Dallas is a medical hot zone. That is per a White House report obtained by Center for Public Integrity which says Texas should continue to mandate masks, keep bars closed, decrease indoor dining to 25% capacity and limit social gatherings to 10 people or fewer in counties with rising COVID-19 positivity rates.
The report dated July 14 shows eighteen states currently in what the task force calls the “red zone” for cases. This means there were more than 100 new COVID-19 cases for every 100,000 people in a given state during the second week in July.
Eleven states are in that same “red zone” for test positivity, the level a state reaches when higher than 10% of those getting tested are testing positive. Texas is in both.
Ten total states across the country are in both “red zones,” mainly across the south. They include:
Alabama
Arizona
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Louisiana
Mississippi
Nevada
South Carolina
Texas
In the week before July 14, Texas was reporting nearly double the number of new cases compared to the national average, at 206 new cases to the U.S.’s 119 per 100,000 people. The state’s positivity rate for the same week was 20.6%, according to the report. Additionally, cases were starting in child care settings.
Over the course of the three weeks before July 14, Harris, Dallas and Bexar counties had the highest number of new cases out of the state’s 254 counties, with the three accounting for 35% of the total new cases in Texas, the report shows.
“Hot Zone” counties
Nearly half of Texas’ counties are in both of the “red zones”— 123 out of Texas’ 254.
The top 12 counties in the “red zone,” ranked by the highest number of cases in the past three weeks, were:
The former Dallas Independent School District Trustee candidate wrote:
When I read the DMN editorial last Thursday More charter school opposition in southern Dallas I wanted to call the paper and ask, “Does DMN even read the press releases from the Texas Charter Schools Association before printing them in the editorial page?”
The Dallas Morning News editorial appears to be the latest in a multiprong approach to divide Black voters prior to the Bond 2020 vote which loses financial support through expansion of another unsuccessful KIPP charter school down the street from a more successful Dallas ISD program.
It is becoming clear that officials are concerned about the local economy and are attempting to make sure they are successful with issuing bonds after this November Bond 2020 election. Original estimates were for a $7B bond package that has been pared down to $3.1B, but that may still be high will unclear state funding and a possible mass exodus of students.
Lori Kirkpatrick
Lori Kirkpatrick was a candidate for District 2 representative on the Dallas Independent School District school board in Texas. Kirkpatrick was defeated in the runoff election on June 10, 2017.
The school election coming up for the Dallas ISD bond is sure to be a major issue on the November ballot. Dallas ISD leadership is sparing no expense to make sure they come out on top of a shaky financial vote.
Dallas ISD’s Racial Equity Office (REO) recently tweeted and put up a page saying they want to “ensure the district’s Bond 2020 plan includes help for neighborhoods most impacted by poverty and economic disinvestment.” If this sounds familiar, it should. It is the same old tune they play every time they come to taxpayers for money.
Dallas ISD’s Racial Equity Office team is conducting a series of community conversations to collect input from neighborhood residents on the design of four student and family resource centers, i.e. they are selling a product that voters are not even funding yet in hopes of getting your credit card number in the November election.
If voters approve, the resource centers will be constructed with a portion of the district’s proposed Bond 2020 funds. They would be located in neighborhoods served by H. Grady Spruce, Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and L.G. Pinkston high schools–four areas of the city long affected by historical redlining, segregation and economic disinvestment.
Residents are urged to attend the meetings to suggest ideas and offer input about the resource centers. They are also asked to discuss potential social services that might be offered.
Dallas ISD claims their goal is to improve student academic achievement and increase opportunities for student success – but that would seem to start in the classroom which is getting short changed by this bond. Additionally, Dallas ISD has previously not fulfilled its previous bond packages in the same way advertised.
As we wrote last week, Dallas ISD is full speed ahead on Bond 2020 and a financial package that may be very hard to support with unknown state resources and a local impact of COVID19 not fully realized. There are also no clear answers to questions raised by the former Dallas ISD Chief Internal Auditor about previous bond questions.
School Election
The Dallas ISD Calendar includes a call for the local election on November 3, 2020. It was originally scheduled for May 22, but was delayed due to COVID19.
Voters will have the chance to vote on Trustees in Districts 2, 6, and 8.
Citizens can register to vote or check their registration status through Dallas County Elections.
A Bond 2020 virtual Town Hall will be held July 21st at 6:00 PM for citizens to hear about the Dallas ISD Bond proposal.
Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa will lead the virtual community meeting to provide updates about projects included in the district’s Bond 2020 proposal.
Underlying Bond 2020 Issues
Given rising cases of childcare facility infected children and a ping pong strategy from the Texas Education Agency on the COVID19 response, it is unclear how full Dallas ISD budget coffers will be for next year’s budget and bond support.
Additionally, no public announcements have occured on reports about the Auditor scandal from late in last year’s school year. Some citizens may have forgotten the scandal from the fall of 2019 into February 2020, but without answers, the bond package may face an uphill climb to voter approval.
A recent Dallas Morning News released a poll showing that Joe Biden had a 5-point lead over Donald Trump in Texas. Soon after #TurnTexasBlue began to trend on Twitter again and many people began cheering on the idea Biden could flip Texas blue. Austin Democrats are fundraising off the idea Biden will Flip Texas Blue.
Bias exists in all polls. Whether it be that the polls in 2016 couldn’t reach Trumps non-college educated base, or simply that people don’t always vote how they say they will or may deliberately mislead pollsters. Its possible these sources of error are still present in the 1,887 person DMN/UT-Tyler poll.
Secondly, Joe Biden’s potential plan for expanding into Texas is risky. The Biden campaign told Politico that they were actively trying to expand into traditionally red states like Texas and Georgia.
As Dallas Represenative Colin Allred said, a move in Texas is a “chance to go on the offensive”. The idea is that if Biden spends resources campaigning in Texas, then Trump will have to spend money on keeping Texas. This could then distract Trump from campaigning in swing states. However, as Republicans, and even some Democrats point out, if Biden tries to attack in Texas, he himself loses resources in those swing states.
“That was the problem with the Clinton campaign, their eyes got big,” says Democratic strategist Pete Giangreco. “I don’t want to hear about expansion plans or this other bullshit. Eyes like a laser beam. What they need to focus on is 270 [electoral votes].”
Flip Texas Blue Is Harder Mathmatically Than It Sounds
Suppose Texas votes the same as they did in 2016. Now suppose Dallas and Travis (Austin) county voters who voted for Trump previously, vote for Biden in 2020 instead. Biden would still need to make up another 417,025 votes.
If Biden were then to flip all of Bexar County (San Antonio) to no red votes – all blue. He would still need 176,692 votes. Joe could try and get these votes from Harris County (Houston), but he would have to convince 32.36% of the people who previously voted for Trump, to now vote for him. He could also try Tarrant County (Fort Worth), but he would need to convince 51.07% of Trump supporters to now vote for him.
Winning over enough urban votes to counter the rural and sub-urbans votes is a hard task. Its definitely possible, but perhaps not probable this year.
If Biden hopes to seriously snatch Texas, he may also consider going after the hearts and minds of suburban Texan voters.
Rural voters would be extremely more difficult to get than the urban Texan vote.
Another factor beyond 2020 though is the census. It is clear people are working to leave California and many other states. Texas continues to attract large employers out of California, Michigan, and New York.
A Black social worker is suing American Airlines, alleging airline employees suspected her of kidnapping a white toddler whom she was accompanying during a flight last fall.
Shannon Murphy, a social worker with Riverside County, California, said her civil rights were violated when she was pulled off a plane in October and airline employees took the baby she was caring for. The suit alleges violations of Murphy’s civil rights, false imprisonment, and negligence. It seeks unspecified punitive and exemplary damages, as well as compensation for past and future medical expenses. Murphy said she had been seeing a therapist since the incident and has suffered from insomnia and nightmares.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in late June and first reported by The Mercury News, Murphy was escorting the toddler back from a court-mandated two-week visit with his father in Arkansas. While a passenger was waiting for the second leg of a flight to depart from Dallas-Fort Worth for Ontario International Airport near Los Angeles, they told a flight attendant that they suspected Murphy of holding a kidnap victim, the lawsuit alleges.
Per reports American Airline employees asked Murphy for her boarding pass, told her she needed to leave the plane with them, and took the child from her, she said.
Murphy said she had paperwork with her, including her work ID, the child’s birth certificate, and a signed copy of the court order for the trip. She tried to show it to the airline employees on the plane, but they insisted she come with them, she said. They eventually checked the paperwork and said there had been a mistake, according to Murphy.
In 2017, the NAACP issued a travel advisory against American Airlines based on other similar behavior.
American Airlines: More Bad News
This is the second recent issue for the Dallas based airline. Last week, American was hit by complaints by a sitting US Senator that they were not protecting passengers appropriaely from COVID19. They then seemed to violate their own standards allowing Sen. Ted Cruz to fly without a mask.
Is Dak Prescott done in Dallas after signing a $31M contract?
The NFL Network reported that Prescott turned down a deal worth at least $33 million per season, with $100 million guaranteed. The 26-year-old instead will play on a franchise tag, which will pay Prescott $31.4 million next season, but all is not happy at The Star.
After Wednesday’s deadline passed without the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott agreeing on a long-term extension, the quarterback’s older brother made his anger and disappointment public.
This may be a precursor of things to come. As of today, the tweet is still up two days later despite massive fan reaction and media attention.
Dak Prescott
Prescott has started every game for the Cowboys since being drafted in the fourth round pick in 2016. He earned the reigns to the starting job after both Tony Romo and Kellen Moore we injured in 2016. He has led the team to a pair of playoff appearances, throwing for a career-high 4,902 yards and 30 touchdowns last season.
Prescott is 40-24 in the regular season, but 1-2 in the playoffs. Other Side Dallas predicts he is gone after no more than two years.
Dallas ISD Schools are closed until Labor Day for in person instruction per an order by Dallas County Health Department Medical Director Philip Huang.
An early September return to school still seems optimistic per many teachers and parents who have begun a #NotMyKid campaign to keep their children home.
This move by the Dallas County Health Department seems to preempt next week’s Dallas ISD Board of Trustees meeting.
Labor Day Option
The Dallas ISD Calendar has been up in the air since the Texas Education Agency stipulated students must return to class despite parent and educator objections. This would seem to be one more nail in the coffin of a Fall 2020 football season making its way onto the Dallas ISD Calendar as children’s COVID19 cases continue to spread.
Adults over 18 can pick three free bottles at 921 S. Haskell Ave. in South Dallas.
More Free Titos
Tito’s has been producing hand sanitizer since late March, donating bottles to frontline workers at more than 500 organizations in Central Texas and to 30 other states as part of the response to COVID19. As COVID19 cases continue to be more than 1000 new cases per day in the Dallas area health officials continue to encourage thorough and regular hand washing.
More than 1300 people have been infected. Of those, 894 were staff and 441 were children. The cases came from 883 child care facilities that are open in the state, DHHS said.
These new cases mark an almost six fold increase in cases from June 15. Then there were 210 reported cases from 177 facilities — including 141 staff members and 69 children.
On May 15, Texas reported a total of 59 cases from 53 child care facilities. At that time, 36 staff members and 23 children were infected.
Pediatric COVID19 Cases In Other School Systems
In Maryland there is an estimate that twelve hundred students and nearly one hundred staff members would die from COVID19. This estimate is only of the ten biggest jurisdictions in Maryland and factors in a 0.0016% death rate.
Using this same rate and Dallas ISD numbers, Dallas would experience approximately 240 student deaths and roughly 30 staff casualties. While the Dallas ISD Calendar is not yet confirmed these numbers would indicate a giant red flag for members of the Board of Trustees to consider.
In one school district in Missouri the district is requiring parents to sign a waiver in case children who participate in sports or other activities become infected with COVID19 and die.
The document asks parents to acknowledge that COVID19 is a public health crisis and to relinquish their rights to hold the district responsible even if a student’s death is “caused by the negligence of carelessness” of school staff.
