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Mark Weinstein, president and CEO at Dallas’s AT&T Performing Arts Center, has abruptly quit the posts, citing family matters. Wilonsky’s got the scoop on the surprising news.

Last week, I introduced you to Dallas Kids First, one of the newest PACs in Dallas. The group has announced whom it’s endorsing for the DISD board of trustees race. They’ve also released the most information I’ve seen on the candidates for the race. Their endorsements are: District 1, no one; District 3, Dan Micchice; District 9, Bernadette Nutall. So as you see, in District 1, they haven’t named one candidate to back. I’ll explain that in a minute.

But what you’re probably wanting to know–and the first thing the other PACs/Unions have disclosed when announcing whom they’re backing–is how much money they’ve giving. James Ray, one of the founders of Dallas Kids First, says giving money isn’t what they’re about. They’re not just cutting a check. I’ll explain that in a minute.

I was struck by the oddness of the headlines on today’s WFAA and Dallas Morning News updates on the story about the Dallas woman who yesterday allegedly slashed the throat of her 1-year-old daughter:

DMN: Mother arrested after attack on 1-year-old is SMU grad diagnosed with schizophrenia

WFAA: Mom accused of slashing baby’s throat is highly educated

Headlines are generally reserved for the most notable, attention-grabbing aspects of a story. If both the DMN and WFAA consider Danielle Busby’s college degree remarkable, it must be because they/we have an assumption that someone capable of a crime like this, who seems to have suffered from a history of mental illness, would not be an intelligent, accomplished person?

But we could sit here and rattle off a list of counterexamples pretty easily. So why’s it worth mentioning so prominently?

I had a similar thought yesterday when I saw this headline out of Iowa:

Prosecutor: Texas Doctor Killed Ex-Girlfriend, Himself

How many other professions would have merited a headline mention? “Texas Insurance Agent Killed Ex-Girlfriend”?  “Texas Factory Worker Killed Ex-Girlfriend”?

Alice Walton Endorses Craig James. Never mind that Alice Walton’s record isn’t spotless. The lady has some money. As in, only nine other Americans have more of it than she does. And she’s giving some to Craig James. No word yet whether Walton is worried about the fact that Craig James did not kill five hookers at SMU.

Suspicious Test Scores Found at 17 North Texas ISDs. Computer analysis of test scores suggests that more than a dozen school districts in our area, including DISD, are cheating. Thing is, the analysis was done by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The paper was looking at test scores across the nation and just happened to catch us in its net. The TEA says the study was flawed, and it doesn’t plan to investigate. The AJC did a study just like this one a few years back and found suspicious scores in Atlanta. When an investigation was launched, it was discovered that more than 180 principals were involved in widespread test-tampering. But that’s Atlanta, right? The paper’s methodology will only work there. Don’t mess with Texas.

Dallas Streets To Go Unrepaired. You might have heard that money is a little tight. Without a tax increase, the city of Dallas can scrape together about $500 million in a bond package. City managers say about $300 million of that should go toward flood control and drainage projects, meaning much of the $4 billion worth of needed work on streets and alleys will go undone. That prompted City Council member Ann Margolin (sub. req.), whose northwest Dallas district is ranked last in the percentage of satisfactory streets, to say: “I’m just not sure that we’ve got our priorities right, looking at $300 million on flood control.” Let’s see. Hitting a pothole or drowning. Hmm. That’s a tough one. Can I get back to you on that?

Before I woke up this morning, ShopTalk’s Raya Ramsey appeared on WFAA’s Daybreak program with anchor Ron Corning and Greg Johnson, a member of the Dallas board of Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. (There’s also a cameo by Tara Harper of Most Eligible Dallas.) You can watch the video above. They were there to plug the DIFFA’s big annual fundraiser, which will take place March 31.

At the event, “smoking jackets” donated by various designers will be auctioned off to help fund North Texas HIV/AIDS charities. Corning mentions an alarming fact during the segment: that Dallas County leads the nation in new HIV infections.

Raya was there to talk a little bit about the fashions. She did a fine job representing D Magazine during the wee hours of the morning and is, at this moment, enjoying a well-deserved nap at home.

A few months back, I spoke with Karen Katz, the CEO of the Neiman Marcus Group, about her still-relatively-new job. (She took the post from the retiring Burt Tansky in the fall of 2010) After having worked her way up the retail portios of the corporate ladder, she said what she found herself having to learn the most about in her current role was technology, the company’s legacy systems for merchandising and e-commerce.

I thought it was strange that Neiman’s would be involved heavily in e-commerce, that people would be willing to buy a Chanel bag worth thousands of dollars online. “That was the original hesitation of people going online with luxury, but it’s not the case,” she said.

She told me that Neiman’s does $750 million in annual sales online, and RealPoints reported last October that the company expects its e-commerce revenue to double within five years.

Well, today the Dallas-based retailer announced its first foray into China. It’ll be partnering with a Chinese company called Glamour Sales on an e-commerce operation that will be branded with either the Neiman Marcus or Bergdorf Goodman name (Neiman’s also owns the Bergdorf brand).

A little more than two months ago, I posted about the prolonged drought in which we were mired and how Lake Lavon – a primary source of water for the North Texas Municipal Water Districts – sat at 12 feet below normal.

Today, thanks especially to the deluge of the last several days, Lake Lavon is 100 percent full, as are most of the other water reservoirs for our eastern side of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This includes Grapevine Lake, Lewisville Lake, and Lake Ray Hubbard.

But we should continue to pray for our friends in West Texas. There’s still a lot of red on that drought map.

Awhile back, we put Gail Warrior on the cover of a magazine. D CEO called her one of the great entrepreneurs in Dallas, because she founded the Warrior Group, a construction concern. And in 2009, we determined, after much careful scientific testing, that she was one of the 10 most beautiful women in Dallas. Here’s what I didn’t know about Warrior: she used to be a body builder. And here’s something else I didn’t know about her (until recently): she is coming out of retirement. This Saturday, March 31, she will compete in the Ronnie Coleman Classic Bodybuilding, Physique, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships. For the first time in 10 years, Warrior will flex and strut and preen before judges. I think I speak for everyone involved when I say, “I’m worried that the Greek bailout won’t work and the sovereign debt issues that are rocking Europe will spill over into the U.S. economy.” Wait, I got distracted. What we were talking about again?

Girl With Perfect Attendance Won’t Get Scholarship. Imagine going to school every single day from kindergarten through your junior year. You don’t miss a single time. Not even when you’re feeling a bit sick. That’s commendable, right? That’s what Bria Bradshaw at Hillcrest High did. But she had a bit of motivation. At a ceremony in 2005, she was supposedly told that if she never missed a day, she’d get a $25,000 scholarship. Now she’s been told no such program ever existed. I’m thinking she needs to go talk to a certain Mark Cuban. He may be able to help her out.

Molotov Cocktail Placed at Senator Wendy Davis’ Office. Senator Davis wasn’t at her office when someone threw an ignited bottle at her front door. One staffer jumped over the flame and ran out of the building while another grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the flame. No one was hurt. There’s now an arson investigation. A suspect was chased out of the building. UPDATE: An arrest in this case has been made.

Stars Take First Place in Pacific Division. I don’t know much about hockey (though I should because my husband used to play and that means I should’ve paid attention. Though he’s been coaching lacrosse for three years, and I’ve attended countless games and still couldn’t tell you what that sport’s about). Anywho, yay, Stars.

No matter how much of a service Mark Cuban and Christopher Carey insist their investment website called Sharesleuth provides to readers and investors, the guardians of American journalism ethics still aren’t buying it. That was apparent over the weekend when Carey, editor and president of the site majority-owned by Cuban, showed up in Indianapolis for a national business-journalism ethics discussion moderated by Larry Ingrassia, business editor at The New York Times.

At the forum Carey (pictured) found himself defending the 5-year-old website, which uses public documents like court filings to investigate and identify shady companies. While that part’s fine, critics contended, the problem is that Cuban bankrolls Sharesleuth with profits he makes off “short-selling” some of the companies the site writes about.

Seniors’ Squabble May Go To Texas Supreme Court: A long-time customer of Frank’s Place in Alvarado, TX sued the owner, a former friend, after she berated him with homosexual jokes and insinuations. He wants cash and an apology; she says there isn’t enough evidence to prove “intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.” Now it’s a first amendment case, and it may be heard by the Texas Supreme Court.

Cowtown’s Panther City Heritage a Newspaper Gag: Bud Kennedy has an amusing look back at how a Dallas newspaper’s joke prompted Fort Worth’s cat love. A Baptist pastor and “notorious storyteller” claimed to see a panther in the dust one morning, and when the tall tale circled back to Dallas, a Dallas Daily Herald writer took the rumor and ran with it.

Severe Storms Headed Our Way: Duck