By the halfway point of the run, I was dead. I again had to talk myself out of quitting. I eventually figured that I’d come this far, done all of the training, and would probably never do another one of these stupid events again, so I might as well finish, even if I have to walk the rest of the way.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors started today with breakfast and jazzercise on the new Continental Avenue Bridge park. Because what all of these mayors surely wanted to see straightaway was everyone in workout clothes. Welcome to Dallas! Anyway, Tim and Zac, who are not mayors, are off judging essays and manuscripts for the Mayborn Conference today. If they were here, however, there would undoubtedly be discussion of this wonderful photo of Mayor Mike Rawlings fist pumping. “Let’s Get it Started” by the Black Eyed Peas was played at some point, so I’m just going to assume it happened then. Because I don’t get the joy (?) of hearing from Tim and Zac, I’ll open it up to you, dear readers. Caption suggestions? Or better yet, thought-bubble suggestions?
I’ll start: At least it’s not a ropes course.
50 YEARS : DOUG’S GYM TALKS JFK ASSASSINATION from TWO CANS & A STRING on Vimeo.
Spend three minutes with Doug Eidd, in this video by Joshua David Jordan.
If you’re like me, you may get a little bored with this video in the beginning. Nothing happens in the first 20 seconds. But then you get to 24 seconds, and you see a sorority girl, running to her house on bid day, fall. Then another one falls (this one I’m a little concerned about). And another. And another. And another. I felt bad for laughing, but according to Pegasus News, no one was seriously hurt.
Brush it off, girls. No one will remember this. For too long.
See here. I did not know who Jennifer Nicole Lee was until I read part of her Wikipedia page. And I took no joy in looking at pictures of her in a tiny bikini at the W Hotel pool. But she’s a celebrity and this happened locally and so it’s my duty to bring you this NSFW link.
From the Abilene Reporter-News:
What drove [Matt] Poursoltani to such greatness?
“When I tore my ACL, I didn’t have anything else to do, so I benched every day. I had to do something. It’s all I had,” he said, quietly and without a hint of braggadocio.
Poursoltani played defensive tackle on the Pilot Point Bearcats football team.
“No one moved him,” Coach Jody Allen said.
A gigantic boy among other boys.
Dallas’ Coombs Creek and SoPac trails may soon get a welcome boost to their coffers, provided the North Central Texas Council of Governments takes its own advice. The two trails are the highest-ranked Dallas-area projects that applied for funding from the council last fall, outshining similar projects in Frisco, Lancaster, Terrell, and other area cities.
Back in September, the Texas Department of Transportation issued a $70 million call for projects, utilizing remaining Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users funds; the Dallas-Fort Worth region was awarded about $13 million to divvy out. Applications were due to TxDOT in November, and staff members have been running the projects through their evaluation and scoring methodologies since. Additional funding for seven Dallas-area projects (and six Fort Worth-area projects) has been recommended; NCTCOG received 37 applications totaling $47 million in requested funding. In order of their NCTCOG rankings:
In a short statement to the Associated Press, from Nelson Cruz’s attorneys:
“We are aware of certain allegations and inferences. To the extent these allegations and inferences refer to Nelson, they are denied.”
Evan Grant noted that the attorneys, from Pittsburgh-based Farrell & Reisinger, do not include Cruz’s agent. Jay K. Reisinger and Thomas J. Farrell also represented New York Yankee Andy Pettite and slugger Sammy Sosa during various U.S. House of Representative performance-enhancing drug inquiries.
A report by the Miami New Times today indicates that Texas Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz may have received steroids or human growth hormones from a  Miami clinic that also catered to San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera, Oakland A’s pitcher Bartolo Colón, Cuban boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa, and even Alex Rodriguez.
The clinic in question is Biogenesis, an “anti-aging” clinic that abruptly closed shop last month. A former employee gave the company’s customer spreadsheets to the New Times. As for Cruz’s alleged participation:
But there are also several prominent professionals in Bosch’s records who have never before been linked to steroid use. According to his July 2012 client sheet, Bosch sold $4,000 of product to Nelson Cruz, whom he nicknames “Mohamad.” Cruz, the power-hitting Dominican outfielder for the Texas Rangers, has whacked 130 bombs in his eight-year career without any links to performance-enhancing drugs. Until now. Bosch writes in his 2012 book: “Need to call him, go Thur to Texas, take meds from April 5-May 5, will owe him troches and… and will infuse them in May.”
The Rangers, according to DMN reporter Evan Grant, said only that the team was contacted by the Miami New Times and that it then contacted MLB. The team had no further comment.
From ESPN’s Marc Stein:
Iverson has likewise resisted the Legends’ overtures so far this season — as well as a similar offer last season — but sources say that the Legends are trying again now because they’ve moved back to the top of the list in the D-League’s waiver line, meaning they’d have an unobstructed path to signing Iverson if he could be convinced to put his name in the D-League’s player pool.
The Legends’ pitch to Iverson centers around the fact they’ve just convinced NBA veterans Delonte West and Rashad McCants to join their team with similar intentions, after the Legends signed another 37-year-old earlier this month — point guard Mike James — and wound up putting James in position to earn a 10-day callup to the Mavericks that turned into a guaranteed contract after James completed his second 10-day deal Sunday.
Just imagine Delonte and Iverson playing on the same team. Quick list of things that would be better than that: ______. Nothing. Nothing would be better than that. This random Twitter user channels similar excitement:
OH MY GOD IF ALLEN IVERSON COMES BACK IM GOING TO KILL SOMETHING OUT OF SHEER EXCITEMENT
— perrin moore (@perrinmoore96) January 28, 2013
UPDATE: Dan Cruz with the Competitor Group sent me a note on Friday letting me know that the San Antonio Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon has been moved to mid-November. Also, he let me know that the Competitor Group has contributed more than $200,000 to Scottish Rite Hospital in the past four years. So all is well.
In 2010, Dallas Marathon (or, at that time, the Dallas White Rock Marathon) officials signed a contract with Competitor Group, which produces the Rock ‘n’ Roll race series, forbidding it to produce a race in Texas between December 1 and May 31. This clause would protect Dallas Marathon and let it grow into a big event that attracts runners, vendors, and business to the area. It would also allow the nonprofit organization to continue to raise money for Scottish Rite Hospital.
It appears that the Competitor Group forgot/misread/overlooked/didn’t care about the contract and just announced that the San Antonio Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon will take place on December 8 this year, which just so happens to be the exact same date as the Dallas Marathon.
Runners and businesses are upset about the news. But, according to this article, it sounds like many will be loyal to Dallas. Competitor Group said that sharing the date of the Dallas Marathon will only negatively affect 776 runners.
Dallas Marathon’s official response is after the jump.
.23 PM” src=”https://assets.dmagstatic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Screen-shot-2012-12-17-at-12.40.23-PM.png” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”398″ /> Source: DallasParks.org
Dallas’ Parks and Recreation board will vote on nearly $3.5 million worth of trail construction and procurement projects Thursday, projects that will grow the city’s trail system in South Dallas, West Oak Cliff, and Lake Highlands.
First up is the Chalk Hill Trail, which you see on your right. The Board will vote on procuring the land needed for the trail from BNSF Railway Company, which owns the right-of-way. The cost is $757,000, which, when you break it down, is about $22,000 an acre; the money comes from 2006 bond funds. The goal is to eventually connect the trail to the Coombs Creek Trail in North Oak Cliff, and the goal for that trail is to stretch it to the proposed Trinity Trail, which will attach to the Katy Trail and Santa Fe Trail. So: Cockrell Hill to White Rock Lake, all on trails. Not bad.
Next up is Lake Highlands Trail work. $1.1 million of work, specifically. Board approval would allow for construction procurement of 1.5 miles of multi-use trail, from the White Rock Trail to Ferndale Road. Funding for this trail also comes from ’06 bond cash.
The final item may be the most complicated (the first two are on the consent agenda, which usually means little-to-no discussion): Five Mile Creek Trail upgrades were moved from the Dec. 6 agenda, which usually means more discussion/vetting is in order. This chunk of the trail is short – less than a mile – and stretches between two parks in South Dallas. Funding would be split between ’06 bond money and an $858,000 Texas Parks and Wildlife grant. The land has already been purchased for the project.
Park board decisions are then forwarded on to the City Council; expect a vote early next year.
