courtesy Dallas Zoo
Audio By Carbonatix
As hard as it might be to believe, it’s official: we’re looking at the downhill side of 2023. What isn’t hard to believe is that North Texas, as it always seems to do, has packed a year’s worth of major news stories into only six months.
Remember the madness that was the Southwest Airlines meltdown and its many thousands of canceled and postponed flights? The chaos lasted until after the New Year’s holiday, but overall, it was a 2022 problem, believe it or not.
In the Observer’s first news post of 2023, we discussed some key items to keep an eye on for the coming year. We wondered what sort of challenge Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson would face in the May election. As Johnson made a point to tweet about on many occasions, he didn’t face a legitimate challenge.
In that same article, we wondered if Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons, Dallas Stars stud Jason Robertson and all-world Mavericks man Luka Doncic would each challenge for their respective league MVP awards after each got off to blazing starts. They didn’t. What a difference a few months make, right?
The most-read Observer news stories of 2023 so far make up a zesty stew of cannabis and politics. Out of nowhere, a 1999 story on the suicide of Don Crowder has been this publication’s second most-read news story of the year so far. Crowder was a central figure in Love and Death, a Max TV mini-series based on the gruesome 1980 ax-killing of Betty Gore by Candy Montgomery.
The most-read news story of 2023 so far? Jacob Vaughn’s January look at Mayor Johnson’s wish that Universal Studios think twice about placing its new park project in Frisco and instead put it in Dallas, on a site that will require toxic cleanup sooner than later.
Almost all of the rest of the top 10 most-read Observer news stories since January deal in our state’s convoluted cannabis legalities. Observer readers really like reading about isomers, THCa and the various attempts to see weed become legal in the Lone Star State.
Arguably the biggest news stories of the year in North Texas, if not the state in general, have nothing to do with either pot or theme parks, however.
Wild Stuff at the Zoo
Remember the Dallas Zoo? In January and through February, it seemed as though we had a new, and usually unfortunate, development announced regularly from the Oak Cliff institution. On Jan. 13 Nova, the zoo’s clouded leopard, went missing. Workers found an opening in the habitat’s mesh enclosure that police said was made by a human with the intent of letting the animal escape. Nova was found safe that evening on zoo property.
But that was only the beginning of the bizarre start to 2023 for the Dallas Zoo. Less than two weeks after Nova’s escapade, the zoo announced that Pin, a 35-year-old lappet-faced male vulture, had died. Police noted the vulture suffered a puncture wound and said the death was “suspicious” and “not from natural causes.” A $10,000 reward for information was announced, but no culprit has been named so far.
A few days after Pin’s death, the zoo began searching for Bella and Fin, a pair of emperor tamarin monkeys that had been stolen. A man-made opening in the animal’s habitat, similar to the one found in the case of Nova the clouded leopard, had been discovered. For two days the missing monkeys with wispy white beards were missing until police responded to a tip and found them in a closet of an abandoned house in Lancaster along with a number of other animals not taken from the zoo. Police soon arrested 24-year-old Davion Irwin for the theft and charged him with six counts of animal cruelty.
We are thrilled beyond belief to share that our two emperor tamarin monkeys have been found. DPD located the animals early this evening, and called our team to come secure and transport the tamarins back to the Zoo. They will be evaluated by our veterinarians this evening. pic.twitter.com/bDd49d3uDc
— Dallas Zoo (@DallasZoo) February 1, 2023
Fentanyl’s Deadly Impact
In early February, the news that three students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD had died from fentanyl and several more had survived fentanyl overdoses in the previous few months hit parents from around North Texas pretty hard. In the weeks and months that followed, authorities announced several arrests of drug dealers connected to the deaths and overdoses.
Even with the increased scrutiny and awareness, fentanyl-induced tragedy continued, with more students, even as young as middle-schoolers, needing to be revived with Narcan on Carrollton campuses after being found unresponsive from incidents that were consistent with what looked like opioid or fentanyl overdoses. In February, Sienna Vaughn, a Plano Senior High School student, died from a fentanyl overdose after taking what she thought was a single Percocet pill, and in June, another Carrollton teenager died from a fentanyl overdose after she ingested a pill she had arranged to buy from a dealer via social media after she was told it was a Percocet.
Although Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $10-million campaign designed to create fentanyl awareness and stock counties with new supplies of Narcan, the state government isn’t yet all-in on trying new approaches to fight fentanyl overdoses and deaths. In the recently completed legislative session each of the bills authored to remove fentanyl testing strips from the state’s list of illegal drug paraphernalia failed to pass.
Shooting in Allen
On May 6, a gunman killed eight, including three children, when he opened fire in the parking lot at Allen Premium Outlets. The killer, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, was shot and killed on the scene minutes after the attack began. Details from law enforcement didn’t come quickly, or often, in the days following the shooting, but Gov. Abbott took to the airwaves to say the mass shooting was more of a mental health issue than it was a gun issue. At the time of the shooting, Garcia was found with several assault-style rifles and other firearms, each purchased legally, according to investigators.
The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed the press reports stating that Garcia, a former security guard from Dallas, had expressed neo-Nazi and white supremacist views on social media and had Nazi-related tattoos on his body. Among the victims was a mother, father and their 3-year-old son, a pair of elementary-age sisters and a 20-year-old security guard who police say helped save lives before he was killed.
The mall was reopened a few weeks after the shooting. Last week, the Allen Police Department released the bodycam footage taken from the officer who confronted and killed Garcia.
At 3:36 p.m. on Saturday, May 6, 2023, an Allen Police Department officer on an unrelated call heard gunshots at Allen Premium Outlets. The officer engaged the suspect and neutralized the threat. He then called for emergency personnel.
— Allen Police Department (@Allen_Police) May 6, 2023
The Neverending Legislative Session
When it was reported in January that the Texas Legislature would be working with a record surplus of $34 billion, there were plenty of reasons to think a lot of good was going to be done before adjourning. And, hey, if you look hard enough, regardless of which side of the aisle you favor, there’s bound to be something you can find that’s at least somewhat encouraging. However, it isn’t difficult to find reasons to be discouraged at what did and did not happen during the 88th session. And, of course, plenty of local lawmakers made some noise.
Pay raises for teachers, a move that many said would help stem the high turnover rate and teacher shortage throughout the state, never came to fruition. A rare public battle between Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over how to handle lowering property taxes also cast its own pall over the sesh, especially as a failure to resolve that issue has led the governor to keep calling legislators back into Austin for more work. Bills regarding library books, drag shows and changing the legal age to buy an assault weapon all managed to stir controversy and prominent headlines as well.
Arguably the two biggest stories to emerge from this year’s session involved politicians with North Texas ties. On May 8, Rep. Bryan Slaton, a Republican from Royse City, resigned his post before he was formally expelled the next day. A few weeks earlier, a 19-year-old intern had accused the married Slaton of providing her with alcohol late one night in his Austin apartment and of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with her. Slaton had built his reputation on a platform of so-called “family values” and on the notion that Texas should secede from the United States.
The biggest bombshell of the session came when Attorney General Ken Paxton, a McKinney resident, was overwhelmingly impeached in the House and suspended from his duties, pending a formal impeachment hearing by the Senate. Over the course of a whirlwind couple of days during the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend, Paxton and Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan faced off in a war of words. Paxton called for the speaker to resign after a video showed Phelan appearing to slur his words on the House floor. Shortly thereafter, word got out that a hearing would commence regarding a deep-dive investigation into Paxton and the circumstances involving his $3.3-million settlement of a whistleblower lawsuit against his office. It was a Republican v. Republican power battle of the highest order.
We’ll soon know whether 2023 will end without Paxton occupying the seat he’s managed to hold a firm grip on through multiple elections and just as many controversies.
