DISD Could Save Millions Consolidating Offices. Dallas school trustees were told Thursday that there’s big savings to be gained by bringing together under one roof operations now scattered among two dozen buildings. Three options for doing so were discussed, with the Nolan Estes Plaza site on Beckley Avenue looking like the most feasible. The cost of the proposed project would be $71.1 million, but the district stands to save $5 million-$7 million per year with the changes.
Truck Driver Killed in Train Collision. None of the 44 Amtrak passengers who were involved suffered serious injuries, but the man at the wheel of a rock hauler that was on the tracks by Scyene Road near Mesquite Metro Airport died Thursday afternoon.
Plano Mom Sued Over Loud Kids. Kelly Counts set up a playhouse for her four children in her backyard, only to have a neighboring couple file a lawsuit claiming that the noisy kids have upset their tranquil way of life. The neighbors are demanding that the playhouse be removed and have begun playing loud music with raunchy lyrics to drown out the sounds from next door. In response, the Counts family has filed its own lawsuit to stop the less-than-family-friendly tunes.
Dallas Income Gap Growing. A new study by the Brookings Institution has found that the income disparity ratio between the 95th percentile ($220,000 per year) and the 20th percentile ($18,000) in Dallas is 12.2 (by this measure, then, the rich earn more than 12 times what the working poor do). That’s the 17th-greatest gap among cities in the country. It’s also a greater difference than is found in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as a whole, where the 95th percentile is only $174,000 while the 20th percentile earns about $21,000. That’s a ratio of 8.3. Nationwide, incomes among poorer households remain 13 percent lower than they were prior to the 2007-2009 recession. These numbers further justify the concerns Mayor Mike Rawlings expressed to Bloomberg this week.
