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Dallas Housing Authority Gets Another $18 Million in Rent Relief. The money kickstarts a city program that pays up to 18 months rent—including back rent—for renters facing eviction. The fund is the third infusion of federal dollars from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, which has helped thousands of North Texans stay in their home. DHA tells the Morning News that $2.5 million of the new money is already allocated.

Police Find a Tiger While Serving Warrant for Trapboy Freddy. Dallas police and U.S. Marshals served a federal gun warrant at the Oak Cliff home of Trapboy Freddy (né Devarius Dontez Moore) when they found a tiger cub. Trapboy hasn’t exactly been shy about posting the tiger to his Instagram, and it’s illegal to own a tiger in the Dallas city limits. The cub is now with Dallas Animal Services.

More Rain? More Rain! WFAA’s 10-day forecast shows no signs of triple digits, which would just about get us out of summer. A cold front is taking its time in the Gulf, but should get here around Sunday afternoon. Rain chances will be from Sunday through Tuesday: coverage will reach 90 percent on Monday, 80 percent on Tuesday, and 60 percent on Wednesday. Chances are slim on Friday and Saturday.

Teenager Charged with Capital Murder. A Dallas County grand jury indicted Camron Deshun Range for capital murder and three counts of aggravated robbery after he allegedly killed Ali Elbanna, 60, in a Costco parking lot last November. Last month, a judge ruled that Range could be tried as an adult.

A government agency that regulates the secondary mortgage market is recommending a change in affordable multifamily housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the next two years in a bid to improve affordable housing stock.

In North Texas, the need for affordable housing only continues to grow. A report by the Child Poverty Action Lab found that between 2008 and 2018, there was a 42 percent decrease in units renting for less than $800, and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area lost more than 230,000 low-rent units during that time. A minimum-wage worker paying the fair market value rent for a one-bedroom apartment pays almost 90 percent of his income in rent.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Tuesday proposed a new rule for measuring the two federally-backed home mortgage companies’ multifamily housing goals. Right now, the Freddie and Fannie are required to show that out of all the multifamily properties they finance, a set number of units are affordable by government standards. 

The new rule would instead measure those goals by a percentage of each lender’s annual multifamily loans. While current goals call for 415,000 low-income units, for example, the proposed rule would require 61 percent of units fall under that category. A subgoal of 88,000 units for very-low-income units would change to 12 percent, and low-income small multifamily loans would have a 2 percent subgoal.

Why would this help?

If you haven’t heard, there was a spot of Twitter drama Sunday as Plano’s Will Zalatoris won the FedEx St. Jude Championship. A Frisco guy by the name of Scott Fawcett with 33K followers on Twitter popped off with a stream of tweets in which he invited the two TV announcers to go fuck each other. Those were his words. Justin Thomas got involved, calling what Fawcett had tweeted “incredibly egregious and aggressive.” Thomas went on: “Congrats on your ‘win’ but show some class and respect if you are as professional as you claim to be. … Nobody likes a sore winner.”

Fawcett, you see, helps Zalatoris with on-course strategy. Hence Thomas’ reference to his being a winner. If you want to go into the whole deal, the New York Post broke it down on Tuesday. Zalatoris also released a statement about it Wednesday.

I know Scott Fawcett. At one point, years ago, I used to play poker with him once a week. So as all this was unfolding online, a few of us who now play far less frequently in the same card game (Go, Batfaces!) giggled and giggled. I got Scott on the phone to ask him why he continues to be the same ass I used to play cards with. It was a pretty good little talk. I learned some stuff about golf, about why Zalatoris’ putting isn’t as bad as some announcers would lead you to believe, why Scott thinks he (Scott, not Zalatoris) might play on the Champions Tour, and how a focus on mental health has him thinking about his approach to social media.

Join us for a foul-mouthed conversation, won’t you?

Witnesses Say Aqib Talib Started Youth Football Game Fight. Former NFL cornerback Aqib Talib allegedly participated in a fight at a youth football game shortly before the fatal shooting of coach Mike Hickmon. Witnesses told WFAA they saw him throw the first punch at Hickmon as the fight broke out. His brother, Yaqub Salik Talib, is accused of the shooting.

Man Convicted of Killing McKinney Realtor Is Executed. Kosoul Chanthakoummane was executed Wednesday after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to delay his death for a third time. Chanthakoummane was convicted of killing McKinney real estate agent Sarah Anne Walker 15 years ago.

Denton Woman Confesses to Drowning Her Husband. A Denton woman faces murder charges after confessing to drowning her husband in a creek Tuesday. Dora Alvarez Maldonado, 44, first told Denton police that an unknown man was involved in her husband’s death, but later admitted there was no man, and that she drowned her spouse.

Dallas Company Plans to Bring Back Extinct Tasmanian Tiger. Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based company, announced plans this week to bring back the Tasmanian tiger, an Australian marsupial that has been extinct since 1936, by using gene editing. The company previously said it was also working on the de-extinction of the wooly mammoth. (I feel like I’ve seen this movie before.)

Seventeen years ago, Jon Daniels felt like the future. He was the future, of course; every new general manager is in their nascent moments of the job. Whatever stamp he’d place on the Rangers, however indelible, would be his. But it is one thing to define where a bad organization goes next and quite another to embody the direction of an entire sport.

The Dallas County Commissioners Court on Wednesday voted in favor of a resolution aimed at protecting pregnant people from prosecution should they seek an abortion, citing the right to keep the doctor-patient relationship private.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said in June that he would not prosecute any cases once state law renders the procedure illegal. The commissioners court resolution doesn’t do much, but it does align the body with others across the state that have sought to make statements that put them at odds with the Texas Legislature.

The vote comes a week after the Dallas City Council passed a resolution that orders police to consider investigating possible abortions “the lowest possible priority.” It also directed the city manager to not use public resources to create records of pregnancy outcomes or provide information about those outcomes to any other outside agency that may request them.

Dallas, San Antonio, Denton, Waco, El Paso, and Austin have all passed versions of the so-called Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone, or GRACE, Act. Dallas County’s resolution differs because it doesn’t inform any prioritization regarding investigations, instead focusing on the public health implications of banning abortion in every instance, including rape and incest.

The resolution, which was presented by District 1 Commissioner Theresa Daniel, declares that the county “honors the right of pregnant persons to bodily autonomy and control over their private medical decisions and the protection of the patient-doctor relationship.” 

The resolution references Texas’ House Bill 1280, which criminalizes abortions, as well as language in the recently overturned Roe vs. Wade ruling. While it doesn’t implicitly say that the county will not prioritize abortion investigations, it does say that the county “has a responsibility to protect its residents from any violation of their human rights and any prosecution for the free exercise thereof.”

District 2 Commissioner J.J. Koch said he was uneasy about supporting the measure, because he felt it was giving tacit approval to late-term abortions. 

Hello, once again. My car (a 2007 Honda Element) started acting up on the drive into the office, underscoring how much I prefer to walk and how much I despise driving/cars. Anyway! Photo time.

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Not so long ago, Dak Prescott might have come into the NFL as a tailback. His counterpart on the Arizona Cardinals, Kyler Murray, would have profiled as a tailback. Patrick Mahomes? A wide receiver, perhaps.

Such was life for Black quarterbacks hoping for a shot in the professional ranks. The mandate was simple: change positions or wash out. Because, for much of its history, professional football viewed Black men as too stupid or lazy to lead their own team.

It took decades of hard-won progress to create the world they play in today, where all three are signed to some of the most lucrative contracts in league history as the quarterbacks of their respective franchises. That journey, along with men who shaped it, is chronicled in Rise of the Black Quarterback: What It Means for America, the excellent new book by Jason Reid, senior writer for ESPN’s Andscape.

I spoke with Reid last week about what he learned most during the project, Prescott’s role as a superstar Black quarterback for the NFL’s most popular franchise, Murray’s significance as a Texas high school legend (and that infamous clause), a what-if involving the Cowboys and Warren Moon, and more.

Grand Jury Declines to Indict Pastor Rickie Rush. The grand jury no-billed the megachurch pastor follow criminal investigations into whether he raped a teenager 15 years ago. Rush’s Inspiring Body of Christ Church once counted over 10,000 members and was a frequent stop for politicians looking for support from the faith community; Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot recused himself from the investigation because of a personal relationship with Rush. The Dallas Morning News first published a story about the allegations in 2020. One of the victim’s family members allege the Grayson County DA failed to interview the accusers. That office is not discussing the case.

Cold Front Coming. After we get through today, which will be the 47th triple digit day of the year, highs will plunge into the upper 80s this evening into Thursday. Rain chances are somewhere near 40 percent for Dallas proper.

Keller ISD Bans the Bible. It’s one of 41 books that trustees ordered removed from libraries in the district, which also includes Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and a graphic novel version of Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl.” Keller allows books to be “challenged” then reviewed by the board, which has three new members that won with funding from a political action committee that has tried to place conservative trustees on school boards across the state.

Tarrant County’s Juvenile Center is Overcrowded. An audit found that the facility was over capacity by 18 young people, forcing them to stay in detention “too long,” according to the man who conducted that audit. In addition, 35 kids were accidentally sent to the adult jail and one kid was in detention for 336 days, while 23 others were detained for at least 140 days.

Federal environmental officials are questioning an emissions permit the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality granted to the GAF shingle factory in West Dallas, which already faces pressure from the surrounding neighborhood to close.

In a letter dated August 5, the Environmental Protection Agency informed the TCEQ that it opposes the shingle factory’s Title V permit, which relates to the quantity and type of emissions GAF is allowed to produce. Title V is a federal program that aims to standardize air quality permits across the country for major polluters, which are defined as facilities that emit 100 tons or more of any air pollutant per year. (That can vary on the type of pollutant, too).

In 2020, members of West Dallas 1, a collective of neighborhood associations and community groups, began monitoring the air quality in the neighborhood. They spearheaded a demand for a hearing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to challenge GAF’s permit renewal. Another community group called SIngleton United/Unidos has produced a 100-page document arguing that the city’s existing zoning makes GAF a “non-conforming use” that should vacate the neighborhood.

While the company’s permit was renewed, the community made enough comments—more than 100— during the process to prompt the state to give the permit more “teeth,” including a requirement that increases the frequency of monitoring from quarterly to weekly. But the concessions the community were able to obtain were apparently not enough to satisfy the EPA.

Earlier this month, nearly 900 people packed into the Factory in Deep Ellum to celebrate the best Dallas has to offer. It was the first time in three years that D Magazine has been able to celebrate its Best of Big D issue in-person, which is really the only way to do this. More than 20 of our restaurant and bar winners served food and cocktails throughout the evening:

Botolino Gelato, Cades Cakes, Desi District, E Bar Tex-Mex, Edoko Omakase Suchi, Encanto Pops, Greenville Avenue Pizza Co, Kalachandji’s, Mr. Max, Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Saigon Block, Sky Rocket Burger, TX Brisket Biscuit, Uchi, Vestals Catering, Will Call Bar, and Wu Wei Din. Cocktails came courtesy 4 Kahunas Tiki Lounge, Del Sur Tacos, and Manhattan Project.

VIPs got in early and were treated to Al Biernat’s, Scardello, and the French Room Bar. Other entertainment for the evening included Bleach (Best Drag Queen), DJ Christy Ray (Best DJ), Ariel + The Culture (Best Music Act), and perennial Dallas favorite, Emerald City Band.

Thank you to our sponsors that made it all possible: Park Place, Banfi, Rosa Regale, Bulleit, Ketel One, and Osadia.  

Read the 2022 edition, then head to the gallery to see images from the event. And make sure you watch the recap video below.