Leading Off (3/17/21)
The last Public Utilities Commissioner resigns, Plano ISD mum on response to racist attack, and migrant teens arrive at the Convention Center
By Peter Simek
Published in
FrontBurner
March 17, 2021
7:33 am
Last Public Utilities Commissioner Resigns Amidst Storm Scandal. The last of Gov. Greg Abbott’s three appointees to the PUC resigned a week after
Texas Monthly disclosed a recording of the commissioner assuring investors he would use “the weight of the commission” to resist an independent market monitor’s finding that the state should return billions to struggling utilities that were forced to buy wholesale electricity at sky high prices during the storm. Commissioner Arthur D’Andrea, a longtime Abbott aide, was speaking with Bank of America Securities, which made hundreds of millions of dollars due to volatile price fluctuations during the winter storm. House Speaker Dade Phelan also came out against repricing the $16 billion after the
Leading Off (2/25/2021)
Time to clear some room in the garage. Hail is coming.
By Kathy Wise
Published in
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February 25, 2021
5:54 am
Remember That Guy, Jamie Faith, Who Was Tragically Shot and Killed in Oak Cliff Back in October While Walking His Dog, Maggie, With His Wife? And afterwards, his wife, Jennifer Faith, said the masked shooter approached them from behind just as they were leaving their home on South Waverly Drive, fired at Jamie’s head several times, then tried to bind Jennifer’s hands and steal her jewelry? Well, Jennifer was arrested yesterday on a federal charge of obstruction of justice. Police say that text messages show that Jennifer was having a “full-blown emotional affair” with the actual shooter, Darrin Rubin Lopez, a former high school and college boyfriend from Tennessee. Police arrested Lopez for the shooting in January, alleging that he shot Jamie and then fled to Tennessee. Former Dallas County prosecutor Toby Shook is representi
Leading Off (2/4/21)
The stench of urine makes facts hard to follow.
By Kathy Wise
Published in
FrontBurner
February 4, 2021
4:39 am
Dallas City Council Considers Code Amendments to Crack Down on Panhandlers. Nobody likes urine in the median, but that’s about where the clarity and consensus stopped during yesterday’s council briefing. According to the
Dallas Morning News, city staff received 500 complaints about people asking for money last year. Just over half of the complaints came from the city’s four northern districts, although the majority of the incidents occurred along three major thoroughfares in South Dallas (Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Samuel Boulevard, and Jim Miller Road) in addition to North Central Expressway and Royal Lane. While council member Cara Mendelsohn claimed that panhandlers were making more money in her district than the $60,000 she does as a council member, city outreach workers reported that most panhandlers are homeless and use th