Oak Cliff Residents Remain Displaced After Explosion. The American Red Cross says about 150 people checked in with the organization following an explosion at an apartment complex in the Highland Hills neighborhood of southern Dallas. Dallas Fire-Rescue is still investigating the cause of the blast, which happened on Wednesday, and isn’t allowing residents of the other buildings to return just yet. Some who lived there told reporters they smelled gas the day before the building went up. The blast occurred within one of the two-story, 10-unit buildings, injuring three firefighters and five residents. The firefighters have not been identified.
Dallas Police Data Deletion Continues to Reek of Incompetence. The city’s official report of how an IT worker deleted more than 20 terabytes of police data is a chronicler of failings: the employee ignored warnings from the city’s system as that he was deleting files while said files were being deleted. The city has “no set rules” for how to archive backed up data because it didn’t implement anything from a strategy document that laid out how to archive backed up data. And then three IT managers signed off on the individual’s work, but they apparently didn’t understand what they were signing off on. World class city!
Trainer John Benton Arrested for Filming Women. The trainer mostly worked with models, actresses, and beauty queens. Now police say he recorded his clients in the locker room without permission. The charge was tied to an incident in August of 2020. Benton called himself the “hips whisperer” and parlayed his clientele into a whole lot of local media coverage, including from this magazine. He was released from the Denton County Jail on a $20,000 bond.
It Finally Rained Last Night. It Might Again This Weekend. Expect more rain later this morning into early this afternoon. Saturday also has rain in the forecast, but it should mosey on out of North Texas by the middle of the day. It should be a sunny start to the week on Sunday and Monday.
