voted to close 11 campuses and extend teachers’ work day by 45 minutes without additional compensation. Now an anonymous teacher is trying to organize a “sick out” protest for February 29.
Mom Will Give Son Kidney: When Jace Glenn was four weeks old, he had both his kidneys removed. He has been on dialysis ever since, awaiting an age when he would be old enough to undergo a kidney transplant operation. Now three, all he needs is a donor. He found one in his mom.
Police Officer Saves Women From Car Sinking In Lake: Saturday night, Ngac Do and Nhi Tran took a wrong turn on Dalrock Rd. off I-30 and drove their Honda Civic into Lake Ray Hubbard. A police dash cam caught the rescue.
Rhett Miller on Fatherhood
An alert FrontBurnervian points us to this essay by Old 97′s frontman Rhett Miller about what it’s like to be a rockstar and a father. Stop what you’re doing and take four minutes to read it. Good stuff. Sample:
Every freaking day they wake up demanding to be fed again. And then, more likely than not, refusing to eat the meal you’ve prepared. Every day. There is no cycle, much less a break from the cycle. There is only the grind. I feel like I’m tour managing an endless tour with a band comprised of subliterate narcissists.
Family Drags ESD Back Into Court
As she usually does, Claire St. Amant has all the details over on the Preston Hollow People blog.
Jessica Simpson Pregnant, Probably
Magazines and blogs have been saying for weeks that Jessica Simpson is pregnant, but she’s kept silent. Some have reported that she wanted $500,000 in exchange for the story. Well, apparently she confirmed it to OK Magazine last night. The cover with the story will be out October 27. I’m just hoping there won’t be a reality TV show covering her pregnancy. Of course, if there is, I know someone who can do a great job recapping it.
Rev Run to Preach at Fellowship Church in Grapevine
Rev Run, aka Joseph Simmons
Two months after hosting Soul Surfer’s Bethany Hamilton, Fellowship Church in Grapevine is bringing in another big-name guest speaker: Rev Run, founding member of the influential hip-hop group Run-D.M.C. (and, yes, a practicing minister). It’s part of a new series led by Ed Young, founding pastor of Fellowship, a local megachurch. (Full disclosure: I’m a member.)
The two initially connected via Twitter (@RevRunWisdom, @edyoung), after re-tweeting things the other had posted. “He’s an amazing guy, and we thought it would be a great way to get his life-change story out there,” Young said.
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