City Council Will Spend $171,000 to Hire Bike Lane Consultant. Yesterday, the council unanimously approved this sum to find a consultant to design eight miles of bike lanes throughout the city, instead of hiring a bike program coordinator to replace Ashley Haire, who left Dallas in 2015.
S&P Downgrades Dallas’ Debt. Because of concerns regarding the police and fire pension system, the credit ratings agency has lowered the city’s general obligation debt to an AA- rating as well as the Downtown Dallas Tax Increment Financing debt and the convention center hotel bonds to an A-. This isn’t good news for Dallas, as future debt, like the upcoming bond package, could mean taxpayers have to shell out even more.
Tech Firm in Russian Hacking Report Has Dallas Office. XBT Holding, which is run by Russian tech expert Aleksej Gubarev, was mentioned in the document—made public Tuesday—that alleged connections between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. XBT has operations in Dallas, and the report said the firm played an instrumental part in the hacking of leaked Democratic Party emails. Gubarev, who said that 40 percent of his business is handled by its Dallas servers, says the accusations are false.
Rangers Fans Want Air Conditioning in New Stadium. This questionnaire asks the public about features it wants to see for the new $1 billion retractable-roof stadium, set to open by 2020. Unsurprisingly, air conditioning was at the top of the list.
