Maybe you recognize Bill Holston as the man with the bushy mustache sitting behind a table at DFW International Airport in a Dallas Morning News story, directing pro-bono immigration attorneys to a war room to help advise the dozens of immigrants detained there after President Trump’s recent executive order. Or maybe you recognize him as a D columnist, the Law Man Walking, who treks across the many natural spaces that so many of us in Dallas overlook.
Bill would probably rather you think of him as the executive director of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, a nonprofit that helps resettle refugees who come to America after fleeing war-torn countries. He’d probably you rather think of him as the man who helped an Eritrean refugee who fled after being tortured, after paying a smuggler $10,000 to get to the U.S. border, only to turn herself in and plead for asylum. She needed representation. He’d also probably have you think of his mostly female staff, who he insists are the people that really keep the machine moving in the name of all things human and good.
And now you can think of him gumming it up with Zac and Tim on this week’s EarBurner, as he eloquently describes his noble role while Zac jokes about annoying his duplex neighbor by doing jumping jacks and burpees. If you already subscribe to EarBurner via iTunes or Stitcher, or via RSS through your favorite podcatcher, the new episode is likely already sitting in your queue. If not, you can listen using the player above.
You can — and absolutely should, because these take a lot longer to collate and type up than you’d think, especially after spending the day in a courtroom — follow along with the show notes below.
1. Zac made Erykah Badu cry with this profile he wrote of her in our February issue. It was a good cry, though. He turned red talking about it. Note the public, non-DM shoutout here.
2. Bill Holston is the aforementioned executive director of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas. You can find more information about the group here.
3. If you haven’t read it already, here is the full text of President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily barring travel to the United States from seven majority Muslim countries. Ah, shoot. Wrong link. Here it is.
4. Rex Tillerson — Wichita Falls native, ex-Exxon chief executive, pickup truck owner — is our new secretary of state. The unnamed colleague’s Tillerson post is here, and it reveals his name! You can do more research on Zac’s pontificating later in the show on your own; this is a family website (Editor’s note: see No. 23).
5. New York Magazine has some details about White House Chief of Staff Steve Bannon’s visage.
6. Tim thinks White Rock Lake needs to be dredged. Former City Council candidate, Dallas Observer writer, and mayoral staffer Sam Merten beat him to it years ago. Tim is a loser. Sad!
7. Back in 2015, The Dallas Morning News editorial board basically called Sam Merten the same thing I just called Tim, only in the newspaper editorial page version of a subtweet.
8. Bill Holston is a master naturalist. You can read all about it in his own words on D Magazine Dot Com.
9. There is a huge pit in the Trinity Forest and the Trinity Forest did not put it there. The city of Dallas did.
10. Shouts out to former Mayor Tom Leppert’s significant hands.
11. Who knows when this bond election will make it to our ballots. Who knows when our streets will be fixed. Who knows when this pension mess will be sorted out. Who kno —
12. Here is a photo of Dallas energy executive Kelcy Warren and his park child named Klyde.
13. The Congress for the New Urbanism wants us to tear down I-345 and link downtown and Deep Ellum. And so does Wick.
14. This is the type of thing Zac engages in while in his duplex: working out, annoying his neighbors.
15. The Mavericks are on a winning streak, topping the Spurs, the Cavaliers, and the 76ers. Meanwhile, the Mavs’ official website can’t be bothered to place a story about said winning streak in this section, which is literally labeled “winning streak.” Perhaps it’s because they’re a shit team.
16. God Shammgod is an assistant coach for the Mavericks. But this is really what you should know God Shammgod for.
17. Bill Holston’s staff is a talented group of women.
18. There were protests last weekend at DFW Airport over President Trump’s executive order, which Lyndsay Knecht did a wonderful job covering for us.
19. This Twitter account kept track of the more than 50 travelers who were detained until all were finally released.
20. Here’s a crushing New York Times documentary detailing the plight of the hundreds of thousands of children fleeing the violence of war-torn Central America, a problem that has absolutely not gone away. And here’s the noble way Dallas County responded in 2014.
21. WFAA’s David Schechter is not former KTVT reporter Jay Gormley, although I’ve worked with both and they’re wonderful people. Here is Schechter’s statewide project that Tim mentions.
22. Rick Perry is our secretary of energy, even if he once forgot the name of that department as he was angling to nix it.
23. Refer to No. 4.
24. Here is one of Zac’s feature stories on refugees who resettled in Dallas.
25. And here is Zac hating on Giant Jenga and Radiohead in bars.
26. Zac’s list of Texas State Parks. Can YOU beat Tim and Bill? One minute. Prove it.
