​We watch a three-hour House State Affairs Committee hearing so you don't have to! Seriously, though, the future reliability of the Texas electrical grid is really starting to freak state legislators the fuck out. The watchword these days is "resource adequacy" -- bureaucrat-ese for "Remember those outages last summer and last February? If Texas utilities don't start putting steel in the ground, don't bother spending too much on perishables."

On hand to testify today were ERCOT chief Trip Doggett and Texas Public Utility Commission chair Donna Nelson. The problem, they tell us, is that the utilities aren't making enough money to want to invest in more power plants. And since ERCOT, the entity charged with maintaining electrical grid reliability, is operating a deregulated marketplace, that's nothing but free-market magic! See, natural gas sets the margin most of the time, and natural gas is dirt-cheap these days. Fantastic for us! Shitty for them.

There's no small amount of irony in the fact that we're having this discussion roughly 10 years after the state leg deregulated the market based on the begging and clamoring of (no, not you and me)...the industry. Free market competition was gonna lower prices and spur private investment in generation. But prices just went up, until recently. And nobody's* building anything lately. That leads us to exchanges like this:

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Via.

​We first touched on this back in June -- the possibility that the Dallas Independent School District might turn its schools and buses into billboards, because, hey, every penny counts these days. And while, oh, Morgan Spurlock might think it's a terrible idea ("Are we going to live in a time where your kid goes to Red Bull High?"), the school board might not.

On Thursday it's going to consider the policy rewrite you see below, which replaces this sentence -- "Advertising shall be prohibited in District schools unless approved by the Superintendent of Schools or designee" -- with this one: "Advertising shall only be allowed in District schools and facilities with the approved of by the Superintendent of Schools or designee." Which may seem insignificant, till you see the new policy completely eliminates the current no-way-no-how that reads: "Solicitations or use of the schools to promote the merit of products by brand names or trademark is prohibited by the Board."

Got a call into spokesman Jon Dahlander to see how that proposal to sell naming rights is coming. Till then, here's one further caveat from the proposed policy up for discussion Thursday:

Advertisements containing or promoting nudity, obscenity, vulgarity, illegal activities, drugs and drug paraphernalia, alcohol and tobacco products, sexual content or products, firearms/weapons or violence are strictly prohibited.

Well, that's no fun. More >>

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

​When The Ambrose and DART's Baylor University Medical Center Station on the Green Line finally, formally married three short years ago, Dallas Area Rapid Transit hailed it as the "consummate example of the new transit-oriented lifestyle." After all, the complex at Indiana and Malcolm X consisted of 325 apartments and a city block's worth of retail right on the rail. Said DART's Green Line Report from the spring of '09:

In a tough market for retail, the ground floor is nonetheless gradually filling in. A Jimmy John's sandwich chain will open in the near future. And things are already hopping at It's A Grind, the first Dallas location of a national coffeehouse franchise. On a recent weekday afternoon, there was no shortage of customers bantering with one another, ordering pastries, drinking coffee, and settling in with their laptops. Initial popularity notwithstanding, the store's staff is anticipating a serious boost in business when the station opens. "September can't come fast enough for us," says Cindy Chaffin, the store's marketing director. "That's why we chose our location -- train service will be huge for us."

But the Jimmy John's lasted about as long as it took to finish a sandwich. And It's a Grind shuttered suddenly last October, with owner Serena Connelly acknowledging "the overall project has not proven to be feasible financially." And now that 13,913 square feet of ground-level retail space sits vacant. The reasons are myriad: Rent's high (said to be double normal Deep Ellum asking prices), the location's hard to find unless you're riding the rail, and, in the words of Deep Ellum Public Improvement District president Barry Annino, "There still are not that many people riding the train yet. It's not yet an urban world."

Which is why Broadstone Ambrose will go to the City Plan Commission this afternoon and request a zoning do-over: The complex owner will ask the city for the OK to rewrite its small piece of the Deep Ellum Special Purpose District that will allow it to convert the ground-floor retail into "multifamily units." Says the CPC doc prepped by an approving city staff: "The applicant has indicated that the retail space has been difficult to lease or to maintain tenants due the location of the development."

​Speaking of Walmart (told you) ...

In the end, turns out, I didn't need Mitchell Rasansky to tell me what everyone already knew -- or guessed, anyhow. Because, as I discovered this morning, the permits were filed with the city two months ago and approved December 29. So, yes, brace yourself, Lower Greenville. You are indeed about to get a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the building formerly occupied by that Whole Foods.

Well, actually, the neighborhood market thing's not confirmed; Walmart officials haven't returned calls or emails sent this morning, and folks in Sustainable Development and Building Inspection can't say for sure. "They never identified it as a neighborhood market," says one of Dallas's senior building officials.

But city officials confirm: There will be a Walmart going in almost directly across from the planned Trader Joe's on the old Arcadia site. And it will occupy only the former Whole Foods and not the next-door Blockbuster: Plans call for filling 34,630 square feet with coolers for meat and produce and dairy products, a bakery and a pharmacy, for starters. Per Walmart's website, "A typical store is about 42,000 square feet." The plan also notes: "No late hours."

Tried calling Rasansky. He's out of the country till Monday.

Photo by Brandon Thibodeaux

​Texas breeding cattle chased the rain in 2011 to plains states such as Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas -- even all the way to Florida -- tripling the amount shipped out of state the year before. That 150,000 head left this stricken country is only the latest metric by which to judge the huge toll the drought has taken on ranchers.

"Because of the drought, so many people in Texas were forced to sell off their cows because they couldn't afford to feed them and there's no grass," Texas A&M livestock economist Dr. David Anderson tells Unfair Park.

Coupled with the cattle sent streaming into stockyards and slaughterhouses, the export of breeding cattle had the effect of causing the greatest reduction in the state herd since the Great Depression. In total, we're looking at the smallest herd Texas has seen in half a century. And despite the winter rains, ranchers are still selling off breeding cows -- the engine of the Texas cow-calf operation -- at a steady clip.

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That big muddy patch seen outside the bossman's window will be TRT Holdings' HQ at some point.

​Someone asked yesterday if and when Omni's going to move its HQ to the city of Dallas. Well ... if you'll look at the council's agenda for today, it's right there: items No. 54 and 55. The first one's for a mammoth tax abatement agreement for 10 years; the second, for an economic development grant. As in:

* Authorize a real property tax abatement agreement with TRT Holdings, Inc. and/or its affiliates and subsidiaries located at 4001 Maple Avenue in the amount of 90 percent on the added value to the real property for ten years in accordance with the City's Public/Private Partnership Program - Revenue: First year revenue estimated at $25,504; ten-year revenue estimated at $255,040 (Estimated revenue forgone for a ten-year new real property abatement estimated at $2,295,360)

* Authorize a Chapter 380 economic development grant agreement with TRT Holdings, Inc. and/or its affiliates and subsidiaries related to the relocation of its corporate headquarters to 4001 Maple Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75219, pursuant to Chapter 380 of the Texas Local Government Code in accordance with the City's Public/Private Partnership Program - Not to exceed $200,000 - Financing: Public/Private Partnership Funds

Robert Rowling's TRT Holdings, parent of the Omni and Gold's Gym, will be moving from Irving, bringing with it, says the agenda, around 300 jobs and 170,000 square feet worth of Class A office space on the spot where Harlan Crow knocked down Herrera's across the street from Unfair Park HQ. (He had it rebuilt across the street.) Also, promises the agenda: "TRT Holdings, Inc., will make a private investment exceeding $40,000,000 for its new corporate headquarters facility."

There's going to be a press conference after council's morning session, after which they promise: "Designs of new headquarters will be unveiled," per a press release we got yesterday. Ooooh.

Update at 11:13 a.m.: The council just wrapped its discussion, and ...More >>

​Yeah, it doesn't make sense to us either. A couple of weeks ago we asked if America could stop pretending that politicians and their benefactors in the energy industry actually give two shits about "energy independence" or "energy security," or any of the other portent-laden, focus-grouped catch phrases they lob at us.

Reason being, a Houston-based company just won approval to begin exporting shale gas -- the vastest source of domestic fossil fuel we have -- to other countries. This was supposed to be the Methadone weaning us off of that Middle Eastern smack while we figure out the whole renewable thing.

Lawmakers, including the most senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee, worried that exporting this natural resource would accomplish nothing but increasing our dependence on foreign fossil fuels, raising energy costs for the rest of us and squandering a cleaner-burning way to keep the lights on. Turns out, he's probably right.

According to the Energy Information Administration, gas prices at the wellhead may increase by as much as 57 percent, which is exactly the point. Natural gas prices have been in the dumps since 2008, reducing the commercial viability of shale plays like the Barnett here in North Texas, and the Marcellus up in Pennsylvania. Things are so bad even shale cheerleader Chesapeake Energy announced Monday that it's slashing spending on gas fields after natural gas prices hit a 10-year low at $2.231 per million British Thermal Units. It's why everybody's in South Texas now, where there's oil and condensate in the shale going for around a bill a barrel. But if you can open new markets up for your gas, increase demand and the price.

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If you see this man around town, be warned: He wants you to take you back to Tulsa.

​Saw a piece outta Tulsa yesterday that said Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr.'s in town trying to convince Dallas companies to move to his patch of God's country. And, sure enough, when he called me back last night around 9 he was at dinner at Truluck's on McKinney. First thing I asked him: Wouldn't it be easier just to send everyone iPhones? "That sounds a little over-the-top to me," said the oil-and-gas man two years into his first term. "I'm all about the personal communication, going up to someone and saying, 'This is what I can do for you.'"

Bartlett, son of the late Oklahoma governor who, from the looks of this video, seems like a pretty go-along, get-along kinda guy, has made this trip before; this is his second such hunting expedition since taking office. And he knows Dallas well enough: Bartlett went to grad school at SMU, and his daughter spent many years on the Hilltop.  And, yeah, he knows Oklahoma has one thing Texas doesn't: a state income tax. But, insists the mayor: "It's relatively small, and Texas has higher property taxes." So there.

"It's a very competitive world, certainly in business recruitment," says Bartlett, who has yet to find any takers. "But it takes a while. I don't think we can out-Dallas Dallas or out-Texas Texas. But we do have a tremendous amount of things to offer, and I think we look at what our capabilities are and what our assets are and act accordingly. When I was growing up I used to hear about how Tulsa has the capability of being a smaller version of Dallas. And I think that never materialized, but it did show our attitude -- not being arrogant, but being aggressively smart, being entrepreneurial. That's how Dallas is perceived and how we are perceived."More >>

From the graphic titled "Return to Peak Employment for Metro Areas" in the report issued this morning by the U.S. Conference of Mayors

​Had a lengthy talk with Mayor Mike this morning about yesterday's doings at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in D.C. Long story short, said the co-chair of its Work and Opportunity Task Force: "This is not about labor or business. I think the Democrats will say, 'We're pro-labor and pro-small business,' while the Republicans will say, 'We're pro-business.' But the only way it works is if it works together, which is what I was trying to advocate for." And we'll get back to that later, as Rawlings broke down his four focal points for economic development in Dallas: "health care, technology, logistics and finance."

But according to a report published this morning by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2012 Employment Forecast and the Impact of Exports, Dallas is doing pretty, pretty, pretty good all things considered. The map you see above says it all: While it's going to take most of the country years to rebound from The Great Recession of 2008, Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding cities are guesstimated to be about 12 months away from recovering most of the jobs lost in recent years. Says the report:

From the Marcellus Shale in the Northeast to the Barnett Shale in northern Texas, natural resources and mining is projected to grow strongly. But energy-rich states such as Texas and Oklahoma in the West South Central region will also expand in other areas. For example the Dallas-Fort Worth metro has become the Southwest's largest wholesale trade center, and one of the region's major retail hubs. The trade and transportation sectors will contribute over 17,000 new jobs in 2012, helping total payrolls rise at a rate of 1.9%. ...

In 2012, professional business services will add 12,800 jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro growing at 2.8%, 10,500 jobs in the Houston metro growing 2.8%, and 1,900 jobs in Oklahoma City metro at 2.4% growth. These three metro economies will also be augmented by 23,400 new education and health services workers.

Also, notes the report: "Mexico is the leading destination for Houston and Los Angeles, but Canada is Dallas' top destination."

​CultureMap Houston this morning notes that city is tops when it comes to wage growth, especially between 2010 and the end of '11. That's per a PayScale report that came out at the end of last week, which thumbed through the check stubs of workers in 20 major metros and said, hey, good news: "National wage levels trended up in 2011," continuing the forward momentum seen at the end of 2010. Ah, but then there's Dallas:

2011: Dallas-area wages finished 2011 stuck around the same level as the prior year. Earnings grew slowly at the start of 2011. Down in Q1, they bounced up in Q2, leaving Dallas salaries up 0.7 percent over the previous year. In Q3 and Q4, wages in Dallas essentially flat lined, finishing the year almost exactly where they were 12 months earlier.

2007-2010: In Dallas, Texas, where telecommunications and energy companies bring in big money, wages grew faster than they did nationally for most of 2007 and 2008, and have mostly held those gains ever since, settling to an average of about 1 percent above the national PayScale Index for 2008 through 2010.