One of the many great things about working at D Magazine is that Wick closes the office on St. Patrick’s Day. So for us, today, Tuesday, feels like Monday. But make no mistake. Today is, in fact, Tuesday, which is the day that I do Leading Off. Clearly. Ahem. So let’s get to it.
University Park Grandmother Sentenced for Child Porn. You’ll likely recall the case of Erika Susan Perdue. The 43-year-old woman was married to a lawyer and living a seemingly enviable life in the Park Cities — until the feds busted her for trading in child porn, using the online handle “Classybitch.” Well, she got 14 years for her crime. (Side note: we talked about whether this crime would make a good magazine story. I don’t think it would. While there’s plenty of sensational material to work with, at its core, the story is uncomplicated, boring, and depressing. Mentally troubled woman gets hooked on meth and child porn. The end.)
Audio Surfaces of Mayor Mike Rawlings Walking Out of Meeting. Last week, Mayor Rawlings walked out of a meeting with Hispanic leaders about the DISD home-rule effort. Until now, Jim Schutze gave us the best account of what happened. Now the DMN has audio. As impressive as his recent speech was to the paper’s editorial board, this performance was disappointing. Yes, he was taking some fire from the audience. But it was pretty small caliber stuff. He should have been able to shrug it off. Instead, at about the 9:30 mark, you can hear how petulant he sounds as he decamps. I’ll say it again: Allyn Media is working the messaging on this effort. There is quite a bit of room for improvement.
Family Takes to Facebook To Spur Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Philip Wood was a 50-year-old IBM employee who was on MH370. His family lives in Keller and thinks he and other passengers might still be alive. They set up a Facebook page last weekend that is called Finding Philip Wood. On it, they wrote: “The passengers of Flight MH370 are still out there. There has been no news to prove otherwise.” Hard to believe. But for their sake, I hope it’s true.
