This morning, Laura Miller’s voicemail box was full. No surprise. After D Magazine broke the news last night that the former Dallas mayor was running to unseat District 13’s representative, Jennifer Gates, more than a few people were calling to get comment.

Miller hasn’t spoken to any media until now, here, in this post. Unless that’s not true, which it might not be. It’s Friday night. I just finished coaching seventh-grade basketball. I have no patience for googling around to back up my claim.

Anyway, in a super exclusive scoop that you’ll find only on FrontBurner, Miller deeply confided that her decision to run against Gates is nothing personal. “I do not hate Jennifer Gates,” she said when I asked if she hated Jennifer Gates. “I like her.” Though she did say: “I’ve spent thousands of hours trying to figure out why our council member does what she does, and no one can figure it out.”

Part of Miller’s motivation is certainly the direction of Preston Center, she said. But she’s focused on smart development all across the district. She has worked with her campaign treasurer Doug Deason, she said, for three years on the St. Michael’s zoning case.

Miller said she didn’t broach the subject of running for Council to her kids — ages 28, 26, 23 — until last weekend. Her daughters (the two eldest) laughed. Miller said she didn’t decide to make the move until yesterday at noon, when she was at her hair salon.

I asked Miller how, if she is elected, she would get along with certain members of Council, like, oh, say, Philip Kingston. “I am a very mellow 60-year-old,” she said. “I have a narrow focus. It is on neighborhoods.”

People in neighborhoods, get your popcorn ready.

Today was the deadline to file to run for office in the May municipal elections. We’ll have a 12-headed mayoral race, almost certainly leading to a runoff between the top two vote getters. Election Day is May 4. You should register. You should vote. Here are the candidates, listed in order of the date they filed to run.

(Note: We rounded these up throughout the day on Friday, and in the wee hours before the 5 p.m. deadline, two more names popped up: Miguel Patino and Heriberto Ortiz. We’ll look into these two. In the meantime, here’s Ortiz’s campaign Facebook page.)

This week, people who like beer got good news. A long-running disagreement that had held up Texans’ ability to buy beer straight from the source has ended. The headline of the truce is that both sides—distributors and the breweries themselves—are OK with customers walking out of tap rooms with as much as 576 ounces to go. That is 48 beers. That is two cases. That is a solid amount of hooch.

The truce doesn’t mean much yet, though. Not, at least, until our legislators heed the call of the people to pass it into law. As currently crafted, proposed legislation would allow brewers that make fewer than 225,000 barrels a year to sell it to-go. That was the same level put into place in 2013, allowing beer makers that fell under it to open taprooms. (According to this list from the Dallas Business Journal, none of our local breweries were close to the 225,000-barrel level in 2017. The highest during that year was Deep Ellum Brewing, with about 44,000 barrels.)

Under the agreement, sales of beer bought from taprooms—whether it’s consumed there or taken with you—is not to exceed 5,000 barrels. Both sides agreed to wait at least a dozen years to lobby the legislature to change that number one way or the other. Finally, breweries would report their to-go sales to the state each month.

I rapid-fired some emails out to DFW brewers for feedback on the truce and pending legislation. Here’s what a few of them had to say:

Update at 3 p.m.: She’s running. Dave Tarrant of The Dallas Morning News spotted her at City Hall filing to run. She had until 5 p.m. to do so. Here is her treasurer appointment form. The billionaire and noted Republican donor Doug Deason is her treasurer. His father, Darwin, lives behind the proposed development at St. Michael & All Angels Church, which is opposed by Miller. Buckle up.

Original: In 1997, Laura Miller announced her run for City Council on the cover the Dallas Observer. And so:

“Leave it!” – @3DTV voice* #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/lQlIywtrjr

— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 15, 2019

Tim just DM’d me the above tweet and demanded I put it on FrontBurner. So here we are. This is coming two days after Dwyane Wade proclaimed that Zac Crain’s Slovenian Son was “LeBron James-like” in his passing and court vision. And now he’s in Charlotte for the All Star Game, shooting jumpers from half-court. I like two things especially about this video—that he shoots this like he’s on top of the three-point line, not heaving his whole body forward, and then how excited he gets to win a crisp hundred. That’s probably about equal to me winning one American dollar in a dice game. I promise to get as hyped as Luka from this point forward.

And while we’re on this subject, I also really enjoy this Luka video.

Now that the 86^th Texas Legislature is in full swing, our Texas representatives and senators are working on turning their priorities for the session into reality. And at least when it comes to areas of focus, it seems a lot of them are on the same page. In our conversations with Dallas-area state reps, it became clear that infrastructure and criminal justice reform are top of mind.

But, without question, public school budget reform is receiving the most attention. And Dallas could have a large influence over how that plays out, considering the success of innovative reforms within Dallas ISD.

Many reps discussed a need to alleviate school districts’ growing local property tax burden by allocating more state funds, while another groundswell is pointed toward ensuring there are enough counselors to adequately address student mental health. Our elected officials say Texas’ public school system needs to improve.

And the governor has a like mind. Gov. Greg Abbott’s third State of the State address pushed an agenda aimed at “targeted” improvement of schools. He also pointed out the issue has a unified front. “Rarely has Texas witnessed such bipartisan, bicameral support for an issue this substantial this early in a session,” Abbott said during his speech.

Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-Dallas, echoes the governor’s optimistic outlook.

“It is fantastic to see that public education and our schoolchildren are going to be our top priority,” says Meyer.

In the Governor’s Budget for 2020-2021, Abbott emphasizes the critical impact that these reforms could have on Texas children.

“Comprehensive school finance and property tax reform are needed this session to ensure Texas’ continued cultural and economic vibrancy,” the report reads. “Without both, 20 years from now, today’s pre-kindergarteners will not be able to afford to live in this state they call home because they will not be college- or career-ready, and because property taxes will put homeownership out of reach. The time is ripe for reform.”

To get a sense of our region’s priorities this session, which runs through May 27, we talked to representatives and senators who have a portion of their district touching the city of Dallas. Education is a common thread, but each official is bringing to the table issues unique to their district, reflecting the wide variety of concerns that are prepped to be addressed this legislative session.