Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

KERA's JFK documentary

In September, the Advocate brought readers this Q&A with KERA's program director Bill Young — an all around interesting guy with a great sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge.

Here's to Bill and the crew at KERA for running an absorbing documentary last night called "JFK Breaking the News", a KERA production about the Dallas journalists who shaped and then became part of a pivotal national story. (Turns out it is from 2003, but this is the first time I've seen it.) The piece features commentary from some of television's most recognizable and respected newsmen including Jim Lehrer and Bob Scheiffer who, at the time of the Kennedy assassination, worked for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram, respectively.

Nov. 22, 1963, of course, has taken its place in history as a day of great tragedy. But as it is with all the tragedies we have faced as a country, it was a day that The People learned they were capable of more than they had previously imagined possible. It was a turning point for the swiftly-evolving news media as their audience, for perhaps the first time ever, came to realize the power of live pictures and fully understood/appreciated the service provided by reporters on the front lines of breaking stories. The innovative coverage also likely propelled some of Dallas' reporters into starring roles in the news world we know today.

At least that's what I derived from the show (I wasn 't actually around when all this happened). It's especially fascinating to me because we seem to be at this point in time, once again, in a state of transition insofar as the way we take our news. (For example, instantaneously after CNN announced President Elect Obama's inevitable historical win, I was able to  see reaction/commentary, images and videos from people from across the globe online.) But I digress ... "JFK Breaking the News" is definately worth a watch. According to the KERA schedule, it comes on again Friday at 4 a.m. Thank God for TEVO.

Around the web: Public education edition

A regular roundup of stuff that wouldn't necessarily make it on the blog, but is worth noting. Today, public education news -- and, apparently, the DISD isn't the only district with problems.

• The Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD fired its superintendent last week. Superintendent Annette Griffin was ousted after being arrested for drunk driving and then not reporting the arrest. Said one trustee: "It was not an easy decision for me in light of Dr. Griffin's significant contributions to the district over the last decade. But the superintendent must be a role model for the staff and the students. What has transpired was a breach of trust to the board and the community."

• In Lancaster, the board fired superintendent Larry Lewis Monday after he apparently withheld information from the board and tampered with members' mail. He may also have made loans with district money and spent $800,000 to hire employees who were not in the budget. Lewis' lawyer said his client had no knowledge of alleged loans and that there was no need for the superintendent to notify the board about hiring additional employees because there was money in the budget to pay for them.

• The Arlington ISD is on its third superintendent this year. Long-time superintendent Mac Bernd retired in January, and his replacement, Hector Montenegro, was forced to resign in July after questions arose about his dealings with nonprofits that did business with the district. Jerry McCullough has been interim superintendent since.

Technorati Tags: public education,schools,superintendent firings,Carrollton-Farmers Branch,Lancaster,Arlington

Council subcommittee considers a smoking ban in bars, billiard halls

A city council subcommittee is considering expanding the city's current smoking ban from restaurants and workplaces to bars, billiard halls and within 15 feet of entrances to publicly accessible villages, according to the DMN. Our neighborhoods' councilmen, Sheffie Kadane and Angela Hunt, have different perspectives on the proposal, according to the News story and more comments on its blog.

I have to admit that when the city council first decided to restrict smoking in restaurants and other public places a few years ago, I had my doubts: It seemed like a draconian measure, and it seemed likely to drive business out of Dallas. Today, though, I haven't seen a single study indicating that significant business was lost to the more smoking-friendly suburbs, and the air in most places I go these days is cleaner and clearer.

Local chef to increase celebrity

In September we introduced many East Dallas/ Lakewood Advocate readers to Chef Blythe Beck (Hector's on Henderson) — and those of you who already knew her got to know her just a bit better.

Her acquaintances also know she has an incredibly charismatic personality, thus it comes as no surprise to learn she's part of Oxygen network's new "Live Out Loud" line-up. Her show, The Naughty Kitchen, looks like a hoot. In its quest for strong and successful women who live life loud and proud, the O network struck gold when they discovered Chef Beck!

Don't overlook 10,500-pound Jenny the Elephant in Texas Monthly

If you pay attention to city politics, even halfway, you've probably heard the recent ruckus over Jenny the Elephant in the Dallas Zoo. Rick Wamre blogged about the kerfuffle in July and followed up in August, and Lakewood/East Dallas columnist Jeff Siegel took the opportunity to write about Jenny (and all of the other things he thought the Dallas City Council should be spending its time on) in September's issue.

Jenny received broad news coverage, which included reports by The New York Times and the CBS Evening News, but I think that Preston Hollow resident Skip Hollandsworth told the story best in this month's Texas Monthly. He managed to invoke both humor and empathy as he described the various characters involved in the saga, everyone from Concerned Citizens for Jenny founder Margaret Morin ("a soft-spoken, middle-aged registered nurse from the suburb of Richardson" who is "hardly an animal rights activist") to an in-person plea to the Council from actress Lily Tomlin ("'Her one chance to live in peace,' Tomlin intoned in a serious voice, (not her 'one ringy-dingy' voice)") to Jenny herself. It's a great read with evenhanded coverage.

City budget: So much for the sales tax

The sales tax projections in the city budget, which seemed wildly optimistic in August, apparently are. The city has collected less in sales tax than it budgeted for three months in a row (and a tip o’ the reporting hat to Dave Levinthal at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper). Sales tax receipts account for about 21.5 percent of city spending.

Levinthal notes that September’s collections were off almost 9 percent; the city has projected a 1.75 percent increase for the fiscal year. He doesn’t detail which other months missed projections, and I haven’t been able to locate month-by-month numbers in the city budget. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there, though, and I will keep looking.

However, in trying to find trends, some numbers from the state comptroller’s office could be useful. They show that Dallas got 8.7 percent more in August 2008 than it got in August 2007, before the stock market collapsed. But after the market meltdown, the city took 1 percent less in October 2008 than it received in October 2007.

Technorati Tags: Dallas city budget,sales tax

Back Talk is moving on Monday

And this is it --

http://www.advocatemag.com/lakewood/blog. It's part of the magazine's switch to a new, updated and all-around more interesting website that debuts on Monday.

The new website includes current and archived issues of the magazine, local photos and videos, and more neighborhood listings (restaurants, businesses, garage sales and events among them) than I thought humanly possible.

The new blog will have all of the features that the old one had, plus a variety of new things that you asked for. We're adding a users' guide, search function, more streamlined subscription options, top post listings, and an easier interface. We will continue to add requested features throughout the next couple of months, so if you don't see something you think we should have, let us know.

We will also be adding advertising, both to the blog and the website. I can guarantee we won't have any pop-up or drop-down ads, and the ads we publish will be added in as user-friendly a manner as possible. If you're interested in in advertising on the blog or the web site, you can also let us know.

So what do you need to do to make the switch?

Lakewood resident writes new book about Ebby Halliday

Neighborhood writer and entrepreneur Mike Poss is at it again: This time, he has written "Ebby Halliday: The First Lady of Real Estate." The book, which debuts in bookstores in February, details the life story of Halliday, who will be 98 in March. Also in the book, you'll find lots of company history, comments from those who know Halliday best and a forward by former Dallas Cowboy Roger Staubach. Poss, who was recognized earlier this year as the creator of Ross Perot's famous presidential election charts, is married to neighborhood resident Mary Poss, a former Dallas mayor pro tem and mayoral candidate who sells real estate with Ebby these days. If you can't wait until February to get your hands on the book, visit Ebby's website, where you can order the book right now for $30.95 (including shipping); all orders placed before Dec. 15 will be autographed for free by Ebby.

More stink about White Rock Lake

Looks like someone at NBC5 might be reading your comments here at Back Talk. This morning as I was groggily preparing for the day, I heard anchorman Brenden Higgins say something about "stench" and "double-crested cormorants" and I said to myself, "hey — he's talking about the infamous "putrid pathway" that we discussed here a couple days ago.

 

Marines go the extra miles

A couple months ago I wrote about some Marines stationed in Okinawa, Japan who would attempt to run the Dallas Running Club Half Marathon ... in Japan at the same time we would run it here in Dallas. For further explanation, read the story here. The whole platoon ended up running it, and the DRC has posted an update.

For those of you complaining about the 70-something temperatures out there the day of said race, you really need to read about the Marines' experience. Here's a sample: "...the Marines ran something around 13.1 miles with no plan, no water stops, no food, soaking wet, on short warning, on a darn-near empty base, with nothing at the end except protein bars from a convenient store, some fast-food, and beer...one Marine stopped after cellulitis in his knee burst and the pus started draining down his leg. Another Marine with some berthing crud couldn’t stop throwing up so he stopped as well. Everyone else finished."

Read more pleasantries here.

Also, be sure and click on the pic to see a larger version — 2nd Lieutenant Ryan Bintz sent it to me, but it got here a little too late to be included with the printed version of the story.