Playing Catch Up

Man it's good to be back.  I'd been a little under the weather for the last few days.  I wanted to jump back in by touching on some of the stories I've been following over the last week.

Tyrone Brown

Think what you will of the media, and more specifically of the Dallas Morning News.  But on this occasion, I think that the DMN got it right, and brought to light a sickening tale of injustice.  I had interviewed Judge Victor Lander about Mr. Brown's conviction just two days before this pardon.

Click here to view The News' ill-titled story on Mr. Brown's conditional release.

Last Thursday, Friendship-West held it's second "Don't Get It Twisted" Youth Summit.  Over 1,000 students from 12 local high schools attended the summit. This year's topics focused on staying out of the criminal justice system. 

The effort is strongly supported by DISD, though Lancaster High, and O.D. Wyatt of Ft. Worth were also in attendance.  Dallas Schools included Carter, South Oak Cliff, Kimball, Pinkston, Adamson, Roosevelt, and Spruce.

Coach James Mays led the South Oak Cliff Golden Bears to their third straight Class 4A state title last Saturday.  Before the season started, Coach Mays told me that he thought this team was better than the previous two.  At the time that seemed more than a little far fetched, but after watching the team play a few games, I started to see where coach was coming from.

This years champs played more like a team.  A lot of teams were better this year, and they didn't have the stars of the past so SOC was easy to overlook.  I think Highland Park had the best chance of knocking off the Bears during their playoff run, but the Scots were unable to hit their free throws in the closing minutes of that game. 

Big ups to Coach Mays, the players, coaches, administrators, teachers, fans and students and South Oak Cliff. 

Don Hill and the Park Cities

A few weeks ago, Don Hill went on Highland Park Radio to discuss his mayoral campaign.  It's an unorthodoxed strategy to be sure, but it made me think of something that an SMU official told me a few months back.  According to the official, Dallas does very little to reach out to SMU.  Though the school resides in University Park, most considered it a Dallas University.

Laura Miller was not a proponent of SMU's bid to land the Bush Library, choosing instead to support another institution.  Now that Bush 43's tainted legacy will be displayed at the school, SMU should be part of the long term marketing strategy for the under funded Dallas Convention and Visitor's Bereau.  The city needs to do a better job in general of reaching out to Harvard on the Hill.

Texas Instruments gives $1.1 Million Grant to UNT Dallas

The Dallas Post Tribune reports this week that the TI Foundation presented the University of North Texas Dallas Campus with a $1.1 million grant to establish the TI Math Scholars Program.  According to the Post Tribune's story, the program's goal is to encourage more students, especially from under-represented groups such as (so-called) minorities and women to seek bachelor's degrees in mathematics.  Students selected for this program must agree to teach in Dallas-area school districts for a minimum of two years upon graduation.

Finally…

Question from a newspaper subscriber.  If a story in the Dallas Morning News is listed as a wire report but it's word for word from another paper, i.e. the Washington Post or the New York Times, is it really a wire report?