Southlake was already in the news for its school district’s long-running battle over what students should learn about racism in the United States. Then, last week, there was the story about a school administrator telling teachers that any classroom library with books about the Holocaust should include “opposing” views to comply with HB 3979, a new state law meant to keep so-called “critical race theory” out of schools.

School board meetings across North Texas have been especially combative scenes this year, replete with showdowns over mask requirements and various culture war skirmishes. But even by those standards, Monday night’s meeting of the Southlake Carroll ISD school board was tense.

Superintendent Lane Ledbetter apologized last week, saying there “are not two sides of the Holocaust.” Jewish residents who spoke at Monday’s meeting wanted more than an apology, and a former student described being bullied when he attended school in Carroll ISD more than 20 years ago.

“I received everything from jokes about my nose to gas chambers, all while studying for my bar mitzvah,” Jake Berman said.

Most of the speakers seemed to agree that the fault here doesn’t lie with the school administrator whose recorded comments about teaching the Holocaust set off the most recent controversy. So, if we all agree that there are not two sides to the Holocaust—and I really hope we all agree—then who or what’s to blame for a school administrator implying as much?

Dallas County to Redraw Political Boundaries. Public hearings begin today as the county commissioners consider three redistricting options, each of which would hose Republicans. The court’s sole GOPer, J.J. Koch, from the northern District 2, said, “[The maps] are a little bit shocking. If that isn’t gerrymandering, I don’t know what is.”

Mary Kay Sues Former Employee. Jennifer Bickel Cook worked with Mary Kay herself for a long time, and she wrote a book about her experience. The cosmetics company isn’t pleased.

Carroll ISD Board Meeting Was Tense. Last night folks sounded off for more than two hours about the NBC News recording of a Carroll administrator telling teachers they need to present the “opposing” view of the Holocaust.

Dak Has Calf Strain. An MRI confirmed it.

Landlords in Texas can reject tenants who will be paying their rent with government subsidies, a state of affairs that contributes to the extreme concentrations of poverty we see in Dallas’ poorest, most segregated neighborhoods. That kind of voucher discrimination is a problem for ambitious plans to curb homelessness using government-funded rent payments, such as the Dallas Real Time Rapid Rehousing Initiative, which was announced with much fanfare earlier this year.

And it’s part of the reason why the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, the nonprofit leading the initiative, held a press conference Monday—with only a little less fanfare—to announce that it had raised $10 million in private donations to support the rapid rehousing plan.

Similar plans have worked in other cities, says Peter Brodsky, the board chair of MDHA. “What they found in those other cities is that with an incentive, landlords are much more willing to accept our clients as their tenants,” Brodsky says. MDHA could use the newly raised private money to, for example, double a tenant’s deposit. “If a landlord has a concern that this is someone from an unstable population—whatever preconceived notions the landlord may have about the people we’re serving—then we can come back to them with this private money and say, ‘OK, well how can we address that?’”

I will say, up front, that a big part of this problem is on me. I do understand that. I changed more than my colleagues did, I think.

So it is not necessarily that a number of my co-workers have suddenly become like TVs in the common room at an assisted living facility, volume-wise. You might think that from the headline. It might sound like I am saying that they blast sound at me like they are verbally reenacting any number of exciting scenes from 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, colloquially known as T2. No, sir. Not saying that.

Nor am I saying that it feels like they get on a group text each morning to plot new (and, even a curmudgeon would have to admit, exciting) ways to elevate normal office conversation into the realm of experimental, confrontational theater, with me as an unsuspecting audience member. Though, of course, I do see where the confusion might arise.

Similarly, I am not meaning to suggest that their every word hits my ears like a wrecking ball made of small talk and rusty barbed wire. Again, I see where you could infer that, but that would be exactly what it is: an inference.

A little over three weeks ago, Big Tex began Howdy Folks’ing millions of people into Fair Park. We’re a year out from presumably thousands of those people sitting in their cars for hours to get a corny dog and a sniff of normal. This year was different. It really was normal. More than 2.2 million people poured into Fair Park over the 24 days of the State Fair, which had been on essentially a two-year hiatus. The fair came armed with all sorts of data points this Monday: more than 1,000 COVID-19 vaccine shots were given out, about 520,000 Fletcher’s Corny Dogs were pulled from the fryers, the Midway awarded over $1 million worth of plush prizes (which is surely a fraction of what was invested to win said plush prizes), and almost 20,000 pounds of fresh produce were donated to South Dallas and surrounding neighborhoods.

Sounds like a good time. I went twice. Photographer Jason Janik was there far more often, taking photos each day for us. Take a look—they’re in the gallery attached to this post.

Cowboys Win in Overtime. It was a wild one in Foxborough, with two touchdowns in 15 seconds as the Cowboys and Patriots went back and forth near the end of the fourth. Dak Prescott eventually connected with CeeDee Lamb for the walk-off score in the extra period. Prescott was doing that walking a bit gingerly, after suffering a right calf injury. He showed up to the postgame press conference in a boot but says he will be OK. Fortunately, the team has a bye week coming up. Also coming up: Mike with more over on StrongSide.

Early Voting Begins Today. It runs through October 29, and then election day is November 2. Here are the eight Texas constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Robert E. Lee Statue Removed From Oak Lawn Park Now On Display at Kelcy Warren’s Golf Resort. Lajitas Golf Resort in Terlingua received the disputed participation trophy as a donation a couple of years ago. So if you’re still bummed it was removed, go there, I guess.

The State Fair is Over. You’ll have to eat fried food on your own time.