Dallas News Blog

​ABC News has posted a longer sneak preview of tonight's 20/20 segment about the battle over 4949 Swiss Avenue; the video's here, while the story's here. (Mark McCay and Justin Burgess, to whom Mary Ellen Bendtsen signed over the house shortly before her death in 2005, declined to speak to ABC.) And, in case you were unaware, the house is currently on the market: for $849,000.

Something like this Rough Brothers-designed greenhouse is what the State Fair of Texas has in mind.

​Earlier this afternoon, I noticed on the Landmark Committee's Fair Park Task Force meeting agenda for Wednesday a most intriguing note: Someone has applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness to build a "7,600 square foot Greenhouse and 6,000 square foot growing area" in the Midway at Fair Park. And by someone, I mean Errol McKoy, president of the State Fair of Texas.

Took a little bit of digging to find out that much: First I called Willis Winters, assistant director of the Park and Recreation Department, who said he'd only just seen the notice shortly before I called. "We don't know who the applicant is," he said. "We're trying to find out now, because it surprised us." He recommended I call Bob Hilbun, senior vice president of maintenance at the State Fair. He wasn't in, but no matter: A State Fair staffer told Unfair Park that the application had been submitted to the city by Ned Durbin, director of construction and maintenance.

I reached Durbin on his cell as he was walking the fairgrounds.

"I would love for you to be able to talk to Errol," he said "It's his baby. He's been the energy and brains behind our landscaping upgrade. We're in the preliminary stages. I have to talk to Landmark about it, and we'll see what they say, but we don't even have estimates in from the vendor. Because we're on a tight schedule, I wanted to get the ball rolling."

McKoy did call a little while ago -- during the four minutes I was away from my computer all day. I've tried several times to get him back on the phone, with no luck. However, that doesn't mean we don't have details. Because we do. You'll have to jump for 'em, but do mind the miles' worth of glass panels.

Dallas County

Two prositutes picked up Wednesday night, as part of Dallas's Prostitute Diversion Initiative off Interstate 20 near Lancaster

​While the focus of this week's National Prostitute Diversion Conference was Dallas's collaborative approach to treating prostitutes as victims and diverting them to programs that include drug treatment, counseling and job training, many of the attendees repeatedly asked what was being done to enforce laws against men who pay for sex.

"I just have to ask because it's the elephant in the room: What is being done in the demand area?," a female police officer from Massachusetts asked during the Q&A session of one panel, expressing concern that while women with a third prostitution offense in Texas face a felony that remains on their record and makes it difficult to find employment for years to come, the men who buy their services may go without punishment. "We're going to examine this model. We're importing this [approach] to the rest of the country by having you here talking to us today, and so I'd like to know how you're dealing with the johns."

Sgt. Louis Felini, the Dallas police officer responsible for creating the city's Prostitute Diversion Initiative, was quick to answer. "Right now we're targeting mostly the female population, but that's going to change sometime in the next year," he said. New ways to enforce the law -- which prohibits prostitution for both the seller and buyer -- against johns are under discussion, he added, including the possibility of yanking truckers' licenses if they're caught soliciting.

"What we're going through is a philosophy change in law enforcement," he said. "We have to prove this program can sustain itself and that these women really want help, and I think we've been able to accomplish that, so we're moving in the right direction." He stressed that since most prostitutes were sexually and physically abused as children and didn't enter the "profession" by choice, johns play into the cycle of abuse by paying for the end result.

Courtesy Southern Methodist University

The mustangs made their bow during halftime of SMU-Navy on October 17.

​A couple of weeks back, during halftime of the SMU-Navy game at Ford Stadium, the university debuted two new mustangs donated by the National Wild Horse Foundation, on behalf of Madeleine and T. Boone Pickens. Which had more than a few folks wondering: What in the wide, wide world of sports did the university intended to do with 'em? Replace Peruna, the shetland pony that's roamed the sidelines since 1932? Heresy!

Which prompted much handwringing amongst university officials, among them SMU football head coach June Jones, who, according to one source, really wanted those Mustangs used  "in some fashion" during games. And so, late into Wednesday, members of the SMU Student Senate, school staffers, members of the football team (including team captain Chase Kennemer) and Peruna's handler met to discuss, well, how to handle the horses.

The matter's been settled, per the official release from SMU that ran down the field a little while ago: When SMU plays Rice tomorrow at 2 p.m. during homecoming...

... the new horses will lead the team from the Mustangs statue at the north end of Mustang Plaza, passing through Doak Walker Plaza, and proceeding to Gerald J. Ford Stadium before each of SMU's three remaining home games.

Peruna, the Mustangs' official mascot, will then fulfill his generations-long tradition of leading the team from the locker room and onto the field. He also will continue to run across the field after SMU scores and will always be positioned at the end of the field to which the SMU offense is headed.

While Peruna handles his normal responsibilities, the mustangs will remain at Ford Stadium near the field's southwest corner.

Bevo is amused.

University of North Texas junior Stephen Michael Benavides

​He sounded a little groggy when he spoke to Unfair Park this morning. But University of North Texas junior Stephen Michael Benavides had a long night: The chair of ACLU's student chapter spent Thursday night appealing to the UNT Supreme Court to adopt language of a failed bill and allow same-sex couples to run for homecoming court.

The Student Senate had failed to pass an earlier bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to run. Later, the Student Government Association drafted legislation for a student referendum on whether "same-sex and/or gender-neutral couples should be able to run for homecoming court," as it says on the school's Student Government Association Web site, where voting begins November 16.

The SGA president, Dakota Carter, helped draft the legislation. "I decided that the people who are voting for those who can win homecoming should be the ones making the rules for who can run," she tells Unfair Park.

Benavides, though, doesn't think such a decision should fall to the student body and will appeal to SGA in the coming week to change its plans. "You should never impose majority opinion in place of minority rights," Benavides says.

"If you can't get the right or the equality to run as a same-sex couple for homecoming court at a university, and university campuses are liberal compared to the rest of the nation, then we've got a big problem here," said Benavides. "If you can't do it on a university, how are you going to do it on a national stage?"

​A Friend of Unfair Park sends word: Borders Group is removing from its shelf 200 Waldenbooks locations across the U.S. -- including, as you can tell from the headline, the longstanding Valley View Center location, which opened in October 1999. Employees there only found out about the closure, scheduled for January, yesterday. Per the list of closings, the Borders Express in Collin Creek Mall will also vanish after the holidays, as will the Waldenbooks in Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth.

The closings are what Borders Group CEO Ron Marshall calls "right-sizing," as in: "Through this right-sizing, we will reduce the number of stores with operating losses, reduce our overall rent expense and lease-adjusted leverage and generate cash flow through sales and working capital reductions." The release does say the list is subject to change, but Borders has been closing Waldenbooks by the dozens in recent years. This leaves 130 Waldenbooks and Borders Express locations after January, none in the DFW.

Bonnie Schmick, spokesperson for Borders, says "we're going to make every effort to place employees in open positions within other Waldenbooks and Borders Express, as well the Borders superstores. And those we are not able to place will receive severance."

Friend of Unfair Park Peterk sends word: "Yes, folks, now you can buy Icky Twerp items." And just in time for the holidays. The shop's right here, though be warned, it's not much: two T-shirts, a Slam Bang Theater best-of DVD and two video cassettes (!). Says Paul Camfield, son of Icky, the product's left over from the September celebration in Fort Worth. Camfield wants to do more, but needs the partner ... "and the time," he says, "because I'd love to celebrate the show with fans."

But the bigger question is: When will Richard Allan Kent's doc about the late, great Bill Camfield, Icky Twerp: The Electronic Babysitter, get a proper release, at least on DVD?

"We're talking about it right now," Camfield says. "Thirty, 40 were made to sell at the fest, and Richard says he's gonna turn 'em loose, and I'll sell 'em. But we want ot make those are available too. That's his property, so we're trying to make sure he gets compensated fairly. But it's a great, great, great doc, and the fans would enjou it immensely. It'll happen. Maybe an on-demand thing on the Web. But it's going to happen soon. No doubt about that."

​So, yes, this is a weekly feature now -- your Friday acid flashback, courtesy the copious collection of one George Gimarc, with whom we're awfully proud to partner. A brief recap so far: KNUS news tuned up with sitar, followed by A Very Roky Halloween. Now, it gets even better as George continues to dig through miles' worth of KNUS odds and sods picked up at a garage sale two weeks ago. I will let the rock and roll alternative explain:

Long before the KERA did acoustic sessions, or KDGE, or even my sessions at KZEW in the '80s, or the Live At January Sounds sessions at KZEW in the mid-1970s, KNUS was doing in-studio performances around 1970-1971. So far I've uncovered astounding sessions by Freddy King (acoustic!), Brewer & Shipley, Ann Benson, Three Faces West (early Ray Wylie Hubbard) and even some songs from Jose Feliciano. There was a time he was considered pretty hip, and here's one of those songs that he never put onto his many RCA albums, but was pretty kindly disposed to sing. Fraternity of Man did this on the Easy Rider soundtrack.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em. And if you want a roadie, you let me know. I'll roll another one, just like the other one, for any good Friend of Unfair Park.

​A Friend of Unfair Park forwarded along the link to this shindig scheduled for next week at the Fair Park Music Hall: Elevate Dallas, a "leadership event" that, from the looks of this promotional video, is piggybacking on the Sojourners-sponsored Justice Revival also on the calendar next week at Dallas Market Hall. At the Justice Revival, Mayor Tom Leppert will join the likes of Jim Wallis, Rev. Zan Holmes and others in calling for "at least 25 congregations [to] establish solid, lasting partnerships with their neighborhood schools," and the creation of "700 additional units of permanent supportive housing by 2014," per the city of Dallas's homeless-assistance wish list.

Elevate Dallas, on the other hand, looks more like a get-motivated event; its speakers include "leadership gurus" and self-made millionaires. So yesterday I sent Chris Heinbaugh a note asking how the mayor got involved and what, exactly, he's expecting to talk about. To which the mayor's chief of staff just responded: "They asked him to participate. We told them he could do a quick welcome. He is not one of the keynote speakers." Which means, Sam, you're off the hook.

View Larger Map
We first told you about Randall's plans to expand Simon David on Inwood Road back in August, shortly before the grocer took its case to the City Plan Commission. Randall's says the 25,225 square foot store, which has been perched on the property since 1984, is just too small -- needs to be, oh, 42,203 square feet now. And, well, that'll mean realigning Robin Road between Wateka Drive and University Boulevard and demolishing a few houses to make room. To which 12 City Plan Commissioners said, No way, much to the delight of longtime residents of the neighborhood absolutely opposed to its further encroachment on the area.

Outgoing plan commissioner Neil Emmons says the CPC denied the motion because it was willing to make other compromises to allow for the Simon David expansion, such as reducing the width of sidewalks behind the property and allowing Randall's to eliminate three rows of parking. But so far, Randall's refuses to budge.

"No way or no how will they discuss it," he says. "But the site's worthless to them without a grocery store. The neighborhood people are still reeling from what was demolished to make room for the original store in 1961, and they came out solidly against it. The only ones for it were folks in neighborhoods that aren't adjacent, like Greenway Parks. It was not a tough call for the plan commission. Cases like this shouldn't get off the ground. It forces the citizens to fight each other and duke it out."

Which is precisely what's on the schedule for Monday: The city council's meeting addendum has just been posted, and added to the agenda is a public hearing concerning Randall's application to super-size Simon David.

Update: The item has been pushed off next week's agenda. The council will now hear from the public the second week in December.