Breaking Dallas News – Page 59 – The Other Side Dallas

November 14, 2020November 14, 2020

Mark Cuban Heroes To Provide Thanksgiving To 400

Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center is providing Thanksgiving meals for 400 in South Dallas at the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. This will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

After a successful kick off last month, the Center Table Fall Harvest series – presented by The Mark Cuban Foundation, The Dirk Nowitzki Foundation, The Heroes Foundation and North Texas Food Bank – will continue Thursday, November 19, from 9 am-noon at the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. The center is located at 1800 Bonnie View Road, Dallas, TX 75216.

With many families facing tough times, the drive-up event will offer free food boxes for 400 families. The event is open to people who reside in the surrounding neighborhoods of the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center including Cedar Crest, south Oak Cliff, southern Dallas County and Joppa.

Food boxes are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis to 400 families. Pre-registration is not required. Volunteers and staff from the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center will wear masks and gloves and will practice social distancing.

In addition, as part of the Center Table Fall Harvest efforts, free chef-prepared meals for four will be delivered to senior citizens and grandparents in the Center’s surrounding neighborhoods in advance of Thanksgiving week (November 21-23). Made by The Bearded Chef and Chef Joslyn of Sankofa, the meal packs include a turkey, two sides, dessert and tea. Also, free meal packs for homeless high school and college students will be delivered to schools or available for pick up.

“The true heroes are all of our neighbors who have been impacted by the pandemic. Many of them are and have been essential workers. They are hardworking women and men who have and continue to make significant sacrifices and contributions to our city and society. And to that end, we owe them a debt of gratitude. This is one way to express our gratitude,” said Trina Terrell-Andrews, CEO of the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. “While we all are experiencing a challenging season, we must do all we can to support one another.”

Center Table Fall Harvest will continue in December (date forthcoming).

Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center

The Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center is a multi-purpose facility for neighborhood youth and families providing sports and leadership programs.

For more info, go to markcubanheroescenter.org or call 214-379-7451.

November 13, 2020November 13, 2020

Our Calling: Homeless Left In Cold

Our Calling Left In Cold Caring For Homeless

Our Calling and the homeless were left out in the cold when Our Calling, located just outside Downtown Dallas, was not included when Dallas City Council approved an exception for churches to operate as emergency homeless shelters during extreme cold.

City Council and staff has worked for years on a policy that would create a legal way for churches to open their doors to the homeless on freezing nights. Staff from Our Calling said a change made in the final hour will now leave 270 people out in the cold.

“I think what they are communicating is they don’t care about minorities that are poor, and they sure don’t want them Downtown, and now they don’t even want them a half mile away from Downtown,” said Pastor Wayne Walker, with Our Calling, which is a discipleship ministry to the unsheltered homeless.

Two years ago, the city gave Pastor Wayne Walker a citation for sheltering the homeless during a freezing night.

Our Calling is located immediately outside Downtown, near The Cedars, a community experiencing economic revitalization, bringing calls of racism and privilege.

Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano, Adam Bazaldua, and Omar Narvaez – the Woke Caucus as some refer to them – seemed to justify limiting the homeless at Our Calling.

“We are listening to our constituents, we have enough shelter Downtown. We do. This was supposed to spread it out throughout the city,” said Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano.

This same constituency pushed defunding the police earlier in the year and re-programming funds away from the police department. Their previous stances seem more in favor of bike lanes than actually social services for those in need.

Earlier this year these same members of City Council were prepared to push through $1.9M in CARES Act funding for the Lorenzo Hotel until D12 City Council Member Cara Mendelsohn called attention to the issue.

Additionally, these more challenged socioeconomic areas of Dallas received a smaller percentage of the city rental assistance program than their more wealthy neighbors.

Our Calling

Our Calling is on the frontline of the battle to cure homelessness. They’re on the streets every day meeting the unsheltered homeless of Dallas County, learning their stories, identifying their needs, and theysay connecting their hearts to Christ. We have formed lasting connections with thousands of individuals who we are proud to be able to include among our friends.

November 12, 2020November 15, 2020

Students in Dallas ISD Failing

Dallas ISD failing to educate black and brown students is the headline in new reports showing students can not read on grade level. At the upcoming Dallas ISD Board of Trustees meeting staff plans to ask trustees to lower goal standards for students in the district.

Administrators recommended that trustees reduce goals to be “more realistic” for the current academic year after new testing data showed significant drops.

Tests results from Dallas ISD’s Measurement of Academic Progress, or MAP, test, have had all the hallmarks of a district failing its students.

Current goals for the 2020-2021 school year expected four out of every nine third grade students would meet standards for third grade math. That is less than fifty percent of third graders would meet third grade math standards.

Currently just over ten percent of third graders could meet standards for third grade math. The staff requested goal is to double that number by end of year to roughly one in four students meeting minimum math standards.

On the reading side, the benchmark was for 42% of third grade students to be able to read at level. Only one third of students are able to hit this goal currently.

Dallas ISD Administration wants to revise both of these goal numbers down while simultaneously talking about the need for an educated workforce to attact international companies ot bring jobs to Dallas.

Additionally, it is unclear what the real assessment is as several students never returned to campus so it is unclear what the level would be if full attendance had been achieved.

Students in Dallas ISD Failing…Again

The board also discussed goals for Superintendent Michael Hinojosa at Thursday’s board briefing. Part of the superintendent’s contract allows trustees to set seven performance incentive goals, with a potential reward of $20,000 for meeting each goal.

Since Hinojosa rejoined the district as its leader in 2015, he has not achieved his incentive goals, Micciche said. The board has until Nov. 30 to set these incentives, but Hinojosa said he’d be willing to waive that timeline if trustees wanted more time to deliberate on the matter.

November 11, 2020November 11, 2020

November COVID19

The November COVID19 numbers continue to be a headache for both local politicians, businesses, and residents as cases are rising quicker than expected. On Tuesday Dallas County health officials reported 1400 more COVID19 cases — all presumed new and the highest single-day total of the pandemic.

In July, Dallas was considered a “hot zone” because we were averaging more than two hundred cases per day. Dallas is now running between five and seven times that number. This may cause local hospitals to move to a surge capacity model.

Currently, the county is running out of available hospital beds. Per county data, the inventory of adult ICU beds was 52 as of Tuesday — one of its lowest points since the virus’s peak in July. The figure does not include beds that hospitals can add if needed. Each hospital has its own surge plan, which could include doubling up beds in rooms and converting surgical centers, but COVID19 is not the only user of bed space.

Every fall and winter elderly patients suffering from influenza use ICU space. Additionally, victims of car wrecks, heart attacks, and strokes all need these beds also.

“We are 7-10 days away from reaching our highest COVID hospitalization census to date if we do not immediately renew our resolve and change our behaviors,” County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement.

According to Jenkins’ chief of staff, Lauren Trimble, Dallas County epidemiologists have recently spent less time sorting through which cases came from the state’s reporting system, since there have been so few older or backlogged cases.

Health officials use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and emergency room visits as COVID19 tracking metrics to evaluate impact in Dallas. In the 24-hour period that ended Monday, 479 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 431 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

Dallas ISD November COVID19 Numbers

The cases in Dallas ISD are no better.

Between the first day back, October 5, 2020, and November 9, 2020, Dallas ISD is reporting an eighteen fold increase in COVID19 cases. This rise is occuring in all areas: central staff, school staff, and students. These numbers seem to match Dallas County at large which recently reported 1500 cases in a single day.

November 11, 2020November 11, 2020

Did “We Did It”?

“We Did It” was the message of the Dallas County Democratic Party, but local election results are not as clear. The Dallas party seems to be claiming wins that do not exist.

The winning message came out just hours after US House Candidate Candace Valenzuela conceded defeat in her run for Congress (TX24) and local results were not much better.

As noted last week, it took hours for the circular firing squad to begin as to why Joanna Cattanach and Brandy Chambers won their guaranteed races. Additionally, while Texas Democrats said they would be putting Texas in play for Joe Biden, one of their designates for the Electoral College is former tax fraud felon Terri Hodge.

“We Did It” In TX24 Doesn’t Get Across Finish Line

After days of tallying votes across three counties, Democrat Candace Valenzuela has conceded the race for Texas’ 24th Congressional District.

In a concession speech posted on YouTube, Valenzuela said she is ending her campaign “after a thorough count of the votes.” She thanked supporters for helping to build momentum around her campaign, which came close to flipping this historically red district.

“Most importantly, we have forced the gatekeepers of the political process to reimagine who belongs at the table,” Valenzuela said.

November 10, 2020November 11, 2020

No Air: Dallas ISD HVAC Broken

No air as HVAC systems broke down at schools in Dallas ISD less than a week after voters provided the district with $3.7B in new bond money.

School officials did not receive a response from administration on when fixes might occur, but teachers were asking parents for assistance via fan donations and other equipment. It was not clear when repairs would occur, but this is an ongoing issue at numerous campuses across Dallas ISD.

No Air By Phone Or Microphone Either

Dallas ISD did not return phone calls, but earlier this month did publish an agenda item intent on limiting future public participation. It appears some in administration want to take the air out of the opposition.

November 5, 2020November 5, 2020

Dallas ISD Moves To Limit Public Participation

Public participation is being limited per a proposal on the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees Agenda for November 17, 2020. You can see the document below.

DISD Public Participation Download

It is not clear why public participation is being proposed to be limited to two minutes from three, but it had an immediate reaction from both current trustee Joyce Foreman and trustee candidate Nancy Rodriguez who garnered the most votes for District 2 in the November 3 election.

Trustee Foreman said “DallasISD is trying to limit members of the community speaking at Board Meetings. They want to reduce the time from three minutes to two minutes with only an hour for agenda items and 40 minutes for non agenda items. If you signup for agenda item and speak on something else during that time they can cut your [mic] off. They also can remove you and keep you from speaking on an agenda item if they remove that item from the agenda.The voters just granted the District over 3 billion dollars in Bond funds and now they don’t want to hear from you. I will not be supporting this. My constituents have the right to speak.We meet twice a month which is once during the day and once in the afternoon. There is no reason for this.”

Rodriguez posted on Facebook: “If the speaker portion is taking two or three hours it’s because the public is likely dissatisfied or concerned about an issue or multiple issues. That should tell the Board and the administration something. In typical DISD fashion, rather than address the problem, they want to silence the voices of the community.”

Public Participation Changes Again

Rules for public participation in Dallas ISD Board of Trustees meetings were changed in September 2019.

November 4, 2020November 4, 2020

Dallas Democrat Insiders Start Circular Firing Squad

Democrat insiders response to Dallas County election 2020 results were fast and the response was painful.

As noted in July there were several obstacles to flipping Texas blue, but the biggest obstacle per some Dallas County Democrats is party leasdership.

Local Congressional Democrats won their races easily, including first term Rep. Colin Allred who is facing an ethics inquiry and Rep. Marc Veasey who withstood an independent challenge from his left by Carlos Quintanilla, but state house races expected to flip the state house blue never materialized.

Hope MJ Hegar would help flip Texas blue also ended quickly election night, but many point to state senator Royce West’s unwillingness to publicly support his runoff opponent until too late in the process.

Democrat Insiders Blame Candidates and Carol Donovan

Carol Donovan was the focus of one East Dallas Precinct Chair’s ire.

“Donovan continues to promote certain candidates which have been tried and tested and failed,” said the precinct chair.

“She does not know how to get our of her own way and get a serious ground game organized” the precinct chair continued.

These references were not obligque though. Both this precinct chair and another in Dallas called out the party focus on Joanna Cattanach and Brandy Chambers as examples of where the party had gone wrong.

The two candidates have combined for five races with zero victories outside the primary cycle.

Per Dallas County Elections, Cattanach has lost the 2020 race to Morgan Meyer her three time opponent. She underperformed Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 race locally and the margin of loss grew again in 2020 when Democratic turnout was higher than ever.

As recently as a month ago, one precinct leader noted that Cattanach had returned campaign contributions to a Democratic fundraiser because he had worked for a primary opponent previously despite being in a race which would be close.

In Garland, Brandy Chambers second race has narrowed to what will be a 200 vote loss to Angie Chen Button out of nearly 69,000 votes cast.

Chambers meanwhile was described as a “lazy, day drinker” by a former field staffer. Her campaign team was seeking a primary opponent against her prior to the December 2019 primary filing deadline per another source.

November 3, 2020November 3, 2020

1500 New COVID19 Cases

County Judge Clay Jenkins reported 1500 new COVID19 cases in Dallas on Monday. Dallas County Health and Human Services reported 1,517 new COVID19 cases in Dallas for a cumulative total nearing 100,000 confirmed cases, including 1,119 confirmed deaths.

For the 477 new confirmed cases, 375 came through the Texas Department of State Health Services’ electronic laboratory reporting system and one is from March.

The provisional seven-day average of daily new confirmed and probable cases (by date of test collection) for CDC week 43 has increased to 652 — the highest daily average of new cases since July – when Dallas was considered in the hot zone for infections.

Dallas ISD has had a significant increase in COVID19 infections also. They nearly tripled their caseload in only the first week. A provisional total of 587 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in school-aged children (5 to 17 years) during CDC week 43 – over twice the numbers of children diagnosed in this age group 4 weeks earlier (CDC week ending 9/26/2020).

Most Of 1500 New COVID19 Cases Coming From Clinics

“The large amount of cases today can be attributed to this data dump representing cases that were performed over a 15-day period,” explained Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins in a statement. “This is not really a backlog, but rather a bulk upload from outpatient clinics that have ramped up antigen testing this month. With the numbers that we are seeing, it is increasingly important that we wear a mask and avoid crowds. You know what to do, we just need to all do it.”

November 3, 2020November 3, 2020

Election Day Polls Are Open

Election Day polls are open across Dallas County.

Races up this election include President/Vice President, US Senator, US Representative, Railroad Commissioner, Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, Justices to the Court of Appeals, State Representative, District Judge, Criminal District Judge, Sheriff, County Tax Assessor-Collector, County Commissioner, and the Dallas ISD Bond Package.

Election Day Polls Information

If you are looking for voting center locations, it can be found at this link or this list via the Dallas County Elections website.