Dallas County Changes Course on Vaccine Distribution. County commissioners approved a new plan yesterday that will prioritize vaccine distribution for residents of the 11 county ZIP codes that health officials have identified as the most affected by COVID-19. Commissioners were concerned that early vaccine distribution had disproportionately gone to residents of wealthy White ZIPs with fewer documented cases of the virus. County Judge Clay Jenkins abstained from the vote and later expressed his fears that the new order largely prohibits vaccines to be distributed to residents outside those ZIPs, regardless of age or health condition, and questioned its legality. The county reported 1,589 new cases and 16 new deaths.
Some Schools Resist Showing Presidential Inauguration. Plano, Southlake Carroll, and Keller ISDs are among the Texas districts that may not allow students to watch today’s inauguration, with some superintendents citing concerns about students witnessing violence in real-time and others seemingly concerned that the country’s once-peaceful transfer of power (not so much anymore) will be construed as overly partisan. Meanwhile, in his final hours as president, Donald Trump released a lengthy list of pardons, including the commuting of the sentence of James Brian Cruz, a Dallas man halfway through a 40-year sentence for a drug crime whom supporters describe as a peacemaker in prison who has had an outsized effect on the lives of fellow inmates.
Son Sheltered Fugitive Father for More Than a Dozen Years. In 2008, Yaser Said shot and killed his two teenage daughters in a suspected honor killing and left their bodies in a taxi cab outside an Irving hotel. He then sought help from his son, Islam Said, who helped hide his father for more than a decade inside a Bedford apartment and, later, a home in Justin. Yaser Said was finally arrested last August, and Islam Said now faces up to 30 years in prison for sheltering his father, who made his way onto the FBI’s most wanted list.
