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Controversy

Latest

Controversy

Leading Off (5/11/16)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick brings potty talk to Fort Worth schools. Patrick visited the FWISD Board of Education complex yesterday to call for superintendent Kent Scribner's resignation. He says Scribner violated parents' right to know what's happening with their schoolchildren by implementing a policy that allows transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice. Patrick also said Scribner "is putting the privacy and rights of 78,000 or 79,000 students in the back seat for a few." However, Scribner says he simply tweaked a 2011 policy and called Patrick a "bully." Patrick didn't have a solution for transgender students, but I'm thinking maybe there's an extra empty naval base lying around Grand Prairie. Stick a few porta-potties on that. All good. Local man's son back in the Senate saddle. Ted Cruz returned to his Washington Senate office yesterday, receiving a tepid welcome back from colleagues. Murdered Midlothian fitness instructor case weird enough for national tabloids. Flirtatious messages pointing toward infidelity, financial and marital problems, a solid chance the hammer-wielding killer caught on surveillance video might actually be a woman, and a mother-in-law who blames Camp Gladiator for taking her daughter-in-law's life — People has all the strange details. Watch the bovine go. Yesterday's local news broadcasts brought us two loose livestock videos. A bull trotted through Arlington and Dalworthington Gardens with police in tow for nearly four hours before a rancher was able to wrangle him. This incident totally showed up the guy who said "only in Stephenville" after a calf booked it through town on Sunday.
Controversy

An Open Letter to My Anonymous Tipster

Yesterday I received in the mail a padded manila envelope containing nothing but an unlabeled CD. So I took it back to our I.T. guy and said, "Here, please infect your computer with this mysterious disc, because my MacBook Air doesn't have a CD drive." The disc turned out to be harmless -- at least to the computer. I'd like to address the person who sent it to me. Dear tipster, thank you for thinking of D Magazine. I spent about an hour yesterday reading through the hundreds of personal emails, going back several years, you were kind enough to send. I didn't read every single one. After the first 50 or so, I think I got a pretty good idea of what you wanted me to understand. I skimmed from that point. D Magazine is not inclined to publish information about a couple's messy divorce, even if that couple is a high-profile one. If there were a larger issue at stake, something in the public's interest, that would be a different matter. From what I gathered, this divorce doesn't come anywhere near meeting that standard. It's just a sad, ugly, very personal situation. I deleted the emails from the computer I used to read them. And I've thrown the CD in the trash. But there is something -- or some things -- you sent that I will make use of. The eight Forever stamps on the envelope weren't canceled. Those I will reuse. Cheers.
By Tim Rogers
Controversy

Leading Off (4/20/16)

Rain. And lots of it. Keep an eye on weather reports, folks, and avoid those flood waters. Video released of Midlothian fitness instructor’s killer. Police released surveillance video of the person suspected of murdering Terri “Missy” Bevers in a Midlothian church. Students arriving for Bevers’ Camp Gladiator class discovered her body early Monday morning. The videos show the suspect walking through the halls of the church wearing a head-to-toe, SWAT-like getup. Reports say the suspect vandalized the property for a half-hour before Bevers arrived, but nothing appeared to be stolen. The suspect’s distinctive gait will hopefully lead to a quick capture. Manziel had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad yesterday. It all started when Johnny Football got word that a Dallas county grand jury will hear his domestic violence case on Thursday. Then his second agent of the year—who, granted, gave Manziel an ultimatum that wasn’t met—officially dropped the 2012 Heisman winner. Sponsorships from Nike and a sports trading card company quickly followed, leaving the Cowboys reject with zero endorsement deals. Manziel must have seen this coming because reports reveal the Tyler native was laying low and getting some alone time over the weekend. Ooooh, he was laying low…alone…in a Coachella ball pit? Gotcha. Ok. Hmm. So, this is what rock bottom looks like. Local man’s son loses big time in New York. Even John Kasich got more delegates than Ted Cruz in Tuesday’s New York primary. Trump and Clinton won the state by landslides. Rangers beat Astros. But the real winner was Beltre’s Andrus-directed stink eye. Would-be gun thieves foiled by pillar. Surveillance video shows three men attempting the ol’ smash‘n’grab at a Garland gun store. The truck momentarily gets stuck on a waist-high pillar. The best part of this news segment, however, is at the 20-second mark when a man walks out of the shop at just the right time. It’s slightly entertaining. Definitely eat that bagel first, though. Then the news segment. And coffee. I mean, start with coffee. You know what, do coffee, bagel, the Beltre thing, theeennn this video.
Controversy

Leading Off (4/13/16)

Funeral held for food reporter Stacey Fawcett and her two sons. More than 2,000 people filled Prestonwood Baptist Church yesterday to pay their respects to popular WFAA food reporter Fawcett and her sons. News broke Friday morning that Fawcett’s eldest son, 19-year old McCann Utu, Jr., murdered the reporter and her younger son, 17-year-old Josiah Utu, before turning the knife on himself. Friends and family say McCann’s mental health suffered after two concussions. His brain was donated for research. Two dead in Southlake murder-suicide. Police found Anil and Neeta Kharabanda dead in a bedroom. Authorities believe the man shot the woman before killing himself, however they could not confirm how the two were related. This marks the city's first murder since Mexican lawyer, and possible cartel leader, Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa was gunned down in the Southlake Town Square. Ethan Couch to appear in adult court. The "affluenza" teen who killed four people while driving under the influence, who then cost taxpayers a hefty $200K in rehab bills, who then skipped out on his cush probation sentence, is scheduled to appear in adult court for the first time today. He celebrated his 19th birthday in solitary confinement on Monday. Today's hearing could keep Couch in jail for another four months. Fingers crossed. Dallas woman caught riding dirty. Real dirty. Like, $1.6-million-worth-of-meth-hidden-inside-custom-tires-on-a-Chevy-Trailblazer kind of dirty. Eat her dust, Chamillionaire.
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Controversy

A Look at the Curious Board of the State Fair of Texas

The State Fair is a ways off, but it's never too early to start thinking about the three-week event that dominates the city's largest and most underutilized asset. Today, I have two thoughts. I'm happy to share them. First, you may have heard about the hubbub at the Wounded Warrior Project. The nonprofit fired its two top executives for overspending. In 2013, the Wounded Warrior Project had revenues of $342 million, and its CEO was paid $496,415 (.14 percent of revenue). The State Fair is also a nonprofit. In 2013 (the most recent year that Guidestar has its 990 form), it had revenues of $47 million, and its head honcho, the now-retired Errol McKoy, made $880,805 (1.87 percent of revenue). Two different nonprofits in two different industries. But still. It's something to think about. Second, I plotted the home addresses of the State Fair's board members on a Google map. Have a look. Click around. I couldn't help but notice that none of the folks live near Fair Park. Not that living in, say, Preston Hollow should preclude you from overseeing the three-week event that dominates the city's largest and most underutilized asset, which happens to be in South Dallas. But, again, still. It's something else to think about.
By Tim Rogers
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Arts & Entertainment

How Dallas Won the Right to Tell Its Own History

How did a seemingly innocuous plan to raise some historic markers in a handful of parks become a fight for the right to tell Dallas’ history?
By Peter Simek
Controversy

Dallas City Council Bans Exxxotica From Using Convention Center, Ctd.

Jason, that was an excellent recap of the City Council meeting today. This reminds me of the city's erstwhile war on topless clubs under Mayor Laura Miller. Read this great essay titled "The New Puritanism," by Joe Bob Briggs, that D Magazine published in 2004. (It entered our archives via OCR scanning, so be patient with the many typos. It's worth it.)
By Tim Rogers
Arts & Entertainment

Leading Off (1/29/16)

Required recess and a lot of money awarded for a bad book.
By Jason Heid
Controversy

How Have There Been More Than 200 K2 Overdoses In Downtown Since the Beginning Of December?

According to this, Dallas Fire-Rescue has responded to more than 200 K2 overdoses since the beginning of December. (There is a bit more from an earlier report here.) K2 -- also known as Spice and Black Mamba and probably a bunch of other things -- is a synthetic cannabinoid that is gaining in popularity, probably because it is relatively easy to get and doesn't show up on most drug tests yet. Still, though: more than 200 overdoses in 53 days in one concentrated area? That's almost four a day. (If we're focusing on the small number of bars and clubs, we're mostly talking weekends, and the number is more like 20 a night.) I'm not an expert, but that feels like A LOT. And this reasoning doesn't make a ton of sense to me:
Collin County Juvenile Probation Officer and Substance Abuse Counselor Grace Raulston said, “Downtown Dallas area probably there's high population of people on probation probably for possession of marijuana and they’re probably trying to beat out the drug test.”
Whatever the reason, if there is one, watch out. Something is happening.
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