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Tower at UT Southwestern Medical Center To Be Named After Kern Wildenthal

Posted in Business, Health & Medicine, Local News, Media Nov 06, 2014 at 3:10 pm Glenn Hunter

You might call it yet another attempt to atone for past injustices. Today, word comes that Regents of The University of Texas System voted unanimously to name a major research tower at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas after Dr. Kern Wildenthal, the UTSW president from 1986-2008. Wildenthal, you might recall, was dragged by his heels through the mud in a series of Dallas Morning News stories about his expense accounting. Thursday’s action involving the new C. Kern Wildenthal Research Building on the north campus, the Regents said, was taken to recognize Wildenthal’s “extraordinary accomplishments” as both dean of the medical school and president of UT Southwestern. Last year, the Regents also appointed Wildenthal to the honorific title of President Emeritus of the institution. Now, cue the anonymous commenters sure to enjoy vilifying the guy one more time …

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Rafael Anchia Is Asking Folks If They Support the Trinity Tollroad

Posted in Politics & Government, Transportation Nov 06, 2014 at 12:13 pm Zac Crain

The state representative has a survey up and running on his site, and it’s pretty straightforward. Anchia hasn’t said yet what he plans to do with the information. Meantime, Brandon Formby has a good summation of where the road stands at this moment.

My two cents: we don’t need the road. I’m not exactly alone in saying that. But after running inside the levees a few weeks ago — that’s right: I run now, and I come up with smarmy, backdoor ways to mention it — I am of the opinion that we don’t really need anything there. Amenities, schmamenities. Finish the trails, maybe throw in a few places to hang out and throw around a frisbee, a playground — nothing serious, just the kind of thing you’d find at an elementary school. The Trinity project could be finished by summer, and we can get contentious with each other over something else. Like 345 — have you guys heard anything about that?

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The Barrett Brown Review of Arts and Letters and Jail: The Dread Destroyer Has 5 Points of Armor

Posted in Awesome Things, Crime, Local News Nov 06, 2014 at 10:13 am Barrett Brown

With the exception of the month and a half I spent in the hole over the summer, my cellmate for most of the last six months has been a white-haired old man with the regal looks and bearing of an Antonine emperor and the grizzled guile and criminal outlook of a Lyndon Johnson crony. Billy Bob Aurelius, as I’ll call him, is a Vietnam combat veteran, a private commercial pilot, and former salesman for International Harvester, among other things. Before arriving at our jail unit here in Seagoville, he’d spent 18 months in a Mexico City lock-up after police found a pistol during a search of his jet. Horrified, I asked him what those urban Mexican jails were really like.

“They’re great if you have money,” he said. “I had money.” Apparently he was given a nice private cell from which he could order out for groceries and brandy and marijuana and prostitutes. He even had a woman who came and cooked and cleaned for him, which is to say that he had a maid.

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Leading Off (11/6/14)

Posted in Local News Nov 06, 2014 at 6:28 am Zac Crain

HUD and Dallas Come to Agreement On Discrimination Case. The city will have to modify its fair housing policy and continue developing its Neighborhood Plus plan, as well as host a housing symposium and send reports to HUD. What it won’t have to do is admit any wrongdoing or pay any money, not to HUD and not to the developers at 1600 Pacific who accused the city of discrimination. Honestly, though, the first seems like they’re admitting at least a little wrongdoing.

Neighbors Are Terrified of Mark Cuban’s Plans For Preston Road Properties. Even though they have absolutely no idea what those plans are.

Randy Travis Continues Recovery From Stroke. I hope he makes it all the way back, because I’m, sitting on, like, 50 jokes here.

Former Mail Carrier Battles Stray Dogs. I don’t always ask, but please read all of this.

Rangers Bring Back Michael Young. As special assistant to GM Jon Daniels.

Group of Investors Acquires 33 Acres and 700,000 Square Feet in the Heart of the Design District. The group is headed by Dunhill Partners, which is headed by Bill Hutchinson, whom I really only knew as the guy who threw the sort of gross pajama party for his birthday every year. But I guess he had to make money somehow and this is one of the ways. Other investors: Tim Headington (of course), the owners of Highland Park Village, and Newt Walker.

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The New York Times on David Ritz

Posted in Books Nov 05, 2014 at 4:37 pm Tim Rogers

We can still say David Ritz is a Dallas guy. Maybe. Kinda. Anyway, he has written a number of stories for the magazine, the most recent being “The Last Hat Salesman,” a meditation on his the occasion of his father’s passing. David’s one of the coolest people I’ve met. He’s filled with fascinating stories from a life of ghostwriting books for famous folks, many of them musicians. Some of those stories are about Aretha Franklin, who autobiography he ghostwrote. The process of writing that book was a difficult one for David, and though the book wound up an accurate portrayal of how Franklin sees herself (or how she wants the world to see herself), it didn’t wind up being what David hoped it could be. So he wrote a straight-up biography of the woman. “Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin,” was published last week. The Times says, “[I]t will stand as one of his greatest and most unusual achievements: a rich, definitive portrait set in motion by a bit of unfinished business.” You should read the entire article and consider buying the book.

Oh, and this is just one of five new books David will publish this year. He also wrote Joe Perry’s “Rocks: My Life in and out of Aerosmith.” And next year’s Willie Nelson autobiography will be David’s, too.

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Baylor CEO Allison Takes Aim At Federal Response To Ebola

Posted in Health & Medicine, Local News Nov 05, 2014 at 3:57 pm Matt Goodman
Joel Allison, CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, speaks during a D CEO breakfast panel on Nov. 5, 2014 at the Park Cities Hilton. Dr. Stephen Mansfield, CEO of Methodist Health Systems, watches on. (Photo: Matt Shelley)

“This is a failure on the national level, a big failure,” said Allison, the head of the state’s largest nonprofit health system. “Ebola was known for years. If they would’ve addressed it when it needed to be addressed it could’ve been stopped, frankly, in my opinion, in West Africa. The CDC was not handling this well; they’ve dropped the ball and it fell back on Presbyterian Dallas.”

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Uber Is Much Cheaper in Dallas Than in New York

Posted in Business, Transportation Nov 05, 2014 at 3:16 pm Jason Heid
Our 40th anniversary marketing push included this tricked-out Uber Dallas vehicle.

The Verge looked at the estimated costs of a 15-minute, 5-mile Uber trip in cities across the country:

What we found was surprising: fares vary drastically from city to city. A fifteen-minute, five-mile UberX trip in New York City will put you back $19.75. In Dallas, the same trip will cost you less than $10.

In fact, the formula Uber uses to calculate estimated fares is carefully tweaked to the market it serves. In Miami, for example, the base fee for an UberX trip is $1.20, with a per mile rate of $1.25. Just up the coast in Jacksonville, the base rate jumps to $1.25, but the per mile rate drops to $1.20. In Chicago, the city slaps a Transit Tax & Accessibility fee of $.30 to your fare—Seattle adds $.20.

In fact, Dallas was the cheapest ride among all of the cities they surveyed. Does the Verge’s estimate seem right to those of you who’ve used Uber in Dallas?

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How a Hashtag Brought a Frisco Teen Virtual Worldwide Fame

Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Television, www. Nov 05, 2014 at 12:13 pm Jason Heid
Alex from Target on the Ellen show. He is kind of dreamy, isn't he?

If you spend any reasonable amount of time online, you likely encountered mention on Monday of the #AlexFromTarget hashtag — which was tied to a photo of a teenage boy at work as a checker at Target — having gone ridiculously viral. It was chalked up to being one of the great mysteries of the Internet age. A picture of a handsome but otherwise unremarkable-looking young man in the midst of the most mundane of activities somehow got passed from user after user after user on Twitter — and no one could say for sure why.

On Tuesday the CEO of a social media marketing/branding/something startup in Los Angeles gave an interview to CNET in which he took credit for having spawned the hashtag that launched a million tweets by using his network of “social influencers.” But the girl in the UK responsible for the original tweet, Target, and Alex himself all say they’ve got nothing to do with the company, as Buzzfeed reports. So this will likely remain one of the great inscrutable unknowns of this new world in which we live.

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Here Is Something That Craig Watkins Probably Regrets Having Said

Posted in Politics & Government Nov 05, 2014 at 9:24 am Tim Rogers

Here is something that Craig Watkins said to the Associated Press in January:

“To be realistic, this may be a 30-, 40-year career for me here as Dallas County DA. I thoroughly enjoy what I do, and I think once we get through this election cycle, then the politics of it all will settle down.”

Here is the joke I wrote in January about that statement: Mind you, that’s just being realistic. If you want to get optimistic, let your imagination take you where it may, then we’re talking an 80- or 90-year career as Dallas County D.A. Also, if Watkins had a month to train, really get himself in shape, cut back on the sauce, he could start at tight end for the Seahawks. Okay, maybe not start. But a solid backup for sure. He’d contribute.

Here is another joke that I offer you today, free of charge: Watkins has access to those forfeiture funds for two more months. After that, he’ll have to pay for his own car wrecks.

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D Magazine’s 40 Greatest Stories: All About My Mother

Posted in D Magazine's 40th Anniversary, Local News Nov 05, 2014 at 8:00 am Jason Heid
Illustration by PJ Loughran

We come to the end of our 40 Greatest Stories series with Nancy Nichols’ tribute to her mother — a tribute that unexpectedly became a farewell. Just read it, and don’t be surprised if you find yourself giving your own mom a call immediately after.

I asked Nancy to share a few thoughts about the piece now that two years have passed since it was published:

When I wrote this story about my mother, she and I were living an active life. I sat down to my computer one night and wrote the piece as more of a diary log. The words just rolled off my fingers. It might have taken me 45 minutes.

I came across it one day and emailed it to my editor, Tim Rogers, with a note that said “just in case we need a short feature.” Tim scheduled for publication.

Between the time I sent the story in and publication, my mother’s pulmonary fibrosis flared up and she died within six weeks. I did manage to get a proof of the words in layout and show it to her several days before she left.

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Leading Off (11/5/14)

Posted in Local News, Media, Politics & Government, Sports & Leisure Nov 05, 2014 at 6:20 am Michael J. Mooney

Election Results. Abbott won. Watkins lost. Republicans swept the state. Millions of dollars will go to highways. And Denton banned fracking. More here.

Cowboys Coin Regrettable Hashtag for London Game. The Cowboys are playing the Jacksonville Jaguars in Wembley Stadium this week. The team probably could have come up with something better than #CowboysUK.

Friend Apparently Lied to Plano Police Investigating Missing Woman. Christina Morris went missing after a night at the Shops at Legacy two months ago. Enrique Gutierrez Arochi, a friend of hers from high school, was with her the night she disappeared, but apparently wasn’t completely honest with the police. A coworker also said that Arochi had bruises on his forearm and that he complained of a sore back around the same time.

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