Assigning Blame for School Closures

Yesterday, I looked at a recent Dallas Independent School District (DISD) school board meeting and criticized the trustees for not all remaining present for a public hearing. Some stepped out during the hearing and eventually the whole board moved to a private room to finish their deliberations and vote on a plan to close 11 public schools in the DISD. Trustee Carla Ranger said her fellow trustees "walked out on their community."

I didn't criticize the DISD for those school closures, only for how they mishandled the public hearing. It's a shame that they did. DISD is between a rock and a hard place, but their behavior at the public hearing caused the public to overlook the state's share of responsibility for the mess our public school financing is in.

After the jump, placing blame.

"They Walked Out on their Community"

"They walked out on their community." So said Carla Ranger, Dallas Independent School District (DISD) trustee about her fellow trustees.

After the jump, what precipitated the walkout and the lesson for Richardson.

A String of Pearls on the Red Line

A few isolated urban centers, left to fend for themselves, are going to wither on the vine. Nurture them to grow together into a string of overlapping vibrant urban centers all along the DART line from Spring Valley to PGBT and Richardson will have a cornucopia.

Source: The Wheel.

That's what I said in a recent blog post. After the jump, a supporting argument I read a few days later in a Slate article by Matthew Yglesias.

Stumbling onto the Fun at Eastside

In mild weather on a Friday evening in January, outside Chiloso's Mexican Bistro in Richardson's Eastside, the Berkner Jazz Band played for an impromptu audience of several dozen music lovers. A percentage of the proceeds from dining at Chiloso's went to help fund the band program.

Great food, great music, great time. That's what I call "stumbling onto the fun."

Irony on the Campaign Trail

News from the always irony-rich campaign trail:

• Newt Gingrich, who had affairs while married to his first two wives, who reportedly asked wife #2 for an "open marriage," and who is now married to the other woman from that second affair, was congratulated on his primary victory in South Carolina by the National Organization of Marriage, a group dedicated to the preservation of traditional marriage. (h/t to @pourmecoffee.)
  
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) objected to a TSA pat-down at an airport in Kentucky as an governmental invasion of his privacy. Paul was reportedly traveling to a pro-life rally, that's right, a rally against a woman's right to control what happens to her own body. (h/t to @JamilSmith.)
  
• Newt Gingrich (again), who surged to the lead of GOP polls by attacking President Obama, the press, the "elites" and pretty much everyone who doesn't appreciate his greatness, came under attack himself in a GOP debate in Tampa, Florida. Responded Newt: "You know, there is a point in the process where it gets unnecessarily personal and nasty. And that's sad." Newt Gingrich -- self-proclaimed victim.
  
• In June, 2011, Mitt Romney told a group of unemployed voters, "I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed." Mitt chuckled. This week, Romney released his tax return, revealing that he made $20.9 million in 2011. There was no word on whether he chuckled.
  

Are politicians oblivious to the irony or are they just cynical? Such questions are why politics remains endlessly fascinating ... and maddening.

Is Richardson Screwed?

At a large lunch at Dallas's downtown Omni Dallas Hotel, scene of the annual meeting of Downtown Dallas, Inc., keynote speaker Carol Coletta spoke of the importance of urban centers. D Magazine's Peter Simek was there and summarized her message as this: Dallas is Screwed.

After the jump, does this verdict extend to Richardson, too?

Rodger Jones Knows What Women Think

If you tuned in this morning expecting to read my reaction to President Obama's State of the Union address, you're out of luck. I learned yesterday during the day that no one waits for the president to actually give his speech anymore before giving a rebuttal. Now, it's the practice to give a "prebuttal" before even hearing what the president has to say. It's too late for me to do that. That train has left the station, so to speak. Now since we're on the subject of trains...

I can't tell if Rodger Jones, of The Dallas Morning News, is just obtuse or is stubbornly attempting to mislead readers in his ongoing campaign to disparage Richardson's DART stations.

This is not a new topic for Jones (e.g., see here and here). After the jump, his latest criticism.

Review: Destiny of the Republic

Amazon

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard: Turns forgotten murder of an obscure president into a gripping national tragedy. B-

From The Destiny of the Republic, by Candice Millard (2011):

Had Garfield been shot just fifteen years later, the bullet in his back would have been quickly found by X-ray images, and the wound treated with antiseptic surgery. He might have been back on his feet within weeks."

After the jump, my review and excerpts.

Countrywide, CashAmerica and Pete Sessions

The photo above is not of the official campaign headquarters of Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Richardson's Congressman since about forever. Nor is it even Sessions's official fundraising headquarters, although you'd be forgiven if you thought it was. Let's just call it his unofficial something.

After the jump, Pete Sessions in the news.

Putnam County Spelling Bee at LHHS

From 2012 01 Musicals

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, at Lake Highlands High School: Singing, dancing, comic acting. Fresh, fun musical. Celebrity spellers! See it.

Spoiler alert: I've always suspected it, but now I have proof, and hundreds of witnesses, that Ellen doesn't know "crapaud." ;-)